Avon Books (Paperback), ISBN 0-380-77683-9
A bimbo who owns a NFL football team? Unthinkable! But Susan Elizabeth Phillips sets up just this scenario in her enthralling romance, It Had To Be You. Phoebe Somerville looks like every man's wet dream, but behind the pin-up curves sit a razor-sharp mind and a deep-seated animosity toward her late father and benefactor, Bert Somerville. She inherits Bert's NFL team, the Chicago Stars, for the next six months, anyway. Then the team ownership will transfer to Reed Chandler, her cousin and another man she despises. If the Chicago Stars can win the AFC Championship, she gets to keep the team as long as she wants, but Reed knows that won't happen. With the Stars hovering somewhere near the bottom of their division rankings, he can bide his time, and the team will fall into his lap.

Chicago Stars coach and NFL legendary quarterback, Dan Calebow, doesn't need someone who could win a Marilyn Monroe look-alike contest running his team. And he definitely doesn't want the emotions and other reactions this blond bombshell stirs within him. He especially resents any suggestions she makes on how to manage his team. What can the daughter of a Las Vegas showgirl know about building a winning team?

Phoebe knows plenty about controlling testosterone-charged men. Since most men never get above chest level when they meet her, she flaunts her assets, which she expertly uses to manipulate any male within her sphere. Her reputation hovers between notorious and downright scandalous. After all, she spent seven years in Paris as mistress to one of the greatest painters of the century. Phoebe's luscious body and breasts hang in every great art museum in the world. Phoebe feels no qualms about being artistically painted or photographed in the buff, but don't touch. Her pouty lips pop out a come-on line for every occasion, but when any man tries to get too close, she swings those sexy hips right out the door she slams in his face.

Dan fights with her as he pounds the Stars toward a winning season. He can't figure out why this sexpot seems so notorious and innocent at the same time. When he finally tries to kiss her, he gets a reception as warm as the wind off Lake Michigan in January. Phoebe struggles with demons of her own, forged many years ago when one of the players on Reed's college football team raped her. Bert never believed her story, and since that day, she's projected the sexy bimbo image, yet chastely lived a different reality.

Susan Elizabeth Phillips writes a bombshell of a book that explodes with sex, humor, and poignancy. Dan Calebow qualifies as every female's fantasy man, right down to his jockstrap. And many of us would willingly trade our successful careers and stock portfolios for Phoebe's breasts and curves.

It Had To Be You started Phillips's series about the Chicago Stars football team. Her latest in the series, This Heart of Mine, sits on my nightstand, luring me to a disregard my chores and plunge into another enthralling romance about this mythical football team and the women they love.

Doris Valliant

Doris Valliant writes a column for Maryland's Talbot Guide. Her money management guide for nine to 12-year-olds, Personal Finance: Exploring Business and Economics, was published by Chelsea House in December 2001.

Click here to read Doris Valliant's review of This Heart of Mine.

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