Author: Alexa Martin

Sunday Spotlight: Blitzed by Alexa Martin

Posted December 8, 2019 by Holly in Features | 2 Comments

Sunday Spotlight is a feature we began in 2016. This year we’re spotlighting our favorite books, old and new. We’ll be raving about the books we love and being total fangirls. You’ve been warned. 🙂

Sunday Spotlight: Blitzed by Alexa MartinBlitzed by Alexa Martin
Series: The Playbook #3
Also in this series: Blitzed
Publisher: Berkley
Publication Date: December 3, 2019
Format: eBook
Source: Purchased
Point-of-View: First
Cliffhanger: View Spoiler »
Content Warning: View Spoiler »
Genres: Contemporary Romance
Pages: 320
Add It: Goodreads
Amazon | Barnes & Noble | The Ripped Bodice | Google Play Books
Series Rating: three-stars

Maxwell has finally met an opponent that he can't best in this new football romance from the author of Fumbled.

According to Brynn Larson, Maxwell Lewis is more trouble than he's worth. She doesn't care if he's a football god with a rock-hard body that brings most women to their knees. After an encounter that ends poorly, she's not interested in giving him a second chance. The last thing Brynn expects is for him to turn up at her bar months later, hat in hand. It doesn't matter if he brings more customers to her business--she's still not going on a date with him.

Maxwell knows he made a mistake. He'd been waiting to make his move on Brynn since the day he laid eyes on her and he was finally ready to go for it until he screwed up. He wishes he could tell her the truth about what happened that night, but he just can't. He can't tell anyone, so he'll make amends and hope she'll forgive him.

Brynn's not like other women, though. Playing for the Mustangs doesn't impress her and gifts make her scoff. Max will have to bring his A game if he hopes to win her over.

Excerpt

Some people call me a workaholic.

And they’re right.

But considering I own a bar, it’s the best kind of “holic” I could be. Plus, my job consists of listening to other people’s dramas and hanging out with my girls damn near every day.

“Oh my god! Brynn!” Vonnie’s eyes scrunch and her entire face twists into an abstract painting. “Did you put anything besides vodka in there?”

“Gin.” I wink and write the latest failed martini recipe down in my notebook.

“Why are we taste testing again?” Charli asks as she leans across the bar and grabs the martini from Vonnie. Vonnie narrows her eyes, probably ready to scold her for her table manners . . . but when Charli gives it a sniff, takes a deep sip, shrugs, and then finishes it, Vonnie’s eyes grow wide and her jaw drops.

“Damn, Charli!” I don’t know if I’m impressed or disturbed. “I didn’t know you had that in you!”

“Don’t worry.” Poppy snatches the glass away from Charli and walks it around the bar like she still works here even though she quit months ago to go to school and better herself like a selfish jerk. “Shawn’s on standby. Final roster cuts come in tomorrow and he’s been bracing Charli for bad news . . .” She leans in closer as she passes behind me.

“Something she’s clearly not handling well.”

Reason 8,634 I could never date a football player.

Basketball? Maybe. At least their contracts are guaranteed and they’re gone so often I’d barely have to see them. Baseball? Possibly. I do love sitting outside and eating pretzels and drinking beer. Hockey? Nope, it’s basically football on skates—with more broken noses and less teeth. Luckily for all these athletes I’d have to let down ever so gently, none of them know who I am.

“Your crazy ass better drink some water,” Vonnie, always the mom of the group, tells her. “Besides, I think Aviana is coming, and who knows if she’s still filming.”

“Oh, fucking fuck me,” Charli moans. “That damn show is going to be the death of me and I’m not even on it.”

I can see Charli is clearly in a fragile state of mind, but I’d be lying if I said I didn’t love everything about Love the Player. I kinda feel like, even though I’m not a cast member, I manifested the shit out of that show. I mean, the concept for HERS came to life as I was sitting on a shitty-ass date, watching a shitty-ass game, sipping shitty beer. All I wanted was to be out with my girls, drinking a fantastic specialty cocktail, and watching the latest Bravo reality show with a roomful of strangers.

