Contemporary Romance

Review: So Forward by Mina V. Esguerra

03:00

Title: So Forward (Six 32 Central Book #3)
Author: Mina V. Esguerra
Genre/Themes: Sports romance, Philippines 
Release date: 15 July 2020

Author’s links: Website / Goodreads / Twitter / Facebook

My rating: 3,5 Stars

Blurb 

Colin Valerio has been performing practically all his life. From national team figure skating, to underwear modeling, and now posting (shirtless) selfies daily for his adoring audience. Many don’t know though that at 29, he’s quietly earning his MBA degree—that is, if he can fix his final paper. It’s got too much heart, not enough business.

National hockey team medalist, outstanding young professional, MBA prof on leave...Lexa Lorenzo is determined and driven, and did all that by age 32. She should be her family corp’s next CEO. But she’s all business, not enough heart, and her mentor/boss/aunt wants her to be more accessible, approachable, “charming.”

As luck would have it, Lexa’s alma mater calls her in to help a graduating MBA student—and it’s Colin Valerio, fellow winter sports athlete, walking/talking ball of charm. She has the sports and business background he needs. He is a natural at all the things she’s told to improve on, and may be able to teach her a thing or two. Let the lessons begin.

Review 

This is book 3 in ongoing series but works well as a standalone. It's a sports romance with both MCs retired sports players in winter sports which are not huge in the Philippines, she was hockey player, he was a figure skater. She is a business woman in a family empire. He is an Instagram celebrity, studying business in secret.

This is a low conflict, drama free romance about two young people finding their place in the world after their sports careers were over. They are different on the surface but in fact pretty similar, they are both  living sort of double life, presenting a different persona to the world while keeping their true self deeply hidden.

The romance shows them opening up to each other, sharing hopes and dreams. It was all real and relatable, the struggle to graduate and secure a job/career doing something you are passionate about,the family pressure (parental approval, sibling friendship/rivalry). There is a cosy feel of familiarity about it which I greatly enjoyed. 

I liked both MCs a lot, I bought into their romance. But, at the same time, I wanted to see more of the sports aspect,it was very in the past for both of them and it had little to no impact on their present which felt unrealistic to me. Another thing which I wish was handled differently was the defence of his thesis.The preparation for it was a major plot point but we didn't see the actual exam and it was a bit anti-climactic. Also I was looking forward to seeing her doing a figure skating dance and felt disappointed it didn't happen. 

Despite these issues it is a solid contemporary romance which I liked a lot.

Add to Goodreads / Buy on Amazon

Here are my reviews and buy links for the previous books in the series:

What Kind of Day - book 1 - Review / Buy on Amazon 
Kiss and Cry - book 2 - Review / Buy on Amazon


Contemporary Romance

Review: Always Only You by Chloe Liese

14:00

Title: Always Only You (Bergman Brothers #2)
Author: Ainslie Paton
Genre: Contemporary romance, Autism, Hockey, Chronic illness, Grumpy-sunshine
Release Date: 4 Aug 2020

Author's links:

My rating: 3 Stars



Blurb 

Ren

The moment I met her, I knew Frankie Zeferino was someone worth waiting for. Deadpan delivery, secret heart of gold, and a rare one-dimpled smile that makes my knees weak, Frankie has been forbidden since the day she and I became coworkers, meaning waiting has been the name of my game—besides, hockey, that is.


I’m a player on the team, she’s on staff, and as long as we work together, dating is off-limits. But patience has always been my virtue. Frankie won’t be here forever—she’s headed for bigger, better things. I just hope that when she leaves the team and I tell her how I feel, she won’t want to leave me behind, too.


Frankie

I’ve had a problem at work since the day Ren Bergman joined the team: a six foot three hunk of happy with a sunshine smile. I’m a grumbly grump and his ridiculously good nature drives me nuts, but even I can’t entirely ignore that hot tamale of a ginger with icy eyes, the perfect playoff beard, and a body built for sin that he’s annoyingly modest about.


Before I got wise, I would have tripped over myself to get a guy like Ren, but with my diagnosis, I’ve learned what I am to most people in my life—a problem, not a person. Now, opening my heart to anyone, no matter how sweet, is the last thing I’m prepared to do.

