Fancy some Ice Hockey or Figure Skating?
I felt like a dose of sports and decided Ice Hockey would fit the bill nicely and luckily I had two great books to read. Both involved Ice Hockey, one with a dash of curling and the other with some figure skating. I’m not exactly sure what it is about Ice Hockey that I like so much – I’m Australian, don’t follow the sport and definitely don’t know anything about the game rules or competition. I think it’s the combination of strength, speed and control.
The books I selected were:
- Burning Up the Ice (book #5 International Men Of Sports) by T.A. Chase and Devon Rhodes.
- Picks & Pucks by Teegan Loy
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Burning Up the Ice by T.A. Chase and Devon Rhodes
My rating: 3.5 of 5 stars
The blurb…
Two men, two very different sports and one rink—sharing ice has never been so hot.
Olivier ‘Big Bang’ St Pierre is back in his hometown while he recovers from being in the wrong place at the wrong time. Hockey’s a contact sport—still, he didn’t count on the locker room being dangerous. As a professional hockey player, he also didn’t count on it being hard to find ice time. But when a rink shuts down unexpectedly in a winter-sport-crazy town, even being a big name won’t help as people scramble for whatever they can get.
The first time Ethan Campbell hears from the local hockey legend he knew as a kid, Olivier manages to insult both his family’s rink and his new sport—curling. So he’s not exactly receptive when Olivier shows up in person to plead his case. He makes a sarcastic offer…and is shocked when Olivier takes him up on it. Ethan’s bad experience with hockey had left him cold. But soon he and Olivier are burning up the ice.
Ethan is tied to his town, job and family, while Olivier will be going back to Chicago to rejoin his team as soon as he’s able. It can’t possibly last…can it?
So what did I think?
Olivier St Pierre (what a wonderful name!) is a professional Ice Hockey player who is visiting his home town to recuperate from injuries that required major surgery. He needs private practice time to build up his strength and gets this by using the ice at Ethan’s family’s rink which is run by Ethan and his sister.
This was a sweet story, nothing too angsty just nice characters falling in love with some hot sex!
There were also some cute, funny lines. Here’s what follows after Ethan gives his friend Barry some advice about impressing the girl he likes by surprising her with a coffee….
“Is that what gay guys do when they’re dating? Do you buy each other caramel lattes?” He smirked then opened his own locker.
Ethan rolled his eyes. “Yeah, but not until we’ve met the parents…or after the fourth blow job, whichever comes first.”
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My rating: 3.5 of 5 stars
The blurb…
Rising men’s figure skating star, Justin Corrin, is coming home to train for the upcoming season and face his demons. The last thing Justin needs is to fall in love with a hockey player. Instead of getting rid of his demons, Justin is collecting more. He tries desperately to control his growing feelings for CJ Daly, but finds being with CJ keeps his nightmares away.
Justin isn’t the only one with problems, and hidden fears and secrets threaten to separate the two. With the pressure mounting, CJ starts to pull away, and Justin doesn’t know why. His skating suffers, and he decides to stop wasting his time on love and focus on winning the nationals.
If Justin can destroy his demons, he might have a chance for happiness on and off the ice. But if the demons win, Justin’s life could be ruined.
So what did I think?
The combination of Ice Hockey and Figure Skating was always going to ensure I liked this book – pure escape into a world of which I know absolutely nothing but have a fierce attraction!
Justin is an up-and-coming figure skating champion but his choice of sport has driven a wedge between his family. His father is a hockey coach and Justin also had the skills to play professionally so his father was disappointed by his choice. The death of his mother, his key supporter, has also haunted him for the last three years. He has LOTS of demons!
A relationship with an closeted ice hockey player – who was happy for the sex but put Justin down in front of the rest of the team – has also soured his opinion of men who play ice hockey.
I actually started reading this book without reading the blurb so the way the story unfolded was a bit of a surprise. A large portion of the beginning of the book is focused on Justin’s relationship with Danny (the closeted player) and it is along while before CJ enters the picture and captures Justin’s interest. I didn’t see it coming and was expecting the relationship with Danny to evolve. Anyway, I liked that the author didn’t make Danny the bad guy, he sort of redeemed himself and I ended up liking him.
I enjoyed the characters and the story. There was enough drama but maybe too many demons. I found Justin’s demons a little odd and a bit annoying although it was quite a unique take, particularly when they start exploding – that probably makes no sense but will once you read the book!
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To find out more about T.A. Chase and her books visit her website.
To find out more about Devon Rhodes and her books visit her website.
To find out more about Teegan Loy and her books visit her website.
Buy the books from Amazon.