Part of an interconnected series written by multiple authors. Each book focuses on one couple but several of the characters appear throughout the series. Not required to read in order but might be more enjoyable.
He left the hockey world when his wife got sick. Now he's a single father and has the chance to get back into it if temporarily. She's over the charity that will benefit from the games. However she's not fond of the game. What happens when they meet for the first time? Will her opinion change? How will this affect their future?.

I received a copy of this book from the author. Review voluntarily given.

3.25 stars

I found the first half of this novel to be page turning, but by the time I hit the 60% mark it just wasn’t doing it for me.

In this novel we follow our FMC Angel and MMC Scotty. Angel runs a charity where kids can go to read, learn how to grow vegetables, and have just a general resource for those less fortunate. Scotty is a retired hockey player who volunteered to coach the Ice Breakers hockey team, who is during a 5-game charity event for Angel’s charity. It’s love at first sight as Scotty helps Angel fix up the barn and other areas. Will these two fall in love and will it stick?

Like I said, I enjoyed the first half of the novel because I felt the chemistry between these two. I’m a huge fan of show don’t tell with love stories, and you could see Scotty showing Angel his love by helping on the ranch and teaching her son hockey. Angel showed her love by encouraging him at the hockey games and bonding with his daughter.

Andy and Lily (Angel’s son and Scotty’s daughter respectively) were iffy for me. I did like how the author made them unique, such as their protests and being environmentally conscious. However, I felt like they didn’t actually come across as a normal set of 12 year olds. Again, I liked how they were characterized differently, but at times they were a bit annoying.

Another side note, as this is part of a series where all the plots take place at the same time, I felt some of the characters didn’t fall inline with how they were written in their original books. For instance, Scotty keeps dropping Lily off with Blair or Blair picks her up from school. However, I don’t remember Blair ever interacting with his daughter in her own book. There is also a scene where Cooper is talking with Angel and smiles, laughs, says a lot of words, and calls the town by its correct name. But in his book he never laughs or smiles, is a man of few words, and always calls the town Pine Falls. Again, this is something small but it’s worth pointing out.

I did like this book and hope to continue with the rest of the series.

*An ARC was received in exchange for an honest review.