Why I read it:  This book was a DA Daily Deal a little while back – I bought the two full length books and the novella for $1.00 each.

What it’s about: (from Goodreads)  Four years ago, my dreams were shattered in an instant.

I tried to pick up the pieces and glue them back together the best I knew how, but something was always missing.

A father for my two girls.

But then, Brody Murphy landed on my doorstep, literally. He was a carefree, playful hockey player who barged into my life and messed with my head. He left me more confused than I had ever been.

What if the one thing I thought I needed was the only thing holding me back?

What worked for me (and what didn’t):  There is a fair amount of wish fulfilment in this book.  Brody is almost the perfect man.  He’s gorgeous, fit, kind, loves kids, sexy.  He’s even rich.  Every now and then he will do something not quite perfect (but never really egregious – the only thing which got up my nose a little bit was the Ferris Wheel thing – I get his motivation but I thought it was just a bit of a dick move all the same) to put readers off the scent but basically, he’s perfect.

“Holy shit,” Brody muttered from behind me where he stood frozen at the kitchen sink.
My heart rocketed into my throat and stuck there as I spun to face him. “Is that a good holy shit, or a bad holy shit?”
He didn’t respond with his mouth, but his eyes spoke volumes as they raked slowly all the way down my body and back up again. “It’s the best holy shit ever.”
Proudly, I looked down at myself and beamed up at him. “I cleaned up okay, huh? On a scale from one to ten-”
“Six hundred fifty-two.” He interrupted as he stalked over, gripped the back of my head and pressed his mouth to mine hard.

Good answer Brody.

Every now and again I like to read a book about such a hero.  It so happened I bought this book at just one of those times.  The conflict is essentially that Kacie is gunshy about relationships and thinks that Brody is not just a player (as in hockey) but also a “playa”.  She thinks he will be only interested in a fling and won’t be down with an instant family.  None of those things are true but I can see how she might think that at least initially.  There is an eeeevil woman character whose role in the book was mostly to get in the way of Brody and Kacie’s relationship.  Just when Kacie is willing to give things a try, the wife of  Andy, Brody’s BFF and agent, whispers unsweet nothings in Kacie’s ear.     The eeeevil woman character has little personality other than being eeeevil and she has what seems to me to be a rather odd motivation.  There were other non eeeeevil women in the book, including Kacie herself.  I didn’t love the characterisation but I could live with it.

Kacie’s stubborn refusal to recognise just how perfect Brody was is only understandable in the sense that men such as Brody are uncommon. I’m not kidding – he’s AMAZING.

I held my hand up. “It’s a little late, but it’s my turn to implement a condition on our relationship.”
Kacie blinked rapidly, frowning at me. “What?”
“The word moist, you can’t ever say it again.”
She threw her head back and laughed at me, covering her mouth so that cake didn’t spill out.

The reader gets both POVs and knows early on that Brody is the real deal, unlike Kacie.  Still, I did get a little impatient with her from time to time.  It wasn’t quite insta-love – more a recognition that Kacie was someone special and Brody wanted to pursue it.  It was the kind of insta-attraction I can get behind because he wasn’t claiming the big “I love you, let’s get married” after one or two dates.   He recognised the way he feels about Kacie is different and he’s all in from the start but that’s not quite the same thing IMO.

Kacie’s twins were gorgeous but not entirely angelic either and I enjoyed their plot-moppetness.  I admit I’m a sucker for a man with kids and Brody doesn’t just go all in with Kacie – he’s all in with the girls (he calls them “my Twinkies”) too.  He even lets them paint his toenails.  Melty – I was.

What else? The conflict is fairly simple, the hero is almost perfect and the writing style was very engaging.  It was an easy read and I found myself eagerly swiping the pages.   I had peeked at reviews and noted that while this book has a HFN ending, it has something of a cliffhanger (kind of) and lots of people want to read the next book straight away.  Nothing seriously threatens their relationship but I wanted to read more about Brody the Perfect so I did exactly that.  They follow on from each other pretty much immediately so it was easy to keep going.

There isn’t much hockey in the book because most of the story takes place in the off season. I enjoyed the byplay between Brody and his friend, Viper, who is a total manslut and a cheating cheatypants as well as Brody’s friendship with Andy.  I also liked that Kacie had strong female friendships and those weren’t ignored or sacrificed for the sake of the romance. This book was a lot of fun and I basically lapped it up with a spoon.

She nudged my shoulder without letting go of my hand. Any physical contact with her was a bonus. She could give me a noogie and I’d consider it a win.

Seriously; this guy. So. Darned. Sweet.

Grade: B/B+

BUY IT:
AMAZON     KOBO