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Saving the Grumpy Billionaire: An Ex-Hockey Star, A Single Dad, A Small Town Romance & a Dog Name Puck
I Tried to Save Everything. I Almost Lost Her.
I don’t believe in accidents. Especially not the night in New York that changed my life.
One woman. One mistake. No promises. No follow‑up. I walked away thinking it was clean. It wasn’t. I went to rehab because of her. She built walls because of me. Neither of us knew the other paid the price.
Years later, fate drops us into the same small coastal town.
I own the resort. She runs the Michelin‑starred restaurant inside it. Bella St. Mark is disciplined, brilliant, and off‑limits in every way that matters. She doesn’t need saving. She doesn’t want control. And she doesn’t trust men who disappear when things get hard.
When a coordinated land grab threatens the children’s home and the future of Jagged Cove, I do what I’ve always done. I take charge. I lock down the problem. I fight the threat.
I don’t see what it costs her.
Until she’s attacked.
Until she leaves.
Until I realize too late that saving a town isn’t the same thing as protecting the woman standing right in front of me.
I follow her to Venice, ready to fight for answers.
What I find instead is the truth. About why she left. About what she needed. About what’s now at stake.
Coming back together doesn’t mean going back.
It means learning how to stand behind the woman strong enough to lead.
Because the worst thing I ever almost lost wasn’t the Cove.
It was her.
I don’t believe in accidents. Especially not the night in New York that changed my life.
One woman. One mistake. No promises. No follow‑up. I walked away thinking it was clean. It wasn’t. I went to rehab because of her. She built walls because of me. Neither of us knew the other paid the price.
Years later, fate drops us into the same small coastal town.
I own the resort. She runs the Michelin‑starred restaurant inside it. Bella St. Mark is disciplined, brilliant, and off‑limits in every way that matters. She doesn’t need saving. She doesn’t want control. And she doesn’t trust men who disappear when things get hard.
When a coordinated land grab threatens the children’s home and the future of Jagged Cove, I do what I’ve always done. I take charge. I lock down the problem. I fight the threat.
I don’t see what it costs her.
Until she’s attacked.
Until she leaves.
Until I realize too late that saving a town isn’t the same thing as protecting the woman standing right in front of me.
I follow her to Venice, ready to fight for answers.
What I find instead is the truth. About why she left. About what she needed. About what’s now at stake.
Coming back together doesn’t mean going back.
It means learning how to stand behind the woman strong enough to lead.
Because the worst thing I ever almost lost wasn’t the Cove.
It was her.
391 pages, Kindle Edition
Published January 25, 2026
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
February 2, 2026
Bart (MMC) is a hockey star who meets Bella (MFC) a chef who meet for drinks one night. She wakes up after an incredible night, but he had left, and without her knowing his name. She later sees him on social media finds out he was arrested after a drunken incident and taken to rehab. Which she has deep feelings about and she builds a wall around her heart. Now, six years later she is working at a restaurant that is attached to the resort that is owned and operated by Bart. There is still an attraction on both sides, and due to arguments they have the internet label them as “Ice & Fire”. Bella wants to tell Bart some news, but Bart doesn’t take the time to hear it due to a plot to control the beach front. She leaves early one morning and goes to Venice to her father’s restaurant. Bart doesn’t even realize she is gone for several days, but then he flies there when he finds out where she is. She gives him the news that she is pregnant, and he wants to support her through the pregnancy. She is not sure she wants him involved and he agrees to give her time and space. A great story of personal growth. I enjoyed the book, a must read. A great second chance love story.
I received an ARC of the book via BookSprout and I am voluntarily leaving my review.
I received an ARC of the book via BookSprout and I am voluntarily leaving my review.
February 15, 2026
almost promising….
This is a book that reads more like a first draft or an outline for a future book… They are missing timelines, skipped events, people walking into scenes that had no explanation of why they are there… A child not explained where she came from except some mention of a divorce at some point, but we don’t know what that was or what led to it, or where that wife/mother is…Only because of the child’s age can we assume she was conceived prior to the main characters first relationship.… And then the story gets so convoluted, not quite fixating on one angle above another. This child that was never explained disappears, never to be explained again until the very end… And all of a sudden she shows up. The whole read just feels like it was not well thought out and somebody decided to publish well before it was ready to go. I don’t know if it’s the author’s fault or the editor‘s fault… But someone needs to rethink this book completely.
This is a book that reads more like a first draft or an outline for a future book… They are missing timelines, skipped events, people walking into scenes that had no explanation of why they are there… A child not explained where she came from except some mention of a divorce at some point, but we don’t know what that was or what led to it, or where that wife/mother is…Only because of the child’s age can we assume she was conceived prior to the main characters first relationship.… And then the story gets so convoluted, not quite fixating on one angle above another. This child that was never explained disappears, never to be explained again until the very end… And all of a sudden she shows up. The whole read just feels like it was not well thought out and somebody decided to publish well before it was ready to go. I don’t know if it’s the author’s fault or the editor‘s fault… But someone needs to rethink this book completely.
March 19, 2026
enemies to lovers
Bella finds herself running a restaurant in the same town as her one night stand from six years ago. They are constantly butting heads until someone tries to take over the resort. Now they need to band together to fight this unknown assailant.
Bella finds herself running a restaurant in the same town as her one night stand from six years ago. They are constantly butting heads until someone tries to take over the resort. Now they need to band together to fight this unknown assailant.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews