I'm always on the fence when it's second chance romance trope. I either forgive the party or I demise the party. There is no in-between. There is always a reason why a couple broke it off. And to reunite again, it has to be a good logic reason. That's something Jude and Zoey will find out when they reunited again.

I don't find Jude and Zoey connection in the beginning. It took me awhile to get used to their personality as couple. But once I did, I can understand why Jude and Zoey love each other so much. It's too bad that they still have pain over each other when they broke up years ago. You definitely get a flash-back of their history so you won't be too far off.

I went on a huge hockey romance kick and was delighted to discover Victoria Denault. Score is somewhat of a second chance romance. Zoey came out of a tough relationship and is hesitant to start something with a player like Jude but the attraction between them is together to resist.

This is my first book by Victoria Denault, and I'm so happy that it's a sports romance. Score follows NHL player Jude as he reconnects with Zoey, women he knew from summers spent together years ago. As they both are dealing with past relationships theatres seems to be taking off. Jude's three sisters make an appearance and help show a different side of him. With a lot of banter and sexy times, Score will score into your heart and leave a lasting impression. I'm happy to say this will not be my last Victoria Denault book!

Score by Victoria Denault is out now! We love sports romances, especially ones with a hockey hero. This one has all the makings for a steamy read.

Hockey, heart, love and sexy….

I love this author’s stories. L-O-V-E them. They usually have a lot to do with hockey which immediately catches my attention but the characters, they always capture my heart. Their capacity to make mistakes and recover. Their ability to be human – compassionate, loving, angry, cranky, bitter, funny, sarcastic - and everything in between. Real people with problems of the heart, AND hockey? Well, just set up the IV because I don’t want it to stop…

Jude and Zoey’s story is the first in the San Francisco Thunder series and it starts off with a quiet, hear me roar vibe. So much is going on in this second chance romance with Jude and Zoey having another chance at the romance wheel – though the first time barely made it off the ground…

“I’m not going to back off or give up.”

And thank goodness! How does someone who never wanted or needed a relationship win over someone who had one and can’t imagine doing it again? Well, perseverance, charm and being good in the sack helps. A lot! I loved how these two pushed, pulled and bantered their way through tentative steps and super sexy, heated moments.

“My life is in free fall and Jude is my soft landing.”

Some of my favourite characters of the year, this series is already on my insta-click, insta-everything list!

Victoria Denault has a series that is going to make you a sports fanatic starting with the sexiest hockey player ever, Jude Braddock. Here is a guy who many people don’t really understand except the one that got away. Zoey is well like his kryptonite making him almost think of maybe being a one woman man. I loved that for the first time in years he has no idea what to do with a woman. Zoey makes him want to be better and also help her be the woman she is meant to be, his. Loved it and cannot wait for the next one by Victoria Denault.

First and foremost I love Second Chance Romances. Then we add in a sports theme and strong female lead. My first book by Denault and let me tell you she doesn't disappoint. Zoey and Jude's chemistry was so intense from the very beginning. What do you expect with a strong female lead and a man whore? Nothing but the best that's what and with Denault you got it. I'm so ready for book two!

This was a very good book about two childhood friends, who grew up together both skating one hockey and the other figure skating. When as teens Jude Braddock leaves for hockey school and Zoey Quinlin leaves foe Nationals and a shot at the Olympics. Now years later only Jude’s dream has come true playing hockey and by some people standards he is at the top of his game. For Zoey her dreams ended with allegations of bribes, cheating, and not wanting to show her face in public. Now working for an art dealer who lets her paint in the back room she has settled into a quiet non-life. That is until one day when she is chased down by the one guy who she thought for sure would not remember her Jude. He follows her to the art studio and then later shows up at her apartment asking questions but only getting the response google me and then talk to me. He shows back up a few days later saying he did not know about everything that happened to her and this is the beginning of them working towards first a friendship again. Both have a past that they must work through and his at times with his mother, and his divorce is holding him back from her more so than the other way around, and it is not until he tells her about his mother that he begins to heal and they begin to really become a couple. They both have fears that they are working through but they want to be together. His hockey playing is better when she is around and her painting is much better when he is with her. Now they must each deal with their demons from their past in order to have a future. There is also a twist close to the end that I did not see coming that really adds to this story. A very good book with good characters.

