REVIEW: Pipe Dreams (Brooklyn Bruisers #3)

Pipe Dreams (Brooklyn Bruisers #3), by Sarina Bowen
Publish Date: May 2, 2017
Publisher: Berkley Romance
Format: e-ARC, provided by the publisher via Netgalley
Genre: adult contemporary romance
To Buy: Amazon | Barnes & Noble

Rating: 5 STARS

(Synopsis) Mike Beacon is a champion at defending the net, but off the ice, he’s not so lucky. A widower and a single father, he’s never forgotten Lauren Williams, the ex who gave him the best year of his life. When Lauren reappears in the Bruisers office during the playoffs, Beacon sees his chance to make things right.

Lauren hates that she’s forced to travel with the team she used to work for and the man who broke her heart. There’s still undeniable sexual tension running between her and Mike, but she won’t go down that road again. She’s focused on her plans for the future—she doesn’t need a man to make her dreams of motherhood come true.

Lauren plays her best defensive game, but she’s no match for the dark-eyed goalie. When the field of play moves to Florida, things heat up on the beach.

One of Mike’s biggest fans doesn’t approve—his teenage daughter. But a true competitor knows not to waste the perfect shot at love.

Sarina Bowen's series about hot hockey players gets better with every book. And Mike Beacon may just be the best book boyfriend this year. This man is honorable and determined and a really good dad. Without a doubt, he's the sexiest Bruiser yet. 

I didn't know how I'd feel about Lauren's book. She's always been kind of awful to everyone around her. We discover in Pipe Dreams that there's a very good reason behind this, and I loved watching Lauren's cold attitude slowly change as her orbit starts to expand to include hockey and Mike once again - two things she used to love, but had to give up. 

Lauren's relationship with Nate is especially sweet. He's her boss, but he seems like a really close friend as well. And Nate is definitely a friend you want to have. Not only is he loaded, but he gives good advice and friendly nudges in the right direction when they're needed. 

Mike is a veteran on the team. One of the oldest guys, he has a thirteen-year-old daughter, a dead wife, and feelings for Lauren that haven't died out for years. His story is definitely a sad one - his choices were not easy. He and Lauren had 18 perfect months before he had to leave her, and although I think the way he went about it was all wrong, his reasons behind them were true. 

Mike's determination to get Lauren back in his life isn't dampened by anything - not her constant refusals or his daughter's vehement objections. A man who knows what he wants is super sexy, and Mike may be the sexiest of them all. He wants that love back, and he's not going to stop until he has it. This man is unbelievable. 

There's actually some movement on the Nate and Becca situation in Pipe Dreams, so I don't know if they will get their own book or not. Especially since neither is a player. But, I loved their little side story that was running parallel to Lauren and Mike's. 

There's tons of hockey action in Pipe Dreams as the Bruisers enter the playoffs and start the hunt for the Stanley Cup. Sports books with very little sports action are always a bit disappointing. So, I was glad that this one was full of all the sports action that makes sports books one of my favorite sub-genres. 

Pipe Dreams not only didn't disappoint, but it blew me away with it's passion, it's excitement and it's honesty. I certainly hope that this isn't the last we've heard from the Brooklyn Bruisers.

REVIEW: Hard Hitter (Brooklyn Bruisers #2)

Hard Hitter (Brooklyn Bruisers #2), by Sarina Bowen
Publish Date: January 3, 2017
Publisher: Berkley Romance
Format: ARC, provided by the publisher
Genre: adult contemporary romance
To Buy: Amazon | Barnes & Noble

Rating: 4 STARS

(Synopsis) As team captain and enforcer, Patrick O'Doul puts the bruise in the Brooklyn Bruisers. But after years of hard hits, O'Doul is feeling the burn, both physically and mentally. He conceals his pain from his coach and trainers, but when his chronic hip injury becomes too obvious to ignore, they send him for sessions with the team’s massage therapist.

After breaking up with her long-term boyfriend, Ari Bettini is in need of peace of mind. For now, she’s decided to focus on her work: rehabilitating the Bruisers’ MVP. O'Doul is easy on the eyes, but his reaction to her touch is ice cold. Ari is determined to help O'Doul heal, but as the tension between them turns red hot, they both learn that a little TLC does the body good...

