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Wilmington Juggernauts #1
Good Guy Gabe: A Pro Football Romance
I’m the responsible guy. The polite guy. The guy my teammates on the Wilmington Juggernauts, the NFL’s newest expansion team, rely on to keep things running smoothly.
When I’m sent to a local quilt shop to pick up a donation for an upcoming fundraiser, I realize I'm something else: the guy who's going to marry Joss Paige, the self-proclaimed but wildly successful quiltfluencer.
Joss is a hermit, hiding in her shop and online community, but I won’t let that stop me from taking her to the fundraiser. There, I learn she’s been shunned by Wilmington high society because of crimes committed by her ex-husband.
I don’t care about her past or her ex. I only care about keeping her by my side, no matter what it takes. White lies and gentle manipulations—they’re for our happiness. The greater good and all that.
But then I find out what her ex-husband did, what it did to her, and what my tiny white lie will do to her.
And it turns out I’m not the good guy after all.
When I’m sent to a local quilt shop to pick up a donation for an upcoming fundraiser, I realize I'm something else: the guy who's going to marry Joss Paige, the self-proclaimed but wildly successful quiltfluencer.
Joss is a hermit, hiding in her shop and online community, but I won’t let that stop me from taking her to the fundraiser. There, I learn she’s been shunned by Wilmington high society because of crimes committed by her ex-husband.
I don’t care about her past or her ex. I only care about keeping her by my side, no matter what it takes. White lies and gentle manipulations—they’re for our happiness. The greater good and all that.
But then I find out what her ex-husband did, what it did to her, and what my tiny white lie will do to her.
And it turns out I’m not the good guy after all.
361 pages, Paperback
Published July 7, 2024
169 people are currently reading
315 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 31 reviews
July 2, 2024
Spice Level: 🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️ (4/5)
What to expect…
✧. M/F
✧. professional athlete MMC
✧. small business owner FMC, she quilts
✧. MMC falls first
✧. baby trapping
✧. protective MMC
✧. burly alpha MMC
✧. FMC recovering from a bad relationship (the whole town hates her for what her ex did)
Kinks
✧. c*m stuffing
✧. sq*rting
✧. breeding
✧. car sex
✧. birth control tampering
✧. dub-con unprotected sex
What to expect…
✧. M/F
✧. professional athlete MMC
✧. small business owner FMC, she quilts
✧. MMC falls first
✧. baby trapping
✧. protective MMC
✧. burly alpha MMC
✧. FMC recovering from a bad relationship (the whole town hates her for what her ex did)
Kinks
✧. c*m stuffing
✧. sq*rting
✧. breeding
✧. car sex
✧. birth control tampering
✧. dub-con unprotected sex
July 5, 2024
I liked Joss, she deserved the world.
Hated Gabe, fuck him.
Safe no ow/om
Hated Gabe, fuck him.
Safe no ow/om
July 1, 2024
Gabe plays ball for the Wilmington Juggernauts in the NFL and he’s a key player and popular with fans . Joss is the self confessed hermit come quilt maker extraordinaire who hides from the world in her shop. She was very badly burned from her ex , the best thing he did was put the house in her name , it was hers and the only thing of worth left from her marriage though he exited before the divorce and good riddance to the pervert and biggest mistake she ever made it as it transpired…so six years later this how it is. When Gabe has cause to visit the quilt maker to pick up a donation his heart was halted mid beat and he knew he’d found the woman he was gonna marry. He takes her to the fundraiser and is shocked when she is shunned because of crimes done by her ex husband She comes out of her shell a little with Gabe by her side but his little manipulations no matter how well intended that could be the reason she turns back into herself hides. ..and their relationship ended….His hearts in the right place and he goes all out to woo but his little white lies? They might just unstick their glue…A great story. Well written and solid characters with depth. Leaving my review voluntarily in my own words.
July 5, 2024
Well written, good emotions… then flatter than a pancake.
Gabe is a massive, boy-next-door, starting lineman for a football team on the cusp of greatness. What he HAS is a good career and a solid friend group but what he doesn’t have is the wife and kids and white-picket dream he wants. Enter Joss. Joss is damaged but lovable and open and driven and Gabe falls hard and fast. Too hard and too fast because he forces Joss’s hand and they fall apart. The good guy makes a bad choice and everyone suffers.
This book has good heart, is well written and I inhaled it. To be fair, I like books with all of the elements listed above so it was a slam dunk for me… sorry, touchdown. But what happened to the ending?! There was a fleeting gasp of HEA and then Alice starts in on Blaise’s story. As much as I love the setup and characters, I wanted to read a complete book and this just wasn’t one. Guess I’m out for the rest.
