Body Check
by Deirdre Martin

Janna MacNeil is a publicist specializing in re-tooling clients' images and damage control. She's just been hired to transform the reputation of the New York Blades, a hockey team known for playing hard both on and off the ice.

Last year, after winning the Stanley Cup, they celebrated at strip joints and made headlines. Kidco—the team's new corporate owner—wants the Cup again, but not the scandal. And that's where Janna comes in. They are paying her big bucks to make the Blades seem "family friendly".

Her new boss, Lou "The Bull" Capesi, guzzles Mylanta like spring water, and admits the team is a PR nightmare. The way he sees it, the only way to get the guys to co-operate is to win the respect of their Captain, three-time Stanley Cup winner Ty Gallagher. No problem, thinks Janna. Getting the players to toe the corporate line will be a piece of cake—they make their living chasing a little rubber biscuit around an ice rink.

How smart can they be? All she has to do is get the captain to see Kidco's point of view.

Easier said than done, because Ty Gallagher is plenty smart, distractingly good-looking and sees things from his own point of view. And he has better things to do with his time than deal with a publicist, no matter how often she gets in his face...

Deirdre Martin's Bio

Deirdre was six when she wrote her first "book", a Peanuts parody. Over the course of her twelve year freelance career, her work appeared in a wide variety of publications, including McCall's and The New York Times. In 1998, her first non fiction book was published: Investing for Retirement (Avon). She also contributed to Lifescripts for Managers, Lifescripts for Employees, and Lifescripts for the Self Employed. (MacMillan, 1999).

Her first romance, BODY CHECK, will be published by Jove in March of 2003. A second book, FAIR PLAY, is slated to be released by Jove in January of 2004. Deirdre is busily at work on her third book.

A resident of Ithaca, NY, Deirdre enjoys hiking and biking with her husband, Mark Levine, co author of the financial bestseller, Die Broke.