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 hockey. Show all posts
Showing posts with label hockey. Show all posts
Saturday, July 20, 2013
Saturday, March 23, 2013
Body Check (Deirdre Martin)
Summary:
Janna MacNeil is the new publicist for the New York Blades, a hockey team filled to bursting with bad boys who have no qualms about tainting hockey's greatest prize, the Stanley Cup, to a strip club with them. Janna is hired to clean up after this and countless other messes. Ty Gallagher is the captain of the Blades, and has a stubborn streak wider than most. Janna needs to wrangle Ty and the rest of the Blades while they make another run for the Cup under the watchful eye of the Blades' parent company Kidco. Can Janna manage to get Ty and the Blades to play by Kidco's rules?
Thoughts:
I'm a big hockey fan. It's semi-recent, but I'm very enthusiastic about it nonetheless. When I found out there were a couple of romance series out there that were hockey-related, I was looking forward to getting into them. I started the Rachel Gibson series a while ago, and not in the right order (which I hate doing), and then found that Deirdre Martin has one too. I jumped right into getting the first of the Martin series, and was really excited. Note the word "was." It started out pretty okay, though you could see Janna was going to hook up with Ty from a mile away. But I pushed on. And then the first seduction scene started happening, and I thought, "No! This is too soon! It reads like a daydream! What are you doing?" But by that point, they were already doing it on the kitchen floor. Seriously, people? You know each other a month, and you're down and dirty on the floor? Seriously?? I tried to like the book. I WANTED to like it. The hockey talk reads like a fan wrote it, thank God. But the pacing was just WRONG. There's a quote on the front of the book from a Millie Criswell, who seems to have her own bestseller called "Mad about Mia," who is quoted as saying "Fun, fast-paced and sexy... a dazzling debut." Okay, I get the sexy, thanks to the overabundance of sex throughout. The fun is stretching it a bit. Janna agonizes about the relationship and that they need to keep it secret or she'll get fired. She agonizes about her best friend almost being raped by one of the players on the team. She agonizes about the asshole guy she works with who nearly forces her out of the job. She agonizes about not being good enough to actually HAVE her job in the first place. She agonizes about falling for Ty and him not returning her feelings. Oh, and there's hockey. I don't see the agonizing and whining as being "fun," but maybe Millie likes her main characters to constantly be in agony. The "fast-paced" part is completely accurate, though. It was so fast, that I didn't realize until at least two-thirds of the way through the book that we were looking at months and months of time between page 1 and page 325, not just a few weeks. Because Martin only notes the passage of time when she feels like it. She hardly shows that it's gone from October to December until suddenly there's a Christmas party. And a mere fifty pages later, it's suddenly April. And then it's June. Where has the time gone? I have no idea how long these two were actually together before they inevitably broke up (because every "good" romance novel has a break-up) and then finally get back together. And while the story is written from Janna's and Ty's point of view, you never get to really see what Ty's thinking because he fights his feelings at every turn. So the ending, which I won't be horrible and spoil, comes so out of left field, that you can't believe it's happened, and then there they are with the happily ever after. Since this is obviously a first novel for Martin, (I say obviously because the amateurish plot line screams "new writer!") I'm tempted to find book two, in the hopes that maybe she's gotten better. But it's hard to get myself around to the idea. This one was just HORRIBLY paced, and when something throws your mind out of the plot like this writing did, it's tough to get into reading more. Fingers crossed, Ms. Martin. You get one more shot.
Book 7 of 50
Pages: 325
Genre: romance, with a lot of hockey
Grade: C
Would I Recommend?: Meh. It's better hockey than the Gibson series, but far worse romance... Which is more important?
Janna MacNeil is the new publicist for the New York Blades, a hockey team filled to bursting with bad boys who have no qualms about tainting hockey's greatest prize, the Stanley Cup, to a strip club with them. Janna is hired to clean up after this and countless other messes. Ty Gallagher is the captain of the Blades, and has a stubborn streak wider than most. Janna needs to wrangle Ty and the rest of the Blades while they make another run for the Cup under the watchful eye of the Blades' parent company Kidco. Can Janna manage to get Ty and the Blades to play by Kidco's rules?
Thoughts:
I'm a big hockey fan. It's semi-recent, but I'm very enthusiastic about it nonetheless. When I found out there were a couple of romance series out there that were hockey-related, I was looking forward to getting into them. I started the Rachel Gibson series a while ago, and not in the right order (which I hate doing), and then found that Deirdre Martin has one too. I jumped right into getting the first of the Martin series, and was really excited. Note the word "was." It started out pretty okay, though you could see Janna was going to hook up with Ty from a mile away. But I pushed on. And then the first seduction scene started happening, and I thought, "No! This is too soon! It reads like a daydream! What are you doing?" But by that point, they were already doing it on the kitchen floor. Seriously, people? You know each other a month, and you're down and dirty on the floor? Seriously?? I tried to like the book. I WANTED to like it. The hockey talk reads like a fan wrote it, thank God. But the pacing was just WRONG. There's a quote on the front of the book from a Millie Criswell, who seems to have her own bestseller called "Mad about Mia," who is quoted as saying "Fun, fast-paced and sexy... a dazzling debut." Okay, I get the sexy, thanks to the overabundance of sex throughout. The fun is stretching it a bit. Janna agonizes about the relationship and that they need to keep it secret or she'll get fired. She agonizes about her best friend almost being raped by one of the players on the team. She agonizes about the asshole guy she works with who nearly forces her out of the job. She agonizes about not being good enough to actually HAVE her job in the first place. She agonizes about falling for Ty and him not returning her feelings. Oh, and there's hockey. I don't see the agonizing and whining as being "fun," but maybe Millie likes her main characters to constantly be in agony. The "fast-paced" part is completely accurate, though. It was so fast, that I didn't realize until at least two-thirds of the way through the book that we were looking at months and months of time between page 1 and page 325, not just a few weeks. Because Martin only notes the passage of time when she feels like it. She hardly shows that it's gone from October to December until suddenly there's a Christmas party. And a mere fifty pages later, it's suddenly April. And then it's June. Where has the time gone? I have no idea how long these two were actually together before they inevitably broke up (because every "good" romance novel has a break-up) and then finally get back together. And while the story is written from Janna's and Ty's point of view, you never get to really see what Ty's thinking because he fights his feelings at every turn. So the ending, which I won't be horrible and spoil, comes so out of left field, that you can't believe it's happened, and then there they are with the happily ever after. Since this is obviously a first novel for Martin, (I say obviously because the amateurish plot line screams "new writer!") I'm tempted to find book two, in the hopes that maybe she's gotten better. But it's hard to get myself around to the idea. This one was just HORRIBLY paced, and when something throws your mind out of the plot like this writing did, it's tough to get into reading more. Fingers crossed, Ms. Martin. You get one more shot.
Book 7 of 50
Pages: 325
Genre: romance, with a lot of hockey
Grade: C
Would I Recommend?: Meh. It's better hockey than the Gibson series, but far worse romance... Which is more important?
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!
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