Gabe is a massive, boy-next-door, starting lineman for a football team on the cusp of greatness. What he HAS is a good career and a solid friend group but what he doesn’t have is the wife and kids and white-picket dream he wants. Enter Joss. Joss is damaged but lovable and open and driven and Gabe falls hard and fast. Too hard and too fast because he forces Joss’s hand and they fall apart. The good guy makes a bad choice and everyone suffers.
This book has good heart, is well written and I inhaled it. To be fair, I like books with all of the elements listed above so it was a slam dunk for me… sorry, touchdown. But what happened to the ending?! There was a fleeting gasp of HEA and then Alice starts in on Blaise’s story. As much as I love the setup and characters, I wanted to read a complete book and this just wasn’t one. Guess I’m out for the rest.
August 7, 2024
Skimmed through toward the end. Got bored.
July 13, 2024
Hmmmmm.....I really enjoyed the beginning of the book! It was funny and the guy is described as a huge, tall as f football guy sent by his football teams pr rep to check on a quilt that is being auctioned off at their gala thing. Heh heh, good thing I'm not an author huh? 😂😂😂👀 anyhoo, he stops by her place to check on the quilt and finds the former ex miss alabama beauty pageant queen on a facetime/skype call.with her friend and he's immediately enamoured with her.
She is an infamous ex wife of a oral pediatric surgeon who would put his patients to sleep and then rape them. Eventually, one of his patients died and he was taken to court but I forget now how he died? I read this a few days ago and forget 😂😂🤷 anyway, she was pregnant at the time things were happening and someone threw a rock at her during the court case happening and she fell, losing the baby.
He is a big, golden retriever type H dude and has always loved kids. The part where they say he used to habe a baby doll that he took care of was cute 🤷🤷🙂 he wants to tie her down with him so during some car smexxual relations, he tells hee that he doesn't have condoms, he's clean, and he had a vasectomy so its ok to habe unprotected sex. 🤔🤔🤔🙄🙄
He never really comes clean to her about it which irked me since that's a big thing, even though she wants kids, family, white pocket fence as well......the author constantly harps on the fact that he's this good guy but this is a big thing to lie about. and later in the book, he asks himself.how he would feel and do if someone did the same thing to one of his sisters? Yeahhhhhhhh bruh.......how about them apples?
Towards the end of the book, it just got really weird 🙄🙄🙄😳 when she finds out shes pregnant, he stops having sex with her and avoids her 🙄🙄🙄🙄🙄🙄😐 she thinks that he thinks that it might not be his.......bro. He knows it's his and you're not messing around with someone else because he's a liar with that vasectomy crap.
there was one scene where he didn't want her to kick him out of her house so after she squirted and lay there in her cum and squirt, he's just says bye and leaves!!!!! No after care, no help cleaning up, no taking care of her, he just GOES HOME..... And I was like making cringey faces and shit cuz what the fuck dude? She's still naked and spread out and you bounce. 😬😬😬😬
And another scene where she goes to the hardware store and some guy is checking her out and asks if she needs help.....she checks him out eight back and thinks to herself that maybe she could use this random ass man for a fuck and if he'd be down 😳😳😬😬😬😬😬😐😐😐😐😐😐😐😐 but she changes her mind..well la Dee da.....I'm happy for her that she can just use Gabe for all her sexual needs instead of some random.guy.
There's also the side story of some crazy fan destroying her house because she wants gabe . 🤷
Anyway.....first time reading this author and I dunno if ill.read anything else. It just.... Got weird for me.😂🤷🤷
I dunno, the sex scenes are good.....just things went sideways for me
She is an infamous ex wife of a oral pediatric surgeon who would put his patients to sleep and then rape them. Eventually, one of his patients died and he was taken to court but I forget now how he died? I read this a few days ago and forget 😂😂🤷 anyway, she was pregnant at the time things were happening and someone threw a rock at her during the court case happening and she fell, losing the baby.
He is a big, golden retriever type H dude and has always loved kids. The part where they say he used to habe a baby doll that he took care of was cute 🤷🤷🙂 he wants to tie her down with him so during some car smexxual relations, he tells hee that he doesn't have condoms, he's clean, and he had a vasectomy so its ok to habe unprotected sex. 🤔🤔🤔🙄🙄
He never really comes clean to her about it which irked me since that's a big thing, even though she wants kids, family, white pocket fence as well......the author constantly harps on the fact that he's this good guy but this is a big thing to lie about. and later in the book, he asks himself.how he would feel and do if someone did the same thing to one of his sisters? Yeahhhhhhhh bruh.......how about them apples?
