Book Bites: Delayed Penalty and He Has a Baby

DELAYED PENALTY (Aviators Hockey Book 1)
by Sophia Henry

The story starts with Auden having lost her scholarship and her place on her college soccer team. Reeling from the hit to her finances and her ego she gets a job as a translator for a Russian player on the local AHL team, Alexandr Varenkov. They get off to a rocky start but they find they have lots of common ground and they can be great for each other.

From the first cheesy pick-up line, this book was fun. Despite the whiplash as the characters run hot and cold with equal intensity, their back and forth interplay and shared understanding for the tragedies each has endured made for a sweet love story.

Despite some out-of-character moments with a few of the minor characters, this is still a place I want to revisit. Both Auden and Alexandr have bright futures with plenty of room for more story. There are secondary storylines that welcome fleshing out as well as the story proceeds into the next books in the series and I look forward to coming back to this world.

reviewed via Kindle Unlimited

He Has a Baby (Boston Brawlers Hockey Romance)
by Stephanie Queen

Rafe moves to Boston for a fresh start on a new team after a divorce that leaves him a single dad. His Nanny quits leaving him in v lurch just as he is needing to get to work. Zoey, a close friend of teammates is on a hiatus in her modeling career while she deals with the details of her grandmother’s death. She finds herself crushing on the hot hockey player and the idea of playing nanny appeals to her.

This is my first venture into the world of the Boston Brawlers. The overall ennui of the team makes me curious to learn more about the rest of the players. Rafe and Zoey are great characters with immediate chemistry. Still, I found the story a bit rushed and honestly contrived. The odd situations the two found themselves in could have made for really great slow-burn drama, but most were either glossed over diluting the potential importance, or left completely unresolved calling into question why they were added to the story at all. The biggest issue for me was the introduction of Rafe’s ex. Lots of angst with little resolution. This story could have done with a huge dose of “show the reader don’t tell the reader”. There were however enough flashes of brilliant storytelling that I am for sure going to see what else this series has to offer.