Why I read it: I received a review copy from the publisher via NetGalley.
What it’s about: (from Goodreads) NHL player Tim Hollander lost his temper one time and threw a water bottle at an abusive fan. After “Bottlegate,” he’s traded to the San Diego Barracudas, where he’ll need to keep the bad publicity to a minimum while proving he can still compete with the younger guys on the ice.
Erin Collier is a pediatric nurse who’s never seen a hockey game, but gets in line for Tim’s autograph at a PR event in hopes of impressing the doctor she has a crush on. When an obnoxious fan gets pushy toward Erin, Tim rushes to defend the pretty stranger, throwing a punch in the process.
Grateful for the rescue, Erin agrees to stand by Tim during the resulting press conference and host him at a hospital charity event. Their chemistry is palpable, and soon their lives are intertwined. But Erin doubts a hockey player is capable of anything resembling a real relationship. And if Tim can’t get her to see beyond what’s on the surface, they’ll never last longer than a single season…
What worked for me (and what didn’t): As an Australian, I have only a rudimentary knowledge of ice hockey. I have a better idea after reading this book but I still don’t really know what a “line” is. For what it’s worth (and I realise, it can’t be much) the hockey information in the book sounded authentic and, for the most part, it was delivered in a way that didn’t feel too didactic. The Ice Hockey for Dummies thing was a nice touch.
I enjoyed this book quite a bit – it was really only toward the end where things lost their lustre just a little for me. I’m not sure if it was because maybe the book felt a little too long, or whether it was the conflict kind of fizzling out there for a while. Or maybe I would have liked more time for the conflict to resolve – it felt a little quick to me. I liked On the Surface very much – Tim is really sweet guy – not perfect – but he falls for Erin really quickly and I liked watching him navigate those waters.
I liked Erin a lot too. She initially has a crush on a doctor at the hospital where she works and seeks an autograph from Tim Hollander, star ice hockey player and new transfer to the San Diego Barracudas, to impress the good doctor. But it doesn’t take long at all for Erin to realise that Tim is much hotter and much sexier and way more into her. I was so very glad there wasn’t a love triangle.
Tim got into trouble (“Bottlegate”) after a fan of the opposing team trash-talked him and Tim threw a water bottle at said fan (the guy was waaay over the line – he made a reference to Tim’s daughter who had, only a few weeks before, died of leukaemia). (There *may* have been tissues required at one point in the book). That was more than five years ago now but he is still grieving the loss of his daughter. He says he doesn’t want children ever again. I’m not sure I entirely believed him because if he was dead set serious, I think he would have had a vasectomy. And he didn’t. I do however think that he believed he was serious and it made for a convincing conflict. Essentially, Erin wants children and Tim doesn’t – stalemate. That’s a really hard problem to resolve because one party has to give up something they want badly in order for the relationship to succeed.
There is a bit of what I think must be series set up in the book. There were some plot points which didn’t really go anywhere – for instance, the Power Play stuff and some of the things with Erin’s sister Claire and her husband Vic. It didn’t feel intrusive when I read it but at the same time, when I reflected on the book after I read it, I wondered why it was there.
I admit to a chuckle when I read about Tim moving into his new place (which Claire had helped him decorate because she had the time and lives in the same upscale building).
That evening, Tim made his bed with a deep rust, taupe and chocolate brown comforter set that felt manly and went with the furniture he and Claire had chosen. Much as he hated to admit it, his favorite part about the set was a decorative pillow with different colored circles on it. It was a sad state of affairs when a man felt strongly about a decorative fucking pillow. That proved he’d been spending too much time with Claire and listening to her chatter about textures and contrast and focal points, whatever the hell those were.
I think Ms. Willoughby writes authentic male characters. Their banter and dialogue seemed right to me and, while I absolutely know women who don’t like to talk about their feelings and men who do, the stereotype exists for a reason. It seemed to fit the characters that Tim’s friends wouldn’t require an in depth conversation to get over a problem but that it would take a bit more for Tim to sort out an issue with Erin.
He dragged his hands down his face. The cat was not only out of the bag, it was fucking running around knocking shit over.
