This single dad hockey player plays to win...
Benched by Elise Faber is available now!
Blurb:
Max Montgomery was at the height of his career, playing the best hockey of his life, and lucky enough to have a starting spot on a team that was actually a contender for the Cup.
And one by one his friends were falling in love.
Love. Now that was a dirty four-letter word if he’d ever heard one.
Max had experienced love and all of its aftereffects and where had that gotten him?
Lonely, living in an apartment, and paying alimony to a woman who’d left him at the merest sign of a hiccup in their marriage.
His only bright spot was his son. Brayden had moved back in with him a few months ago, after his mother had taken off to God knew where. Max loved having him home, but with his son only seven and him on the road for forty-two games a year, they’d struggled. Still, they’d found a way to make it work.
But then Brayden threw Max a completely new curve ball.
He wanted Max to find a wife.
Max had been there, done that, got the crappy T-shirt as a souvenir. No way would he make himself vulnerable like that again, no matter how much his son wanted it.
A puppy was a perfectly viable alternative, right?
At least that was what he’d been thinking until he met Angelica Shallows, sister to the team’s Physical Therapist guru, Mandy, and a brilliant engineer in her own right. She was gorgeous, smart, but had shadows in her eyes.
Max knew all about shadows, knew they were meant as a sign for him to stay away.
What was that about the best intentions paving the road to hell? Max may have wanted to stay away, may have wanted to abide the warning signs in Angie’s eyes, but—
The real trouble began when found that he couldn’t do either of those things.
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My Thoughts:
This was a sweet story about opposites attracting and getting over a few HUGE hangups to be the person that you want to be. I think the author did a great job writing the characters, the plot, the climax, and the steam!
Max lives for 2 things, his son above everything else and hockey. After his ex wife left him and his son, he makes sure that Brayden is everything in his life and does not need love or relationships or anything like that, his only goal is making his son happy. At least until his son says the only thing he wants is a mom….
Angelica is a complete introvert. She is an engineer and was raised as a social pariah, so let’s just say she is not good at all with people. After an incident that took please before too, let’s just say the poor girl has been through a lot. I can also say that I totally dug her nerdiness, it was the perfect amount and adorable.
These two meet in a chance situation and start a slow burn romance getting to know each other and it is pretty freaking slow, but you will get why once you check it out. I can say that once it gets hot and heavy, it is like *Snap* and they are together. I will says I wanted to slap Max a couple of times, but that is all that you are getting out of me for how things go down, check out this book it is almost an innocent kind of love story!!
PS: I received this book as an ARC but am voluntarily and honestly reviewing it
About the Author:
Aside from writing romance, Elise’s passions are chocolate, Star Wars, and hockey (the order depending on the day and how well her team — the Sharks! — are playing). She and her husband also play as much hockey as they can squeeze into their schedules, so much so that their typical date night is spent on the ice. Elise is the mom to two exuberant boys and is thoroughly addicted to Dancing With the Stars.