I’ve never been a fan of single mom romances, but this audiobook completely changed my perspective. The main characters won me over with their unwavering loyalty and genuine kindness. Their story made me laugh, cry, and fall in love all over again.

The plot revolves around a fake marriage, adding an intriguing twist that kept me hooked from the start. The main male character, a tender-hearted sportsman, was simply perfect. Despite the challenges he faced with autism, his loyalty and niceness shone through every moment. His relationship with the single mom and her child was touching and authentic, making their journey together truly special.

Listening to this audiobook was an emotional experience. The narrator brought the characters to life in a way that made me feel every high and low. This book is a beautiful reminder of the power of love and the strength found in overcoming obstacles. It’s a story that stayed with me long after I finished listening, and I can't recommend it highly enough. If you're looking for a romance that will make you feel deeply and believe in love again, this is the one.

A light and fluffy book about two friends who finally get together—single mom and friend who has loved her for years. Definitely worth reading. Fabulous narrators!

I received a copy from Netgalley and the publisher.

Absolutely loved this book! Got the audio on NetGalley. Really enjoyed the dual narration - woman narrator for Amber’s chapters, male narrator for Ford’s chapters. The narrators were both fantastic and easy to understand, enjoyable to listen to.

I am not the biggest fan of friends to lovers, but I thought Amber and Ford were so cute. I loved that Ford was neurodivergent, I thought that topic was handled well. Loved that there was no third act break up, but had just enough other tensions to have a sweet resolution at the end.

Love the DC Eagles and I was happy to see the teammates interacting. Can’t wait to get Bruce’s story!!

I really enjoyed this book, just like I have enjoyed every book in this series so far. There is just something about this team and how sweet, wholesome, and comforting all of these books are.

This book had so many cute moments and lots of sweet gestures of love whether it was a special little gift or just the effort put in for each other.

I absolutely love all of the boys on the team. They are so funny and lighthearted but also there whenever someone really needs them. They always have each others backs and show they care. Same with their wives and girlfriends. I love how they all brought Amber in and made her feel welcome and like a part of their friend group. The found family aspect was so perfect.

Ford was so adorable with Ambers daughter Nella. He really tried so hard with her and was always doing anything he could to make her happy and make sure she was safe. It was the sweetest.

I also love love love the Aspergers representation within pro sports in this book. That is something that I had not yet seen and I love how it was talked about and treated by all of the characters as well.

This book and this series as a whole are so perfect to listen to on audiobook because it is low stakes, fluffy, cute, closed door, and the narrators are always fantastic!

Overall, I would definitely recommend this book and series and I can’t wait for the next book to come out.


Tropes:
- dual pov
- childhood friends
- marriage of convenience
- single mom
- hockey
- one bed
- roommates
- closed door
- found family
- autism representation

This childhood friends to lovers, marriage of convenience romance focuses on Amber and Ford. Best friends since first meeting in the second grade, Amber is now a single mom, having been dumped by her terrible ex fiancé when he found out she was pregnant. Ford has always held a candle for Amber, so much so that he’s never been with another girl, but was never willing to risk their friendship by making his feelings known. Ford is on the autism spectrum and is slow to trust people, so Amber is the only real friend he’s had. When Amber needs heart surgery, but lacks the insurance or money to afford it, Ford suggests they get married so she can use his insurance and he can pay for the rest. Amber questions what he will get out of this deal, but ultimately agrees to it. When thrown together to make their marriage look real, Amber develops feelings of her own to match those that Ford has always had.

I enjoyed a lot of things about this book. It is a fast read with interesting characters. I always like a friends to lovers story, and I was surprised by how well I thought the marriage of convenience worked in the plot (this is a trope I’m not always a fan of). However, I think there were maybe a couple too many tropes thrown in here: friends to lovers, marriage of convenience, single mom, virgin hero, hockey romance, autistic hero, unrequited love, etc. The book was not quite long enough to make me feel like each trope was fully fleshed out. In fact, I was pretty shocked when the audiobook ended - it felt very abrupt in a lot of ways. It was, ultimately, a fun and entertaining read, but I wish more time had been spent to round out the ending and some of the tropes that felt like they were left unresolved or undeveloped.

Thank you to NetGalley and Dreamscape Media for the audiobook arc!

This is super sweet, I loved their friendship and progression of their relationship! I tore through this in one day and could not stop listening to how sweet this story was! I involved how caring Ford is to Amber and her baby too!

