DNF 14%. There are two main reasons why I didn't finish this book. 1) nearly the entire book is written in single-sentence paragraphs giving a really disjointed, stilted effect for the reader. London Casey does use some multi-sentence paragraphs so I know she knows what they are, but that just makes it all the more baffling that she refuses to use them 99.9% of the time. 2) the characters are stupid and complete idiots. The female lead decides to tell her one-night-stand that she had his baby by taking a work assignment to interview him, brings the baby with her to a professional sports locker room with dozens of naked men, and reveals said baby like a magician's prize in front of dozens of other reporters. Later that evening the male lead visits her house and after discussing NOTHING about the pregnancy or the baby, propositions her for sex because she is a 'sure thing' as she already had his baby. Absolutely insane how bad this was!
I wish I could get back the amount of time I wasted attempting to read this book. Let me start by saying, never use the word Lover repeatedly as a way of addressing someone while trying to make the reader believe the male lead is a good guy and not a man wh*re. The characters are immature for their current positions in life. DNF - skimmed through until the end because I couldn't commit to any more, Lover...
Here we go... I got the Kindle and Audible on this book because as much as I'd love to, I can't sit down to read all the time, even though I'm a fast reader. This book gets a 2.75-3 stars. At first it sounded like high school drama, they have a one night stand, she gets pregnant, doesn't tell him yet expects him to be psychic about what's going on and blames him for everything including not being there for her throughout her pregnancy, then she shows up and basically says "surprise" you're my baby's daddy. He takes responsibility, acts like a responsible father yet she still cooking bad feelings about him in her brain until the end when she finally rubs two brain cells together and figures out he's a good guy. The Audible version... Don't bother paying for it, the female narrator is good, the male narrator sounds like he's on uppers and downers, if you know what I mean... He has a lot of potential, he has a good voice but he needs a neck of a lot of practice on narrating audio books. This would have been a very good story if the characters didn't sound so immature. Good bones, bad general delivery. Not interested in reading or listening to the next book.
First in the series London has written yet another great book loved the characters, the chemistry the main characters had and the way Luc and his teammates bonded. If you like sports romance and hot and heated scenes then this is for you 4 1/2 ⭐️
DNF at 28% seriously the way the story was written I thought I was much farther along. I’m not going to read 421 pages of this train wreck. Not good at all.
Bad boy hockey player and sexy reporter, are locking lips, and intend, to do a whole lot more. Once, they strip, each other down. Lucca Pixon. The player with a bad reputation on, the Inci Warriors Hockey team. Breaking tons of ethical codes, with Emma Lorne because she is, after all, a reporter. Their night together was off the charts.
Here’s the thing, Emma doesn't have a clue, until well into her fifth month, and only because of, a gyno appointment, did she find out. Then, she rolls over, in the morning, and a small beach ball appears, under her shirt, and each week it grew bigger. Before that, there were no symptoms, at all. She knew for sure, it was, Luc’s baby, too. The week before, Christmas she gave birth, to their daughter, Isla.
Due to the hours, with a newborn, she needed a job. She would take anything she could get. She lied through her teeth, to get the sports gossipy stuff. Emma faked her way through knowing about hockey. And she got the job. She lied through my teeth to get the sports gossipy stuff. I faked my way through knowing about hockey. And I got the job.
The gossip stuff for all sports was easy, to do especially before, and after the pregnancy. But, now she's a new mom, and she wants more, better. Somehow she just couldn't seem to get away from it. So, when a news story breaks about Luc in a bar fight she doesn't seem surprised. However, when he goes to the children’s hospital and tosses his cookies and the speculation is whether he is drunk or hungover then she perks up.
Mind you his night had gone south, after going out, with the guys. He wakes, up to his agent calling, a meeting in his office, ASAP with brass, and then the children's hospital. Putting him foremost, on the news front. Making the rags want, to dig in their heels, looking for trash on him. Guess whose boss wants her, to lead the charge. Yup! Emma’s boss has gone digging, in her desk, and found tons of, fandom articles, on Luc.