Review 


This was my first book by Chloe Liese, the second in the series but stands well on its own, centered around a family of 7 siblings. I was drawn to its blurb because I like sports romances and I ma always on the lookout for diverse MCs in them and the cover showing us a heroine using a cane also drew me in. 

This is an ownvoices story with autistic heroine who also has a chronic illness and uses a cane who works for the social media department of a professional hockey team and the hero is a lind-hearted hockey player who is a virgin and has been in love with heroine for years She is a grump who never smiles and always wears black, he is all smiles and caring and kindness. That's pretty muchmy romance catnip - grumpy / sunshine who complement each other.

I can't comment on the autism rep but I am happy to see a romance with a heroine like Frankie. She is strong an independent, has built mechanisms that help her live on her own while doing a demanding job.

Ren is lovely, kind, and gentle, a big Shakespeare nerd, essential for his team and his family. He keeps his cool on the ring and with his friends and family but gets all flustered aroudn Frankie. And I loved it. 

I absolutely loved the way he was with Frankie,supportive and caring without babying her or making her helpless in any way. At the same time, he felt too perfect, without a single weakness. Even the big conflict was all about her accepting his care and love, allowing herself to be loved the way she was.He never did anything wrong. She grew and changed in the course of the story while he stayed is perfect self from start to finish. 

Se really stood out for me. A complex character dealing with serious health issues and being underestimated and underappreciated by most people around her. She navigated falling in love and having a serious relationship for the first with the inescapable mistake from time to time.

I loved their relationship, we see a lot of them together as a couple, the changes this brings into their lives, the gradual opening up with each other. 

All that said, I also had some issues with the book. Besides the boring perfection of Ren, I felt the felt the author tried to include all the tropes and it was just too much - forced proximity, illness (hospital stay), virgin hero, confessions under the influence. This is very much a personal thing but I found some of Frankie's language and humour crass and didn't enjoy it. 

Despite these issues, I still want to read more in this series, book one h as a deaf hero and a footballer heroine and the next one is a marriage in trouble one, both sound very much right up my alley. 

CW: Hospital stay, sports trauma, medicinal drug use 

Add on Goodreads / Buy on Amazon 

Hockey

Review: Virgin Territory by Lia Riley

04:07

Title: Virgin Territory (Hellions Angels #3)
Author: Lia Riley
Genre: Sports romance, hockey, virgin hero
Release Date: 6 March 2018

Author's links:
Add to Goodreads

My rating: 2 Stars


Blurb

Practice Makes Perfect

Patrick “Patch” Donnelly has what it takes to be the best goalie in the NHL…if only he could learn to control his temper. When Coach orders him to get his head in the game with private yoga classes, Patch isn’t having it. There’s no way this tough Boston guy would be caught dead downward dog-ing his way to inner peace. But if he refuses, he risks his starting position and the dream he sacrificed everything for, including joining the priesthood.

Yoga instructor Margot Kowalski is over men. After yet another toxic relationship, she’s eager to forget love and focus on growing her business. Doing the Hellions head coach a favor by helping out a troubled player can't hurt, and it might give her career a high-profile boost. But free-spirited Margot is soon charming the pants off Patch. Literally. Her sassy combination of sweet and sexy proves irresistible to the goalie. Before Patch can give into temptation though, he’ll have to confess his biggest secret:

He’s a virgin.

But Patch is hiding more than sexual inexperience, and his dark past soon threatens to destroy his shot at true love.

Review

This was my first time reading Lia Riley and I was drawn to the premise of a virgin hockey player getting together with a more experience woman. The story had a few laughs and while I liked bits of it, in the end this turned out to be a big disappointment.

Things started promising with a funny, smart heroine being all sex positive and taking no slut shaming from anyone. The hero was also rather intriguing from the start - a troubled hockey star goalie with anger management issues, too easily resorting to physical violence when challenged. And he was a virgin with no experience of intimacy with women, not even holding hands or kissing. Early on we get the reasons for this - a difficult childhood and family issues that were still haunting him.

It was after they met that things went downhill for me. She was a yoga instructor and he was referred to her as a way to get his anger under control. He went to her home for a yoga session for the first time and boom, insta-lust. Within minutes of meeting her, he was so smitten that he was ready to get intimate with her right away, after years of avoiding any physical contact with women. I just didn't buy it. They didn't really get to know each other, there was no courtship, no dealing with his issues with intimacy and anger, just instalust.