I loved getting back into the Brooklyn Bruisers world. Sarina Bowen has created a wonderful mix of sports and romance and all the behind the scenes shenanigans. I know before I even started Hard Hitter that I was going to love it.

From the glimpse we got of Patrick and Ari in book 1 they seemed very ill-fitted for one another. Patrick is the team's enforcer and a senior member of the group. He's there to play hockey - not make friends, and certainly not any other sort of relationship. He goes to work, gets the job done, and then goes home.

Ari, however, is the bright yoga instructor and massage therapist for the team. Touching others is part of her job, and she loves it. She was recently shaken up by a bad breakup with her boyfriend, and even though the dude just won't go away, she's determined to get on with her life and her work. And that means helping Patrick rehabilitate injuries sustained in his role as the team enforcer - no matter how much he doesn't think he needs her help.

As it turns out, despite their obvious differences, they each needed the other in different ways, and they didn't even realize it. Patrick desperately needed a lifeline back to the land of the living, and Ari was it for him. She gave him a safe place to work out all his hurts - both inside and outside - and through her he got to know his teammates better than he ever had before.

And Ari needed Patrick's strength as she continued to deal with her ex and the mess he got her into. Even though she wanted to be strong enough to handle everything on her own, sometimes you need the support of others, and Patrick was that for her. 

There's plenty of hockey action in Hard Hitter as Patrick hits the ice for his team and starts to train younger players to someday be as good as he is. There's also a lot of the behind-the-scenes business that fans of the game never get to see. We got to catch up with Leo and Georgia from book 1 and catch glimpses of potential couples for the next books in the series (PLEASE tell me there's going to be a book with Becca and Nate!).

Hard Hitter is told in dual POV and is full of tons of delicious sexy moments between Patrick and Ari. I'm loving this hot sports-themed series from Sarina Bowen!

REVIEW: Bittersweet (True North #1)

Bittersweet (True North #1), by Sarina Bowen
Publish Date: June 14, 2016
Publisher: Rennie Road Books
Format: paperbacks, purchased
Genre: adult contemporary romance
To Buy: Amazon | Barnes & Noble

Rating: 5 STARS

(Synopsis) The last person Griffin Shipley expects to find stuck in a ditch on his Vermont country road is his ex-hookup. Five years ago they’d shared a couple of steamy nights together. But that was a lifetime ago. 

At twenty-seven, Griff is now the accidental patriarch of his family farm. Even his enormous shoulders feel the strain of supporting his mother, three siblings and a dotty grandfather. He doesn’t have time for the sorority girl who’s shown up expecting to buy his harvest at half price.

Vermont was never in Audrey Kidder’s travel plans. Neither was Griff Shipley. But she needs a second chance with the restaurant conglomerate employing her. Okay—a fifth chance. And no self-righteous lumbersexual farmer will stand in her way.

They’re adversaries. They want entirely different things from life. Too bad their sexual chemistry is as hot as Audrey’s top secret enchilada sauce, and then some.

I wasn't sure what Bittersweet would be like, but I saw "Sarina Bowen" on the front cover and the word "lumbersexual" on the back, and it was all over for me. I knew I had to have it. And I knew I'd love it. 

And love it I did. I mean, what's not to love? Griffin Shipley is the kind of character you can't help but root for. He was poised to make it big in the NFL before his father died and he had to return home to his family's farm in Vermont to take care of it and his mother and younger siblings. Griff is now the man of the house, and it's stifling him. He gets the most joy from making craft hard cider, and he's really good at it. But, it's not making the money he needs, and Griff is feeling the pinch. 

Audrey Kidder is having her own personal crisis. In order to achieve her dream of running her own restaurant, she has to take the crap jobs at the bottom of the totem pole. Which means she gets to be the lucky person to drive from New York City up into the Vermont farm country begging local farmers to sell their wares for half what they're worth. It's not a fun job - especially when one of the farmers she has to approach is her wonderful one-weekend stand from college, Griffin Shipley. Awkward. 

Bittersweet was a delightfully foodie book. Audrey has plenty of chances to showcase her cooking talents for Griff and his family. And I loved the look at his farm and how he runs it and makes his cider. I get the feeling that Sarina Bowen did a lot of research for this book - it definitely shows. The farm was not just a backdrop in the book. It definitely took center stage as the place that can make or break Griff and his family. It also has lots of fun places for he and Audrey to reconnect. 

