Review: Sweet and Sexy Read With Very Little Conflict
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 11 11, 2013
The second installment in the The Storm series is a sweet story that shows the slow build-up of a relationship between the kind-hearted Rob and the quiet and pristine teacher Alaina.  It reacquaints us with hockey players seen in the first installment and brings the love story of Sebastian and Sarah to an immensely happy conclusion while leaving yet another cliffhanger to end this story.Alaina teaches at a poor inner-city school and thus feels the pains of living frugally.  She's a standoffish woman at first, untrusting of everyone, but is soon won over by Rob's kindness.  She wants more for her students, and for herself, so Rob's visits become a welcome occurrence.  He gives her the financial means to help her students and the emotional support to keep fighting for those kids.  He makes her feel good about herself but also self-conscious as she doesn't want to be a kept woman dependent on his help.  She's grateful for him but is angered by how easy things are for him too.  It's an emotionally difficult relationship at times that leads her to many tearful moments but immensely satisfying too as seen by the numerous steamy encounters and quiet moments of cuddling.Rob is a strong-willed person not like other athletes as he's frugal with his money and only wants to do good.  He doesn't want to live in the spotlight, he just wants to be appreciated for the man he is rather than the athlete.  He's the perfect boyfriend saying and doing many sigh-worthy actions.  He's a supportive boyfriend who's always there to build her confidence whenever she doubts her appeal.  Even when he's at his lowest emotionally, after sustaining an injury, he's still a sweet and supportive man.Ms. Carr brings the game of hockey to life in realistic scenes both on and off the ice that depict all that a player goes through on a daily basis.  The hockey scenes were nicely balanced with the burgeoning romance to allow for a slow build-up, almost too slow at times.  There's no big misunderstandings to keep them apart, it's all emotional issues stemming from their financial differences.  Financial differences also allow for a subtle commentary on lack of school funding that is brought up throughout the story and continue to bind Alaina and Rob together.  Overall, this was an enjoyable read that went on a bit too long with no real roadblocks to a HEA left hanging.  I'm curious to see where things go for these two and the rest of The Storm in a future installment.