Towards the end of the book, it just got really weird 🙄🙄🙄😳 when she finds out shes pregnant, he stops having sex with her and avoids her 🙄🙄🙄🙄🙄🙄😐 she thinks that he thinks that it might not be his.......bro. He knows it's his and you're not messing around with someone else because he's a liar with that vasectomy crap.
there was one scene where he didn't want her to kick him out of her house so after she squirted and lay there in her cum and squirt, he's just says bye and leaves!!!!! No after care, no help cleaning up, no taking care of her, he just GOES HOME..... And I was like making cringey faces and shit cuz what the fuck dude? She's still naked and spread out and you bounce. 😬😬😬😬
And another scene where she goes to the hardware store and some guy is checking her out and asks if she needs help.....she checks him out eight back and thinks to herself that maybe she could use this random ass man for a fuck and if he'd be down 😳😳😬😬😬😬😬😐😐😐😐😐😐😐😐 but she changes her mind..well la Dee da.....I'm happy for her that she can just use Gabe for all her sexual needs instead of some random.guy.
There's also the side story of some crazy fan destroying her house because she wants gabe . 🤷
Anyway.....first time reading this author and I dunno if ill.read anything else. It just.... Got weird for me.😂🤷🤷
I dunno, the sex scenes are good.....just things went sideways for me
August 27, 2024
(DNF @ ~20%) Loved the quilting rep and I loved that the Hero is kinda husky, but that's about it for what I enjoyed. The romantic trajectory and the steam, which is what I really came for, never really took off. I stopped at their first kiss, and I'm assuming it was going to turn into their first time, but I'm just not getting any chemistry. If there's no chemistry by the time I get to that first kiss, reading a sex scene with those characters will be like reading a weather report.
Also, something about the writing style was clunky, so I'm not sure if I would've enjoyed reading this whole thing anyway.
Also, something about the writing style was clunky, so I'm not sure if I would've enjoyed reading this whole thing anyway.
July 9, 2024
So much to love about this story.
There honestly was so much to live about this story. Gabe is my favorite kinda of mmc. Giant teddy bear for the mfc is totally one of my go toos in the sweat fluffy romances. Ok, so with that said I absolutely hate third act break ups. I love a bit of groveling as much as the next reader but that totally avoidable reason to break up, that never seems like an absolute deal breaker that it's made out to be, absolutely drive me bonkers. It truly makes me wanna skip chapters. So for me the pay off is not worth the risk of loosing me.
There honestly was so much to live about this story. Gabe is my favorite kinda of mmc. Giant teddy bear for the mfc is totally one of my go toos in the sweat fluffy romances. Ok, so with that said I absolutely hate third act break ups. I love a bit of groveling as much as the next reader but that totally avoidable reason to break up, that never seems like an absolute deal breaker that it's made out to be, absolutely drive me bonkers. It truly makes me wanna skip chapters. So for me the pay off is not worth the risk of loosing me.
November 3, 2024
I enjoyed the set up to this story and the beginning of their relationship, while based on a lie, was sweet and sexy. It went off the rails a bit for me when Joss discovered Gabe's lie though. She's rightfully angry, but her actions don't make sense to me. Gabe tries his best to grovel by going along with her demands, which isn't enough for her, until somehow, all of a sudden it is?
After all of that, there's no more about them, or her pregnancy, and the epilogue is about Blaise. WTF?
Overall I felt the book had potential and I mostly enjoyed it, but the ending was unsatisfying.
After all of that, there's no more about them, or her pregnancy, and the epilogue is about Blaise. WTF?
Overall I felt the book had potential and I mostly enjoyed it, but the ending was unsatisfying.
December 30, 2024
I wanted to give 4⭐️ cause I really enjoy the reading and I really want to read Blaise book too. Buuuut, I can’t, I really annoyed with gabe. He was such a good guy and then does a biiiiiiig bad decision! Even tho was something she wanted he should be honest with her and give her the right to choose. Well in the end it ended well but that suck 😂 joss isn’t my favorite fix either, don’t know how to explain it but I felt like she’s to naive and “good” she can only be sassy to gabe and that’s all.
July 7, 2024
New author to me. So, this was recommended in a book group for obsessive/breeding readers. So, this book has the bc "tampering" but this isn't a dark book.
Gabe and Joss meet and both have that instant connection. Gabe is a good guy that falls for Joss quickly. Joss has been terribly hurt in the past but Gabe wiggles his way in with her. I enjoyed the story and I'll read the next book to see how the series goes.