From beginning to end the author took me on an emotional roller coaster ride. Not once during the entire book was not entranced with Jude and Zoey and their story. There were moments of intense emotions...especially towards the end...where my heart was aching for them, while at the same time joyous that they were finding the HEA after such a long and hard fought journey.

The author did a superb job of bringing to life such magnetic personalities who drew you into their lives, feeling as if I was present in the perfectly created imagery throughout the story. I am truly looking forward to Eli and Dixie's story due out next. I expect that I'll fall in love with them as much as I have done with Jude and Zoey.

This ARC book was a complimentary copy provided by the Publisher and Netgally, I am voluntarily providing my honest review.

Score by Victoria Denault is the first book in her new San Fransisco Thunder Hockey series.

Jude Braddock will definitely make your heart skip a beat. Right from the beginning, I fell in love with him. He is sexy, confident, cocky, and yet, he is also so sweet and charming. Not to mention the fact that he is a hockey player, which makes him even more appealing.

Enter Zoey Quinlin, the childhood friend of Jude. Zoey is such a strong woman who has so much going on in her life. In the midst of it all, Jude reappears in her life, causing all kind of old emotions to once again appear at the surface.

The attraction and tension shared between Jude and Zoey was electric. You could tell how much they cared about one another and how much they wanted to be in each others lives. Further,

I cannot say enough good things about thins novel!! From start until finish, I loved every single detail! I will definitely be picking up the next book in this series, Slammed, when it releases later this year!

5/5 Stars!

Score is book one of Victoria Denault's San Francisco Thunder series. Although it is a first book it really felt like this was a spinoff or had a novella before it. The whole backstory of Jude and his best friend and ex-girlfriend was, to me, kind of annoying and made the the whole story predictable. The characters were good, Jude is my favorite kind of reformed manwhore. He started before the beginning of the book and once he saw Zoey again he didn't see anyone else. Zoey is in the midst of a divorce and Jude respects her decision to wait until after the divorce is final. While his initial goal was to finally sleep with Zoey, who is in her own right a reformed bad girl, Jude takes way too long to realize that Zoey is the one. The secondary characters range from I hate them to absolutely hysterical. The second chance story was even though very painfully predictable with how it played out was a good read and had some very naughty sex scenes.

Zoey is trying to put her life together, her soon to be ex-husband blames her for not being able to get pregnant and now she's without a house and even though they agreed that the loser would cover the hotel until after the divorce she is now homeless, carless and credit cardless. She has had it the amicable divorce is quickly growing into a very bitter one. She is trying her hardest to get herself established in her new job but the real estate market is finicky.

Jude still hasn't forgiven Levi for falling in love with his ex-girlfriend, Tessa, and between that and all the late night booty calls he has been getting at his house he's tired of it all. But a stroke of luck happens when he runs into Zoey and she is everything he remembers. Zoey and Jude knew each other when they were teenagers and almost had sex. Jude thinks now is the perfect time to remedy that but is willing to bide his time because he knows it's going to be perfect. Since Zoey is a real estate agent Jude asks her to sell his place and find a new one. It's all fun and games until Zoey discovers something about Jude's past that could have been an easy forgive if he had only just told her in the beginning, but Jude is an oblivious male. Can he fix this and can Zoey forgive him?

Overall, it was a nice read, I do like the sisters and want their stories more than I want the other teammates of Thunder.

I had a little back and forth with myself with how to rate Score. On one hand, it's well written, sexy and the characters are interesting and fully drawn, so I wanted to give it a 5 star review. On the other hand, Jude is a serious douche in the beginning, no actually, through most of the story, and he was so back and forth with his emotions that I wanted to junk punch his ass on more than one occasion, so I was thinking 4 stars. In the end, I just never quite connected with Jude, so I went with 4 stars.

Jude Braddock is a professional hockey player with the San Francisco Thunder. He's a 28 year old player, on and off the ice. He's slept with countless women, and rarely goes back for more with the same woman. He's so loose with his favors that he has women showing up to his condo in the middle of the night begging for more, and he has to turn them down every single time. He even has a dick pic floating around online because he was stupid enough to get drunk and sleep with a woman and let her keep her phone with them while they did the deed. His sister, Dixie, who is a PR intern with his team, has done everything she can think of to get Jude's reputation cleaned up but so far nothing's working because Jude refuses to act like a mature adult. Nothing works until he sees the girl who got away, Zoe Quinlin, again and it's as if he's been transported 10 years back and he's panting all over one woman again.

