Pipe Dreams by Sarina Bowen

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Not only did I want to pick up at least one hockey romance during the Hockey Champions Readathon, but I decided for my July TBR to continue reading in Sarina Bowen's Brooklyn Bruisers series. Next up was book three, Pipe Dreams. I applied this to the prompt for the Coach Jared Bednar (stays calm under pressure) for the readathon. I also was able to apply this to the prompts travel romance for Summer of Swoon.

After Nate's assistant for his hockey operations ends up with a concussion, he calls back Lauren, his C-suite assistant, to cover while she heals. Lauren used to be the GM's assistant for the Brooklyn Bruisers, but has taken the chance to work for Nate's corporation and run with it. Part of the reason why she's run to Manhattan, was her horrible break up with the team's goalie Mike Beacon. Mike and Lauren were friends for almost 8 years, but when he found his wife cheating on him with her tennis instructor, he started to file for divorce. He takes the chance to make his move on Lauren and they spend over a year together happy. When his soon to be ex-wife finds out she has cancer, Mike moves back in to help take care of her and his daughter. When he does this, he ends his relationship with Lauren and doesn't explain to her why. It's been about a year since Mike's wife has passed and when Lauren ends up travelling with the team during their playoff run, he takes the chance to reconnect.

So, I should preface this review with the fact that I'm not usually a fan of 2nd chance romances, especially one where there's been a break-up. Here, there was a lot of damage done to Lauren. Mike didn't open up to her about anything that was happening (even though he did when they were friends) and then after telling her over the phone that it's over, he then ghosted her. Literally the night before he does this they are looking at apartments to move in when the team moves to Brooklyn. My biggest issue with this book is that there isn't really any resolutions or delving into each of their baggage. Specifically when it comes to what Lauren went through. It took her 2 years to really start to get over Mike and now that she's finally starting to move forward he's back. I just wanted there to be a deep discussion of what happened and for Mike to realize that Lauren wasn't "sad" but deeply hurt.

I feel like there wasn't any real groveling on top of that. The big conflict was more that Lauren wants kids. She is planning on getting artificially inseminated and is on fertility medicine. Mike goes all caveman on her and offers to be the baby daddy (in his mind he wants to marry her). I did not like this and was disappointed quite a few times when she just slept with him. Honestly, it comes down to I don't trust the HEA. There was no emotional work done to actually deal with the break-up and Lauren's subsequent trust issues so they both could move on. When in Mike's POV a couple times he talked about moving or pushing past her sadness and it really started to rub me the wrong way.

Outside of my issues, this was at least well written and it didn't turn me off on the series. I know that I'm very particular about second chance romances like this, but I just didn't feel like the emotional work was done for them to healthily come back together. I will continue to read Sarina Bowen and this series and I'm intrigued to see what happens next!

Have you read Pipe Dreams?

Bookishly Yours,

Stasi🍎

STATISTICS: Pipe Dreams, Sarina Bowen, 3.5 stars, 1 day, eBook, 336 pages, published in 2017, traditionally published

Rookie Move by Sarina Bowen

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For June 2022 I decided to try doing a tbr. I decided to give myself three prompts with 10 options each. The prompts are new to me author, backlist author and continue a series. The option I chose for continue a series was a newer series to me, Brooklyn Bruisers. I recently read Hard Hitter by Sarina Bowen for the Smart Women Read Romance exclusive patreon review and was encouraged to pick up a later book in the series. Instead of going with that recommendation I decided to go back to the beginning and pick up the first book, Rookie Move. I was able to use this for the prompt a book Shelby's read in the past two years for the Summer of Swoon and the prompt protagonist smells like laundry for the Ripped Bodice Summer Bingo.

Leo had just been traded to his hometown team, the Brooklyn Bruisers. Things aren't an easy assimilation though since the interim PR head is Georgia, his high school girlfriend and love of his life. Also just hired to the team is Georgia's father as head coach, who has harbored some hatred towards Leo since he was in high school. As Georgia and Leo start to reconnect, it comes to light that they both haven't dealt with some of the feelings that manifested their senior year when Georgia was attacked during a tennis camp. With the weird ending of their relationship and the trade deadline looming, Georgia is nervous to restart their relationship if she would lose Leo right away, especially with her father's anger towards Leo.

So, this was a little bit deeper and rougher, emotionally speaking, than I expected. There are triggers with dealing with rape, not only with the victim but her father and boyfriend at the time (it was not Leo that raped her). When it was first kind of mentioned that she was raped in high school, it seemed like it was only because her attack was a factor in the changing of their relationship that led to their break up. I was wrong in my assumption (I know, I try not to assume too much). There is some revelations that her dad still has some anger about the situation on top of Leo feeling even more protective of her (since he wasn't there during the attack). Outside of that, I really enjoyed seeing them reach their hea and reconnecting. I really felt like the reason for them breaking up made sense here and also allowed for them to pretty much pick back up easily. I'm not the biggest fan of second chance romance, but I didn't mind the way it played out here.

I'm excited to continue the series and definitely dig more into Sarina Bowen's backlist. Right now I'm going to focus on working through this series, but I've heard great things about some of her other series as well, particularly True North. Another contemporary author for me to keep my eye on! I'm happy that this was the series I pulled for my tbr, especially my hockey fever has been at a high with my team, the Colorado Avalanche, making it to the Stanley Cup Finals!

Have you read Rookie Move?

Bookishly Yours,

Stasi🍎

STATISTICS: Rookie Move, Sarina Bowen, 4-stars, 1 day, eBook, 336 pages, published in 2016, traditionally published

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