Her boss wants a trash story on, Luc. She says she wants everything she can find. Dig deeper than the stuff inside her desk. She nods and leaves. Deciding maybe it is time for Luc to meet Isla. The one he doesn’t know he has. The thing she is not expecting, as she hides the baby behind her, in a stroller, is that he remembers, her and that their chemistry, is still sizzling.
Such a good story some of the characters and their behavior are surprising. I love his teammate's brashness, and yet their loyalty, to Luc as his friend, and brother. The dad’s club was a hoot. They were the best. My favorite part was the tea party scene.
DNFed this free on audible audiobook. Hated it so much I’m copying my review from there over to here.
First of all, the plot is just mind numblingly stupid. I don’t love secret baby trope but if the author can convince me it’s for a good reason, I can get on board. That didn’t happen here. There literally was no reason for the FMC to not tell him about the baby. The FMC said “what do you want me to say? I don’t know. Any reason I can give either makes you sound awful or me sound awful.” That’s it. That’s the whole reason. And the reason for revealing her baby to him? Unclear. Possibly to sabotage his game so she can write some libelous gossip article about how awful he is for abandoning the baby she never told him existed?
Ugh, also, they just… didn’t use birth control. This wasn’t a “oops the condom broke” situation. He just didn’t use a condom and she just never told him she wasn’t on any form of birth control and I have to think that they both needed to RUSH to get tested. And also this can’t be his first secret baby.
Second, the MMC begins their one night stand by getting baked and standing on her bed. Why? No idea.
Third, the MMC calls the FMC “lover.” The entire time.
Fourth, the author thinks the reader is an idiot and uses so many dialogue tags it’s offensive.
But it’s not just the plot! Oh no, the female narrator has weird pronunciation quirks that are just so jarring, like “nipple” becomes “nip pull.” And her voice for the MMC is just a breathy drunken slur.
The male narrator, though, is by far the worst part. Has this man ever considered that people want to…idk, HEAR all of the narration without constantly adjusting volume or getting screamed at? Not a day in his life. Everything is said with a sigh, half the words are mumbled gibberish and the other half are yelled. He’s the same narrator who was Jupiters voice in the Lulu Moore baseball book where scientific specialities don’t exist. I automatically despise any MMC he voices because his voice is just so off-putting. Abrasive, conceited, jerk voice.
This was a book I grabbed while free so listen as background noise, so none of this should have bothered me enough to write this NOVEL of a review. But it’s just. That. Bad.
I ended up DNFing at Chapter 19 — I really tried to hang in there, but this hockey-player-meets-journalist romance just didn’t work for me.
The premise had promise: second chance romance, a surprise baby, and the potential for emotional depth. But the execution? Yikes.
Let’s talk about the MFC. She’s furious the MMC wasn’t there for her during her pregnancy… yet she never told him she was pregnant. What are we doing? She vents all her frustrations into a Word doc instead of communicating or seeking therapy, and her friends are oddly fixated on turning her child’s father into a headline rather than supporting a potential co-parenting relationship. Wanting to publish a hit piece on the dad of your child — who didn’t even know he was a dad — is not the empowering move they think it is.
The MMC didn’t help much either. Instead of stepping up for his own child, he’s practicing diaper duty with his niece. And the pet name “lover”? He used it on all his flings because he couldn’t remember their names… and still uses it for the MFC. Gross.
All of the characters read way too immature for their age and career status. The writing style felt overly simple and repetitive, and the overall vibe was just… shallow. There was no nuance, no growth, no tension — just frustration. Maybe this was the author’s debut? If so, there’s room for growth.
Narration-wise, the female narrator was solid. The male voice actor, though, felt miscast. His performance didn’t match the tone or energy the story needed.