Zoey has had her heart broken by her soon to be ex husband, so her defenses are up. She's in a new career in the residential realty game, when she runs into one of the girls she used to babysit in Maine, Dixie, Jude's sister, and she's transported back 10 years when life was easier and her heart hadn't been broken. As she reunites with Dixie and her two sisters, she's remembering Jude, and then boom, there he is, about to invade their girl time and her heart is suddenly lighter. As the two fall back into each other, both are remembering their teen years when they had been so in lust with each other, but were never able to consummate that lust (alcohol strikes again!) so they have 10 years of pent up lust to extinguish.

Even while embarking upon an undefined relationship, Jude's questioning his feelings and still thinking he's not good enough for Zoey. He's got a lot of issues to deal with and those issues have caused him make some ridiculous decisions. He's been unable to sustain a committed relationship in the past, and he wonders if he'll be able to with Zoey. Zoey's heart is still fragile, thanks to her ass of an ex, but Jude makes her heart feel as if it just might be healing. It's always a favorite trope of mine when the player meets the one woman for him who makes him give up his heartless ways, and Victoria does this trope really well here. I just wish Jude hadn't been such a douche for most of the story. Thank God Victoria is able to make Jude redeem himself, though, and in a sweet way.

I'm looking forward to Dixie's story next, she's an interesting girl, and a pairing her with Eli (the brother of Levi, Jude's one time best friend and his current teammate) will make for lots of sparks flying!

This is one of those books that grew on me over time.

Score was my first book by Victoria Denault, and I was positive, at the start, that this was a spin-off from another series. Now that I'm finished, I'm not so sure, but the way the story starts off seems like there is a backstory there that readers should have prior knowledge of.

It is pretty strange how this whole weird side story about a love triangle is just placed into the story, like we should know what happened in the past, and I almost let that deter me from the book. However, I let my love of hockey romances guide me, and I kept on reading.

Most of this book is pure romance tropes. Cheating exes, reformed rakes, second chance romances... they are all there. The hockey elements are also really light, and I simply didn't buy the fact that no one made the connection that the MC and the manager of the team were related. There are also meddling family members, which I usually don't love.

But somehow, despite the many issues I had with the story, I got charmed in the end.

It sort of drew me in over time, and I found the book to be a pleasant, if not terribly memorable, read. Sure, I sound like I'm only focusing on the negatives, but the story ended up being sort of sweet and kind of hot, even if the sex got to be too gratuitous for me.

A decent read for M/F contemporary lovers who like steamy sex (and lots of it).

*Copy provided by the publisher in exchange for an honest review*

Sometimes I sit down to write a review and the only thing I can come up with is: SQUEE!!!!!

This is one of those times. I am just completely crazy about Jude and Zoey's love story. This was my first book by Victoria Denault so I wasn't sure what to expect. What I got was an engaging, witty, heartfelt and damn sexy story that kept me glued to my kindle and shooting off messages to my friends about the fantastic hockey romance I was currently devouring.

I think that second chance romance is one of my top favorite tropes, and Ms. Denault got everything right here. It helps that Jude and Zoey are incredibly likable in their own right so the two of them together was complete perfection. There's some flirty (sexy) banter and some touching heartfelt moments. Watching Jude fall in love was incredibly rewarding, and Zoey's strong, steady presence was the perfect soft landing for his fall. I also love that there was no unnecessary drama here. I loved how they communicated with each other, fought for each other, and stayed true to each other. They're a remarkable couple and it was so much fun to read their story.

Also, let's talk about how much secondary character love I had in this book. Most notably Jude's sisters who had me cracking up on more than one occasion. The dynamic between Jude and "the sorority" was a special treat. It's smartly written and full of this completely engaging wit and gah! I just loved every minute and cannot wait to get Dixie's story. She's a firecracker and the set-up for her story was intriguing. My heart is already on notice for potential feels explosions and you can be sure that my grabby hands want lots more where this came from!

