lisaluvsliterature's Reviews (4.19k)

This is the first in this series of standalones that I’ve read, but I really enjoyed it! It totally was a type of story like we are seeing with Taylor Swift and my KC Chiefs star Travis Kelce. It was a hockey player, not football, but same old type of story. I loved all the insight into Mia’s career and how it was taking off, but also how there were people out there putting her down. Again so much like Taylor Swift deals with. And then there was Aleks, who was the grumpy sexy hockey player, but also the boy she knew as a teen and that she knew how hard his life had been. It was easy to understand why he felt the way he did about himself based on his family, and even then when Mia’s dad kind of warned him off of her. However he was a teenage boy at the time, so what dad wouldn’t?

It was easy to see the attraction between them already there, and how it grew enough they could show it to each other, and those around them could see it as well. But oh my gosh the miscommunication at times was so frustrating. It made sense, again, based on what the two had dealt with in their past with their families, exes, and even how interactions between the two of them that could have led to more ended up going. Even with the miscommunication issues, I love the way they figured out and didn’t let it go for long that they didn’t really want to break up. I loved how quickly that was solved even if something else had to pop up for that final drama/darkest moment.

Now, the final epilogue was one of Aleks’s teammates, and I am very excited for his story, even if this is the first one in the series I’ve read. So I’m looking forward to that book. And, I have to get this out, one negative and then I’ll stop, I cannot stand the “hot guy” cover for this book. I hate that expression on his face. I mean I get why he is kind of sneering. But that is not an attractive (to me) sneer at all. So I will stick to the pretty purple special edition cover, or the other one with the drawn characters instead. Anyway, this was a wonderful sports/rock star romance!

So I haven’t actually read all of the Hartigans series yet. However I know enough about the characters that I was excited for this prequel type of novel telling the romance of the parents that started the whole family. The fact that it was set in the 80s, when I was growing up, made me so much more excited about it as well!

It is a shorter story, maybe more of a novella than a novel? But it was a lot of fun, and I really loved spending time in the 80s with these fun and hilarious characters. I loved all the names of movies, tv shows, slang, cars, all the 80s bits in the story. There were steamy bits sprinkled throughout, and so much fun banter, as well as all the wonderful and fun characters in the small town.

My only complaint would be that the reasons she kept fighting the attraction and pushing Frank away got to be a bit annoying after a while. At a certain point she should have been able to easily see that the supposed player personality he had wasn’t true. Not once did he show anything like that in the story. However, when things did come together at the end, that made up for that issue.

Such a fun story, and now I have to go back and read those books in the series that I haven’t read yet!

Of course I always love Hunting's books, especially her hockey series. And this one was really no different in how much I ended up loving it! At first I will admit I was a little unsure about this one, because as anyone who has read my blog before knows, I've mentioned that I'm not a huge fan of age gap stories. It gives me a bit of ick with the older man too much older. And in the prequel novella the author shared in her newsletter, I got a bit of that feeling. However, once I started the actual book, I fell in love with the characters as I should have expected from all the other books of hers that I have loved.

It obviously made a bit of difference at how much things had changed between when they first met and when Lexi became an assistant coach for Roman's team. She was older, and her life had changed enough that it made her seem more mature and not so much younger than him. She'd gone through some loss with the death of her mother and stepfather, and then having to step up and basically become a stand-in mom for her two younger sisters definitely changed her life. When she came into the organization to meet her new team, it was obvious it was going to be hard for the both of them. But Lexi knew she couldn't give in to any want/need for Roman. First of all it obviously was against rules for a coach to date one of their players. Not to mention how it would look to everyone, that she only got or kept her job because she dated him. Or that she was a gold digger and only after Roman for his money. 

They did so good for so long holding out. But Roman quickly fell in love with her sisters, and the way he was with them, yeah, he is a good dad. The emotions of how to get through holidays and just life itself without their parents took it's toll on all of them. And Roman was able to be there sometimes in a way that was just for support, not taking advantage or giving in to their physical attraction. All the things that he did, as well as our wonderful cast of friends and family from the other books so far, to help this family and make them part of the big Toronto Terror family was so sweet and perfect.

And of course I have to talk about all of the characters we know and love from the other books. Some definitely were what we were used to. Others maybe not quite the same seeming since we saw them from the newcomer Lexi's POV. But the way they all swooped in and swept them up under their wing was exactly why I want to be friends with these characters and wish they were real! 

I also love that the author made the final drama of the book NOT a breakup. It was done perfectly. Even when the two of them felt they had to stay away from each other, neither did anything overly dramatic to push the other way and both understood why they felt that way. And they always talked it through. 

Once again Sara Ney just swept me into her book from the very start! I couldn’t put it down and was so happy that the day I started I actually had a lot of different times I got to pick it up and read. As usual, the author had me laughing constantly. Between the banter, the fun texting, and the craziness, it was all so good! Gio was a sweetie, and of course I fell in love with him. And I loved how Austin was just all there in your face, honest about it all, especially about her favorite hockey team. And even her favorite player didn’t escape her brutal honesty when he wasn’t playing his best.

