Tag: sports romance

Walk of Shame by Avery Flynn, narrated by Robert Hatchet & Savannah Peachwood

April 9, 2024 / Kaetrin

Walk of Shame by Avery Flynn, narrated by Robert Hatchet & Savannah Peachwood. Fun, sexy, sports romance.

Reviewed for AudioGals.

Narrated by Savannah Peachwood & Robert Hatchet

Astrid O’Malley was dumped on her wedding day when her hockey-goalie fiancé face-timed her from the airport to tell her he’d accepted a contract with another team and therefore wouldn’t be attending their nuptials. Humiliated and devastated by both the loss of the relationship and the ensuing media storm, Astrid swore off hockey and men. Walk of Shame picks up five years later, when she meets a hot guy in the bar where she works occasionally.

Astrid has been on something of a “world sex tour”, having strict rules around acceptable interactions with men. One night only, no-one who knows where she lives, no-one who knows where she works. With Cal Matsen she finds herself breaking all her rules – repeatedly. It’s the best sex of her life and he lives right upstairs from her in the same building as the bar. Worse, she finds out he’s just been hired to coach her ex-fiancé (who has the “yips”) for the same team where her father is the head coach. The same team her father has begged her to come back to help for one final year before he retires.

Astrid has a personal organising business (more about psychology than storage) but her dad asks her to come and help the team do its best for his last season. I admit I was a little sketchy on exactly what she did for the team but she’d done the same job with the previous team (also coached by her dad) and they’d apparently worked well together. Now, her ex, Tig, is pulling the entire team down because he suddenly can’t stop easy goals. Cal has been brought in to coach Tig back to being the star he can be.

Cal played in the goalie position himself until an on-ice accident left him permanently unable to play at the elite level. He loves hockey and has done ever since he was four years old. Hockey is what he knows and loves and he’s desperate to be a part of the game somehow.

After Cal and Astrid realise who the other is in relation to the team, each resolves that they can never have sex with each other again. And each is very very bad at maintaining that resolution. Basically they can’t keep their hands off each other.

Astrid is very wary of getting into a relationship at all and the fact that Cal is associated not only with hockey but also her dad and her ex are powerful motivators. But none of those things can compete with her attraction to Cal. For his part, Cal is deeply smitten from the first and even though he knows he shouldn’t, he just can’t stay away. They think they’re hiding it but they’re pretty bad at that also.

There are some quirky characters in the cast, including a crotchety old lady who, if I understood correctly, has mafia connections, and an assistant coach who has four ex-wives and gets on well with them all. There are also cameos (or more) from characters from the Hartigans series which will be nice Easter eggs for fans. I enjoyed the tea party scene especially.

Walk of Shame was my first experience with Robert Hatchet. I enjoyed his performance very much, a little better than Savannah Peachwood’s actually. Both narrators have good character differentiation, tone and pacing. Both were solid when it came to the intimate scenes and also with emotion and humour of the book. Ms Peachwood has a good “hero voice” but I didn’t like as much, her other male character voices. Her depiction of Astrid’s dad and the other coaches weren’t as enjoyable for me as when they were voiced by Mr Hatchet. Otherwise, there wasn’t much to separate them in terms of performance or skill.

Walk of Shame was enjoyable and fun – and very sexy. Definitely not one to listen to with kids in the car! I did have some questions about how things ended up. For me, some of the textual links in the story were absent so I didn’t quite get how Cal came to the decision he did and I was surprised by the epilogue on a number of levels but overall, the audiobook ends in the win column.

Grade: B-

Fair Catch by Heidi McLaughlin, narrated by Stephanie Rose & Nelson Hobbs

February 22, 2024 / Kaetrin

Fair Catch by Heidi McLaughlin, narrated by Stephanie Rose & Nelson Hobbs. Spoiler Alert: I DNF’d it.

Fair Catch was my first book by Heidi McLaughlin and I fear it is very likely to be my last. I did not enjoy it. There are plenty of people who disagree with me: the book has a 4.37 rating on Goodreads. It was just not for me. Maybe I’m too old. Maybe I just like football too much.