And now, not only do we watch reality shows, HERS is a regular fucking setting for one. It just started to air, but the increase in customers is already noticeable. And people tried to tell me my love of trash television was a waste of my time. To that I say, HA!

“Speaking of the show, that’s what we’re doing here.” I push a much lighter, and brighter (hot-pink) cocktail down to Jacqueline, who, even though she’s always with us, is still the quietest person I know, and I’m pretty sure she thinks we’re all in need of serious therapy . . . which might be accurate. How Aviana talked her into starring in Love the Player is still a mystery. “I want to have a few cocktails named after the show ready.”

“Great, now the show gives me alcohol poisoning too.” Charli lays her head on the bar.

“You’re giving yourself alcohol poisoning.” Poppy pushes a glass of water to her and starts mixing up a drink of her own. “I know you and Shawn are smart with your money. If he gets cut, it won’t be the worst thing in the world. TK loves not playing anymore.”

I watch Jacqueline take a small sip of the drink, and almost do a happy dance when her eyes widen. She looks at the drink as if the recipe’s written in the cocktail, and takes another sip.

“Success, Jac?” I ask even though I already know her answer.

“So good, Brynn,” she says in her usual, muted voice.

“Yeah it is!” We do an air high five. “I’m naming that one Peter’s Angel. Wait . . . no!” I shout like she’s not right in front of me. “Fuck Peter. This is your drink. Model Behavior!”

The Playbook Series

Giveaway Alert

We’re giving one lucky winner their choice of one of our Sunday Spotlight books. Use the widget below to enter for one of this month’s features.

Sunday Spotlight: December 2019

About Alexa Martin

Alexa Martin is a writer and stay at home mom. She lives in Colorado with her husband, a former NFL player who now coaches at the high school where they met, their four children, and a German Shepherd. When she's not telling her kids to put their shoes on...again, you can find her catching up with her latest book boyfriend or on Pinterest pinning meals she'll probably never make. Her first book, Intercepted, was inspired by the eight years she spent as an NFL wife.

Website | Twitter | Goodreads

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Review: Blitzed by Alexa Martin

Posted December 3, 2019 by Rowena in Reviews | 0 Comments

Review: Blitzed by Alexa MartinReviewer: Rowena
Blitzed by Alexa Martin
Series: The Playbook #3
Publisher: Penguin, Berkley
Publication Date: December 3, 2019
Format: eARC
Source: NetGalley
Point-of-View: Alternating Third
Cliffhanger: View Spoiler »
Content Warning: View Spoiler »
Genres: Contemporary Romance
Pages: 320
Add It: Goodreads
Reading Challenges: Rowena's 2019 GoodReads Challenge
Amazon | Barnes & Noble | The Ripped Bodice | Google Play Books
three-stars
Series Rating: three-stars

Maxwell has finally met an opponent that he can't best in this new football romance from the author of Fumbled.

According to Brynn Larson, Maxwell Lewis is more trouble than he's worth. She doesn't care if he's a football god with a rock-hard body that brings most women to their knees. After an encounter that ends poorly, she's not interested in giving him a second chance. The last thing Brynn expects is for him to turn up at her bar months later, hat in hand. It doesn't matter if he brings more customers to her business--she's still not going on a date with him.

Maxwell knows he made a mistake. He'd been waiting to make his move on Brynn since the day he laid eyes on her and he was finally ready to go for it until he screwed up. He wishes he could tell her the truth about what happened that night, but he just can't. He can't tell anyone, so he'll make amends and hope she'll forgive him.

Brynn's not like other women, though. Playing for the Mustangs doesn't impress her and gifts make her scoff. Max will have to bring his A game if he hopes to win her over.


Blitzed is the third book in Alexa Martin’s The Playbook series. It follows the owner of the women’s bar, Hers, Brynn Larson as she falls in love with Denver Mustang, Maxwell Lewis. Their story wasn’t an easy story because it just about ended before it even started and the telling of this story is on the slow side so it was hard to stay invested in what was the characters were going through because of that. I spent a huge chunk of this book waiting for something, anything to happen and when things started to pick up, I had almost given up on the story as a whole.