Betrothal or Breakaway is book 3 in the DC Eagles hockey series. It’s about Ford Remington, Remy to the team, the beloved captain and his childhood friend, Amber. We were SO excited for this book! Leah really creates a lot of mystique and intrigue around the quiet team captain with a delightful sense of humour in the other books. Ford and Amber have been best friends since second grade. She’s a single mom to 3 month old Nella, and a hair stylist. She recently found out she has a hole in her heart and needs a surgery she can’t afford. The solution: A fully platonic marriage to her best friend (and wealthy hockey player) Ford.

This book! We love a friends to lovers trope and this book hit so perfectly for us. The characters are well written, and their backstories and family life give so much depth to this story. The tension between these two is delicious. Leah is an expert at writing low spice stories that steam your glasses. There’s caretaking, close proximity, hockey, found family, real family, and a whole bunch of “my wife”s. Something really important to us is neurodiverse representation and the MMC in this book is autistic. We thought this was so wonderfully and intentionally done and we want to thank Leah for it.

We listened to the audiobook, performed by Alex Picard and David Bendena. It’s narrated in a dual POV and both Alex and David took such care to bring these characters and all their nuances to life. Highly recommend.

This contemporary romance was completely adorable! I ate up every little bit of the heartwarming story. The audiobook narrators did a really wonderful job with the voices and were very easy to listen to.

It is the third full length novel in the DC Eagles which follows a team of hockey players. I love the way the players show up for each other in each story. They turn the head on stereotypes of toxic masculinity in athletes and the whole series is therapy positive, emotionally healthy, and uplifting without feeling too cheesy. The scene with the teammates all helping to babysit an upset baby was one of my favorites of the book.

The romance was really tender with a long term friendship turned to more with the female main character being a single mom. There were so many great moments between the leads as well as within the parenting journey. I loved the neurodivergent representation and how it was woven into the male main character’s development in really thoughtful ways.

There are not many actual hockey scenes in this one, so if you’re not a sports person, don’t let the hockey aspect scare you off!

Trigger/content warnings: past parental neglect and past bullying. Steam level is light innuendo and closed door sex scenes (no details on page).

ABSOLUTELY LOVED THIS BOOK. oh my gosh these two are honestly the sweetest couple and baby Nella is so sweet. I loved seeing them all as a family, they fit together perfectly! Amber is perfect for Ford and vice versa. They way these two get each other completely melted my heart. His family was so supportive from day one and i just loved the bond they had. highly recommend this one and i cannot wait to go back and read the previous books in this series!

What an absolutely sweet marriage of convenience between besties romance. MMC with asperger’s! Down on her luck single mom with a heart condition! A cute baby that acts like a baby and not a plot baby! An excellent start.

But aside from the romance (which was sweet and cute with the best touch of angst via “how do I tell my best friend I’m in love with them), I resonated with Ford’s overstimulation SO MUCH. Just the pure skin crawling, suffocating feeling of having to much sensory stimulation going on at once was so spot on. And I liked that his neurodivergence was something we see him struggle with. Not because autism is a bad thing but because some of us had a bit more of a journey to accepting that it’s not a *flaw*. It’s just part of our DNA and that’s normal for us! Plus big man hold baby is an automatic yes from me.

The MCs are both super loveable and sweet (Ford is a bit of a grumpy gills McGhee. Love). And the marrying for insurance purposes is a favorite angle of mine in romance because if more people could do it, they absolutely would and I don’t blame them. It’s sweet to see these two form a little family with baby Nella and grow into a romantic relationship with each other. I mean Ford was already in love but Amber’s “oh shit is this love was adorable!

Closed door isn’t something I gravitate to but every now and then I need closed door because spicy books can burn me out quickly but the chemistry is deffo there!

Some things were resolved a tad too easily for it to have been built up over the course of the whole story but I appreciated that there was at least an attempt to inject some conflict into an otherwise toothache sweet story. Like Amber’s ex wasn’t a problem until he was and then he went away fast? Ford telling his teammates about his autism (which off I understood why he kept it from them) was kinda anticlimactic? Just nit picky things that kept this from being perfect for me!

The audio was great, but I did struggle with the MMC narrator because at times he got really…monotone? And it was a strange, jarring choice.

Thanks to Dreamscape Media and NetGalley for an ALC! All thoughts and opinions are my own!

I absolutely love Leah’s books. This one was one of my absolute favorites. Marriage of convenience, friends to lovers, disability rep, A MAN WHO TAKES CARE OF A BABY. I loved every bit of it. The audio was so well done and fun to listen to!