Gabe and Joss meet and both have that instant connection. Gabe is a good guy that falls for Joss quickly. Joss has been terribly hurt in the past but Gabe wiggles his way in with her. I enjoyed the story and I'll read the next book to see how the series goes.
July 8, 2024
Not for me. I really didn't like any of the characters. Gabe and his teammates were a bunch of rude, crass, juvenile idiots. I didn’t like their behaviour at the fundraiser; how could screaming at each other and starting fist fights get back at the people who were being rude to Joss? Plus, I felt zero chemistry between Gabe and Joss and when Gabe lied to Joss about having had a vasectomy, I was done.
July 5, 2024
I enjoyed this book! It was written very well! In Good Guy Gabe you meet the football player that causes no trouble, and the wronged women who’s past is following her. Gabe plays the perfect protective boyfriend, until he’s not. I loved the twist and turns of the book and look forward to reading more from C. B. Alice!
July 6, 2024
Wow I demolished this book as soon as I started reading it!! I love a good possessive, overbearing and has a br33ding problem MMC and Gabe absolutely delivered! I loved how this book touched on Joss pass and went deep, it really gave the book an emotional side. I felt for her when Gabe started pulling away after her opening up. I think this book just gives you a little of everything!
July 20, 2024
I wouldn’t claim this as a ‘dark’ book but there are some points and moments that can be triggering- and the trigger warnings are available. Joss deserves the world and I am glad she is getting it. I’m intrigued by the teaser at the end for the next book so I will stick around for the next installment!
October 28, 2025
I’d Like to Read A Book Where Characters Communicate
Headline says it all.
Just imagine a book where people use words and talk to each other and petty stupid crap doesn’t get drug on because oh why have an actual conversation like adults.
Honestly becoming my number one pet peeve in writing lately.
Headline says it all.
Just imagine a book where people use words and talk to each other and petty stupid crap doesn’t get drug on because oh why have an actual conversation like adults.
Honestly becoming my number one pet peeve in writing lately.
July 20, 2024
More like 2.5. The synopsis made it sound interesting, but it got a little antic-y and I wasn’t a big fan of the ex-husband plot points and how ppl treated the FMC. Idk not my exact cup of tea, but I feel like other would enjoy it.
October 26, 2024
FMC is a Quilter, MMC is a pro-footballer
The dramas along the way seemed to be emphasised more than necessary. Surely no-one would take out a husband’s in-secret crimes on his widow?
Overall, a good plot.
The dramas along the way seemed to be emphasised more than necessary. Surely no-one would take out a husband’s in-secret crimes on his widow?
Overall, a good plot.
October 29, 2024
not a sports romance, it’s a quilting romance.
I really enjoyed this. Yes there’s some sport’s romance (football) but it’s more of a quilting romance. A golden retriever guy and an FMC who’s been through a lot but stayed strong throughout.
I really enjoyed this. Yes there’s some sport’s romance (football) but it’s more of a quilting romance. A golden retriever guy and an FMC who’s been through a lot but stayed strong throughout.
July 5, 2024
🌶️ 🥵 🍞 ❤️
July 13, 2024
“Are you my girl, Joss? …
You’re mine now, yeah?”
-Gabe Shaunessy, from Good Guy Gabe by C.B. Alice
You’re mine now, yeah?”
-Gabe Shaunessy, from Good Guy Gabe by C.B. Alice
July 24, 2024
Sports sewing romance
3 🌶️🌶️🌶️
MMC lies about vasectomy
3 🌶️🌶️🌶️
MMC lies about vasectomy
July 28, 2024
I liked this story. Gabe fell hard for Joss and wanted to do anything and everything to win her over. She has a past that hurts a lot. I liked this story including the twists and turns.
September 29, 2024
I love C.B.'s writing and this was no exception. It was silly, and funny and serious all at once. I'll read a quilter romance any day!
dnf-dnr
October 7, 2024Love the premise, but the writing style didn't click for me personally.
Read
November 13, 2024I am not fan of writing style
January 13, 2025
Fast burn
February 8, 2025
bland
couldn't get into this one, I dnf
the plot was kind of meh
lacked the fun of the other books.
couldn't get into this one, I dnf
the plot was kind of meh
lacked the fun of the other books.
December 24, 2025
great fun read.
FMC plot line and background wasn't the nost stable or realistic honestly made her seem terrible.
but a nice breather read all together if you can ignore the other parts
FMC plot line and background wasn't the nost stable or realistic honestly made her seem terrible.
but a nice breather read all together if you can ignore the other parts
Displaying 1 - 30 of 31 reviews