Griff Montgomery, Quarterback - Teaser Tuesday and First Chapter / First Paragraph

     You've gotta love a story where the hero and heroine are brought together by a lovable pug! That's what happens in Griff Montgomery, Quarterback, by Jean C. Joachim. 
     I enjoyed the way Jean includes so many details about Griff's life as a pro football player - working out with his teammates, dealing with life on the road, concern over the new guy taking his place. Jean even takes us to a couple of football games and describes some of the action. She has obviously done a lot of research. Even though Griff is a movie-star handsome football hero, he is also someone readers can relate to. Both he and Lauren seem real. 
     This is the first sports-related romance I've read and it won't be the last. I'm looking forward to getting to know all the players on Griff's team through more entertaining stories from Jean Joachim.
     FYI: Griff Montgomery, Quarterback, is Book 1 in the First & Ten Series; however, each book in this series stands alone. I listened to the book via Amazon's Audible - an enjoyable experience and my first time to try Audible.

First Paragraph(s):
     Griff picked up the last dinner plate and drew back his arm to hurl it against the wall when the doorbell interrupted him. It was the police. Two officers stood on his front step.
     "Mr. Montgomery. We had a complaint about noise coming from here. Caller said it sounded like a fight." The policeman looked apologetic. "Your family still here?"
     "They moved to California two days ago."
     "Mind telling us what's going on?" The cop shifted his weight, clearly uncomfortable.
     "I dropped a stack of dishes. Made a huge mess, too. Would you like to come in, officer?" Griff stepped away from the door.
     "No, sir. I'll take your word for it. Would you mind signing an autograph for my boy, Billy?"
    "Not at all." Griff wrote on the paper the policeman provided. Then he smiled as the two men tipped their caps and returned to the squad car.
     Pays to be a celebrity in a small town.

Teaser From 2:22 on my audio book:
(Griff is talking with his teammate):
(Griff) "She's my landlord, not my girlfriend."
(Buddy) "So that means you struck out, right?"

Genre: Sports Romance, Contemporary
Book Length: 298 Pages / 7 Hours Listening Time
Amazon Link: Griff Montgomery, Quarterback
Author Website: Jean C. Joachim

Synopsis:
     Two people, two tragedies, two deep, devastating secrets…. Griff Montgomery is the headline-making, heart-breaking star quarterback of the Kings – a 6’4”, 33 year old womanizer. Lauren Farraday is a beautiful young interior designer, bitterly scarred by divorce, whose life is falling apart. Though they violently oppose one another in court over her beloved pug (she thinks he’s arrogant and conceited, and he thinks she’s a bitch on wheels), something happens.... 
     These are the bare bones of this sizzling romance, riddled with passion -- the first in a brand new series that’ll tantalize football fans and have readers glued to every page and on the edge of their seats! 
     Griff looks like a super hero with his tousled, mahogany hair, dazzling smile, dark, sexy eyes, and a body that does something indescribable to a tight pair of jeans. Though Lauren’s sworn off men forever, one look sends shivers down her spine, making her feel lonelier than ever before. Her lustrous, long hair, sparkling green eyes, and nonstop curves make his fingers tingle at the thought of touching her. How do they deal with their cataclysmic attraction? Will they be able to drop their protective facades – his to camouflage his grief over his sister and her family, for whom he was a surrogate father, moving 3000 miles away…. And hers to shield her from the incalculable loss of her husband and hoped for child? 
     For Griff, the thought of falling in love is as foreign as toe shoes and a tutu. For Lauren, it’s like putting on cleats and a helmet and running 50 yards…. Can they, will they, risk it? Get GRIFF – and find out! 
CAUTION: Book contains locker room language.

Teaser Tuesday is hosted by Jenn of Books and A Beat. Post two sentences from somewhere in a book you're reading. No spoilers, please!

Link at Books and A Beat

First Chapter/First Paragraph/Tuesday Intros is hosted by Bibliophile By The Sea. To participate, share the first paragraph (or a few) from a book you're reading or thinking about reading soon.

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Coulda Been a Cowboy - The Friday 56 and Book Beginnings on Friday

     When I started reading COULDA BEEN A COWBOY, I sort of expected the football super-star (Tyson Garnier) and the nanny (Dakota Brown) to take one look at each other and fall madly in love. But that’s not what happened at all. Dakota leads a grim life—living in poverty and committed to caring for her ailing father. Tyson has just obtained custody of his son, the result of a brief fling. He’s a good man who just wants to do what’s right. Since he's clueless about child care, he hires Dakota to be his son's nanny. 
     Author Brenda Novak has done a great job of creating interesting and believable characters, and she tells a good story. Of course, since this is a romance, you know there's a happily-ever-after or happy-for now ending. But I enjoyed the characters' journey to that happy finale.

BOOK BEGINNING - (FYI: Every chapter starts with a quote from Tyson's grandfather):

       Grandpa Garnier: If you find yourself in a hole, the first thing to do is stop digging.

