Summary:
Sam LeClaire is one of the Seattle Chinooks' bruisers with the body of Adonis. Autumn Haven is a red-headed spitfire event planner who also happens to be Sam's ex-wife. They met in Vegas and drunkly tied the knot after only knowing each other a few days and despite their hasty divorce, they will always be tied together by their son, Connor, the product of that crazy vacation. Autumn hates violence and hockey and Sam's penchant for being the neglectful father. Sam can't remember what he saw in the tiny woman who isn't his type at all. As Sam realizes he's getting older, he also realizes that he hasn't been very good to Connor, and now he's in the fight of his life- fighting to be the best father to his son.
Thoughts:
Predictable. Sadly so. At least there wasn't a big scary life-altering secret that could potentially come out as there was previously. (One was that the team owner was sleeping with a player, one was that a reporter was sleeping with a player, one was that the assistant was sleeping with a player, and one was that the ex-fiance of the owner was sleeping with a player.) And at least the player, Sam in this case, didn't retire after finally confessing his undying love. There IS a marriage proposal, though, and it also starts with a wedding of one of the previous couples. I swear, not a single woman who gets involved with the Chinook organization can help herself when it comes to the players on the team. One way or another, she's going to hook up with a player, even if it could cost her (or the chosen player) could lose her job. This couple, however, didn't have that terror hanging over them. They just had Connor, who might get confused, holding them apart. This was almost the most believable story line from this series, though it was still a little lame. I've wondered at times why I keep reading this series, but the answer becomes clear almost immediately. There's not a whole lot of fictional books that are written about a hockey team. So I push on and deal with it. Sadly.
Book 23 of 50
Pages: 384
Genre: Romance
Grade: C
Would I Recommend?: Meh. There's better ones in the series.
Showing posts with label Gibson. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Gibson. Show all posts
Saturday, July 20, 2013
Saturday, May 11, 2013
Simply Irresistible (Rachel Gibson)
Summary:
Seven years ago, southern girl Georgeanne Howard ran out of her wedding to hockey mogul Virgil Duffy, and coerced new team captain John Kowalsky to give her a ride to anywhere-but-there. They had a crazy night together, but Georgeanne hasn't seen him since he dropped her off at the airport the next morning, with the intent of her flying home to Texas. Georgeanne stayed in Seattle instead, and is now co-owner of a great catering business. John winds up at one of her events, and is shocked to see her still in town. He's even more shocked to find out that he's got a six-year-old daughter he never knew about. How could Georgeanne keep something like that from him? Will he be able to keep Lexie in his life now that he's found her?
Thoughts:
Holy crap. The idea of the story isn't bad, but the writing kinda is. How Gibson wound up getting a series out of this book is beyond me. The story is stilted and uneven, and if only John and Georgeanne sat down to have a civil conversation, most of their troubles would have been solved in a matter of minutes. Instead, we spend the entire book seeing Georgeanne whine about John never loving her, and John whining about losing his job over Georgeanne, and later Lexie. And the time frame of the book is fairly epic, too. We first see 1976, with Georgeanne as a seven year old who overhears her grandmother being told that she has a "brain dysfunction" and that Georgeanne should just go to charm school because there's nothing else she will ever be good at. Then we jump to 1989, where Georgeanne has done just that and almost marries a creepy old man. And finally we wind up in 1996, where we find out Georgeanne has a kid and a career. She's angst-ridden because of her shitty childhood, and the fact that she kept her child's existence a secret from her father, and all she does is whine about it all. Oh, and she "falls in love" with John immediately. Love at first sight and all. Yeah. Fall for some guy that treats you like crap, and sleeps with you with every intention of never seeing you again. Honestly, of the three Gibson books I've read, this is the worst, which makes sense since it's the first one, but it's flat-out horrible. Oh, and all of the leading men have been team captains, and all of them have retired at the end of the book. Sorry, but that's not actually how it goes. Most teams don't have a different captain every year, though a couple teams have bucked that tradition in the past. But each of the guys in the leading roles have been spoken of as though they'd been captains for years. There must be a bunch of Seattle Chinooks teams in Gibson's world. Also, this book paints Virgil Duffy as a hard sonovabitch, married to an older (read: not twenty-something) woman, but the fourth in the series sees Duffy as a kinder man who takes care of his young (twenty-something) wife for a couple years before he passes away. Pick one, Gibson. Yet somehow, Gibson gets herself a series, and things get better as she goes, thankfully. But boy, I'm not looking forward to reading the second and third books in the series (I've already read four and five, not knowing any better until it was too late.) if they're somewhere in quality between this and "True Love and Other Disasters." A girl can hope, though, right? Oh, and PS, the hockey element is damn near nonexistent in this book. Disappointing.
Book 13 of 50
Pages: 375
Genre: romance
Grade: C-
Would I Recommend?: Meh. There are better ones in the series, and they're obviously not heavy on continuity, so...