Then as can be expected our virgin hero turned out to be a natural at sex, giving her the best orgasms of her life. He was perfect in everything and his tendency towards violence was quickly resolved with the sheer power of true love.

It was a short read, too superficial and neither the characters, nor the conflict seemed fleshed out enough. It was all cliche after cliche - her evil ex (who couldn't get over the fact he wasn't her first lover, was bad in bed, never cared about her pleasure and turned aggressive and stalkerish after their break up and to top it all off, he turned to be involved in tax fraud).

I found the suspense plot too thin and far too easily resolved in the end. I felt all the good characters were too good to be true and all the bad ones were just comically bad. The characters lacked nuance which made it all too unrealistic for me to enjoy their story. I want my contemporary romances more rooted in reality. While I don't mind the dream/fantasy type of romance hero, I can't accept when serious issues are brought up and then brushed off to a quick resolution without giving them any depth.

I ended angry and disappointed in this story because I felt it had to potential to be something good but it was hastily written, predictable, lacking any depth and nuance. The few good jokes here and there and my overall appreciation of the hero was not enough to save it.

Purchase link: Amazon


Billionaires

Review: Brooklynaire by Sarina Bowen

04:08

Title: Brooklynaire (Brooklyn Bruisers #4)
Author: Sarina Bowen
Genre: Sports romance, hockey, boss-assistant, tech billionaire
Release Date: 12 Feb 2018

Author's links:
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My rating: 4 Stars

Blurb

You’d think a billion dollars, a professional hockey team and a six-bedroom mansion on the Promenade would satisfy a guy. You’d be wrong.

For seven years Rebecca has brightened my office with her wit and her smile. She manages both my hockey team and my sanity. I don’t know when I started waking in the night, craving her. All I know is that one whiff of her perfume ruins my concentration. And her laugh makes me hard.

When Rebecca gets hurt, I step in to help. It’s what friends do. But what friends don’t do is rip off each others’ clothes for a single, wild night together.

Now she’s avoiding me. She says we’re too different, and it can never happen again. So why can’t we keep our hands off each other?

Review

I loved this friends-to-lovers romance so much. I have been waiting for Becca and Nate's story since we met them in the first book  and the long wait was totally worth it. It was such a fun, sexy story, with very little angst and a lot of good humour and intense emotions. I'm generally wary of boss-assistant romance but I think the imbalance of power was handled well here. It certainly was a main obstacle before the couple getting together but it was discussed in details and the solution they came up with was a good one, working for them both.

The story is told in alternating chapters of first-person POV of Nate and Rebecca and this is not my favourtie writing style but I got used to it pretty fast. We get flashbacks to their times together through the years written in a third-person POV which I found weird and not fitting very smoothly in the overall narration despite them being important and contributing a lot to the story.

I liked Nate, the geeky tech billionaire, hockey team owner, who has had feelings for his assistant for years and has kept them under lock and key because he valued their friendship and didn't want to risk ruining it and driving Becca away. Becca was fun and all kinds of amazing too, aware of her precarious situation if/when she starts a relationship with her boss. I loved how she came off as smart (despite never finishing college), how good she was at her job.

There is an easy flow to the story, a natural progression of the romance with a few setbacks, btu nothing outrageously improbable (probably except for the Alex plotline which went in a weird and unnecessary direction towards the ed). It's a true friends-to-lovers romance and we see so much of the friendship between the Nate and Becca before they became lovers and it also continued after that. The way the interacted with their friends and families presented their world as full and vibrant. Nate's AI project was hilarious and brought so much comic relief into some tense moments.

We see a lot of hockey action but the story takes a look also a look into the darker side of the sport (concussions and head injuries which were explored indirectly through Becca's fall on the ice and its consequences).

I have a minor quibble with the way Becca was presented as financially struggling which I found odd with her being the personal assistant to the CEO of a multi-million company. While I understand her difficult financial situation with her having to help support her family but it felt overdone and threw me out of the story.

The book ends with the sappiest of epilogues which made me so very happy. We get the perfect completion of the series though I wouldn't mind reading more stories about the Brooklyn bruisers.

