Playing For Keeps

by Karen Templeton

With her life in complete turmoil due to her kids, her ex-husband, her mother, and the lack of sex, single mother Joanna Swann finds herself powerfully drawn to toy-store mogul Dale McConnaughy and gets more than she bargained for when she falls for this irresistible man. Original.

Genres: Romance, Contemporary

400 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published October 1, 2003

About the author

As the mother of five sons, now grown, Karen loves to write about real people dealing with the drama (and humor) of everyday life. Over the past fifteen years, Karen has written nearly 50 books for Harlequin/Silhouette and Red Dress Ink, and three of her Special Edition titles (A Mother's Wish (2009) Welcome Home, Cowboy (2011) and A Gift for All Seasons (2013) have won the RITA award, the romance industry's top prize for published authors. In addition, her November 2014 title, Santa's Playbook, earned the Romantic Times Gold Seal of Excellence, out of the hundreds of releases reviewed by the magazine for that month.

She is very active on Facebook, as both Karen Templeton and her full name, Karen Templeton Berger, running giveaway contests whenever she has a new release... or just feels like it. Or you can reach her via her website at www.karentempleton.com, which contains recent news as well as excerpts from both current and backlist titles.

Reviews

[Debby · Rating 3 out of 5]

Joanna Swan designs custom made Santa Clauses to support her daughter and twin sons in Albuquerque. Her ex-husband lives near with his pregnant college age girlfriend Tori. Her mother, a high powered lawyer and father, a car dealership owner, all live near. Dale McConnaughy, a former baseball superstar, has just opened a neat toy store in town. Joanna's mother buys her boys a gym set and Dale comes to install it. The sparks fly, but she wants a man for the long haul and he has serious commitment issues. Abused by his alcoholic dad (who he eventually hits with a baseball bat in self defense and kills) his alcoholic mother abandons him in the foster care of the local baseball coach. Baseball saves him, but his ex-wife and parents left their mark. Joanna and Dale become loves, but have to weather several crises - most importantly that Tori's mother is also Dale's. He finally comes to terms with his past and is able to accept Joanna and her kids in his future.

Unusual story line, some sex scenes. Humorous in places.

[Nancy · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars

[Adriana · Rating 3 out of 5]

Playing for Keeps by Karen Templeton

This was a good story.

The description of the book I am listing below is from the back jacket of the book. I'm adding it because I believe the one on the Goodreads page does not depict this story.

Single mother Joanna Swan had already married one man with a Peter Pan complex, and one was her limit. So now she is determined that romance is for dreamers—and she is one woman with her feet firmly planted on the ground. Even if she does design custom-made Santa Clauses for a living.

And that's where Dale McConnaughy comes in. The sexy-as-sin former baseball superstar—now a toy store mogul—might be irresistible to most women, but Joanna had to resist him. Because after all that she'd been through, what kind of fool would she be to let herself fall in love with another man so determined to remain a boy?

For Dale, though, baseball hadn't been a game but a way out of a childhood filled with betrayal and heartache. And even though he'd refused to let the past embitter him, it had left its share of scars—scars that perhaps one woman could help to erase. But only if he could prove to Joanna that, where the game of love was concerned, he was willing to risk all...