Review: Great contemporary romance
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 05 17, 2013
I loved this story. It touched on so many things that I could relate to and really made me feel with and for the people in the story. I empathized with Billie coming home and not knowing where to go since her career was taken from her, with Bobbi feeling resentful as the sister who stayed at home and was the dutiful daughter while her sisters chased their dreams all over the world. I felt for all the family in dealing with their father/son whose dementia made him unpredictable, irritable and a stranger one day and their loving family member the next. I worried with all of those who were keeping secrets because they didn't know how to confess, they knew that they were on a ticking time bomb that could ruin their relationships. I was also outraged at the abuse that Billie was subjected to by people who had known her her whole life, mostly because they knew she was better than they could ever hope to be.This is the first in a trilogy about what else? A set of triplets. The Barker triplets are a little famous in their small hometown for being beautiful and very different from each other but also with a little bit of trouble making in their genes. Bobbi-Jo, Betty-Jo, and Billie-Jo were raised by their father and grandfather when their mother died young, and all ended up doing wildly different things. Bobbi-Jo stayed close to home and works in the corporate world. Betty-Jo became a model, traveling the world, but having struggles with drugs and alcohol. Billie-Jo became a professional hockey player, representing the USA in two Olympics and playing in the professional men's league in Europe, where she was one of four women allowed to play in that league. When Billie suffered a major concussion, her second in two years, her team didn't wait to see how she would recover, they just released her from her contract and sent her home.When she felt recovered, she discovered there was a new Friday night hockey league forming and signed up to play. This threw the town into a tizzy, the men stating that it was a men's league and she couldn't play. However, there was nothing in the rules that said women couldn't play, and it was a "no contact" league, so Billie couldn't figure out why there was such a big fuss. Her high school crush, Logan, said he'd gladly have her on his team, and though there was grumbling, after the first game in which she scored eight points, her teammates began to realize her skills were quite an asset to their team. Her car was vandalized, she was called all kinds of names, even her sister accused her of playing for the attention, but no one realized,  except Logan and their friend Shane, how much playing hockey meant to her, how much she loved the game, lived for it.When Billie and Logan finally give in to the attraction between them, it's explosive. Billie has loved him since high school, but he never noticed her. There are some secrets between them that could tear them apart, unless their love is really strong. Logan's never been in love before, he's not known for his long term relationships. Can they survive? Billie also has family issues to deal with. Her father is only in his mid fifties, but he has dementia and requires around the clock supervision. No one knows where Betty-Jo is, and Bobbi has become a real Stepford wife instead of the hell raiser she used to be, and she's not even engaged to the dweeb she's dating. On top of all that, Billie has to figure out what to do with the rest of her life. No pressure.Heat factor hot.