synopsis:yvonne's best friend needs a beard, because there are rumours floating around that he is gay. he figures if he admits that he's gay, he won't get a contract extension from the soccer team that he's playing on. yvonne is immediately attracted to paolo, one of robbie's teammates, and someone who really doesn't like robbie. they hook up, and then paolo blackmails her into continuing to see him. what i liked: not much. i think robbie was probably the most sympathetic character, even though he gets his best friend to live a lie for him.what i didn't like: the writing seemed to be very junvenile. i couldn't really relate to the characters; they both seemed like un-likeable people. the sex. for a book that is supposedly supposed to be hot, the sex was fairly bland, maybe because i didn't feel the connection between the two of them. the book is touted as being a "h is older than H" book, but you don't discover that until the last page, so it doesn't really play a part. 3-3.5 starsThis was an enjoyable story. I liked Yvonne and Paolo...well he's hot, sometimes sweet and I had mixed feelings about him at times but in the end I liked him too. Yvonne is a graduate student and has a great head for business. She's almost done with her degree when her best friend, Robbie, asks her to put her life on hold and help him out of a bind. Robbie is a professional football player (European football aka soccer) and gay. There has been some bad press around him that he is worried will cause him not to get a contract renewal and ruin his career. Robbie convinces Yvonne to pose as his fiancee until the end of the season in exchange for paying off her student loans. She agrees and joins him in Rome (where Robbie's team is located) to start her role as his fake fiancee. Paolo had a tough life growing up and had to fight hard for everything he has. He excels in football and is one of the highest paid players in the European league. He's also very smart and has other business interests as well. Paolo is known as a playboy but his rep seems to be a bit blown out of proportions the paparazzi and wanna-be girlfriends. Paolo has some mis-placed anger toward Robbie because he replace a friend of Paolo's on the team (with some deeper stuff mixed in). It's not really Robbie's fault but Paolo wants to bring him down. Because of this, when Paolo meets Yvonne and finds out she's Robbie's fiancee, he decides (with some encouragement from a greedy jerk) to try to seduce her and make trouble for Robbie through her.Yvonne and Robbie show up at their first game together and the press get to see them as a couple after the game. Things are going pretty well until, while waiting outside the locker room for Robbie to come out, Yvonne ends up meeting Paolo and is instantly weak in the knees at the sight of him. She also gets the impression that he doesn't like Robbie very well which makes her seemingly uncontrollable attraction for him a big problem. Over the next few weeks they meet a couple times and Yvonne can never seem to control her attraction to him...barely keeping from doing things she shouldn't with him on multiple occasions. Paolo tries seducing her but is also very attracted to Yvonne and finds that more and more he just wants to be with her and not caring about Robbie except for the fact that Robbie and Yvonne's "relationship" is keeping Paolo from being with Yvonne full time. Yvonne manages to avoid anything to major going down with Paolo (although there are a few intense encounters) until she goes to a masked ball during the Carnival celebration. Yvonne meets a masked man and feels a strong attraction. Not knowing who her masked man is (and not thinking he knows who she is), Yvonne ends up spending the night with him. Before she can escape the next morning she finds out it was Paolo she slept with and he's not willing to just let it go. He uses her wish for silence to blackmail her in to being his lover on a regular basis. Not wanting to risk ruining Robbie's career and admitting to herself that she's not good at saying no to Paolo, Yvonne agrees to his proposal.Paolo and Yvonne engage in their clandestine affair and although Yvonne feels guilty about lying to Robbie, she feels she has to in order to save him in the end. Yvonne is sure that Paolo will get tired of her sooner or later and hopefully he'll keep his promise not to leak anything to the press or Robbie. I actually liked the method that Paolo set up for Yvonne to visit him without raising any suspicion. It was kind of sweet because he gave Yvonne something she liked while getting time with her. Paolo had his moments both ways..sometimes sweet and sometimes a real jerk. Yvonne isn't what I'd call a strong female character but she does have her moments. They both start to have deeper feelings for each other as they spend more and more time together. Paolo finally realizes that he doesn't care about his revenge any more and just wants Yvonne. He's determined to win her from Robbie one way or another. Unfortunately, Paolo makes a wrong move and pushes Yvonne too far and she breaks it off with him regardless of the consequences. She admits things to Robbie and they wait to see what happens. I don't want to go in to too much detail but there is some surprises and some drama before everything is over. To be honest, there was a little too much drama because Yvonne gets hurt at one point because no one bothered to let her in on the plan (making her to feel betrayed on multiple levels). Regardless of this, things do work out and Yvonne and Paolo get their HEA.I enjoyed reading this story. I liked the characters but wished the secondary character would have been a little more fleshed out. I think that Robbie should have been a little more involved and active in the story but maybe I'm just being picky. Overall, this was a good story.
What do You think about Player's Ultimatum (2011)?
Really enjoyed Ms. Browns writing style. Kept my attention. Really enjoyed the story, Thank you.
—azombiedawn
This was a good love story full of deception and lies and passion and love. It was a good read.
—Joe
I was all in to this book until the end when I found out how old the hero was.
—Edgar
