Rebecca Crowley | Loving the Underdog

On April 14, Carina Press is publishing six brand-new sports romances. Today Rebecca Crowley is here to tell us about her tennis novel, LOVE IN STRAIGHT SETS.

I've always been a sucker for the underdog. From cursed losing streaks to teams coming back after bankruptcy to players who are too young or too old, I just don't have it in me to cheer for the reining champion.

Regan Hunter, the tennis-playing heroine of Love in Straight Sets, has been an underdog since the first day she held a racket - which was years after most pro-bound players learn the game. Throughout her career she's been told she started too late, she has the wrong body type, and the wrong background to play tennis, and she loves nothing more than facing up to all those naysayers and telling them, "yes."

It takes a special kind of hero to see past Regan's negativity-thickened skin, and it's not easy for Regan to let him in. But that's what makes the underdog my favorite - where's the reward in winning if it was always a sure thing?

Do you love an underdog too? Or is it just too hard to resist the winning appeal of the reining champion?

Regan Hunter came to tennis late in life, but she's worked hard to become one of the world's top players. Beating the odds has made her unstoppable on the court and neurotically controlling off of it. So when her manager hires a new coach, a has-been who left the sport after a scandal, Regan wants him gone, fast.

Ben Percy, a former Grand Slam winner, is well aware of Regan's reputation for driving coaches away—usually screaming. But working with the notoriously mercurial Regan could be just the break he needs to take his career to the next level, and he's never been one to scare easily. He must stick to only one rule: hands off Regan.

Keeping his distance from Regan is more difficult than Ben ever imagined. Behind her tough, sexy exterior is a woman he wants to get to know better. And Regan feels a connection with her patient, easy-on-the-eyes coach that's hard to ignore. But with the biggest championship of all on the line, romance may be completely out of bounds...

Find Love in Straight Sets at Amazon * Amazon UK * B&N * Google Play * iBooks Find Rebecca on the web * Twitter