I really enjoyed this book! I love hockey sports romance books and this one did not disappoint! Very well written, made me stay up way passed my bedtime. i would recommend this to anyone that loves sports romances. Would love to read more by this author.

This was my first read by Nicole and she did not disappoint.. The love between Chase and Cassie was always there, since they are best friends. Was that love really just best friends though? After one night in Vegas everything changes but will Chase and Cassie admit what they both want or let their past dictate their future?

Can't wait to read more from Nicole!

I was lucky enough to get an ARC of this book from the publisher via Netgalley. I am a huge Nicole Edwards fan and this is a fantastic first book in her newest series!! I just adore Chase and Cassie!! This book had two things I love: the best friends to lovers trope and hockey, doesn't get much better than that for me. This storyline is amazing and I just love the way everything plays out for Chase and Cassie. He is the sexy bad boy of hockey and she has been his best friend since she tutored him in college 9 years earlier. That is where any similarities to other stories ends. Ms. Edwards takes us on a journey I know I won't soon forget. I laughed, I swooned, I teared up some, and I probably even blushed a bit. There are some incredibly sexy steamy scenes between these two. What would you expect after 9 years of bottled up love and passion is finally unleashed.
Absolutely LOVE the epilogue! 5 sweet and steamy stars!
Pick this one up, you will be happy you did.

I really loved this book. I'm a sucker for best friends trying to keep it platonic but sparks are flying kind of story, & this one delivers big time. Chase is a sexy professional hockey player. Cassie is an executive for a company & has her eye on moving up. She doesn't want to mess up her career or her friendship with Chase, so she sticks him in the friend zone. Every woman needs a friend like this. Smokin' hot! Highly recommend this book if you're looking for a good time.

This was not what I was expecting it to be. I normally love sports romance books, especially starring hockey players because of my love for the Off-Campus Series by Elle Kennedy, but this was mostly just a let down.

Bad Reputation is a friends to lovers story that surrounds two best friends that are both ignoring the fact that they feel more for each other than just friends. Chase is your typical bad boy professional athlete that only really has one-night stands. And his best friend is Cassie, who is an overachieving workaholic who is a VP of a very successfully company.

They have been best friends for many years, and their friendship started when they met in college. They soon realized that they grew up very close together, and their families soon became close, too. After Chase signs on with the Tornados and moves to Texas to play professionally with them. Cassie also joined her company because it was located in Texas to be close to Chase. They are now twenty-seven and twenty-eight, and trying to figure out what they want with the rest of their lives. And one night in Vegas changes their friendship forever.

I have to get ready to get on my own flight to go back home to Vegas, so I’m going to make this a really simple and easy to write a review for you guys!

Things I didn’t enjoy about this book:
➽This book alternates points of view in the middle of every chapter. This just made the story feel so disjointed, and never really allowed me to enjoy a scene completely. I really wish the character switches would have been done at the start of every chapter instead of this alternating mess.
➽Also, at the start of every chapter is an excerpt from a sports column, and I found this rather pointless and very much a waste of my reading time. It kind of connects with the epilogue, but it was still not enough to make me enjoy these senseless excerpts.
➽I grew up in Michigan during the height of the Detroit Red Wings. Hockey has planned a huge part of my life growing up, and I have never once heard of the penalty box being called a “sin bin”.
➽Cassie seems to completely change her personality type in the middle of the book and it was rather annoying and abrupt. How she could become so irresponsible all of a sudden was rather unbelievable.
➽Also, after that 50% mark, this book becomes a huge mediocre sex storyline.
➽And lastly, I feel like the title of this book is sort of inaccurate, too.

Things I loved about this book:
➽Chase is adopted and has two dads! I loved how this was seamlessly woven into the story, and we need more romance books that normalize queer relationships and parental figures like this!
➽I loved that Cassie was a year older than Chase. This is something I rarely see in books, and I very much enjoyed this rarely seen dynamic in adult romance.
➽Chase does an amazing job asking for consent before having sex with Cassie, especially when they’ve both been drinking. I very much appreciated this.
➽Chase had some really good dirty talk during a few of their sexual encounters, and that is something that I personally really enjoy during sex, and I thought a few of Chase’s lines were really well done.

