AND THE CROWD WENT WILD by Susan Elizabeth Phillips

New York Times bestselling author Susan Elizabeth Phillips returns to her beloved Chicago Stars series with book eleven, AND THE CROWD WENT WILD. I learned a fun fact in the Author Note here: Phillips is widely credited with popularizing and essentially creating the modern sports romance genre. Her trailblazing Chicago Stars series started in 1994, featuring football players and other athletes. Dancy Flynn thinks of herself as a washed- up sex symbol. She’s escaped from a controlling marriage to a narcissist action-adventure actor and thought she was reinventing herself, only to get knocked down again by mortifying events at a very public venue. Dancy flees to the secluded lake house property of a high school ex-boyfriend to lick her wounds. The old boyfriend is the superstar quarterback of the Chicago Stars team, Clint Garrett, who is doing his own bit of huddling on his property.

Clint and Dancy’s breakup in high school had a litany of issues, and both characters wear scars from their past encounters. But their traumatic past is not enough to keep them apart as they navigate the complexities of their current circumstances. There’s plenty of angst, a charming amount of personal growth, and a lot of sizzle here to keep the reader sucked in to the pages. There are so many things that resonate with me from this book. I like that both the heroine and hero are older. I like that they are each struggling professionally, but they are decent people after all the agita and drama are stripped away. I love watching them circle each other, closer and closer, as so much of the noise of their life “outside” their space of retreat is stripped away.

I really enjoy watching Dancy defy Hollywood expectations. I love watching her flip the bird to her ex-husband. I cheered when she stood up to an industry agent involved. It would be so great if asshats received their comeuppance in real life as much as they do in this book! Seeing Dancy succeed in the teeth of the many adversities facing her is a delightful shot of female empowerment.

Susan Elizabeth Phillips is an old- school romance author who has kept her writing fresh and engrossing. Dancy and Clint manage to run me through a whole gamut of emotions, with witty repartee and plenty of second- chance sexiness. AND THE CROWD WENT WILD is a robust addition to Phillips’ series that rewards the contemporary sports romance fan with a winning touchdown of a read.

#1 New York Times bestselling author Susan Elizabeth Phillips is back with the latest novel in her beloved Chicago Stars series, featuring a romance between a star quarterback and one of the country’s most beautiful—and misunderstood—actresses.

After a mortifying—and very public—humiliation, Dancy Flynn is desperate to find sanctuary far from the crowd. But where can a washed-up sex symbol hide? How about making an unannounced appearance at the secluded lake house of the sweet, sensitive high school boyfriend she hasn’t seen in almost twenty years?

But Chicago Stars quarterback Clint Garrett is no longer the kid Dancy remembers. Now he’s a gridiron superhero, still holding a massive grudge against her for breaking his teenage heart. With no room in his life for either complexity or distractions, he banishes Dancy to a refurbished old railroad caboose tucked away in the woods…and out of his sight.

Except Dancy’s not good at staying invisible. Her efforts to rebuild her career clash with Clint’s desperation to regain his focus, all made more challenging by a rescue dog, a local woman in trouble, a meddling mother, an ex with an agenda…and the sizzle of rekindled emotions.

As Dancy attempts to get her life on track and Clint tries to get his groove back, can these two one-time lovers navigate their rocky pasts and complicated present to find themselves…and each other?