Kelsey Sloane is a book editor in Portland. She receives a submission for a contemporary sports romance set in the world of NFL. Not knowing anything about football herself, she wants to make sure the author has her world building correct. So, she asks an assistant at the publisher to connect her with the city’s NFL team, the Portland Pioneers, so she can verify the sports stuff in the submission for herself. That was in the blurb. I really should have known better. Still, I have gone with stranger set-ups in the past and “romance reasons” covers a lot of ground.

(Aside: if Kelsey receives a submission featuring a surgeon does she have to observe a surgery to make sure the author knows what’s she’s talking about? Kelsey – Google/YouTube/Wikipedia is your friend.)

Anyway, because (and this, I could – mostly -believe) the assistant’s roommate works with the team, Kelsey is invited to a practice where, rather improbably, the coach assigns the centre, Alex Moore, to teach Kelsey all about football, instead of, you know, the assistant’s roommate who works with the team).

Alex is immediately deeply smitten (understatement) and wants to pursue a relationship. Kelsey is extremely naïve and my impression was that she didn’t really understand the level of Alex’s interest in her, nor his celebrity. She was very diligent and apparently skilled at her job but she seemed otherwise fairly clueless. (Perhaps that impression would have changed had I listened to more of the book.) For example: she asks Alex how to watch football (on her TV) as she doesn’t know how. Which… really? (Yes, I know some games are on cable but still.)

Alex invites her to a game. He messages her that he’s left a ticket for her. She doesn’t go because she thinks the game is next weekend instead of the weekend he tells her he’s left a ticket for her because that makes sense.

When she doesn’t show at the game, Alex’s teammates suggest he has to go bigger to really get her to understand how much he’s into her. They say he should get her sideline passes. SIDELINE PASSES.

I’m an Australian. Yes, I support the 49ers (go Niners!) and watch NFL so I know something about American football but even so it does not take much research (oh the irony) to know that sideline passes to games are not given out willy nilly. The NFL closely controls who is allowed on the sidelines. A book editor and would-be girlfriend of the team’s center is not ever going to be given a sideline pass. I seriously doubt it’s even possible for a center to obtain a sideline pass to an NFL game. There’s a reason Taylor Swift is in a box at the Chiefs games (except if they win the AFC Championship; then she’s on the field with Travis’s family on the field to watch the trophy presentation and to celebrate).

Then, at about chapter 6 or so, it is casually thrown into the story that the Portland Pioneers won the Super Bowl the year before. And I just couldn’t. Can you imagine the Chiefs allowing some random book editor onto their practice field and Andy Reid assigning an actual player to teach said editor about football? It’s beyond belief. My eyes were sore from the all the rolling.

World building means something to me and I could not believe the world this book was set in. It seemed to me like everything was just a flimsy excuse for two people to get together and have what I’m sure would be a lot of hot sex. And yes, to one degree, that’s what happens in romance – if you squint.

I love romance and I love a good hot sex scene. I even love a guy who is gone over his lady. But I do need a story around it that makes sense to me and Fair Catch did not. At least not up until that point and after then I was out.

Both Stephanie Rose and Nelson Hobbs are skilled and talented narrators. I’ve listened to both before. However, they were not enough to save the book for me. I didn’t listen to enough of the book to make much more comment on the narration other than that it was good in terms of character differentiation, pacing and tone, as I’d expect from this pair.

Probably if someone doesn’t know anything about NFL and/or doesn’t care, then Fair Catch would work better for them than it did for me. For me however: DNF.

Review at Dear Author

September 6, 2016 / Kaetrin

I’m over at Dear Author with a review of Rookie Move by Sarina Bowen. I really enjoyed this one. Janine has a review up too – she didn’t like it as much as I did. Perhaps it should be “duel” review rather than “dual” review! 😀

Back in Play by Lynda Aicher

May 18, 2015 / Kaetrin

Why I read it: I received a review copy from the publisher via NetGalley. The blurb just hooked me – a bit unusual and very intriguing; it lived up to its promise.

What it’s about: (from Goodreads) For Minnesota Glaciers captain Scott Walters, skating on a bum knee—and self-medicating to keep skating on it—is all part of the game. That the painkillers he’s eating prevent him from having meaningful relationships is just one more sacrifice in a lifetime of them. He’s worked too hard to let his image be ruined by injury or dependency, so he hides the pain and fakes the rest—a girlfriend would only complicate matters.

High school teacher Rachel Fielding never needed a man in her life, but she also never intended to grow old alone. When she meets Scott while visiting her brother, she’s intrigued to find herself wanting him in her bed. For hours at a time, as often as possible. Scott is a giver, and just the memory of his attentions is enough to drive her crazy. Anything long-term is out of the question, though—the pills she finds in Scott’s house indicate he’s struggling with a lot more than growing older in a young man’s game.

When what starts out as a what-the-hell weeklong fling turns into Scott and Rachel exploring each other outside the bedroom, Rachel hesitates. But Scott asks for her support to break his addiction, and hearing him admit his secrets has her ignoring her own rules—until he breaks her heart. With the Glaciers refusing to renew his contract and his future with Rachel uncertain, Scott has some big decisions to make and a lot to prove—especially to himself.

What worked for me (and what didn’t): I haven’t read the first book in the series (yet) but I think this one works well as a stand-alone. The story begins at the wedding of what I assume to be book one’s hero and heroine. Scott Walker, the Glaciers captain is in attendance. He was the best man. His knee is very sore and he’s popping pain pills but is being careful not to mix them with alcohol. He’s been hiding or downplaying the pain in his knee for so long and he’s desperately tired. He’s also desperate to keep playing. It’s the end of the season and the Glaciers have just missed out on winning the cup. He wants one more shot at it before he retires. His contract is up and the Glaciers have been coy about renewal. He’s 34 and he knows he’s nearing the end of his career. Is he already past his use-by date?

At the reception there is a very attractive woman Scott hasn’t seen before. This is our heroine, Rachel Fielding, the sister of a friend of the groom. She is in town visiting her brother Rock (short for Rockford) and his partner Carter, for the summer. Scott and Rachel are beyond attracted to one another but Rachel is going home in a week. It seems any potential relationship is doomed. Continue reading

Straight Shooter by Heidi Belleau

April 20, 2014 / Kaetrin

Why I read it: I received a review copy from the publisher via NetGalley.

What it’s about: (from Goodreads) This macho jock has a crooked little secret.

College hockey player Austin Puett is in trouble. Unless he starts treating his flamboyantly gay roommate with respect, he’ll lose his room and his job at Rear Entrance Video. But Austin’s got a not-so-straight secret of his own: nothing turns him on more than insults implying he’s gay—even though he’s definitely not!—and all his old coping methods have stopped working.

Pure desperation drives him to rent a Mischievous Pictures porn flick about straight men tricked into servicing Puck, a male dominant. Instead of letting off steam, though, it just leaves him craving more, more, more, and suddenly, Austin finds himself at Mischievous Pictures Studios for an audition. After all, you can be Gay For Pay and still be straight . . . right?

But meeting Liam Williams, the real person behind Puck, confuses Austin even more. Liam really seems to like him as a person, and Austin likes him back. And while Gay For Pay’s okay, what does it make Austin if he still wants Liam when the cameras aren’t rolling?

What worked for me (and what didn’t): I’m not sure exactly what to say about this novel. Any review is necessarily the reviewer’s personal reaction to a book but my thoughts about Straight Shooter ended up being a bit more about me than the usual review I write. The story caused me to examine some things about my own thinking and because it’s my blog and I can and because it’s my honest reaction, that’s partly what I’m going to talk about here. I like books that make me think and critical thinking works inwardly as well of course.

On the Surface by Kate Willoughby

April 14, 2014 / Kaetrin

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.