𝚁𝚊𝚝𝚒𝚗𝚐: 4.5⭐️
𝙶𝚎𝚗𝚛𝚎: contemporary romance 📚

𝙼𝚢 𝚃𝚑𝚘𝚞𝚐𝚑𝚝𝚜:
A sweet and fun book you need to read if you’re in your hockey romance era!

𝚁𝚎𝚊𝚍 𝚒𝚏 𝚢𝚘𝚞 𝚕𝚒𝚔𝚎:
🏒 Hockey romance
💗 Best friends to lovers
👦🏻 Neurodivergent Hero
🤱🏼Single mom
💍 Marriage of convenience
🏠 Forced proximity
🤒 Sick bed scene
👰🏼‍♀️ “My wife”
🖤 Fade to Black

𝚃𝚑𝚒𝚗𝚐𝚜 𝙸 𝚕𝚒𝚔𝚎𝚍:
I love a cinnamon roll hockey player
No third act break up
Great side characters


I really enjoyed the narration

Amber and Ford been BF since children and Amber known Ford is special he has High functional Autism and it hard for him to express his emotions and doesnt like to be touch. Ford love Amber but she had a fiance until he leave her pregnant and she is on her own. She come to visit Ford and tell him she has to have surgery and if anything happens to her she want ford to look after her child. Amber is struggling with financially so Ford ask her to marry him to help her but the real reason is because he love her and want to help hwr and she is the only person her touch does t irk him. I love it because this hit home my five year is Autistic and everyday i worry for his future so reading books about it, ease my mind.

This is my 2nd Leah Brunner book and it won’t be my last! I really like the characters in this series and can’t wait to read more about these hockey players and their WAGs (wives and girlfriends).
🌹
Ford and Amber have been childhood best friends but Amber finds herself a little lost and alone as a single mother and turns to her friend Ford. He thinks of a creative solution to her problems and their quickly marriage of convenience gives everyone whiplash.
🌹
I liked the past sneak peeks of their friendship and how they always trusted each other. And friends to more, this was a satisfying HEA with some swoon but closed door romance.
🌹
I listened to the audiobook which released 2 weeks ago. The narrators were perfect! I loved seeing Ford care for Amber and loved how Amber took care with Ford’s neurodivergence. Thank you Net Galley and the publisher for the alc.

Even though Ford is a hockey player he is absolutely the most amazing guy and I loved how the author handled his challenges. There was such a steady strength to him and I was in love. Amber was so easy to like and I just wanted all the happily ever after. It’s so far out of my life and was therefore the best escape read.

The narrators did an amazing job keeping me interested and I loved the dual POV.

I won’t lie, this book still has me swooning! Betrothal or Breakaway by Leah Brunner is a gem of a romance that had me smiling from start to finish! I sometimes struggle with the ‘lack of communication’ often seen in a romcom read, and found these characters' straightforwardness so refreshing!
This friends-to-lovers / fake marriage tale features Ford Remington, a gentle and steadfast hockey player with mild Asperger’s, and Amber, a sweet single mom who’s been his best friend since childhood. Their journey is filled with heartwarming moments, especially as Ford’s tender care for Amber and her baby girl, Nella, shines through. The way Ford navigates his feelings and supports Amber through her struggles is touching and beautifully done.
The story is brimming with genuine emotion, humor, and the perfect balance of romance and depth. Not only is the romance perfect, but I loved the connections with family and teammates.! If you're looking for a heartfelt and engaging read, Betrothal or Breakaway is the perfect pick!
Huge thank you to @netgalley and Packnack Publishing for the audiobook copy!

Well this was delightful!
I shouldn't be surprised since I adored all the books prior in this series.
Ford is probably my favourite character Brunner has ever written!
So relatable and adorable and heartbreaking.
I loved this story sooo much!!!
Much love to NetGalley & Dreamscape Media for my ARC.

It’s such a cute story! I love the chemistry between the characters. I also love the autism/Aspergers representation of a main character. Things like this are so important in books to show how different people are, challenges we may face, and how people with these conditions can live completely normal lives. The narrators were also great. Definitely give this one a read!

This book had me crying and cackling the whole time! Is there anything better the friends to lovers? No, no there is not. I resonate so much with Ford, our brains seems so similar in the way we processing the world. Amber instance and accepts him for exactly who he is. This is a couple that will be together till the end Noah and Allie style. The kindness of the team and fords family once they found out fire went out and got married without telling anyone will have you wishing you could squeeze into this friend group and family. I can’t wait for what Leah Brunner comes up with next.

I love this book! It’s so sweet! I laughed and cried, Amber and Ford(Remi) are the cutest and the banter in this book is amazing. 10 out of 10!