Audrey and Griffin both have stuff from their pasts to get through - both their pasts with each other and by themselves. There are plenty of roadblocks in place on the road to their HEA together. Audrey has to figure out what she wants to do for the rest of her life. Griffin has to reconcile what he wants to do with his life with what he has to do with his life. And both Audrey and Griff need to come clean about what happened to separate them after the weekend they spent together many years before. 

And while they self-reflect, thanks to the dual POV, and reminisce, they can find ways to help each other while falling in love and having really hot sex. It truly is a fun book with a great ending and a great introduction to all these other awesome characters that I can't wait to learn more about.  

REVIEW: Rookie Move (Brooklyn Bruisers #1)

Rookie Move (Brooklyn Bruisers #1), by Sarina Bowen
Publish Date: September 6, 2016
Publisher: Berkley Romance
Format: ARC, provided by the publisher
Genre: new adult contemporary romance
To Buy: Amazon | Barnes & Noble

Rating: 4.5 STARS

(Synopsis) Hockey player Leo Trevi has spent the last six years trying to do two things: get over the girl who broke his heart, and succeed in the NHL. But on the first day he’s called up to the newly franchised Brooklyn Bruisers, Leo gets checked on both sides, first by the team’s coach—who has a long simmering grudge, and then by the Bruisers’ sexy, icy publicist—his former girlfriend Georgia Worthington.

Saying goodbye to Leo was one of the hardest things Georgia ever had to do—and saying hello again isn’t much easier. Georgia is determined to keep their relationship strictly professional, but when a press conference microphone catches Leo declaring his feelings for her, things get really personal, really fast....

I love a good second chance romance story. Reading about two people separated by time and/or logistics, who now have the ability to reconnect for a potentially better future than they could've dreamed the first time around just makes all my feels happy. But, I've come to realize that there's one inherent flaw in this particular trope that you just can't get around. 

In nearly all cases, someone was a dumbass. Hence - the initial breakup. 

Now, the dumbassery is sometimes intentional, and other times it just can't be helped. But, in every case, it befalls our main couple because they couldn't just freaking talk to each other when it counted. 

Case in point - Leo and Georgia. 

You know what happens when you make assumptions? Yeah, well, when Leo and Georgia were 18, everyone made assumptions without hearing the truth, and as a result, they broke up and have spent the past six years in closeted misery. But the BEST part of the second chance romance trope is when the planets align and the two star-crossed lovers are thrust in each others' orbits once again, forcing them to finally do what they should've done all those years before. TALK. (Okay - and have lots of lets-get-reacquainted sex)

So, when Leo is brought up to play on the NHL team for which Georgia is the head publicist and her father is the head coach, things get really uncomfortable really quickly. Leo has never stopped loving Georgia, despite the fact that she broke his heart. So, he sees this as a sign that he's being given a second chance. Leo is an amazing man. He's sweet and determined and really only wants to see Georgia happy. And he is not willing to let her go this time, despite her efforts to the contrary.

I wanted to yell at Georgia so many times. This amazing man wants her. STILL. And, yet, she continues to find ways and reasons to keep her barriers up and shut him out. On top of that, it always frustrated me when she saw her father treating Leo like crap, and she did nothing about it. She mused about it - wondered why her father had it out for him. And, yet, she never pressed the issue, even though it obviously had to do with her and their past. How could it not? 

As someone with a degree in public relations, I loved the peek inside that part of a professional sports team. It sounds like an incredibly challenging position, and I thought Sarina Bowen did a great job balancing that side with the players' side. Hockey fans will love this book. Heck - I loved this book, and I don't follow hockey at all. 

Rookie Move was a fantastic start to this new series. Sarina Bowen treats her side characters with the same care as her main characters - they're colorful and multi-faceted and they all caught my interest. Which is great, since I'm assuming these characters, who are only peripheral ones in this book, will eventually get their own books. It makes me excited and anxious for the rest of their stories. 

Regardless of whether you love hockey, if you love a hot romance with plenty of feels on the side, Rookie Move should find a home on your bookshelf.