The Contract

Portsmouth Navigators Hockey #1

by Kennedy Blake

Il est la brute la plus redoutée du hockey. Elle est censée le dompter. Leur contrat dit « faux-semblants ». Leurs corps disent autre chose.

Sophie Reynolds, la magicienne des relations publiques qui transforme les démons en princes charmants… a juré de ne plus jamais approcher un sportif. Trahie et utilisée par le passé, son cœur est en mode forteresse. Mais l'offre des Navigators de Portsmouth est trop belle pour être refusée, même si cela signifie affronter Jake « Mitch » Mitchell – une tempête sur patins, aussi sexy qu'ingérable, dont la carrière ne tient qu'à un fil… et à la patience de Sophie.

Un écart de conduite de plus et Jake prend un aller simple pour l'Alaska. Son unique chance ? Le plan de Sophie. Y compris une fausse romance pour les caméras, destinée à prouver au monde (et à la ligue) qu'il peut être l'homme idéal.

Le problème ? Une alchimie bien réelle qui crépite entre eux dès le premier regard et menace de faire exploser leur arrangement fragile. Entre réécrire la réputation de Jake et succomber à une tentation brûlante, Sophie pourrait découvrir que le jeu le plus dangereux se joue hors de la glace.

Peuvent-ils respecter les termes du contrat quand chaque toucher les enflamme ?

Genres: Sports, Romance, Forced Proximity, Enemies To Lovers, Sports Romance, Contemporary

405 pages, Kindle Edition

Published March 23, 2025

Reviews

[lorisbooks · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5⭐️
Sophie Reynolds è una famosa specialista di riabilitazione dell’immagine e, dopo essere stata usata da un cliente sia professionalmente che personalmente si tiene lontana dai cattivi ragazzi e dagli atleti. Ma quando i Portsmouth Navigators le offrono un’opportunità impossibile da rifiutare e si ritrova al fianco di Jake Mitchell, un giocatore di hockey che sta avendo problemi col mantenere la calma in campo. Per evitare il trasferito in Alaska, Sophie e Jake insceneranno una finta relazione. Tutto sembra semplice fino a quando Sophie non inizia a scoprire cosa si cela sotto la maschera del cattivo ragazzo e a quel punto dovranno scoprire per cosa vale la pena lottare….
Un romance sicuramente carino e adatto per allontanarsi dalla realtà.
La scrittura non l’ho trovata molto scorrevole, forse a causa dei capitoli lunghi e a volte non riuscivo a capire l’ordine degli eventi narrati…

[Sydney Estabrooks · Rating 2 out of 5]

I love the concept of the book however not the execution. For the first 40% (roughly) I loved the book them it was as though the editing was never finished. There were a few chapters that were written as though it was ideas that were never finished or put into full sentences. Then for the last 50% of the book it was the same exact thing being said but in slightly different ways. It seemed as though the book was written in a few different ways and they never finalized which direction to go with it. I wish the details and writing would’ve been done properly as this most likely would’ve been a 4 star read at least.

[Rochelle · Rating 2 out of 5]

cute story but poor writing

Difficult to follow- jumps around and contradicts itself. Repetitive at times. Transitions written poorly. Basically should have been edited better.

[Christine McAuley · Rating 4 out of 5]

Cute couple story

The content of “The Contract” was great. Kennedy Blake did a fantastic job with the character development of Jake and Sophie and I truly enjoyed the plot progression of the story. Structurally, at times the text was hard to read, there didn’t seem to be “breaks” in the pages to indicate time progression or they weren’t drastic enough to be noticeable so it often felt like the story jumped in time, making it hard to follow and resulting in several instances of needing to re-read the paragraphs. Characters’ internal thoughts also tended to be confusing at times as they weren’t clearly distinguished between dialogue. Overall though I did enjoy the story, characters and plot development and likely continue reading the series, though moving forward some slight editing changes could make a big difference in reader experience.

[Maysa · Rating 1 out of 5]

DNF at 65% - needs some serious editing

I couldn't finish the book because of the completely wild changes in the story from one scene to the next.

One minute the ex is a former client that cheated on her, the next he's a rival that stole her clients and broke her heart.

One minute the MMC walks the FMC out after their first night together and the next minute she's walked out on him before saying anything.

The straw that broke me was after they seemingly finally decide to move beyond the contracted relationship and make it real all of a sudden there was no contracted relationship and it was a PR advisor/ client relationship all along ???

It could be a good book with at least an attempt at a proofread to get the story straight.

Okay if you can look past all the leaps and jumps in the story, which I wasn't able to.

[Kettyco · Rating 3 out of 5]

I liked the book, I liked the cover, the characters aren't that superficial, also the hockey theme, the enemies-to-lovers trope with forced proximity, with him being the ray of sunshine, was something fresh, my problem was with the sequence of situations: repetitive situation, several times I read that she woke up startled at 5 am and had messages from the assistant, telling her about her professional success. It's repetitive, also the baking at 2 am, or when the rookie asked Jake for advice on his girlfriend. There was another scene where he gives her a gift, they were fine, happy, it ended very beautifully, but in the next chapter it seems like that didn't happen. I think it was a revision problem, either there were too many chapters and they had to cut or there were too few and they had to improvise, and it's strange that your ARC team didn't notice.

[Amanda · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good Read

The Contract centers around Sophie, a PR specialist, and Jake, a troubled hockey player. They storyline was good and progressed well, but there were times that the story was jumpy and not clearly edited. There were multiple times that the story just jumped from one thing to the next with no transition or page break to indicate that it was a different day or place. In addition, the way Sophie talked at times was very robot like, it made the story seem less real. I understand that some people are analytical, but it was hard to read at times.

[A.R. Broxham · Rating 2 out of 5]

I could not finish this book. The inconsistencies drove me crazy, the fact there weren’t scene breaks where there needed to be scene breaks made it confusing to read. The face that she like to stress French pastries but she made a pavlova which is a desert invented in New Zealand. The chemistry between the two main characters died when they decided take their fake dating into the real thing… it became platonic and boring. I had such high hopes that it would get better… but yeah not for me

[Amanda]

J’ai DNF le livre à 47% car je n’arrive pas à continuer.

Je trouve que l’histoire d’amour a été trop rapide, les personnages et leur relation pas assez développés. Et franchement je m’ennuie en lisant…

[Mari · Rating 3 out of 5]

2.5

[Becca Akins]

dnf.
this needs serious editing. it jumps around and scenes aren't fully flushed out.

[user_moon · Rating 3 out of 5]

Bonne histoire qui se lit assez rapidement.
Le personnage de Sophie est difficile à suivre à cause de son caractère analytique mais au final on s’attache quand même à elle facilement.
J’ai préféré les pov de Jake mais le personnage aurait été mieux si l’autrice l’aurait plus développé.
Il y a quelques incohérences et beaucoup de répétitions de scènes ça m’a donné l’impression que l’autrice écrit pour écrire cela gâche un peu le livre à mon goût.
Il méritait plus de réflexion car l’histoire est pas mal dans le fond.