Nathan Donelson

Nathan Donelson is the charismatic, protective NFL quarterback protagonist of Sarah Adams's The Cheat Sheet — Bree Camden's best friend since childhood, a professional athlete at the height of his career, and a man who has been in love with his best friend for years without acting on it. Adams writes Nathan as a genuinely good person whose goodness is not blandness — his care for Bree, his specific character as an athlete and as a friend, and his patience with a situation that requires considerable patience give him genuine substance.

The NFL setting gives The Cheat Sheet its specific professional backdrop — the demands of a football career, the public scrutiny of celebrity, and the specific social world that professional athletes inhabit all provide context for Nathan and Bree's friendship and its evolution. Adams researches her settings with enough care that they feel specific rather than generic.

Adams is one of contemporary romance's most reliable authors in the sports romance subgenre, with a gift for heroes whose warmth and genuine decency are as appealing as their professional achievements. Begin with The Cheat Sheet.