Purchase links: Amazon | iBooks | Kobo | Nook

Contemporary Romance

Joint Review: Irresistible You and So Over You by Kate Meader

11:51

Title: Irresistible You (Chicago Rebels #1)
Author: Kate Meader
Date of publication: 14 Aug 2017
Genre/themes: Sports romance, Hockey

Author's links: Goodreads / Website / Facebook / Twitter
Add to Goodreads

My rating: 3.5 Stars
Blurb

 Hot in Chicago series author Kate Meader returns with her all new, scorching Chicago Rebels hockey series. Three estranged sisters inherit their late father’s failing hockey franchise and are forced to confront a man’s world, their family’s demons, and the battle-hardened ice warriors skating into their hearts.

Harper Chase has just become the most powerful woman in the NHL after the death of her father Clifford Chase, maverick owner of the Chicago Rebels. But the team is a hot mess—underfunded, overweight, and close to tapping out of the league. Hell-bent on turning the luckless franchise around, Harper won’t let anything stand in her way. Not her gender, not her sisters, and especially not a veteran player with an attitude problem, a chip on his shoulder, and a smoldering gaze designed to melt her ice-compacted defenses.

Veteran center Remy “Jinx” DuPre is on the downside of a career that’s seen him win big sponsorships, fans’ hearts, and more than a few notches on his stick. Only one goal has eluded him: the Stanley Cup. Sure, he’s been labeled as the unluckiest guy in the league, but with his recent streak of good play, he knows this is his year. So why the hell is he being shunted off to a failing hockey franchise run by a ball-buster in heels? And is she seriously expecting him to lead her band of misfit losers to a coveted spot in the playoffs?

He’d have a better chance of leading Harper on a merry skate to his bed…

Review 

I have a love-or-hate relationship with sports romances and this one fell firmly in the first category. I have minor niggles with the story (some gender stereotyping and some slut shaming of puck bunnies which I find is the thing that most bothers me in sports/celebrities romances) but overall found it a nice, enjoyable read.

Remy is a hockey player at the end of his career, making plans for family and kids and being sort of stay-at-home dad and I loved how open he was about his dreams of having a family of his own. And I loved his parents and sisters and the way they interacted with each other presenting the model family he wanted to himself. Still, this was all in the future and right now he was very much focused on his professional career.

Harper was also an interesting, complex character, very much his opposite except for their shared passion for hockey. Her family was the total opposite of his and this has left with deep scars. I loved the dynamics of their relationship with her two estranged sisters and how they were trying to become a family.

I'm usually hesitant about of employer/employee romances because of the dynamics of power and she being part-owner and general manager of the team and him playing for that team (after she insisted on buying him) was a fraught situation for them both. She did have everything to lose and putting it on the line for him was a huge deal for her.

There was a strong sexual tension between and after the initial distrust and dislike, they started an emotionally charged affair which grew into real intimacy. The unavoidable misunderstandings happened but they talked things through a very satisfying HEA.

 Purchase Links: KINDLE | NOOK | KOBO | IBOOKS


Title: So Over You (Chicago Rebels #2)
Author: Kate Meader
Date of publication: 4 dec 2017
Genre/themes: Sports romance, Hockey

Author's links: Goodreads / Website / Facebook / Twitter
Add to Goodreads

My rating: 2 Stars

Blurb

Three estranged sisters struggle to sustain their late father’s failing hockey franchise in Kate Meader’s sizzling Chicago Rebels series. In this second entry, middle sister Isobel is at a crossroads in her personal and professional lives. But both are about to get a significant boost with the addition of a domineering Russian powerhouse to the Rebels....

Isobel Chase knows hockey. She played NCAA, won Olympic silver, and made it thirty-seven minutes into the new National Women’s Hockey League before an injury sidelined her dreams. Those who can’t, coach, and a position as a skating consultant to her late father’s hockey franchise, the Chicago Rebels, seems like a perfect fit. Until she’s assigned her first job: the man who skated into her heart as a teen and relieved her of her pesky virginity. These days, left-winger Vadim Petrov is known as the Czar of Pleasure, a magnet for puck bunnies and the tabloids alike. But back then... let’s just say his inability to sink the puck left Isobel frustratingly scoreless.

Vadim has a first name that means “ruler,” and it doesn’t stop at his birth certificate. He dominates on the ice, the practice rink, and in the backseat of a limo. But a knee injury has produced a bad year, and bad years in the NHL don’t go unrewarded. His penance? To be traded to a troubled team where his personal coach is Isobel Chase, the woman who drove him wild years ago when they were hormonal teens. But apparently the feeling was not entirely mutual.

