When Astrid is left at the alter by her hockey player fiancee, she swears off hockey and all their players despite her father being a hockey coach. When one night she meets a burly lumberjack-esqe man, she decides to give him one night per her one night rule. This especially needs to be in place when his apartment is just one floor away from hers and he's just joined her dad's team.. to coach her ex. Now she's being roped back in to help the team and has to deal with her ex, her dad and the man who's been giving her the best sex of her life.

This was good and very lighthearted like other Avery Flynn novels have been. I enjoyed the audiobook and am excited to read more in this series.

Walk of Shame

Avery Flynn

I went into this book completely blind to it wanting to give hockey romance a try but have concluded that it is not for me.
The talk of sports is boring and drags on.
Its not for everyone, and that’s okay.
The spice was decent. I really enjoyed that part.
The narrators were amazing, which redeemed this story.
Rounding to three stars.

I listened to an audiobook narrated by Robert Hatchet and Savannah Peachwood. The performances were on point with humor and passion. The narrators were engaging and easy to follow. The dialog itself was often funny and they put their own spin on the recording that made the story fly. I listens to this at 1.5 which is my most comfortable based on conversational speed.

Amusing, engaging, and steamy hot. I loved the Diet Coke theme that ran consistently through the story, although I admit to preferring Diet Pepsi myself. I often pack it in suitcases when traveling exactly as Astrid does. I also admit to missing out on the experience of picking up a hot stranger from a bar. It does sound like an experience I shouldn’t have missed!
Light hearted humor with a lack of reverence that I thoroughly enjoyed.
4.5

I received a copy of the audiobook from NetGalley and RB Media.

I listened to this in audio and honestly I couldn’t stop listening. Not only were the narrators fantastic but the story had me not wanting to stop listening. Who doesn’t love a good sports romance?

After our heroine was left at the altar by a hockey player she swore off sports, men in sports and anything more than a casual hook up. Then one of her one night stands goes oh-so-wrong when he not only ends up being a hockey coach but also now works with her. She can’t escape him and she definitely can’t escape the feelings she starts to develop.

There is something about these 2 main characters that just clicks! She’s commitment-phobic and he’s set to win her over. It’s cute, it’s steamy and honestly such a great sports romance. Highly recommend!

I’m not usually one for an insta love, but I think with the pull back and courting it all worked.
I really enjoyed this one. The character development was great. It was easy to follow and easy to get lost in. I spent any spare minute listening to the audiobook. Which was so good by the way. It’s like the narrators were made for this story.

Thank you NetGalley and RB Media for the audiobook.

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.

Kaetrin

Took me a bit to finish this because the first half was just a little too casual for me. Even Astrid knew she was lying to herself but she, and everyone around her, just let it go on for too long. As a result, it was hard to get the chemistry to feel compelling. The ending was cute though.

This was my first audio book through Net Galley, but I've loved Avery Flynn's books before, so I had to give it shot. Lots of laugh out loud parts. I loved Ms. Duffy and want more of her.

I truly enjoyed listening to this audio of "Walk of Shame", I couldn't help but keep listening, I was hooked from the very beginning and couldn't keep by headphones out of my ears.

First I would like to thank RB Media for providing me a copy of this audiobook in exchange for my honest review.

This is the story of Astrid who on her wedding day her fiancé chose to sign a new hockey contract instead of walking down the aisle. Since that day five years ago Astrid lives a life with no hockey and only one night hook-ups, that is until Cal walks into the bar she is working at. With every intention of keeping to her rules, Astrid realizes that Cal lives in her building and it might be hard to avoid him. Add to that Astrid’s dad is retiring and has convinced her to come back and work with the team for one last year. When she arrives on her first day she learns not only was she brought on to help her ex get his game back but Cal is the goalie coach her dad hired to help as well.

What I Loved:
Diet Coke, at some point Cal ends up with some cans of Astrid’s coveted Diet Coke and the unique ways he gets them back to her just had me 😻
Hockey Jar, instead of a swear jar Astrid implemented a hockey jar at the bar she works at meaning if anyone mentions hockey they have to put money in the jar which was so funny to me
“Last time”, I love these stories where one of the characters always says this hook up is the “last time” cause we all know its not and Astrid says it a few times throughout the book
Friends, both Astrid and Cal have friends who won’t allow these two to stay away from each other and they know exactly what they are doing. I love books with those types of friends who refuse to let the main characters let the one get away
Audiobook quality, the audiobook quality was amazing and didn’t loose anything by listening at a faster speed.
Narrators, with this being a dual POV book I loved that they had two narrators who did an amazing job with really embodying Astrid and Cal

Overall I really enjoyed this book, so much so that I bought a physical copy as soon as I was done and the first in this series cause I know this will be a re-read in the near future. If you are looking for a sports romance with co-workers, pesky friends and a fun dynamic between the two main characters I would absolutely recommend this book to you.

A sort of forbidden love. Astrid was left at the alter by her fiancé Tigg. Her high school sweetheart. And the star player of hockey. Astrid swore off love and hockey for 5 years until a sexy, panty dropping guy walked into the bar she was working at.

This was a spicy sport contemporary romance. Astrid was guilted in to helping her ex-lover improve his game. And Astrid fell for the guy who was rocking her world. And is also rocking her heart with surprise coke with a gift, and that oh so soft pink sweater.

