A very pleasant romance. I loved Payton and admired her drive to succeed in a tough career; Cedric also had many admirable traits and did at least make an effort, while his hormones were shrieking at him, to remember that a fling with Payton could ruin her career. And the view into the world of major league football felt plausible and interesting.

The only reason I didn't give this book a higher rating is that the sudden disagreement near the end, though one I could see happening, felt far too rushed -- BOOM, here's this incident driving them apart, and a few pages later everyone's gotten over themselves and they're happy together again. I bought Payton's remorse, but I didn't buy that Cedric had had enough time to process his hurt and his share in the issue (after all, he *does* have that history); I'm not convinced that they won't run into the same problem again down the road. Still, definitely worth reading. ( )