In the previous book, I liked Brynn a great deal. I loved the idea behind her bar, Hers, and I really loved her personality but I struggled with her in this book when she’s front and center of all of the action. She was really whiny and I didn’t understand why for a lot of this book and I wasn’t a big fan of the conflict between them. When we first see these two together, Maxwell receives a phone call that shakes him up pretty bad that he behaves in a way that scares the crap out of Brynn but instead of being scared, Brynn gets mad. I could have understood that and even accepted it but it came off as too whiny and it bugged the snot out of me. Don’t even get me started on the Theo thing.

Then there was Maxwell. When we first meet him, my initial thought was that he was a sweetie pie. A giant teddy bear with a heart of gold but then that scene at Hers happens and we spend quite a long time not knowing what happened to cause him to lose his shit the way that he did and if I’m being honest, I didn’t dig that whole thing. I didn’t dig the fact that he threw his phone and nearly took Brynn’s head off, I didn’t like that he spent a long-ass time not being able to talk about everything but even though there were times when I wanted to shake some sense into Maxwell, I never hated him. I never wanted him to not get his shit together and get the girl in the end but I don’t know, I guess I just wanted a different story for Brynn and Maxwell.

I will say that Alexa Martin brought the magic with the female friendships, and the whole reality shows stuff because I adored all of that. I loved how strong the friendships between all of the Mustangs women were. I loved how supportive they were of each other and how sure I was that they each had each other’s backs. They were loyal to each other and they cared and you saw it. You felt it. You understood it. That was my favorite thing about this book and even though the romance didn’t live up to the hype that I gave it leading up to my reading the book, I’m still looking forward to more books in this series. I’m crossing my fingers that we’ll get more books and that we’ll get a book for Eloise.

Final Grade

3.25 out of 5

The Playbook

three-stars

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Review: Fumbled by Alexa Martin

Posted April 23, 2019 by Rowena in Reviews | 1 Comment

Review: Fumbled by Alexa MartinReviewer: Rowena
Fumbled by Alexa Martin
Series: Playbook #2
Also in this series: Intercepted (Playbook #1)
Publisher: Penguin, Berkley
Publication Date: April 23, 2019
Format: eARC
Source: NetGalley
Point-of-View: Alternating Third
Cliffhanger: View Spoiler »
Genres: Contemporary Romance
Pages: 336
Add It: Goodreads
Reading Challenges: Rowena's 2019 GoodReads Challenge
Amazon | Barnes & Noble | The Ripped Bodice | Google Play Books
four-stars
Series Rating: four-stars

A second chance doesn't guarantee a touchdown in this new contemporary romance from the author of Intercepted.

Single-mother Poppy Patterson moved across the country when she was sixteen and pregnant to find a new normal. After years of hard work, she's built a life she loves. It may include a job at a nightclub, weekend soccer games, and more stretch marks than she anticipated, but it's all hers, and nobody can take that away. Well, except for one person.

TK Moore, the starting wide receiver for the Denver Mustangs, dreamt his entire life about being in the NFL. His world is football, parties, and women. Maybe at one point he thought his future would play out with his high school sweetheart by his side, but Poppy is long gone and he's moved on.

When Poppy and TK cross paths in the most unlikely of places, emotions they've suppressed for years come rushing back. But with all the secrets they never told each other lying between them, they'll need more than a dating playbook to help them navigate their relationship.


Fumbled is the second book in Alexa Martin’s Playbook series but it’s the first book that I’ve read by Martin. It definitely won’t be the last. I really enjoyed this one and am super glad that Tracy recommended this series to me.

Poppy Patterson is a single mother who is just trying to do right by her young son, Ace. After her parents kicked her out when she got pregnant, Poppy moved to Denver, CO to live with her Aunt and raise her young son. Ace has never met his father before and Poppy never planned on them ever meeting until she runs into TK Moore at her place of employment. When they run into each other, the chemistry that was always there between them strikes right up again and Poppy realizes that TK isn’t going to go away. He’s not going to leave her peaceful life in Denver alone, which means that he’s going to meet his son and while Poppy wants nothing more than for TK to know their amazing son, someone has to protect Ace from possible heartbreak and Poppy has to do that while protecting her own heart. Things get real interesting, real fast.

