Sunny Shelly’s Review: The Mrs. Degree by Sara Ney

Grab Your Copy Here!

Sunny Shelly’s Review: 3.5 Stars

3.5 Stars

The Mrs. Degree is a secret baby, sports, second chance romance all rolled into one. Jack is one of the biggest NFL stars in the league, but he can’t seem to stop thinking about Penelope, the one that got away back when he was in college. When he’s in town for a game, he knocks on her brother’s door (a former NFL player, so at least there’s a connection there and Jack isn’t being a creepy stalker) — and is shocked when Pen answers. Jack is even more shocked to meet Penelope’s young daughter.

Over time, Jack gets to know his daughter, and Penelope tries to right the wrong that she made all those years ago. The connection between Jack and Pen is still there, and they put in the work to try to reconnect and get to know each other now, 7 years later. I loved how Jack forged a relationship with Skipper — she was just darling. But I never fell in love with Jack and Pen as a couple the way I wanted to.

I wish that Jack had been angrier about what Pen did to him. And I couldn’t rectify Penelope’s actions for ghosting him and never intending to tell him that she was pregnant — that is one of my pet peeves with the secret-baby trope. If Jack hadn’t tracked her down, I felt that Skipper never would have known her father. Despite this book being well written, that’s a hard pill for me to swallow with this trope, and made the difference for me in this book being a 4- or 5-star read. Admittedly, I did not read the previous book in this series, The Player Hater, which introduced Penelope and Skipper in Pen’s brother’s story. The Mrs. Degree is a standalone, but perhaps I wasn’t as connected as I could have been because I didn’t read book 1 first? I don’t know…. Maybe I will try again another time and see if Penelope can change my mind.

I received a complimentary copy and voluntarily left a review.