CRAZY THING CALLED LOVE – Molly O'Keefe
Bantam
ISBN: 978-0-345-53369-2
February 2013
Contemporary Romance

Dallas, Texas – Present Day

Dallas TV morning show host Madelyn Cornish has built a new life after a disastrous first marriage that she'd prefer no one knows about. The young Maddy who fell in love with and married jock Billy Wilkins is no longer naïve, but a smooth, polished woman who knows what she wants, and that is a chance to work for a national network. Billy has been traded to the Dallas pro-hockey team, and Maddy realizes she'll have to work harder to avoid Billy, but that shouldn't be a problem since their careers are far apart. However, avoiding him becomes impossible when her boss decides to use her show to “makeover” Billy after he's involved in a brawl. Maddy makes it clear to Billy that she's not interested in picking up their relationship again, yet lust swirls hot and heavy between them.

Billy is well aware that he hurt Maddy, and after she walked away from their marriage, he threw himself into his pro hockey career and has built a pretty good career as an “enforcer” with a reputation as a brawler. With the threat from the owners of being cut from the team looming over his head, he agrees to the makeover, knowing it will bring him into contact with Maddy—a woman he hasn't totally gotten over. Lust turns into sex, which is still great between them even as Maddy keeps their liaisons under wraps. Just when Billy thought he'd make it through the makeover and starts to break down Maddy's icy wall, hell breaks loose, and neither Maddy's nor Billy's lives will ever be the same.

The past is catching up with Maddy and Billy in Molly O'Keefe's CRAZY THING CALLED LOVE. They met as teens in the Pennsylvania town they grew up in, and Billy's family life was always bad, with an alcoholic father and two sisters who were headed down the path of delinquency. But Billy threw himself into hockey and was good enough to be drafted. Maddy was always there, the love of his life. They married young, but with him on the road constantly, their marriage finally fell apart. Fourteen years later, they're thrown together after Billy's latest hockey brawl has his bosses up in arms. He has this one last chance to change his life, and Maddy is the woman who'll do the job, even though she makes it clear she still hates his guts. But hate and love are two strong emotions that aren't that far apart, and being thrown together revives their red-hot desire for each other.

While Billy is a hockey player, CRAZY THING CALLED LOVE is not a hockey book with a romance thrown in. It's all about finding love again, even if the road is a bumpy one. Maddy and Billy have avoided dealing with the past, but it all comes roaring back when he agrees to appear on her show. Maddy has forged a reputation as a poised and polished reporter and doesn't want anyone to catch on that she used to be married to Billy. Billy has tried to push memories of Maddy behind him because of the guilt he feels in how their marriage ended. When Billy's past comes back to haunt him, it doesn't take long before Maddy's right in the thick of things. Despite her initial anger at him, she's still there for him.

A cute, funny tale of how Maddy tries to keep her past buried and Billy tries to keep his career afloat will keep readers glued to the pages of CRAZY THING CALLED LOVE. While you might chuckle at the banter and antics in this tale, you'll also wipe away a tear or two as Billy's and Maddy's lives are about to change. Will there be a future for them? Pick up a copy of CRAZY THING CALLED LOVE and find out for yourself in this truly engaging tale.

Patti Fischer