TK Moore has it all. The career, the money, the women and everything is as he likes it…until he runs into a blast from the past and realizes that he very much wants Poppy Patterson to be a part of his life and he wants to be a part of her life again in a big way. When he finds out that Poppy has been raising his son on her own all of these years, TK wants in her life all the way. He has a lot of time to make up for and Ace is pretty awesome so TK starts working on the three of them becoming a family.

This story was a second chance romance and though there were times when I thought Poppy and TK both were extra (lots of yelling between the two), I still rather enjoyed their romance. Poppy talks like me and I really enjoyed that. A lot of the things she said to Ace, my own daughter Brenna has heard from me so I connected with her, hell I even connected with her yelling since Brenna swears that I yell a lot too. I admired the way that she raised Ace and connected with how she put Ace first at every turn. Ace was really lucky to have her and I loved that she knew that she was lucky to have Ace just as much as Ace was lucky to have her. When TK comes into her life, I thought Martin handled Poppy’s insecurities well. I felt her confusion and thought that she reacted to life as realistically as any normal person would. She was kicked around and knocked down but she was never out of the game. She just kept right on getting back up and I liked that about her.

TK was pretty awesome as well. I loved that they complimented each other. TK was the more solid, reserved partner and Poppy was the emotional one who would pop off because she ain’t the one…but they were both still strong on their own and even stronger together. Their romance was solid and I really enjoyed their emotional roller coaster. I recommend it period.

Grade: 4 out of 5

The Playbook

four-stars

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Guest Review: Intercepted by Alexa Martin

Posted September 10, 2018 by Tracy in Reviews | 3 Comments

Guest Review: Intercepted by Alexa MartinReviewer: Tracy
Intercepted (Playbook #1) by Alexa Martin
Series: Playbook #1
Also in this series: Fumbled
Publisher: Berkley
Publication Date: September 11, 2018
Format: eARC
Source: NetGalley
Point-of-View: Alternating First
Genres: Contemporary Romance
Pages: 320
Add It: Goodreads
Amazon | Barnes & Noble | The Ripped Bodice | Google Play Books
four-stars
Series Rating: four-stars

Marlee thought she scored with the man of her dreams only to be scorched by a bad breakup. Now there's a new player on the horizon and he's in a whole league of his own...

Marlee Harper is the perfect girlfriend. She's sure had enough practice, dating her NFL-star boyfriend for the last ten years. But when she discovers her wide-receiver boyfriend has been tackling other women on the sly, she vows to never date an athlete again. Only one problem: Gavin Pope, the new hotshot quarterback and a fling from the past, has Marlee in his sights.

Gavin fights to show Marlee he's nothing like her ex and what a future can be like for them. Unfortunately, not everyone is ready to let her escape her past. Gavin's teammates' wives, who never led the welcome wagon, are not happy with her return, and they have only one thing on their minds: taking her down. But when their gossip attack makes Marlee public enemy number one to the rabid fans of the team, she worries about more than just her reputation.

Fearing she's causing Gavin's life more harm than good, she tries to ignore the articles and the comments. However, when Gavin makes a life changing decision without her, she's hit with the fact that she's allowed herself to fall back into the back-seat life of an NFL girlfriend she promised to leave behind. Marlee must learn how to balance loving Gavin without losing the independence and respect she's worked so hard to gain; otherwise their relationship may not survive the season.


Marlee is the girlfriend of NFL wide receiver, Chris Alexander, and has been for years.  They’ve been together since high school and have had a rocky road but they’re fine.  That is until Marlee opens his computer (he took hers accidentally) to check her email and find emails to Chris from his girlfriend.  The girlfriend that he’s been flying back and forth to see him from wherever.  This was not the first time that Chris has cheated and Marlee’s finally done with the man.  She packs her bags and leaves.  Unfortunately as she’s trying to leave Chris comes home and of course tries to make things out like it’s all Marlee’s fault.  WTF?  Ass.  He happens to be with Gavin Pope, the teams new quarterback, and the man she had a one-night stand with four years earlier when she and Chris were broken up.

