One Good Book Deserves Another

Genre: Contemporary Romance; Sports Romance
Series: Chinooks Hockey Team, Book 2
Rating: 4 Stars
Length: 384 Pages
Formats: Mass Market Paperback


She may be a Seattle Times columnist, but Jane Alcott was surprised when her boss put her on team coverage of the Chinooks, Seattle's NHL hockey team. Surprised, but in need of the money from the extra income, so Jane gritted her teeth and started to cram hockey stats and rules into her head and prepared herself to travel with the team. Just one small problem...the team wanted nothing to do with her and initiated a thorough, if passive (and...uh...eye-opening), shutout and intimidation campaign.

One of the worst was Luc "Lucky" Martineau, decorated goalie and big dollar talent for the Chinooks. Though much of his reputation as one of the baddest bad boys in hockey is a mix of lies and exaggeration, he is walking attitude and pretty upfront about his dislike of Jane's career, her appearance, and her traveling with the team. Every chance he gets he's either riling her up or stirring up his team members to annoy or ignore her.

She thinks Luc's good looks are exceeded only by his arrogance. He thinks her gloomy wardrobe and flat chest are personality flaws. Both would be happy if they never had to speak to the other. Neither can stop thinking about the other. Suddenly road trips are a lot more interesting for both Jane and Luc, and that pesky, inexplicable attraction sparking to life between them is hot enough to melt ice rinks from coast to coast.

Light, breezy, and fun, See Jane Score gave me exactly the sort of reading pleasure I was looking for when I picked it up. Jane and Luc were likable and perfect foils for each other, and Gibson moved the plot along at a lively pace. Sure, there were some predictable elements, some formula that is familiar to the genre, but the make-it-or-break-it points were firmly stacked in the make-it column for me.

I'll admit, I have a weakness for sassy, intelligent spitfires and the men who fall helplessly under their spell. Jane, for all her lack of fashion sense and her pessimistic views towards matters of the heart, didn't back down from a fight, wasn't afraid to speak her mind, and was more than capable of going toe-to-toe with a gorgeous hockey star bigger and stronger than she. I admired her chutzpah, that's for sure. Beyond that, she had an endearing ability to be both vulnerable and dignified that was very appealing.

Luc was the prototypical male's male, with a "friend" in every city and a self confidence that more than bordered arrogance, it crossed wildly into arrogance waving banners of its awesomeness. Behind that, though, in the dark recesses he let no one see, was an aging hockey star who had suffered a near career-ending injury to both knees and had pulled himself back from the edge of pain and pain reliever addiction with sheer stubbornness and determination. Hockey was obviously his life, and he loved his life, but he knew the pain and the work required to live it. And while he was arrogant, and started out seeming very superficial, his vulnerabilities and his confusion - in dealing with a growing attraction for Jane and in raising his teenaged sister, humanized him. I liked him, and I liked Jane, and I loved them together.

I also loved the secondary characters, from Jane's best friend Caroline, to Luc's sister Marie, and of course Darby...poor, hapless Darby. They added a lot of depth to the story and helped round out the main characters' lives beyond hockey and reporting, and the plotlines and threads that included them added depth to the romance story arc. Gibson fleshed the book out nicely with them, and with the more ancillary characters of the other hockey players.

The premise for Jane becoming the team's sports reporter was a little hokey and unbelievable. The woman didn't know sports, let alone hockey, and the idea that other sports reporters at the paper wouldn't have gotten first dibs on the assignment was a little hard to swallow. The end, too, with its predictable conflict between Jane and Luc, gave me some trouble.

I don't mind knowing that the relationship is going to have at least one major conflict that it has to survive to get to the Happily Ever After. I don't even mind, not in this sort of light read, anyway, seeing it coming as soon as the potential for conflict is explained in the story. That's just something I accept as a fan of the genre. What bothered me in this case, though, was when in the story it happened and the manner in which it got resolved.

