Review: A rating....
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 11 4, 2013
My Review:First thought when I finished: When are books #2 and #3 coming out??? I really, really enjoyed this book!! I truly do love sports themed books and this is a great one centered around hockey.Savannah is the new female trainer for a professional hockey team. As the only female in the league doing this job, she has to work extra hard to maintain her professionalism in the face of the rough and rowdy hockey players. Being asked out first thing on the job by the team's 12 year veteran and rumored man-whore/party boy is not the way to do that. Savannah is NOT amused and it takes a while for her to even like Garrick after that.Garrick simply lost his head when he met Savannah. He certainly didn't mean to do anything to her reputation. He was just overwhelmed by her and went with his first instinct when he met her. (Can I mention that I love that about him? He's definitely an action kind of guy.) But the two do finally manage to bond when the team bully puts Savannah in his sights. Suddenly Garrick or one of his friends is showing up at just the right time to save her from a REALLY bad situation and she begins to realize that she misjudged him. It also doesn't hurt that they have an incredible chemistry that's hard to ignore.This is a really complex story. Garrick has been playing for 12 years. His body is in pretty bad shape so he has to go to Savannah pretty much constantly just to manage to stay on the ice. In the midst of all that there are a couple of serious threats in the story. Bobby is the bully I mentioned before and he's causing problems EVERYwhere. It also doesn't help that his daddy is the town's criminal boss....there are all kinds of dangers coming from this side of the story. But there's also the threat of the team going away. The owner of the team is a reclusive (and really intriguing guy....I so hope there's more to his story coming from Samantha Wayland because he is definitely a story all on his own) and is threatening to sell the team or get rid of it entirely. If that happens, Savannah and Garrett will both be out a job. For Garrett, that will mean retirement and he's just not ready for that since he has no idea what he wants to do after hockey. So there's all these other side-stories and moments of intrigue that make the story so good and riveting.And that's before you really even talk about Garrett and Savannah. OMG, I really loved how their relationship evolved in this book. They are so hot together. I'm telling you, Samantha Wayland knows how to write sizzling scenes...WOW! The hottest was definitely when Garrett was explaining his history. And this is where I say "YIPPEE!" because at the end of the book, the story synopsis for the next two books were there and we get to explore those avenues so much more in them! OMG!! I cannot wait!!!And I'm putting in my requests right now...I want follow-up stories for Jack, for Reese, and for Savannah's six hockey playing brothers...Oh my! I can't wait to see what happens with this team, too, because the ending is fabulous with the way things work out and I hope that we see lots more through the next two books. Write faster, Samantha!!!