The writing style was very engaging and readable. “Readable” may sound like I’m damning with faint praise, but I actually think it’s a big plus for any book. It was easy to get into, easy to connect with the story and the characters and mostly, charming to read.
What else? Those who don’t like grand public displays may not like Tim’s actions at one point in the book. I admit I was cringing a titch when reading.
Ultimately, a book usually succeeds or fails for me on the strength of the characters and their dialogue and I think both Tim and Erin were well drawn, believable characters and I loved watching them get to know each other and fall in love.
Grade: B
BUY IT:
AMAZON KOBO
This one has been on my radar since I read about it. I’m very interested in a couple of things you raise in your review. The thing about them feeling differently about wanting children might be a huge issue for me. I don’t want children myself (and no, I haven’t had surgery and had my tubes tied, thank you very much, but I can assure you I AM dead set serious about it), and that has been the issue that ended a couple of relationships. A HEA where one of them changes their mind about it for the sake of keeping the relationship alive would absolutely not work for me. The only situation I can think of where I *might* be able to accept it is if Tim’s not wanting children was about him not wanting to love another child after his daughter having died, rather than about him not wanting to be a father, if you see what I mean. Is this the case?
Also, what’s this about Power Play stuff? Is this a sports thing (my knowledge of ice hockey is probably as rudimentary as yours!) or are we talking BDSM?
@Rosario: Power Play is a specialist gym some of the players go to to train for the season. Perhaps some torture but only of the exercise kind!
As for the children issue – it’s relatively easy for women to have effective birth control without surgery if they don’t want children and I certainly have no issue with women who don’t want children and I don’t think they need to have invasive surgery to prevent children. In this book, Tim and his wife got married after an “oops” pregnancy. So, he’s already had experience of an unplanned pregnancy. The reason Tim doesn’t want any more children is because he can’t face the loss of another child. Having gone through the pain of losing his daughter to leukemia, he just can’t face the risk of loving another child only to lose him/her. I wondered, in the circumstances, why, if he was so very serious about never being a father again (leaving aside that one can become a father via adoption, sperm donors, etc, etc), why he had not had a vasectomy. Men don’t have the options for birth control that women do (well, except for the wishes of the US GOP) and that is a very simple procedure which can be done under local anaesthetic (I believe). Having had one “oops” I thought perhaps he might be shy of condoms being a sufficiently effective method for him.
[spoiler]I took it, in this book, to be an indicator that he wasn’t really and truly set against having children but that it was his grief talking and that deep down inside he knew he would eventually change his mind. Perhaps I was reading into things too much.[/spoiler]
It is a thorny issue to resolve. I can absolutely see it being a reason people split up. It seems to me that for a successful relationship to occur, one or the other of the pair (this pair or any pair) has to change their mind/accept someone else’s wishes over their own. And wanting children/not wanting children is something that is such a deeply held desire for so many people, it’s difficult to imagine how that could work out without resentment on one side at least.
Sorry if my comment sounded a bit brusque, it’s a bit of a sore point with me, this whole issue of people not believing others when they say they don’t want kids. I do see what you mean. And thanks for that spoiler. Yes, that sounds like something I might be able to accept, if done well, so I will give it a try. Like you say, it’s a bit of an unsolvable conflict if it really is the case that one wants kids and the other one doesn’t. Having or not having children makes such a massive difference to what your life is like. Of course there’s going to be resentment if, because of a partner, you have to live a life that you really don’t want, whether it’s with or without kids. I don’t think I’d buy the HEA.
@Rosario: Oh, no need to apologise – I hadn’t thought about how my own words might come across. I certainly didn’t mean to imply that, in general terms, someone is not serious about not having children until and unless they have surgery etc. It was more in the context of the book but it was obviously not terribly clear.
I don’t think I’ve seen a book where there was a serious “I don’t want to have children because I don’t” vs “I want to have children because I do” conflict. I don’t see that having a happy ending. Maybe a super talented author could do it (never say never and all that) but I think it would be a really hard sell for me. It seems such a fundamental difference. I have seen where one party has said they didn’t want children but for an underlying reason (which was resolved in the book) and after, they did want children so, problem solved, but it doesn’t really represent the many women who are childless by choice does it?