It came so late in the book, and the core issues that led to it were so quickly glossed over, that the wait for it ended up being more significant than the issue itself. Instead of seeming like a genuine stumbling block that got true issues out in the open and expanded and solidified Luc and Jane's relationship, the conflict was discussed and resolved in what seemed like a mad rush to the book's finish line, just one more plot point to touch on before the end. I ended up feeling a little cheated by it. Some of that was assuaged by a truly lovely epilogue, but only some of it.

See Jane Score is a light romance designed to be fun and sexy, and on that score it definitely delivered. I gobbled it up like the brain candy it was. Yes, I had a couple of issues, but in the end, Gibson gave me exactly what I was hoping for when I started reading. A few hours of escapist fun that didn't make me think too hard (except, of course, about hockey terminology), and made me smile a whole bunch. I enjoyed it immensely.

Genre: Light/Comedic Romance
Series: Chinooks Hockey Team, Book 5
Rating: 3 Stars
Length: 384 Pages, 4217 Locations
Formats: Mass Market Paperback, Kindle


When he woke up in the hospital after a car accident that almost cost him his life, Mark Bressler knew his hockey career was over. Months later, the slow and incredibly painful rehabilitation process is no more crippling that the dark morass of self pity into which he's slid. Morose and beaten, he's lost everything that ever meant anything to him, and when his team wins the coveted Stanley Cup without him, it almost kills him. All he wants to do is sit in his huge house and be left alone with his Vicodan. The last thing he wants is another team-hired home health worker shoved in his face, doing everything but wiping his butt.

Chelsea Ross isn't in health care. In fact, she's an actress...sort of. Her short, busty appearance has landed her a few rolls as screaming victims in B-grade horror movies, and she's had a few other walk-on rolls in soaps and commercials. After hockey player Mark Bressler had fired, scared off, or offended all six of the health care professionals the team sent to him to help him recover at his home, Chelsea's twin sister Bo got her a shot at going in another direction. For a meager salary but a much-needed ten thousand dollar bonus if she can put up with the surly, rude bastard for three months, Chelsea is determined to use a combination of her acting skills and experience as an assistant to LA's near-elite to put up with him. Even if he is a total Tool.

Broken and wounded, Mark's bitter self pity lashes out at Chelsea again and again. Chelsea grits her teeth and takes it. Neither like each other very much. Or...you know...at all. But the sparks can't help but fly when the unstoppable Chelsea clashes with the immovable Mark, and the longer the friction, the hotter the fire.

Despite the fact that every sports-themed romance series I've read has at least one book centered around the player that can no longer play and the spunky, irrepressible woman who pulls him out of his funk, I didn't mind the plot of Nothing But Trouble. While it lacked originality, it was cute and entertaining, and had a slick, quickly-paced narrative with plenty of sharp back-and-forth dialogue that appealed.

I wasn't always thrilled with Mark, whose self pity wore on me as it progressed long into the book. A portion of his personality is understandable. He lost his career, almost lost his life, and spent months in constant, chronic pain. I can sympathize with that...to a point. Because in the end, its still a light sports romance and should be entertaining. For my tastes, Mark's attitude needed adjustment sooner than it happened here. Chelsea, on the other hand, was at turns enchanting and adorable, with a nice blend of quirky individuality and steady control. I liked her, and frankly, I liked Mark the best when he was interacting with her, though I suppose that's rather the point.

There were plenty of good points through most of the book and I enjoyed most of it as the light, fun read it's intended to be. And then suddenly, things took a less pleasing turn in the final two chapters. The formula of the romance almost demands that moment of exploding conflict between the protagonists, in fact, my overall impression of romances often rests on that conflict and subsequent resolution. The problem for me here was the impetus of the conflict seemed contrived, the conflict itself didn't seem very conflict-worthy, and Mark's reactions seemed inflated.