Seven years ago, southern girl Georgeanne Howard ran out of her wedding to hockey mogul Virgil Duffy, and coerced new team captain John Kowalsky to give her a ride to anywhere-but-there. They had a crazy night together, but Georgeanne hasn't seen him since he dropped her off at the airport the next morning, with the intent of her flying home to Texas. Georgeanne stayed in Seattle instead, and is now co-owner of a great catering business. John winds up at one of her events, and is shocked to see her still in town. He's even more shocked to find out that he's got a six-year-old daughter he never knew about. How could Georgeanne keep something like that from him? Will he be able to keep Lexie in his life now that he's found her?
Thoughts:
Holy crap. The idea of the story isn't bad, but the writing kinda is. How Gibson wound up getting a series out of this book is beyond me. The story is stilted and uneven, and if only John and Georgeanne sat down to have a civil conversation, most of their troubles would have been solved in a matter of minutes. Instead, we spend the entire book seeing Georgeanne whine about John never loving her, and John whining about losing his job over Georgeanne, and later Lexie. And the time frame of the book is fairly epic, too. We first see 1976, with Georgeanne as a seven year old who overhears her grandmother being told that she has a "brain dysfunction" and that Georgeanne should just go to charm school because there's nothing else she will ever be good at. Then we jump to 1989, where Georgeanne has done just that and almost marries a creepy old man. And finally we wind up in 1996, where we find out Georgeanne has a kid and a career. She's angst-ridden because of her shitty childhood, and the fact that she kept her child's existence a secret from her father, and all she does is whine about it all. Oh, and she "falls in love" with John immediately. Love at first sight and all. Yeah. Fall for some guy that treats you like crap, and sleeps with you with every intention of never seeing you again. Honestly, of the three Gibson books I've read, this is the worst, which makes sense since it's the first one, but it's flat-out horrible. Oh, and all of the leading men have been team captains, and all of them have retired at the end of the book. Sorry, but that's not actually how it goes. Most teams don't have a different captain every year, though a couple teams have bucked that tradition in the past. But each of the guys in the leading roles have been spoken of as though they'd been captains for years. There must be a bunch of Seattle Chinooks teams in Gibson's world. Also, this book paints Virgil Duffy as a hard sonovabitch, married to an older (read: not twenty-something) woman, but the fourth in the series sees Duffy as a kinder man who takes care of his young (twenty-something) wife for a couple years before he passes away. Pick one, Gibson. Yet somehow, Gibson gets herself a series, and things get better as she goes, thankfully. But boy, I'm not looking forward to reading the second and third books in the series (I've already read four and five, not knowing any better until it was too late.) if they're somewhere in quality between this and "True Love and Other Disasters." A girl can hope, though, right? Oh, and PS, the hockey element is damn near nonexistent in this book. Disappointing.
Book 13 of 50
Pages: 375
Genre: romance
Grade: C-
Would I Recommend?: Meh. There are better ones in the series, and they're obviously not heavy on continuity, so...
Saturday, March 2, 2013
True Love and Other Disasters (Rachel Gibson)
Summary:
Faith Duffy just lost her husband. Her eighty-one year old husband. And she's thirty. Yup. She's a former stripper turned Playboy centerfold, and suddenly, she's the owner of a NHL hockey team, thanks to Virgil, her dearly departed hubby. Here's the thing... She knows nothing about hockey. She wants to sell the team to her stepson, but Landon is such a prick, she can't stomach handing the team over to him, so now she's got to learn everything about hockey so she doesn't screw up the Chinooks. Tyson Savage (said "sah-vahge" for some dumb reason) is the Chinooks' new captain, only on the team for a little while after their last captain got into a horrific car crash and can no longer play. Ty is the kind of guy that always looks pissed off. He and Faith have to spend some extra time together thanks to a stupid ad campaign that he hates that puts the new captain and the new owner right in the center of the media storm. The trouble comes when they start spending more time together outside the arena...
Thoughts:
Not too bad. As a hockey fan who's still learning things, this was good. This is book four of a series that I've already read book five of- whoops!- and I enjoyed that one. I'm trying to get my hands on book one, but it's apparently lost in the mail. Lucky me. Most of the time, I loved the book. It's a little bit funny, and a lot of romantic tension, but there was one thing that really bugged me, nit-picky as it is. Gibson called the timed sections of the hockey game "frames." They're called periods, lady. As far as I can remember, she called it a period once. In three hundred and sixty-eight pages of story, she used the correct word ONCE. If you're going to write a book about hockey, that's something you should be damn sure to get right. If you Google "hockey frames," you get a bunch of ads for photo frames. Not talk about what happened in a frame of hockey. Nope. Ah, but here I go rambling again. The book is a light read, and other than the stupid "frame" business, it got most of the stuff about hockey right. Book five (Nothing But Trouble) is what helped me really get into hockey because it let me into the world a little more than just watching a game does, and this one is very similar in that respect. Sure, it's a cheesy romance novel. Expect the standard plot you find in every other romance. But the hockey elements make it more interesting. So if you're into hockey, or if you're trying to be for the benefit of a friend or significant other, read the series. It'll help your understanding more than you realize. I speak from experience.