Gavin slept with Marlee four years ago and never forgot her.  He’s thrilled that she’s in Denver so he’s more than happy to take her away from the ass that is her now-ex-boyfriend.  When Marlee gets her own place Gavin starts to come around and they start to get close.  Marlee never forgot the night they spent together but she was upset with Gavin for lying to her.  He had told her he was an investment banker.  Had she known he played ball professionally she would have never gone home with him.  Of course she would have missed out on the best night of her life.

Marlee starts to fall for Gavin quickly but there’s a lot of push back from a lot of people.  She gets it from the Lady Mustangs – the wives of the team – and they constantly give her shit.  Then there’s Gavin’s friend and PR person who spreads rumors and more. Marlee tries to keep her head and sense of humor about her but it’s damned hard when she starts getting shit from the fans as well.  Can the love and relationship Marlee and Gavin have survive all the negativity and his football contract?

This book made me laugh.  Seriously.  I really liked the humor in this book as it was crazy and out of control.  Marlee was her own woman and not afraid to speak her mind.  She liked to rib people to get a rise out of them and she almost always managed to do it.  She was pretty independent, however, and came down on Gavin a couple of times when he tried to take over.  I get where she was coming from, and one time he did go too far, but I thought she could have toned it down a bit.

Gavin was awesome. He was kind, giving, loving, generous, loved his family.  I mean, this guy could do no wrong…if you ignore when he lied to Marlee and then again when he omitted information.  Despite that I really liked the guy and he was hot too, so there was that. Lol.

Overall the book was great.  I enjoyed reading it – even when Marlee was hashtagging her own life which was weird, but funny. It looks like this might be Martin’s first published novel.  If this is how good they’ll all be then I’ll be a big fan.

Rating: 4 out of 5

four-stars

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Sunday Spotlight: Intercepted by Alexa Martin

Posted September 9, 2018 by Rowena in Features, Giveaways | 5 Comments

Sunday Spotlight is a feature we began in 2016. This year we’re spotlighting our favorite books, old and new. We’ll be raving about the books we love and being total fangirls. You’ve been warned. 🙂

Sunday Spotlight

I’ve been reading so many great early reviews for this book so I’m super excited to get it for myself and enjoy it. I’m also super thrilled to be featuring this book this week and we’ve got a fabulous excerpt for all of you lovely readers to enjoy so let’s get to it, shall we?

Sunday Spotlight: Intercepted by Alexa MartinIntercepted (Playbook #1) by Alexa Martin
Series: Playbook #1
Also in this series: Intercepted (Playbook #1), Fumbled
Publisher: Berkley
Publication Date: September 11, 2018
Genres: Contemporary Romance
Pages: 320
Add It: Goodreads
Amazon | Barnes & Noble | The Ripped Bodice | Google Play Books
Series Rating: four-stars

Marlee thought she scored the man of her dreams only to be scorched by a bad breakup. But there's a new player on the horizon, and he's in a league of his own...

Marlee Harper is the perfect girlfriend. She's definitely had enough practice by dating her NFL-star boyfriend for the last ten years. But when she discovers he has been tackling other women on the sly, she vows to never date an athlete again. There's just one problem: Gavin Pope, the new hotshot quarterback and a fling from the past, has Marlee in his sights.

Gavin fights to show Marlee he's nothing like her ex. Unfortunately, not everyone is ready to let her escape her past. The team's wives, who never led the welcome wagon, are not happy with Marlee's return. They have only one thing on their minds: taking her down. But when the gossip makes Marlee public enemy number one, she worries about more than just her reputation.

Between their own fumbles and the wicked wives, it will take a Hail Mary for Marlee and Gavin's relationship to survive the season.

Order the Book:

AMAZON || BARNES AND NOBLE || KOBO

Excerpt

The idea of Gavin showing up to my family home sets the butterflies in my stomach free. I have to remind myself he doesn’t remember me, he’s just being friendly to a teammate’s girlfriend. End of story.

“Don’t you wish. Chris isn’t even promised a seat. Quarterback or not, my family doesn’t share well when it comes to pasta.”