Avery was about to marry the man of her dreams, her hockey goalie fiancé Tig Jones. She was her dad’s assistant as he coached the hockey team. On the day of her wedding, Tig FaceTimes her saying he just got traded and isn’t going to marry her right now. It becomes a huge media scandal and Avery decides to give up on hockey and love from that point on. Nothing but one-night stands for her from now on. One night a few years later, she meets the handsome stranger, Cal. After having what she expected to be a one-night stand, she finds out they live in the same building. And after her dad asks her to come back to work with him, she finds out he also works for her dad’s team.
The only sport I can handle is hockey, so I was excited to read this one. It was my first Avery Flynn book and even though it was 2nd in the series, it worked well as a stand alone. There was a bit of romance ❤️, a bigger bit of spice 🌶️, and some great narration 🎤. There was a lot of talk of “her panties” which I think could have been edited out as “been there done that.” But the chemistry was there, and I enjoyed the ending. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Thank you NetGalley for an ARC of this book.

Walk of Shame had me laughing and blushing the whole time I was listening!

Astrid O'Malley was facetime dumped right before she was supposed to walk the aisle five years ago. The culprit? A hockey hotshot goalie who was thought to be her "childhood sweetheart." Her dad was a coach, just imagine the headlines!

Flash forward five years and Astrid wants NOTHIGN to do whatsoever with hockey. She's even got a "hockey swear jar" in the bar she bartends. But she cannot resist the man (for one night) who looks like a hockey player but can't stand others talking about it. One night of passion leads to one oops as they end up working together on her dad's last hockey season. They say a "walk of shame" only leads to one night only memories but what happens when these sex filled nights keep happening?

Narrators Savannah Peachwood and Robert Hatchet killed the audio for Walk of Shame. It's basically your favorite romcom movie from the 2000's with a dash of hockey mixed in!

Book #2 in the series is just as good as the first! I listened to the Audio, and it gave an Umph to the story I really enjoyed.

- Hockey Romance
- Forbidden
- Work place
- Forced Proximity
- Spice (2/5 🌶️)

Astrid swore off hockey & its players after her ex broke her heart. She’s lived a happy hockey free life ever since that day….. Until her dad, a hockey coach made a special request of her.

Cal is a ex-goalie turned coach after a major injury. His life has always been hockey, until an unsuspected bartender sweeps him off his feet. Little did he know, she’d be a huge part of his new job.

The twists and turns of their story kept me interested and holding on to the story.

Sadly, for many reasons this book just didn’t work for me. The plot felt very thin, messy, and awkward at times with the author adding in details that didn’t add to the story and leaving out parts that I wanted to know more about.

The best part of this was Cal our MMC. He was so great and supportive. I loved his interactions with not just Astrid, but with everyone he comes in contact with.

I loved the narrators and felt they really added to the emotions in the story.

Whoa, Smoking Hot! Walk of Shame is my first book by Avery Flynn and I thoroughly enjoyed it. Even though this is the second book in the Downside of Dating series, I had no trouble reading it as a standalone.

Flynn builds an interesting romance between Astrid and Cal. We get a good bit of detail of their pasts, and they have great chemistry from the outset. When I say this one is super hot, I mean it is On. Fire. Dayum, Avery Flynn writes a great, steamy love scene.

We also get a good dose of humor, the story is sweet, and there's good family drama. Plus, Flynn includes some fun behind the scenes hockey too.

The audio version of Walk of Shame was beautifully performed by Robert Hatchet and Savannah Peachwood. I really like how these two narrators work together to portray both the main characters, as well as the supporting cast.

Sports romances are my jam and Avery Flynn did not disappoint with Walk of Shame. In a bit of a twist neither are a current athlete but both work for the team. I loved this especially how Cal is still struggling a bit as he wanted to be a hockey player but that was taken away from him. Cal and Astrid made a cute pair and I enjoyed them fight their feelings and general struggles given that Astrid had a very public breakup with a hockey player a few years ago.

Walk of Shame is delightfully steamy and funny and sure to entertain.

Honestly, the first part of the book was very interesting, we got a great introduction to Astrid and why she's made the choices that have landed her here. We also hear a bit about Cal's life and passion, hockey... and I saw the potential of this couple but in reality, they let me down. If you like two adults unable to control themselves and behave like human beings this is the book for you. The whole storyline of Astrid hiding because she "can't keep her panties on" with Cal around makes me believe these two are more animals than human. The sex scenes were way too long and the descriptions and conversation through it were extremely cringy. But the cringiness didn't stop there, somehow the author believed it necessary to mention Riverdale(??? please authors don't do this it ages the book horribly and it is awful, especially if your readers don't know what you are referencing)

Overall, the story would have been better if Astrid and Cal had actually gotten to know each other instead of their genitals.

Thanks to NetGalley and RB Media for providing me with an early, free copy of this book.

This contemporary sports romance was one that really caught me by surprise! I have read a few Avery Flynn books and enjoyed them but this one was fun and fresh!

It starts out with our Female main character, Astrid, being left at the alter when her fiancé is traded to a new hockey team. This sends her life in a new direction but the biggest change? She no longer eats, sleeps, breathes hockey. Now she hates it with a passion. She meets a cute knight is shining armor at a bar and after a steamy night with him she finds out that he is not only someone who lives in her building but also a new consultant for her father's hockey team.

This book is fun and steamy! I recommend it to anyone looking for a sporty romance read. Thank you NetGalley for the opportunity to read this story!

After a huge public humiliation, Astrid walks away from life in hockey, and from any possible long term relationship. One night stands only, and then she cuts communication. She rebuilds her life, but with huge safeguards to protect herself, and keep herself from any emotional involvement.

Until he comes in. With the most amazing sex. He lives in the apartment upstairs. After one night, she finds out he moved there to work with her dad on the hockey team, and to train her ex-fiance who dumped her on her wedding day.

It gets messy, and I was there for it!

Thanks NetGalley for the ARC.