Oh my gosh, the way Gio convinced her to roast him at the game before she realized that she was actually talking to Gio, that whole scene was hilarious! When Gio saw Austin’s chinese crested dog in the background of their FaceTime call, oh my gosh, that whol bit was hilarious! He was so scared and calling the dog a demon. My sister had a chinese crested Maltese mix, so her dog had hair, but they are cuties even with their “ugliness”.

There was a bit of a twist towards the end that led to the final dramatic act of the story. One that I didn’t see coming because the author didn’t leave some of the usual breadcrumbs that make it obvious that is what is coming. But again, the way that ended up being shared with Gio, and how it was handled, another sign at the hockey rink, loved it!

I did have one bone to pick with Austin’s professor character, as a librarian who teaches research. Wikipedia is not a source, no, but it is a great place to jump off and actually find sources in the links at the bottom of the pages. Most teachers/professors know that these days and do tell their students about it. Sorry, had to get it out there because that bugged me, lol.

One other teeny tiny negative I had is that some of the things with Austin’s job, her not listening at a staff meeting, I feel like it was foreshadowing something else that would have led to more with the story towards the end. So I feel like nothing ever came from that, and it seemed like it was out of place for me a bit that it had some of the emphasis it did at that point.

In the end though, I loved this story. I loved the characters, especially hoping with that epilogue that we will get Nova’s story with Gio’s teammate Luca in a future book!

I really wanted to read the first one in the series, but wasn’t able to fit it into my review schedule at the time. But when I saw this one pop up, I immediately signed up and fit it into my schedule. And I will now have to go back and read the first one since I really enjoyed this. 

Of course my Outlander obsessed self loved that this took place in Scotland for a lot of the story. I mean, yes, I definitely want my own Scottish Earl with a castle, lol. However my brain/tongue kept stumbling over how to pronounce Strathrannoch every time it came up in the story. I enjoyed both characters, Arthur’s grumpy, not shy – but not a perfect flirty smooth gentleman, and Lydia’s shyness/social awkwardness, yet wanting to be able to make her own way. I loved seeing the two of them fall in love, and how her family took him in almost straightaway. Being around her big, boisterous family was so much fun, and it was heartwarming to see how they accepted him. 

There was a lot of intrigue along the way to figuring out exactly why Arthur’s brother Davis had been writing to Lydia. Was he really a bad guy, stealing Arthur’s invention for nefarious purposes? And then there was Lydia’s brother’s appearance at a gathering, but he was calling himself by a different name. What was he up to? Was he in cahoots with Arthur’s brother? And could it all be culminating in a plan to assassinate someone? I also am wondering if Lydia’s friend Georgiana snuck off to find her brother Jasper, and if that might be a future story in this series. 

The story was really fun, totally what my brain pictures as a historical romance type of story, including all the very steamy scenes with our couple. A few times I was a bit irritated with both Lydia and Arthur doubting the other one for very minor things. That’s what kept it as a 4 star read for me. But still this is worth a read for anyone who enjoys a good spicy historical romance with some funny bits along the way!

This book started steamy and kept on going! But not just steamy, so much laughing and banter and it kept me turning pages because I had to know how they’d get past all the things between them. There was a ton of fun and hilarious banter, some really clever innuendos, and so much drama with the big obstacle between the two main characters. While it wasn’t a “short” story, it did really only take place over what seemed like a few days/weeks. And honestly, there didn’t really seem to be a way that either of them could win with what they were trying to do without the other one getting hurt. So I do really like the way the author had that all happen and how things were handled in the end. I don’t want to say more, because it will spoil the story for you. There were also a lot of almost epilogues at the end, even if they weren’t epilogues, just the story suddenly moved past those quick few days or weeks into more of how things were being solved and the two of them getting to really know each other past their one night stand which turned into more than one night before it all blew up.

At the end, in her note, the author mentions that while this was meant to be a standalone, Case’s brother-in-law Jared kind of spoke up and gave her ideas for his own book, and I am all there for that! 

This book has such a beautiful cover. And I love reading books with mythology from cultures I don’t know a lot about. There was a lot of mythology and characters from those myths spread throughout the story. The descriptions of the alternate world, the yaksha’s realm, were beautiful and created such vivid and colorful scenes in my head as I read. Unfortunately, I was actually a bit bored and had to push myself through the story. There were a lot of twists and turns, but not in a good way. In a way that I didn’t quite understand exactly what was happening or why something was happening. It was hard to believe that Nilesh would go so willingly into this other world with the way his character had been described, even with the horrible things he was dealing with as his family imploded. And then how Ridhi’s brother was so upset because she forgot to make cookies for his team? Once? Wow. I think it was a younger brother, but still, that was a little over the top for me.

As I said the mythology was interesting and led to some unique scenes, but overall I was unfortunately bored and had to push myself to finish, basically skimming towards the end almost just to get finished.

For something that has such a scary cover and synopsis, I was pretty bored unfortunately.