This was supposed to be a second-chance, slow-burn romance with some hockey heat and professional conflict. Instead, I got a miscommunication marathon and characters I couldn’t root for. Not for me.
so more like 3.5 ⭐️ One night Stan creates a baby, normal thing that happens normal thing. She is thinking that he wouldn't be a good dad. So she doesn't tell him, and then gets mad at him for not being there, because, well, she's a little, you know, too much in her head. This happens in real life. All the time. And then shows up and says, hey, you're a dad and instead of doing what most men do in that situation which is runaway and deny it, because there's no DNA proof he goes to his sister and says, help me figure this out. I need to know how to take care of a baby. You had one help me, which is a good response. A response that is rarely ever The way things go in real life, there are the occasional unicorns that have this reaction. But let's face it, most men would have jumped and run. And you would have had to have a court order for a DNA test to prove it, to get any kind of child support or to get him, to even acknowledge that he had a kid granted, that's not exactly what she wanted. She wanted an excuse to hate him even more, even though everything is made up in her head, let's face it. Sometimes we do that as women, we put our own insecurities, on the other person, this is just pointing that out But it ends up with a happily ever after. Although it is annoying that it does have the standard almost to the end. Break up because something happens that shouldn't have happened. Why couldn't we have not had that happen? Just have her get fired for not giving the story that the boss wanted?
This book was hard! There’s barely any paragraphs, it’s mostly single sentences per line and normally when I read those in a book it’s normally during a fast paced action scene. And you can take a break in the middle of a page to look around and make sure your kids are alive before going back, but there were no paragraphs so I just kept reading and my kids just did bad things hahahah! So that show I read it most of this book, it’s was like quick and dirty and now my brain hurts!
Story was nice, characters were a bit nuts and annoyed me a bit but it was well written (if you ignore the lack of paragraph structure). Interesting play on the whoops baby. The perfect amount of steam to story. But I’m not super excited about the next one just yet. Dunno. Might come back to it.
Oh wow this was a good start to a new series and hockey team. Lucca Pixon plays on the Inci Warriors. He is hot and sexy. He’s known for fights , drinking , and women. But he’s a badass on the ice along with his teammates. Emma is a writer for a b*tch of a boss. She assigns Emma to write a story about Lucca. Oh and they slept together months ago that resulted in a baby girl name Isla. Emma decides after her being 6 months old now to tell him about her. Lucca meets his daughter and falls in love instantly. Now they have to figure things out to co-parents and such. The rest of the guys are funny AF. ( can’t wait for more of their stories.). This book was crazy , funny , sexy and I just couldn’t get enough. I need more of Lucca.
As much as I enjoyed the book Luc’s nickname for Emma (Lover) was so annoying. But, were meant for each other. I loved that Luc steped up to be a Father to Elsa, no questions asked. His sister Leia how Luc take care of her kids to teach everything he needed to to be a real daddy. Even carrying a watermelon. I felt bad for Emma, her Mother only cared about money and trying to throw money at Emma. She didn’t care about her granddaughter and felt no need to visit and ask about her. But, Emma’s Dad was a good guy and loved visiting Emma and Elsa. Once he meant Luc he was nice to him. The next book is about Cain. I’m excited to find out his story. Since he really kept to himself and wouldn’t go near the baby.
I found both characters lacking. Luc thought she'd want to be intimate after 18 months? Really dude read the room! Emma immediately making him the bad guy and throwing a fit any time he even had a woman near him as beyond annoying, you're an adult Emma talk about your feelings. I get being hormonal but honestly this was extreme. The was she shit talked her dad too really ruined her in my eyes, he loves her unconditionally and really reminded me of man I knew in high-school who had Asperger syndrome, very direct with the questions, very kind hearted, but would not quite grasp social norms, would talk about special interests (like her dad's opinions on names). Her mom was a complete peice of trash!
I did enjoy this book but I definitely expected some character development throughout the book.
This story was an OK read. There were some conversations between the characters that were funny and some that were almost disjointed. I did have some difficulty in especially in the beginning with the dialog in particular. The other issue was how easily the H was onboard once he found out he was a father. It was really quick with very little questioning. As it went on, I like the interplay between the two characters, and especially the discussions with the H's sister and brother in law.