Overall, this is a decently short friends to lovers story. Like, this was a really quick read for me. Yes, the bad did outweigh the good for me, but I didn’t dislike this book by any means, I just thought it was okay. There wasn’t anything offensive or anything like that, I just felt like the alternating PoVs in the middle of the chapters were too abrupt and made for a very disjointed read that I could never fully immerse myself in. I did really appreciate all the good things I did list above, though. I just hope if you guys pick this up that you will enjoy it more than me. Happy reading!

I love a friends to lovers story almost as much as a second chance romance. This new one from Nicole Edwards is a great friends to lovers. Chase is a hot hockey player with a reputation as a hot head on the ice and hot with the ladies off. His best friend since college, Cassie is a workaholic. Relationships aren't high on her priorities, plus her mom's history with men soured her idea of forever. So what happens when two best friends go to Vegas? Well many things. Lots of tequila. Some kissing. A night neither can remember. Some hella hot sexy times, because HELLO it's a Nicole Edwards book!

I really liked these characters. I liked how genuine and caring they were toward each other. You learn quick that Chase feels more than he's letting on. My only negative is I felt like for the first 35-40% it was so much set up and I was just wanting something to happen - a near kiss, flirting, something. Though I will say once these two let go, it was on and it was fun!! Definitely enjoyed it!

Thanks to the crowdsourcing on GoodReads and the friends of NetGalley, I picked this up because I am a hockey romance fan. BUT, the opening was so obnoxious, I had a hard time getting into it. Chase was so horrible and Cassie such a tool that I had no respect for their relationship. As I read on, I would've wished the opening chapter was cut and perhaps the book started on Chapter 3 or further down the line because that opening "honey, I'm home"-trashing his BFF's sexy time was awful -- not well written and not very clever/romantic/endearing in anyway. In fact, the book isn't very well-written. Little moments when we're supposed to be thinking "awww, isn't it great he secretly loves her," I become more ill at how love sick and stupid Chase is.

I know this won't count as a real review because I haven't finished the book, but each time I pick it up to continue, I get to a part that is so over the top lame that I have to take a break. Life's short so I'll move along to other books. Will keep slogging through this whenever I'm able to tolerate some blech storytelling and hope to come back delighted enough to update what I thought.

but boi this book is bad
Disclaimer:::: I know how hard it is to write a book and i realize this is an uncorrected ARC, nevertheless these are my opinions on the first 53%

its literally so fucking boring
not well written
you don't connect with the characters at all
there is no plot
an awesome troupe gets used <spoiler> vegas marriage </spoiler> but I was literally bored by it and that never happens!
I can't believe this is getting published by PENGUIN I can name 10 indie books or self published books that are a thousand times better than this
what a travesty

also, this is so unoriginal...there is nothing new or interesting there that is what makes it so boring. I've just read better stories plain and simple.

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2102533903

I would describe this book is an easy to read, friends to lovers, hot hockey romance. So, if you like any of those genres then you will certainly enjoy Bad Reputation!

In my review of Hard to Handle I lamented the fact that I was caught up on my reading of all of Nicole Edwards’ books. You can imagine my joy when Net Galley and Loveswept were kind enough to issue me an ARC of this story so I didn’t have to wait until October. (Of course, now I’m in the same predicament of having read all of her books but it being even longer before the next new-to-me book is published.) It’s no secret that I love this author and find her stories thoroughly engaging.

The last half of this book, after Chase and Cassie finally get to Vegas, is a freight train. It rolled over my emotions in so many ways and was very fast paced. I couldn’t put it down! It’s amazing how much best friends DON’T talk to each other once there are romantic feelings involved. And since they’ve always been the sounding board for each other they also didn’t talk things out with anyone else. Not really, anyway. While they drove me crazy they also kept me on the edge of my seat.