       She seemed ideal: slightly overweight, older than the typical groupie and definitely on the frumpy side. All of which would keep things as simple as Tyson Garnier needed them to be.

FRIDAY 56 (from 56% on my Kindle):
       "Where were you?" he asked, shoving his seat forward so he could stow his bag behind it.
       She didn't want to tell him she'd spent two hours at Planned Parenthood and started on the pill, as he'd suggested. She was still in denial about maybe needing the protection. "Shopping for clothes for the party."


Genre: Contemporary Romance
Length: 288 Pages
Amazon Link: Coulda Been a Cowboy (#8 Dundee, Idaho Series)
Other Books by Brenda Novak: Amazon Author Page

Synopsis:

     Grandpa Garnier used to say, Love is like a bucking bronco. It takes guts and determination to hang on, but it's worth the ride.

     If only Grandpa was around now to help Tyson Garnier out of this mess. The famous pro football player is suddenly saddled with a very public scandal—and an illegitimate child. Tyson needs a good nanny now if he's going to salvage his career. And plain, no-nonsense Dakota Brown is the ideal candidate.

Dakota doesn't care for football—or for a man who doesn't seem to want his own son. But she needs this job, and that precious little baby needs her.

Dakota isn't Tyson's kind of woman. But the more he sees of her—and the more he sees of his son—the harder he wants to hang on.

                                              *********

                           

Anyone can participate in Book Beginnings and The Friday 56. 

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Tumbleweeds - Teaser Tuesday and First Chapter, First Paragraph, Tuesday Intros

      I came across Tumbleweeds on the shelves at Barnes & Noble, attracted by the book's cover. When I discovered the book was set in Texas and written by a Texas author, I claimed it.  
      What a great story! I related easily to the attitudes of the characters (and the small town's obsession with high school football) and was drawn into the plot. The bond between three 11-year-olds who had lost their parents is the basis for everything that happens as the friends travel to adulthood. There were plenty of twists and turns to keep me engaged until the final page.  
      By the way, there were no errors in this book, and that's a big deal to me. That's not surprising, though, since Ms. Meacham is a retired English teacher.

First Paragraph:
June 2008
     The call he'd been expecting for twenty-two years came at midnight when he was working late at his desk. He had a second's start, the kind of stab he'd experienced often in the first years when the telephone rang in the early hours, but with the passage of time the duties of his office had accustomed him to its ring in the middle of the night.

Teaser (from Page 53 - hardback edition):
They were as different from each other as bacon and eggs, but they went together as nicely. John was quiet and calm, patient and steady. He blended in. Trey was someone who stood out.

Genre: Women's Fiction / Coming of Age / Family
Length: 483 Pages
Other Books by This Author: Leila Meacham Goodreads Page
Link: Tumbleweeds (Hachette Books)
(Note: Normally I would post a link to Amazon, but with the controversy between Hachette and Amazon, a link to the book's publisher made more sense to me.)

Synopsis (from Goodreads):
Recently orphaned, eleven-year-old Cathy Benson feels she has been dropped into a cultural and intellectual wasteland when she is forced to move from her academically privileged life in California to the small town of Kersey in the Texas Panhandle where the sport of football reigns supreme. She is quickly taken under the unlikely wings of up-and-coming gridiron stars and classmates John Caldwell and Trey Don Hall, orphans like herself, with whom she forms a friendship and eventual love triangle that will determine the course of the rest of their lives. Taking the three friends through their growing up years until their high school graduations when several tragic events uproot and break them apart, the novel expands to follow their careers and futures until they reunite in Kersey at forty years of age. Told with all of Meacham's signature drama, unforgettable characters, and plot twists, readers will be turning the pages, desperate to learn how it all plays out.

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Interception - Book Beginnings on Friday and The Friday 56

Football hero and cheerleader fall in love, get married, and live happily ever after? NOT this time! Told in the point of view of "Big J" Jackson, this is the story of a guy who never quite outgrows his super-jock persona, until a skinny girl named Betty brings him down.

INTERCEPTION is the fifth short story in The Angel of Death series by Irma Fritz and the second one I've read. Now I'm looking forward to all the others. 

Book Beginning:
I always tell women I'm not the marrying kind, even though I was married once. Otherwise, it would only encourage them to think I might try again.

Friday 56:
I had planned to ask Skip nicely to clear out so my college chum and I could talk over old times, but as he stood there looking so smug, something in me snapped. When I hit him, I caught him square on the jaw. Not too hard, but he went down. [from 56% on my Kindle]

INTERCEPTION is FREE on Amazon

Friday, March 21, through Sunday, March 23

HERE

Genre: Short Story
Length: 18 Pages
Amazon Link: Interception (The Angel of Death)

More Books and Short Stories by Irma Fritz: Amazon Author Page

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Anyone can participate in Book Beginnings and Friday 56. 

   Click here to connect to other Book Beginnings posts  

   (sponsored by Rose City Reader)

   Find other Friday 56 bloggers here 
   (sponsored by Freda's Voice)