📖 Book Review 📖 Elle Kennedy and Sarina Bowen write an absolutely beautiful, heartfelt, unputdownable novel. Like most Canadiens, Hailey breathes hockey and in her post-divorce quiet life might have a little crush on star player Matt Eriksson. It’s always fun to daydream and of course she hopes that the client she texts for her virtual assistant business turns out to be him. When she offers to bend the rules just a bit to walk this faceless client’s dog and receives amazing hockey tickets, that pipe dream comes closer to being an actual reality…Stay is just about the coziest read that I have picked up in awhile and I absolutely adored every minute of chemistry shared between Hailey and Matt. The wild card in this book was definitely the WAGs; their sisterhood bond was wonderful!

I would highly recommend Stay by Bowen and Kennedy to adult romance readers. It is book two in the WAGs series but you do not have to have read book one Good Boy to understand and enjoy this book. Fans of Good Boy will not be disappointed as there are guest appearances by Jess, Blake, Wesmie, and even mother Riley in Stay. Stay is my favorite book in this WAGs series and reminds me of Bowen’s Brooklyn Bruisers series which I also loved. Hailey and Matt’s story is so cute; I didn’t want to put the book down. It was well written with great pacing. I hope there are more books in the WAGs series or other collaborations by Bowen and Kennedy. Their writing styles worked so well together.

The story of Matt and Hailey had me laughing throughout. Their journey was fun but showed their insecurities too. This is the 2nd in a series. I'm hoping there'll be another one in this series. Thanks to NetGalley for the advanced copy. #Stay #NetGalley

Hailey owns and operates a virtual assistant business in Toronto named Fetch and she may be crushing on a client. She figured out that her anonymous client is none other than Matt Eriksson, a professional hockey player, and Hailey, who is the biggest fan around. The two begin to flirt a bit online and this turns into a little more than a virtual relationship, even though they’re both divorced and unsure how to move forward.

I liked this book and I’m still stoked this series has so many future books possible with more teammates. Before, we saw professional hockey player Blake find love but now we’ve moved on to his friend Matt, and there are so many more to choose from. I like that they deal with the very real aftermath of divorce and navigating not only those feelings but the familial dynamics that it leaves behind. These two write funny banter and I think this book flowed better than the first of the WAGS series. This book is a quick read with lots of hockey-related content; I still think Elle Kennedy writes the best hockey romances around.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for this ARC.

Stay was fine for me. It didn’t knock my socks off, but it’s a pretty solid hockey romance. The nicknames for one another were a little cheesy for me. In the previous book, the nicknames worked because that was part of the love interest’s personality, but in Stay they just felt forced. The MC and the love interest were more “serious” characters, so the nicknames didn’t feel genuine coming from them.

There was also a bit at the very end where the MC is described as wearing a pantsuit, then in the next paragraph, she’s wearing a tight skirt.

The relationship between the MC and the love interest didn’t develop organically for me and the timeline felt off in some way. I can’t pinpoint it, but something just wasn’t working for me with these two things.

Overall, this is a straightforward hockey romance. I give it a 3/5. Thank you for the opportunity to read and review Stay. All thoughts and opinions are my own.