Hard Hitter by Sarina Bowen

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As we approached the end of April, it was time to pick up the Smart Women Read Romance pick of the month! April's theme was hockey romance and the book that won was Hard Hitter by Sarina Bowen. This is the second book in her Brooklyn Bruisers series. I did want to read the first book in the series before this one, but I ran out of time. I was able to use this for the prompts couple on the cover (the other cover has it) for Love Has Sprung and Welcome to New York (set in New York) for the Taylor Swift Quarterly Challenge.

Patrick O'Doul, captain of the Brooklyn Bruisers is suffering through some hip flexor strain. The team has a resident massage therapist and yogi named Ari and he continuously cancels his appointments. Patrick doesn't liked to be touched, but is forced by owners and coaches to stop cancelling and heal up. Ari works with O'Doul to get him to properly flex out and treat his muscles. As they find themselves around each other more and more, a connection quickly sparks between them. When Ari's horrible ex enters the picture things get a little more dangerous for Ari. Thankfully O'Doul is there to help her out where needed and give her a safe place to stay.

First off, this was my first Sarina Bowen and I was pleasantly surprised. I'm pretty picky and critical of my hockey romances and it's hard for me to really enjoy one. Now here I thought the hockey aspect was pretty well done, but while 90% was good, the last 10% really bothered me. The biggest thing that bothered me was the push and pressure on the players to make the playoffs. They're constantly bouncing between being third and fourth in their division. If they are close enough to be constantly switching places, being in fourth pretty much guarantees a spot in the playoffs via the wildcard. I just didn't like that the wild card wasn't even mentioned and they kept acting like if they got fourth they were immediately out. There is a miniscule chance that they would miss the playoffs in that scenario, and that's only if the top 5 teams in the other division of their conference have more points in the season. Highly unlikely, but there is a chance. There were a couple other hockey things that bothered me, but that was the biggest. I think had the hockey aspects been off or wrong for most of it I could excuse it easier, but since it was so well done in other aspects that really stood out to me.

As for O'Doul and Ari, I really enjoyed their relationship. Sarina writes steam really well and I loved Patrick. I liked the progression of their relationship for the most part, but I do have to say that Ari was frustrating at parts. One, she wouldn't really accept that her ex was dangerous and she was putting herself (and those around her) in danger by denying how bad it was. I also didn't like the weird conclusion she arrived at when it came to the "third act breakup." It just wasn't very logical and didn't make sense to me at all why her brain jumped there. I also do want to say that her ex is very stereotypical and his whole plot line felt unnecessary. 

Despite all these little pieces, I still enjoyed this book. It just wasn't quite a full 5-stars for me. I'm definitely intrigued to read more both in this series and by Sarina Bowen in general. I was urged during the live show to read book 4 Brooklynaire by Jessen, Juliette and Jenn. I'll try to get to it soon, but I kind of want to go back to reading in order. We'll see what happens, but I have some readalong and book club books to get through first. I definitely will be picking up more Sarina Bowen.

Have you read Hard Hitter?

Bookishly Yours,

Stasi🍎

STATISTICS: Hard Hitter, Sarina Bowen, 4.5-stars, 0 days, eBook, 336 pages, published in 2017, traditionally published