Match Play: A Sports Billioniare Meets his Match

Blair Babylon

Sep 2022 · Malachite Publishing LLC

About this ebook

From USA Today Bestselling Author Blair Babylon comes a laugh-out-loud rom com about a sports billionaire who has a business emergency and needs a fake girlfriend. This intense romantic comedy about the sports business has the feels of the hit movie Jerry Maguire and the spicy laughs of Bull Durham.  

Billionaire Mitchell Saltonstall needs a girlfriend right now, and a pretend girlfriend is just fine with him. 

One drunken New Year’s Eve, Mitchell and his buddies wagered a hundred mil each against Gabriel “The Shark” Fish that they were better at business than he was. Never, ever bet that kind of cash against a guy with a nickname like “The Shark.” 

Mitchell tried to buy a golf course, but that fell through. He tried to buy a sports store, and that deal blew up in his face. Finally, he found a golf tee-times booking app that was floundering. He bought it from the original investor for pennies on the dollar and rechristened it Match Play, a dating service app for single golfers, assuring them that “It’s just golf!” and they can “Play a round!” with golfing singles in their area. 

Oh, the puns are endless, but pictures of “giant knobby-headed drivers” are strictly forbidden. 

The problem is that Mitchell accidentally became the face of Match Play in an interview, and no one will trust a dating app with a single CEO. 

The very last person he should have conscripted to be his fake fiancée was Arielle Carter, the cute, sassy brunette HR admin in the front office, whom he’d literally grabbed around the waist during an interview and dragged against his side, whispering that he’d pay her ten thousand dollars to kiss him for the cameras. 

He didn’t know she’d melt against him and her kiss would turn him on like stadium lights. 

Or that with a makeover for the television commercials, Arielle Carter would become an absolute bombshell, and he wouldn’t be able to take his eyes off her. 

And he really hadn’t known that Arielle’s father was the original investor who’d lost his life savings in the failing tee-times app, and that’s why she hates Mitchell’s guts. 

During the months-long promotional tour to regional golf shows to sign up new singles, the air between them crackles with attraction, and their kisses and caresses seem more real. In Los Angeles, after a particularly convincing photo spread for Golf Journal, they discover that the five-star hotel room has only one bed. 

They’re stuck together until next New Year’s Eve when the bet with The Shark ends, or Mitchell will lose everything he’s worked for. 

Assuming Arielle doesn’t bean him with a golf club first. 

ALL THE TROPES YOU LOVE: 

✓ Fake Relationship 

✓ Oh no! Only one bed! 

✓ Billionaire lifestyle 

✓ Blair Babylon’s patented laugh-out-loud style you won’t be able to put down! 

 

Ratings and reviews

I read Mitchell and Arielle's story in one weekend, in typical Blair Babylon style we have an Alpha male who is used to getting his own way, I mean the way he took over Arielles fathers business and then his absurd pact with her... I knew there was going to be some shenanigans flying between the two. And Arielle was stuck between loyalty to her parents and the intense attraction to Match. The story starts with Match (Mitchell), and his three friends/ business partners, making a stupid New Year'

A love/hate relationship at its best! A drunken bet on New Year's Eve with The Shark has sent four best friends on an unbelievable journey; they must purchase a golf-related venture and turn it around, or risk losing $100 million apiece. While Match's friend Jericho Parr did the reasonable thing and bought a community golf course, Match buys a failing tee-time golf app and reinvents it as a golf-related dating app. One thing leads to another and to a dating charade between Match and the former owner's daughter. Like Under Parr, Match Play is LOL funny with romance sprinkled throughout.

This is the new sports series from Blair Babylon that we've been waiting for featuring four school friends who somehow find themselves in a battle to save their company as well as their futures after a drunken night of partying led to a crazy bet with their enemy the Shark. Mitchell buys Arielle's father's golf match app and he turns it into a dating app meanwhile Arielle's father lost everything and she blames Mitchell for it she didn't even know that her father sold the app it was his dream. Mitchell's sister Emily has Downs Syndrome and she keeps him on his toes she also tries to get Arielle and Mitchell to see that they need to work together. The hijinks abound in this book & you will definitely find yourself laughing at what they get up to. I don't want to say anymore & ruin it for anyone else with spoilers. You really need to read this charming sports rom-com to see what happens. I can't wait for the next book in the series. I was given an ARC in exchange for my honest opinion.

About the author

"I'm passionate about books and literature. Books delve into what it means to be human and connect us to each other. I write intense, deeply imagined romance novels for serious readers because the world needs more love." ~~Blair Babylon 

Blair Babylon is an award-winning, USA Today bestselling author who used to publish literary fiction. Because professional reviews of her other fiction usually included the caveat that there was too much deviant sex and too much interesting plot, she decided to abandon all literary pretensions, let her freak flag fly, and write hot, sexy, suspenseful romance.