The resolution compounded the problem. From a story perspective, I felt Mark didn't redeem himself quite enough and Chelsea grabbed for that HEA too quickly despite it. More troubling for me was a perplexing timeline conflict that jarred me right out of the story (details containing spoilers provided below).

I have a fondness for light, sports-themed romances, and most of this book gave me several hours of reading entertainment. A couple of changes here or there and the final two chapters could have easily matched the preceding ones. I'm disappointed they didn't.

Genre: Contemporary Romance
Series: N/A
Rating: 3 Stars
Length: 384 Pages, 5155 Locations
Formats: Paperback, Kindle


California girl Hope Spencer blows into the small northwest town of Gospel, Idaho for a six month stay, hoping to break through her writer's block and to clear out of L.A. until the dust settles from a legal battle that ended in her getting a restraining order against a stalker. Sheriff Dylan Taber takes one look at the flashy car and flashier woman and bets his deputy that the delectable Ms. Spencer won't last a week.

Gossip is about as far removed from California as it can possibly be, and Hope feels like she just set down on a different planet, but the colorful townspeople stir her creative juices and soon she's submitting fresh articles for The Weekly News of the Universe, making her editor very happy. It may be the sort of newspaper that publishes fiction about bigfoot sightings and alien abductions, but she likes it, and she's happy to be productive again.

Happier to have met the gorgeous sheriff, who stirs more than just her creative juices. For the first time in so long, Hope doesn't feel the pressing weight of loneliness, and as she and Dylan get closer and closer, she starts to wonder if maybe she can trust him with some things she's been keeping secret. Dylan, though, has his own secrets, and his life revolves around protecting his seven year old son. No matter how close he and Hope become, there are things he hasn't told her, things he hasn't told anyone. But when he suddenly becomes aware of some of the secrets Hope has been harboring, he realizes that there's no way he can trust the woman - there's too much at risk...and way too much to lose.

They're made for each other, but in this case, that may just not be enough.

True Confessions hits several good notes, and Rachel Gibson writes a smooth narrative with a colorful and quirky backdrop of scenery and secondary characters. From a stylistic standpoint, I have no complaints. Unfortunately, as sometimes happens, this story just didn't resonate with me. I had problems with both the plot and the characters, and though it was easy to see that Gibson has a lot of talent as an author, this one missed the mark for me because of it.

I found both Hope and Dylan difficult to like consistently through the story. Hope was a little too much of a stereotype rather than a unique character, the girly-girl that screams and flees from bats and always has the perfect hair, perfect makeup, perfect nails. Through the book her aversion to the great outdoors and lack of genuine appreciation for nature and the majestic scenery around her started to wear on me. I also had a big problem with the ease at which she kept secrets and flat out lied to people. In fact, she lied to everyone she spoke to, in one form or another, for one reason or another. And Dylan wasn't much better, though I certainly understood his desire to protect his son.

Not surprising that the lack of truth and trust were big issues on the rocky road to HEA, but I still felt that the book kept missing the point with its focus and "resolution." Like despite the happy ending, too much was left unaddressed or really dealt with, and too much skimmed over (like Adam). There was also a plot thread or two left dangling. That left me feeling like there were a few too many missed opportunities.

At turns, both characters acted with more than bit of hypocrisy, and I still don't understand why Hope was so tolerant while Dylan was hiding their relationship from the town. Being a man's dirty little secret isn't my idea of a good time. Their attraction started out mostly superficial, and while it did deepen, the readers weren't allowed to see that as it happened, more told about it in summary. That's a shame. I enjoy watching a relationship develop and evolve from attraction to something deeper. I would've enjoyed seeing the same with Hope and Dylan.

True Confessions isn't a bad book. It's just one of those books that seemed a little off note to me, and most of that was because of personal reading preference. I have no doubt that many would thoroughly enjoy it. I liked Gibson's writing style, so this book certainly didn't turn me off ever reading anything else she's written. I just didn't connect very well with this particular story and these particular characters. It happens.