Here’s my problem…and I’m sorry to have to say that I did have a problem with this one. The first half of this book dragged for me. By chapter 6, about 20% into the book, I was noting that I was ready for things to move on. The main characters do not kiss until almost 50% into this story! My exact note when it happens was, “Jesus! It’s about time!” Now if this was a story about two people meeting for the first time, I don’t know that it would have been an issue. But Cassie and Chase have been friends for many, many years. I didn’t need as much set up as I was given in this story. And it pains me to say that since, again, I absolutely love Nicole Edwards.

This is the author’s first book that is not self-published. As I am not a writer myself I cannot say if it’s a natural thing for your writing habits (and even style) to change a bit when you’re no longer writing for just yourself. I can only imagine they would since you now have very firm deadlines.

What I want you to take away from this if you’ve never read Ms. Edwards is this…I am still rating this story pretty high (see my rating scale for reference) for a book that was so slow-moving at the beginning. Plus, I’ve decided to round-up in the stars instead of down. The last half of this book was definitely the Nicole Edwards writing that I know and love. Since this book is in no way connected to any of her other books or series yet (I know there’s another book in this series scheduled down the road) do yourself a favor and pick it up and read it. If you love the last part of the story as much as I did, do yourself another favor and go all the way back to the beginning (Conviction) and by the time you get to Kaleb (about her 5th book and the 1st in the Alluring Indulgence series) you’ll be as head over heels for this author as I am.

After all that being said, this was still a wonderful story. Chase is the perfect hero and just so sweet with Cassie. I love the introduction to each chapter being a blurb from a magazine article on Chase and his hockey career. I hope that means the next book in this series will have the same type of intro to the chapters. It was great for getting to know Chase and for a bit of foreshadowing. As usual, Nicole Edwards found a way to surprise me…in a good way.

3.5 stars

This was a so-so book for me.

I loved the character of Chase and how he is known as the bad boy of Hockey and spends the majority of his time in the sin box. Which consequently gives him the nickname Sin. I also loved how driven Cassie was and what a career woman she was. They became friends in college and Chase has always had a thing for Cassie but has made sure he has never scared her away. The alternating points of view were a good decision on the authors part as it added a bit of depth to both characters.

I just thought by the middle of the book it got so predictable that I felt myself loosing interest and had to push myself through. The banter and steam couldn't make up for it. Also there is a huge life event that happens to Cassie that I just couldn't believe she would let happen based on how her character is described. Ehhh.

Recommendation: It was a so-so book. Read if you like this type of story arc.

A great friends to lovers book that's steamy and fun. I loved Cassie and Chase and it was obvious they cared about each other a lot. Watching them figure that out is a great way to spend a few hours. The side characters are also enjoyable. The conflict comes naturally from the story, and it isn't too dramatic. The sports setting adds to the flavor, and never takes away from the love story. This was my first book from the author and I look forward to reading more.

Bad Reputation is a New Adult, friends-to-lovers, sports romance about two best friends Chase and Cassie. I've been into sports romances recently, so I was really looking forward to this book. It was such a fun, fast read, and I finished it in one day! NA is my go to genre when I'm in a reading slump, and I know this book will definitely be something I reread in the future.

New Adult books tend to be pretty iffy for me. It's hard to find stories I like that don't have slut shaming or other similar issues. Thankfully this book didn't have any of those problems, and was fun and believable.

I liked both of the characters. Cassie is very career oriented, and Chase is the "bad boy" of hockey. Initially I thought Chase would be more of a bad boy character but he really isn't, his nickname comes from all the trouble he get into on the ice. Even though he doesn't want a relationship, he's very respectful of the women he hooks up with. I was pleasantly surprised by this because these types of characters typically use women and aren't ashamed of it.

Cassie and Chase have been best friends for nine years, and are generally okay with where their relationship stands. Chase has secretly always had a thing for Cassie, but never acted on it because he knew she didn't reciprocate his feelings. However, things change when he accompanies Cassie on a business trip to Vegas. On the trip Cassie starts to see Chase in a different way, and is very confused about her feelings. This is where the romance part of the story really kicks in. After a few drinks, Cassie and Chase explore their feelings for one another, and some craziness ensues.

I really liked how even though they're friends and Chase in interested in Cassie, they have a normal friendship. They have dinner together once a week, they hang out, and neither is jealous when someone is interested in the other. It was a realistic portrayal of a male/female friendship.