That Vadim might have failed to give Isobel the pleasure that was her right is intolerable, and he plans to make it up to her—one bone-melting orgasm at a time. After all, no player can perfect his game without a helluva lot of practice...

Review

After enjoying the first book I had high expectations of this but sadly, it left me deeply disappointed. I love second-chance stories and athletic heroines are not that common, so I was very much looking forward to reading this.

In the end what I got a very stereotypical presentation of a Russian hockey player and I honestly hated it. He came off as ignorant, speaking poor English after living in the US for years, his father had mob concoctions (of course). As an Eastern European myself, I found the jokes on the Russian language and culture not funny at all but rather insulting and done in poor taste. 

I liked the heroine initially but then the whole main conflict didn't work for me. Spoilers! She was convinced he was bad at sex because he didn't make her come the one time they had sex (she was a virgin). And him learning that made him question himself despite being know as the tzar of pleasure.
And he went on sort of a quest to prove himself to her. I really wasn't sold of heir romance. Vadim was presented as possessive, acting like she belonged to him right from the very first minute they reconnected, something I didn't appreciate at all.

As in the first novel, here some of the tension between Vadim and Isobel came from the fact that she was co-owner of the team he played for and she was trying to get a permanent position as a coach in the team.

One of the few things I enjoyed was the family dynamics between the sisters and the whole sports team atmosphere. In the end this was not enough the save the story for me. It left me angry and though I was interested in the upcoming m/m novella in the series and the story of the last of the sisters, I'm not sure I will be continuing with the series.


Contemporary Romance

Review: Pipe Dreams by Sarina Bowen

23:43


Title: Pipe Dreams (Brooklyn Bruisers #3)
Author: Sarina Bowen
Genre: Sports romance, hockey
Release Date: 2 May 2017

Author's links:
Add to Goodreads

My rating: 4 Stars

 Blurb
A goalie has to trust his instincts, even when taking a shot to the heart…

Mike Beacon is a champion at defending the net, but off the ice, he’s not so lucky. A widower and a single father, he’s never forgotten Lauren Williams, the ex who gave him the best year of his life. When Lauren reappears in the Bruisers office during the playoffs, Beacon sees his chance to make things right.

Lauren hates that she’s forced to travel with the team she used to work for and the man who broke her heart. There’s still undeniable sexual tension running between her and Mike, but she won’t go down that road again. She’s focused on her plans for the future—she doesn’t need a man to make her dreams of motherhood come true.

Lauren plays her best defensive game, but she’s no match for the dark-eyed goalie. When the field of play moves to Florida, things heat up on the beach.

One of Mike’s biggest fans doesn’t approve—his teenage daughter. But a true competitor knows not to waste the perfect shot at love.

Review

After not enjoying very much the second book in this series, this was one such a nice surprise. I didn't expect Lauren would get a book of her own, and then I would have never guessed who her love interest would be. This was the sweetest, most touching of romances. I love love stories with single dads, they always tug at heartstrings and this was no exception.

We have two amazing characters put in a very difficult situation and finding their way back to each other after a most painful breakup.

I have to admit I severely misjudged Lauren based o the previous books. We see her true self here and her ice queen attitude was just an act to hide a heart that felt too much. She was amazing and I could relate both to her pain and her hopes and dreams. We see an independent woman moving on from a terrible break up the only way she knew how. Getting a degree, working hard, trying to have a family of her own.

It took me a while to forgive Mike. It's not the fact that he left Lauren that I resent but the fact that he did so with no explanation. I just can't accept people not talking things through, just making up decisions and not discussing them with their partner.

Their coming back together was not easy for either of them. And M's kid didn't help matters. But it was worth all the hardship. It felt real and natural because finally, they were communicating. Mistakes were made and some lessons were learned the hard way but their HEA was a most deserved one. And oh, so sweet, a bit too sweet for my personal taste.

I'm not very fond of pregnancy and child-birth bits in romance, most often than not they feel too staged and not-believable to me as was the case here. It's a personal hangup rather than a weakness of the story.

If you are looking for a great redemption story of second-chance love with some fun and sexy times, some hockey players shenanigans, one special teenage girl, and an ice queen with the kindest and most forgiving heart, you should definitely read this romance.

Purchase links: Amazon / iBooks / Kobo


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