Book 4 of 50
Pages: 368
Genre: Romance, plus hockey!
Grade: B+
Would I Recommend?: Sure! Especially if you're a hockey fan.
Faith Duffy just lost her husband. Her eighty-one year old husband. And she's thirty. Yup. She's a former stripper turned Playboy centerfold, and suddenly, she's the owner of a NHL hockey team, thanks to Virgil, her dearly departed hubby. Here's the thing... She knows nothing about hockey. She wants to sell the team to her stepson, but Landon is such a prick, she can't stomach handing the team over to him, so now she's got to learn everything about hockey so she doesn't screw up the Chinooks. Tyson Savage (said "sah-vahge" for some dumb reason) is the Chinooks' new captain, only on the team for a little while after their last captain got into a horrific car crash and can no longer play. Ty is the kind of guy that always looks pissed off. He and Faith have to spend some extra time together thanks to a stupid ad campaign that he hates that puts the new captain and the new owner right in the center of the media storm. The trouble comes when they start spending more time together outside the arena...
Thoughts:
Not too bad. As a hockey fan who's still learning things, this was good. This is book four of a series that I've already read book five of- whoops!- and I enjoyed that one. I'm trying to get my hands on book one, but it's apparently lost in the mail. Lucky me. Most of the time, I loved the book. It's a little bit funny, and a lot of romantic tension, but there was one thing that really bugged me, nit-picky as it is. Gibson called the timed sections of the hockey game "frames." They're called periods, lady. As far as I can remember, she called it a period once. In three hundred and sixty-eight pages of story, she used the correct word ONCE. If you're going to write a book about hockey, that's something you should be damn sure to get right. If you Google "hockey frames," you get a bunch of ads for photo frames. Not talk about what happened in a frame of hockey. Nope. Ah, but here I go rambling again. The book is a light read, and other than the stupid "frame" business, it got most of the stuff about hockey right. Book five (Nothing But Trouble) is what helped me really get into hockey because it let me into the world a little more than just watching a game does, and this one is very similar in that respect. Sure, it's a cheesy romance novel. Expect the standard plot you find in every other romance. But the hockey elements make it more interesting. So if you're into hockey, or if you're trying to be for the benefit of a friend or significant other, read the series. It'll help your understanding more than you realize. I speak from experience.
Book 4 of 50
Pages: 368
Genre: Romance, plus hockey!
Grade: B+
Would I Recommend?: Sure! Especially if you're a hockey fan.
Friday, May 28, 2010
Nothing but Trouble (Rachel Gibson)
Summary:
Mark Bressler is the former captain of the Seattle Chinooks. Chelsea Ross is an aspiring actress who can't get a part that isn't "town slut" because of her big boobs. Chelsea takes a job as Mark's personal assistant to save up money for a boob reduction. Mark was in a horrific car accident that's left him in constant pain and unable to play hockey anymore. Standard romance plot ensues, including the "something happens to break them up for a while which leads one of them to profess their undying love."
Thoughts:
Kind of predictable. But it was good. Intriguing. I read the whole thing yesterday. It was a quick read. Gibson's storytelling skills are pretty good. I couldn't stop reading, even though I knew I should go to sleep. I think I got into it because of the hockey player, to be honest. I've been getting more into hockey thanks to the hunky honey's newfound interest in it, and this one got inside the head of the player himself. It was kind of neat for me. Call me crazy.
The storyline itself is not bad. The writing is pretty darn good. I might look into getting more of Gibson's work, see if it's all this intriguing. We'll see.
Pages: 384
Genre: Romance, straight up.
Grade: B+
Would I Recommend?: Sure, why not?
23 down, 27 to go! (At this point in the year, I should be at 21, so I'm ahead of the 50 book mark. Yay me!
Mark Bressler is the former captain of the Seattle Chinooks. Chelsea Ross is an aspiring actress who can't get a part that isn't "town slut" because of her big boobs. Chelsea takes a job as Mark's personal assistant to save up money for a boob reduction. Mark was in a horrific car accident that's left him in constant pain and unable to play hockey anymore. Standard romance plot ensues, including the "something happens to break them up for a while which leads one of them to profess their undying love."
Thoughts:
Kind of predictable. But it was good. Intriguing. I read the whole thing yesterday. It was a quick read. Gibson's storytelling skills are pretty good. I couldn't stop reading, even though I knew I should go to sleep. I think I got into it because of the hockey player, to be honest. I've been getting more into hockey thanks to the hunky honey's newfound interest in it, and this one got inside the head of the player himself. It was kind of neat for me. Call me crazy.
The storyline itself is not bad. The writing is pretty darn good. I might look into getting more of Gibson's work, see if it's all this intriguing. We'll see.
Pages: 384
Genre: Romance, straight up.
Grade: B+
Would I Recommend?: Sure, why not?
23 down, 27 to go! (At this point in the year, I should be at 21, so I'm ahead of the 50 book mark. Yay me!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)