I really enjoyed the book, but started to get annoyed towards the end because neither of them will tell the other how they feel. They're both clearly on the same page, but they don't say anything. The ending kind of dragged on because of this. Besides that though, this was a great read.

I really enjoyed this book, and can't wait to see what Nicole Edwards comes out with next!

Chase and Cassie are best friends and thought they have feeling for each other, Chase more so than Cassie, they haven't done anything about it, not wanting to shake the balance of their friendship. Till the time they go to Vegas and get so drunk, that they don't remember what all they did. They are in for a big surprise when they do remember :). But what effect will it have on their friendship ?
This was a fun read about a relation based on friendship and trust. I found the first half a little slow, and that's the only reason I'm giving it 4 stars. But it picks up in the second part when all the fun begins.
Nicole Edwards is a new author for me and I look forward to reading more in the series.

I must say that I’ve never read a friend to lovers novel quite like this.
It is obvious from the outset that Chase and Cassie have more than a normal friendship but they seem to be the only ones that are oblivious to the fact.
Chase is a bad boy ice-hockey star and Cassie is a workaholic that needs help in understanding the term ‘work life balance’.
A business trip to Vegas where she invites Chase along ends in the traditional, ‘what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas’, or at least it would if she could remember what happened, apart from losing her job of course!
A beautiful transition from friends to lovers develops and Cassie finds out the full truth about the goings on in Vegas.

A bit different from the usual style I have come to expect from Nicole Edwards but definitely a winner in my book!

Chase and Cassie have been best friends since they met at college, nine years ago. They have an incredible chemistry between them but they are happy as friends. But after some days in Vegas, everything changes.
I liked the book although the first half was a little bit slow.
I would love to read Natalie and Mark's book. I'm sure it would be hilarious.

I'm a Nicole Edwards fan. While this wasn't my favorite book of hers, she definitely has a way of writing characters we want to know more about. Her quick, clever dialogue makes it easy to connect with both characters and plot. This is certainly the case in this book. Our "hero" is a bad boy with a smart mouth that makes his personality leap off the page. Our heroine gives as good as she gets. A fun friends to lovers story.!

A copy of this book was provided via Net Galley for an honest review.
Bad Reputation (Bad Boys of Sports #1)
Author Nicole Edwards
4 stars
What can I say but if you love sports romances then this is the read for you. I have been a huge fan of Author Nicole Edwards. She did not disappoint in this book. I enjoyed the banner between the characters. And wish that I was friends with these characters. I look forward to reading more in this new series.
Chase and Cassie have been bffs since they meet in college when Chase needed a tutor. Cassie set him straight then and has been for years. They are whatever bff wants in each other. Support, love and fun times. But their bodies and minds seem to want more. They have been fighting a good fight to keep those desires in check.
When Cassie has to go to Vegas for a week, of course she would invite Chase to go with her. Why not? He has just finished up his hockey season and could use the break. Plus Cassie needs her bff there. And why not, what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas right?!
Can Cassie and Chase cross that friends lines and still be bff? Or will they ruin the friendship they have? Maybe they could become so much more?

Unfortunately the book was not for me, no review was publicly posted on Amazon, B&N, Goodreads or Twitter etc, so no ratings were affected in relation to it.

I struggled with this book from the beginning, if you are going to write a story that is full of already well used tropes, you need to make sure you offer up something unique and different with your story so that it holds the readers attention.

Sadly this one just didn't offer anything new or unusual, it just felt like I was reading an amalgamation of bits and pieces from all the other books I have read in the past and because of that it just felt totally forgettable and hard to muster and real or meaningful interest in the story.

**I received an advanced copy of this title from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.**

I'm not usually one for sports stories since (hello!) I'm not a big sports person. This was a cute story though. And there wasn't too too much sports in it, so that was good.

Cassie, the main gal, was super likable for her pit bull attitude in the office and with her friends. I even liked Chase, although I was super annoyed that the author kept referring to him as a womanizer. He literally wasn't with anyone the entire novel except for Cassie, and yet the label was everywhere. I probably could have done without the first 30% of the book, since it was essentially just "feelings denial."