Sideline Confidential

#1 Amazon Bestseller A young sports journalist soon learns the toughest hits occur off the field. (Run Time: 7:53) Fresh out of journalism school, Blake Kirk lands her dream job as a reporter for her hometown pro football team―the job sure to propel her to the sidelines on network television. But from the first day, double standards and old-school entitlement smack her with the intensity of a defensive line. Blake's boss, Johnny, keeps her sidelined with rules that make it hard for her to do her job. He blocks her from interviewing players in the locker room even though other journalists have access. He encourages her to go with coworkers to bond, knowing full well they're taking her to a strip club. Worse still, Johnny may be the one leaving notes on her desk about how great she looks in pants. Hit after hit, Blake forges on, determined to prove her worth to the team and her journalism peers. But in a world filled with boozy exploits and overblown egos, Blake finds her moral compass wavering after a celebrity tryst. Can Blake realign her professional priorities and expose Johnny's bullying before her dream job does her in? Brooke Bentley is a former television anchor and award-winning sports reporter who graduated from the University of Southern California with a master's in journalism. Through Sideline Confidential, she gives us a glimpse into the challenges women professionals face in the male-dominated world of pro sports. Included in your Audiobrary purchase: an interview between Julia and the author about the true stories that inspired the events in the novel. (Run Time: 0:56) Brooke Bentley (Author) is a former television anchor and award-winning sports reporter. After graduating with a master's in journalism from the University of Southern California, she spent two years working for the Houston Texans as a media personality and over a decade working in sports journalism. Brooke now runs a Houston-based grassroots nonprofit, Homemade Hope, that provides culinary enrichment programs to at-risk youth. She and her husband are raising two young boys who dream of visiting outer space. Julia Whelan (Narrator) Dubbed "The Adele of Audiobooks" by The New Yorker, Julia Whelan is an author, screenwriter, lifelong actor, and acclaimed audiobook narrator of over 600 titles. Her performance of her own debut novel, the international bestseller My Oxford Year (coming soon to Netflix), garnered a Society of Voice Arts award. Her 2022 novel, Thank You For Listening, was a Best-of-the-Year pick at Amazon, Audible, and NPR as well as a Goodreads Choice Award nominee and winner of the Golden Poppy. She is the founder of Audiobrary, a new audio publishing company and app, and her latest books – the 8-part romance audio series Casanova LLC and the annotated Victorian poetry anthology The Poetry Of My Oxford Year – debuted exclusively on Audiobrary. She is also a Grammy-nominated audiobook director, a former writing tutor, a half-decent amateur baker, and a certified tea sommelier. jmwhelan.com