Ever since I finished Moning’s Fae series, I have sort of fell into a reading-vacancy period. I couldn’t find anything interesting enough to hold me to the last page until I stumbled on Phillips Susan Elizabeth’s Chicago Stars series. I once heard about this collection, I past simply because it was about football players. I am a nerd, remember? A Nerd doesn’t do sports. Life once again told me that how important to be always open-minded.

Number 7 must mean something in western culture. Like Harry Potter series, Chicago Stars Series also has 7 stories. You don’t need to know anything about NFL to understand all of them, because they are focus on the people instead the game.

Camouflage: All human beings have hidden depths. You have to see past the exterior to find the real person beneath. What could a shy, sensitive and slight overweight girl possibly do when she was cruelty stripped off all her dignities, taken away all her dreams about the future, and ruined all her trusts on the humanity overnight? She could either sink with the falling morality or she could become Phoebe Somerville finding a way to protect herself, to survive. Phoebe Somerville, the temporary owner of Chicago Stars, is a bimbo in public eyes. Trend, curvaceous and shallow, that’s the image Phoebe delicately projects, to conceal her razor-sharp mind, to hold herself apart from the world, and to keep the past ghost at bay….Phoebe gave up on men long time ago until she met with Dan , head coach of Chicago Stars. The question is, could Dan finally see through her camouflage and find who she really is? The answer is in Book1: It had to be you.

Wayout: Bobby Tom Denton has the whole world at his feet. He is famous, rich, handsome, and well loved by almost everyone, but Bobby is not happy and he can’t find his way out. He was forced to quit football because of his injury and now he can’t find anything to fill the hole left in his heart. Besides, he is tired of all the demands from the others---even he is a has-been, everyone still wants to have a piece of Bobby Tom Denton, except, of course, his new assistant (also friend and sex partner) Gracie who gives a lot but expects no return. Book 2, Heaven Texas is not one of my favorite, still has a good start and an intriguing middle. 

Desperation: Book 3, Nobody’s baby but mine tells me three things: First, Leftover ladies does not only exist in China. But in American they have another choice: Sperm bank and being a single mother. (Only in this story, sperm bank is out because Dr.J’s IQ is 187, and she has had enough for being a genius. To protect the similar fate bestowing her future child, she needs not find someone who is strong but not intelligent to be the father. Her neighbor---a groupie—came up with an idea leading to an unexpected story) Second, A foolish act driven by desperation might not always lead to a disaster; sometimes it might have an interesting outcome. Third, All the clichés about marriage of property does have a certain point. Look at what Lynn has gone through in an ill-matched marriage. To survive, she had to destroy herself and built a new person from the ashes. Gone was the coltish, exuberant girl, brimming over with energy that she’d been. In her place was a cool, remoter woman who never hurried, never lost her tempter, and seldom even smiled, much less laughed aloud—a woman who would never embarrass her too-good husband. And her husband, after all that had happened, has the guts to ask that girl back! Human is interesting, isn’t it?

To be continued…..