“Well, I’m awesome, and Chris is questionable. Your family would love me.”

“Maybe they could find a seat for you, but I’m not sure the room is big enough for your ego to tag along.” I ignore the jab at Chris, handing Gavin the final plate.

“Damn. You got jokes?” He acts insulted, but there’s a smile on his face when he says it. I shrug it off and give him a hand towel. I tend to forget not everybody knows my sense of humor. Something I should try harder to remember when it concerns my boyfriend’s coworkers.

He hands me the last plate to dry, and his fingers graze mine. The contact is so minimal, I shouldn’t have noticed it. But when it comes to Gavin, I notice everything. “Thanks for helping, but I really do have work to finish.”

I hang the towel from the stove and try to play it cool. I’m not a relationship expert or anything, but I’m pretty sure I’ve watched enough reality shows to know crushing on your boyfriend’s coworker is generally a no-no.

“TK told me you did his website. I checked it out and it looks fantastic. Are you taking on new clients?”

When I turn away from the stove and face him, he’s in the same spot, watching me with what I think is either curiosity, mistrust, or kindness.

Yes, I’m aware those are all different, but I’ve never been very good at reading people.

“Always. It’s rare for me to ever turn down a client.” I look for something else in the kitchen to keep me busy.

“Good, because my website needs an overhaul since I switched teams.”

Oh no. Not gonna happen. Seeing him on occasion is one thing, but working for him is on a whole other level of asking for trouble.

“Your website? Didn’t you already have somebody design your website?” I scramble for any excuse to say no. “I doubt you need a new one, just a few tweaks, and I don’t like messing with other people’s work.”

“You just said you didn’t turn down a client. I want a new website. I’ll have Madison email you some pictures of me in Mustangs gear and shots of my charity events.”

Oh lovely, Gavin and Madison. This keeps getting better and better.

“Your girlfriend is your secretary? How very old-school.”

“Madison isn’t my girlfriend. She’s an old friend who happens to work in PR.” He shakes his head, acting like the idea of him with the leggy beauty is outrageous. “Think about it for me. I’d really appreciate it, and I promise to recommend you to everyone I know.”

Dammit. Doing this would be huge for me. I got my degree in graphic design from the Art Institute five years ago and started doing some freelance work to keep me busy. Business has been growing slowly over the past five years . . . which is fine. Chris gets all offended when I offer to pay for anything so I shovel all my money into savings and paying off my student loans.

I graduated with my masters in marketing last spring and have spent all summer (unsuccessfully) trying to find an adult job complete with medical. Unfortunately for me, the closest I got to medical was the marijuana dispensary next door to an interview I went to. So while I wait to find the apparent unicorn job I’ve spent my entire life preparing for, I might just have to build a website for my ex-fling turned current boyfriend’s coworker.

I’m about to agree when the intercom buzzes and Chris’s voice booms through the kitchen. “Marlee, can you go find Pope for us?” he asks. He hangs up before I have the chance to answer.

“I guess that’s my cue.” Gavin starts walking out of the kitchen but stops before he makes it all the way out. “By the way, I think you dropped this.” He pulls something small out of his pocket, tosses it to me, and is gone before I even realize what I’m holding.

My grandma’s necklace. The one my mom gave me after she passed.

The one I lost four years ago in a Chicago apartment.

Holy shit.

He kept it?

Holy shit.

He remembers me!

Playbook

Giveaway Alert

We’re giving one lucky winner their choice of one of our Sunday Spotlight books. Use the Rafflecopter widget below to enter for one of this month’s features.

Sunday Spotlight: September 2018

Are you as excited for this release as we are? Let us know how excited you are and what other books you’re looking forward to this year!

About the Author

Alexa Martin

WEBSITE | TWITTER | GOODREADS

Alexa Martin is a writer and stay at home mom. She lives in Colorado with her husband, a former NFL player who now coaches at the high school where they met, their four children, and a German Shepherd. When she’s not telling her kids to put their shoes on…again, you can find her catching up with her latest book boyfriend or on Pinterest pinning meals she’ll probably never make. Her first book, Intercepted, was inspired by the eight years she spent as an NFL wife.

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