It was a really sweet H who fell fast with very little angst. It was very predictable and again the writing was uneven. It did have good spice and some cute father daughter interactions.
I kinda didn't truly vibe with Emma. She rubbed me the wrong way. I felt in the beginning of the book she got exactly what she wanted, and she wanted to be with Lucca of only for the night. When she finally realizes she is pregnant she doesn't go to Lucca but waits until the child is 6 months old to spring it on him.
She thought he was going to bail so he could be the bad guy like his reputation indicates but he stepped up big time.
I did really love the other characters, especially Roman I think I may love him, LOL.
The MC’s weee poorly developed. The male lead was so incredibly immature I wanted to smack him in the head (even if he had some sweet moments). What drove me nuts was the male lead calling his baby mama “lover” every sentence - even when he hadn’t seen her for 18 months. So over the top and cringy.
I’ll try the second book - really hope it isn’t cringy like this one.
Emma's job is writing about sports stars. Gossip, really. Her boss thinks the Inci Warriors' left wing Lucca Pixon would be a great athlete to focus on. He's the bad boy of the team and has recently received some bad press. Emma's not thrilled with the idea and that's an understatement. Let's just say Emma's met Luc already, over a year ago, an has a baby girl to prove it. GREAT STORY, LOVE THE CHARACTERS! THEY ARE RAW, RAUNCHY AND SEXY AS H#11, AND I CAN'T WAIT FOR CAIN'S STORY!!! 💓LOVED IT!
A laugh out loud, charming and highly entertaining romance. Luc and Emma are fiery, passionate, witty and definitely not perfect. Their journey is not full of roses and sunshine but they have a beautiful connection that will simply melt your heart. I enjoyed this story. Cannot wait to see what comes next.
Emma and Lucy had a very interesting one night that came with Isis as a result. Emma surprised Lucy and things were never the same for both. Working for a gossip magazine was going to be great or detrimental to these two. Lucy step up but sil the truth come to light. Love is worth fighting for.
I love this story about how much love they have for the whole relationship between their own personal experience and knowledge and figuring out how to make their lives better.
DNF at 60%! I was so sad that I just couldn’t vibe with this book. I RARELY don’t finish something, but the characters were both just rubbing me wrong. I appreciate Luc wanting to be a good parent, but his relationship with Emma was just not ok. They both didn’t have any healthy habits together.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
It’s a good sports romance. Emma is a writer and Luc is the bad boy hockey player. However he’s brought to his knees by a cute little girl he doesn’t know.
I enjoyed this story and can’t wait for the other boys and their stories
Couldn’t put this book down even on vacation. Easy to read and filled with so many funny moments. Definitely a well written romance that helps you fall in love with the characters. Excited to read the next book in the series.
This was a great love these stories they are right on point and funny as hell love this book. Onto another one Glad it talks about pregnancy and fathers standing up and doing what’s right.
DNF at 21%. The main male character is a total jerk. Female wasn't any better. She wonders how many other women he's slept with, but continues to have unprotected sex with him. Not interested enough to keep reading.
DO NOT WASTE YOUR TIME reading about this sleazeball male main character. There are more deserving characters out there! The male main character is such a sleaze that it gave me chills and made me feel nauseous. Not the way a romantic male lead is meant to make readers feel!
This book had all the right tropes but the delivery wasn’t there. This book lost a star for yuck use of “lover” nickname, seriously “babe” is better than lover! And the cringe audio narration. For a filler to not take seriously, it was fine
I didnt know what I was honestly thinking about this story. Luke sounds like a POS. he showed up eventually but still a lot to handle on both ends of this relationship. I liked the story. the way his sister puts him through the ringer is the best!!!! loved her!
Ughhh. I’d really rate this as like a 3.5. I can’t stand the miscommunication tropes. However. Lucca did a great job at straightening up, learning, and become a dad. 8/10 on his part. He did need to communicate though. Emma, however, needed a lot of growth. A lot of it. Sheesh.