Buy links: Goodreads | Amazon | B&N
Genre: Adult | Contemporary Romance | Sports
Other Promos: Dancing In the Rain Love Letter
Read Count: 1
Published: July 25th, 2017
Pages: 276 pages
Format: Kindle
Source: Publisher
Average Rating: 4.42 stars
My Rating: 3.5 stars
Disclaimer: I received this book free from the publisher in exchange for an honest review, but this does not influence my opinion of the book nor the content of my review.
Description: Ella Verran has three goals this semester: get off academic probation, repair her relationship with her friend Skylar, and take some responsibility for her life. All of which are hard enough without hot, snobby hockey player Ben Buckingham around to distract her. Ella can’t stand Ben, and she knows the feeling is mutual. But he’s best friends with Skylar’s boyfriend, so he’s always around—taunting and tempting Ella in ways she never thought possible.
As the star forward of the Bayard College hockey team, Ben has goals too, like playing well enough to land a spot on an NHL roster. Ben is perfectly poised on the ice, so why can’t he keep his cool around Ella? Her wild behavior rubs him in all the wrong ways—and a few of the right ones. But as they skate around each other, Ben learns that there’s more to Ella than her bad reputation. And when the line between love and hate starts to blur, he can’t resist crossing over and sweeping her off her feet.
This was my first Kelly Jamieson book – and I have to admit I didn’t go in with any sort of expectations. I’d heard people – on Goodreads and on Twitter – hailing her the “Queen of Hockey Romance” and how “nobody could write a better hockey book”. I scrolled through those aimlessly, thinking they were trite compliments from people who honestly had nothing original to say about the book. But goddamn it if Kelly Jamieson isn’t the Queen of Hockey Romances.
I was actually shocked reading this one. The romance itself, the storyline, the feelings, the misunderstandings … they were nothing new in collegiate romances. I love hate-to-love romances. Love, love, love them. I would eat them for breakfast, brunch, lunch, snack time, dinner and dessert if I could. That said, this one wasn’t anything super special in that department, either. Girl thinks guy is a posturing, pretentious asshole. Guy thinks girl is a party girl who sleeps with everyone. Girl starts to realize guy is actually a nice guy. Guy starts to see girl as a hard worker and not just as a partier. They fall in love. Misunderstanding. They worry about future. More love happens. Plot stuff.
BUT. What really elevated this book a step above the rest, were the dynamic characters. They were so well fleshed out! I loved it! Maybe I’ve been reading a lot of flat romances (*cough* Ugly Love *cough* Colleen Hoover *cough*) where all you read about is guy-and-girl with little outside characters or actual life happenings. What makes Kelly Jamieson such a good romance writer is that she takes you outside the romance – you see the characters life, their friends, their worries and their struggles. It’s not just cuddles, kisses, crackers in bed and no doubt mind-blowing sex. It’s about where they’re going outside of college, about trying to turn their life around and study more, worrying about their family and having a good time with their friends.
And I’ll tell you why Kelly Jamieson is the Queen of Hockey Romances – she perfectly understood the struggles of a college hockey player trying to make it into the big time. Ben was worrying about scouts, about having someone represent him, about making these adult, life decisions without an adult to guide him. He didn’t know where he was going to play, he had to make it through interviews without sounding like a fool and he had to play well … constantly. Jamieson perfectly captured the struggles, insecurities and inexperience that college athletes have when its time to make decisions that will shape their whole career and future.
Not only that, but she understood the game, and made me understand it, too. I may be an athlete, but I’m a dancer. Games that include balls are out of my breadth of knowledge. You cheer when the football goes over the yellow poles and when the player runs over the line and starts dancing when watching Football. That’s all I know. I think it’s called a … touchdown? But whatever my knowledge on football, I know even less about hockey. But when Ben was playing a game, even if I didn’t understand the game itself, Jamieson made sure that I knew what was going on with him and the other players. And somehow, it didn’t sound like an instructional video.
Overall, I was really impressed with how Kelly Jamieson pulled off this story. The one word I’d use to describe it? Dynamic. I’ve used it several times throughout this review, but I really can’t stress it enough. Even if the story itself wasn’t anything new, the way it was told made all the difference. Thank you, Kelly!
Intrigued? Definitely check out the excerpt below from the book