I freaking love sports romances, especially those with hockey players. And since I never read one of Victoria Denault's hockey romances before, I practically leapfrogged at the chance to read Score. She's an author that I've been wanting to try and I'm so glad I finally did because I devoured this book. I was lucky enough to meet Victoria as I was reading the book and I got to rave about it in person. I loved Victoria's writing style. The fact that she is a NHL fan certainly shows when she's writing scenes that take place during games. Her characters were lovable and downright fun to be with. Granted Jude is a bit of an ass for most of the book, but he's still redeemable. He is able to learn from his mistakes to save his future with Zoey. Score was an extremely fun book to read during the tail-end of the NHL season. I can't wait until the 2nd book comes out. Who can turn down those covers? Yum!

A great kick-off to a new hockey series by Victoria Denault! I enjoyed the characters and the plot a lot ... there was a slight disconnect occasionally, but overall a solid book . I look forward to more in the series!

Jude Braddock is one of the "it" guys in hockey right now. They're coming off a Stanley Cup win and he should be flying high, but he's just not feeling it. Life is getting old. He's getting a little worn down on life in the fast lane with a different chick every night and living up to his player reputation. He knows he's not cut out for a relationship, but as crazy as it sounds, it's lonely out there!

Real estate agent Zoey Quinlin is coming out of an unexpected and discouraging divorce when Jude steps back into her life again. She can't believe the childhood summer fling that she has never forgotten about is here in front of her .. sexy as all get out! She knows she shouldn't, but she has never been able to resist the pull that Jude seems to have on her. He's a great guy, even if he has the love 'em and leave 'em reputation these days ... and she finds herself unable to walk away.

Is another heartache in her future, or will she be just what Jude needs to make him see that there's love out there for him ... love that is worth all of his devotion ... love that will last ... love that will set him free.

4 stars

Score by Victoria Denault was a sweet, fun, steamy and very entertaining read.
A great start to the San Francisco Thunder series.

The storyline was well written, Jude and Zoey were likable, relatable and endearing characters that touched my heart with their story.
Score was a great read and a very good start to the San Francisco Thunder series.

*Purchase Links*
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*An ARC was provided to me in exchange for my honest thoughts*

I really like Denault's book. Zoey and Jude's story was beautifully written. Jude's womanizing ways and Zoey's soon to be ex husband made for a great storyline. It was also great reading how their past crushes and relationship paved the way for their future relationship.

Score is the first title in the San Francisco Thunder series and a second chance romance.

Jude and Zoey have a shared past, they both consider the other the one that got away. Jude isn't known for his ability to commit and has a reputation as a ladies man, and player on and off the ice.

This pair of characters are endearing and complex. They have an obvious attraction and their chemistry is undeniable and oozes with heat and sexual tension. I thoroughly enjoyed the development of their relationship, and found their story to be well written and flow really well.

The dialogue and banter between the characters is fun, flirty and engaging and quite humorous at times. I adored the side characters, in particular Jude's sisters and found that they really captivated my interest. I hope we get their stories in the future.

Overall Score is an engaging and entertaining hockey/sports romance and a wonderful blend of heart, heat and humor and I look forward to reading more of Victoria's work in the future.

I liked Jude but then I didn’t. He showed his caring side, but at the same time no one believed that he was truly caring. It hurt to see that even his own sister thought him capable of deception to get what he wanted. The past does not dictate the future, but he was being judged on his past action a lot. I loved his relationship with his sibling, all female, Dixie, Minnie, and Sadie. The respect he had for his dad and their relationship was endearing.

Zoey was a different story. I liked her right off the bat. The ex- of her’s needed to take a long walk off a very, very short pier. Him I did not like. Zoey had a few things going on. She was making her own way after a divorce that was supposed to be amicable. Things changed and so she had to adapt. She didn’t really let that get her down. Jude was her one true weakness. She had feeling for him for years. She partial followed his career. Now, knowing there were in the same town may have just renewed her chance to have the love she so desired and a chance at a future that could make her happier than ever. That was until communication issues, fans, and an interfering teammate steps in and causes issues.

Sports was the surrounding factor but not the soul of the read for me. I loved that hockey was involved. I loved that this read took roots around a real family 9The Braddock’s) and the hockey family (San Francisco Thunder’s). I enjoyed the complexity of the friendships between friends.