Rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars
After last season’s heartbreaking loss to his hockey team’s archrival, Jacksonville Sea Storm goalie Riley Hunter is ready to let go of the past and focus on a winning season. His new roommate, Ethan Kennedy, is a loud New Yorker with a passion for social justice that matches his role as the team’s enforcer. The quieter Riley is attracted to Ethan and has no idea what to do about it.Ethan has no hesitations. As fearless as his position demands, he rushes into things without much thought for the consequences.Though they eventually warm to their passionate new bond, it doesn’t come without complications. While trying to financially help Ethan, Riley must hide his family’s wealth so as not to hurt Ethan’s immense pride. For their relationship to work, Ethan will need to learn when to keep the gloves on and let someone help him—and Riley will have to learn it’s okay to let someone past his defenses.
I loved this book just as much the second time around. I read this book when it first came out and then jumped at this chance to review the audio version. I’m glad to say it stood the test of time. This remains my favorite in this series for a couple of reasons. First off, there is very little angst in this book. Neither of the two guys has ever been with another guy before but there is no drama surrounding this. They discuss it like adults, determine they care about each other and want to see where it goes, and then they just get on with it. No internal or external angsting. I also enjoy the way the other characters in the book respond to them. Their friends accept their status with few questions and one of my favorite scenes in the entire book is when Ethan takes Riley home to meet his mother and to come out to her. It was a bit funny and a lot beautiful. In a genre that is filled with stereotypical evil mothers, it was a refreshing change to see a wonderful, accepting mom who just loves her son.
There are some other issues both of the guys are working on but again, it’s done through communication. Ethan’s storyline in particular was interesting too me. Usually in sports books the MC’s are completely obsessed with their sport and this was different. Ethan was able to say he really wasn’t as devoted as he needed to be and maybe he needed to look at some other options.
As usual with this author’s book you can tell through the writing that she is a hockey fan and her love of the game comes through in the writing. If you’re not a hockey fan though you will not be bogged down with facts and details and you’ll be able to enjoy the book without any problems.
This audiobook is narrated by Scott R. Smith and I felt like he did a really good job. He did both of the MC’s, including Ethan’s New Yorker accent, really well. He also did a good job on the side characters, including the females (which not all male narrators can do). Something about listening to these on audio makes the game scenes stand out more to me. It’s almost like listening to games on the radio (well, actually on my phone app). Listening to well done audios also make the romantic scenes seem even sweeter and the smexy scenes even hotter (& this book has both).
Overall this was a great read. I loved the plot and loved the narration and I highly recommend checking this out. This is the second book in a series but can be read as a standalone.
Cover by Aaron Anderson: I love this cover. It was one of my favorite covers of the year. It’s a great representation of both the game of hockey as well as the story. I also find it very visually appealing.
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Audiobook Details:
6 hrs 22 mins
Audible Audio, 7 pages
Published September 12th 2016 by Dreamspinner Press, LLC (first published January 29th 2016)
Original TitleSave of the Game
ASINB01LTDEJWQ
Edition LanguageEnglishSeriesScoring Chances #2 settingJacksonville, Florida (United States)
New York (United States)
Published September 12th 2016 by Dreamspinner Press, LLC (first published January 29th 2016)
Original TitleSave of the Game
ASINB01LTDEJWQ
Edition LanguageEnglishSeriesScoring Chances #2 settingJacksonville, Florida (United States)
New York (United States)
Winter isn’t the only chill in the air on Turtle Lake.
Toby Kincaid loves being the junior librarian in his hometown of Sandy Lake, Ohio. He spends his days surrounded by books and chatting with the library patrons. He especially adores the head librarian, Mr. Miggles, who is kind, witty, knowlegable about everything, and hopelessly addicted to Christmas. Sean Miggles is also pretty cute—especially for an older guy who wears ties and suit pants every day.
New fathers investigate the death of a young family.
In the acknowledgments of the book, the author mentions that she was writing for Dreamspinner’s Dreamspun Desires line.
Listening Length: 4 hours and 30 minutes
