4.5 stars

I don’t come across many of them, but it’s nice to read a romance where the couple is already married. In this case, Jim (Steele) and Emma have been separated for a bit. But they’re still married and neither has really done anything to move their separation forward to an actual divorce.

From previous books in this series, we’ve seen Steele mope around a bit but keep to himself about his marriage and what actually went wrong. In the last book, Kane, we see him finally jump into action. Like a smack upside the head, seeing Ella out on the town with another man had Steele realizing that she is serious about moving on from him. It seemed he felt she would eventually ask him to come back home with him not having to do any work at all.

To be fair to Steele, once he realizes he has to fight for Ella he fights hard. Not just by putting himself in her path more and even trying to sabotage her dates. He also takes a hard look at himself as a husband and understands he was lacking. Not only that, he works to change those inadequacies. Steele is actually a good guy, he was just clueless. He got married young and, being a doted on pro hockey player, never really matured into the role of husband. He didn’t put his marriage first, he put hockey first. He didn’t truly listen to Ella when she tried to tell him she was not happy. Just because you are desperately in love doesn’t mean you are happy. Something Steele had to learn the hard way.

These two gave me so many warm-fuzzies and I was all in on them getting back together. Of course, I wanted Ella to be seen in their marriage. I didn’t want them together if she was just going to disappear again. She deserved so much more than a part time husband. Thankfully, Steele was able to give her that in the end.

As usual when it comes to this series, I thoroughly enjoyed this story. There were many gut-punch moments while Steele and Ella worked their way through their issues. All evened out by the very obvious love they had for one another.

Update after reading audiobook Feb 2025:
I'm not sure why I took off half a star in my original read of this story. I'd probably give it a solid 5 stars now. It's a fantastic marriage in trouble story without too much angst but a lot of growth. Both Ella and Steele are extremely likable characters and it's obvious they still love each other deeply. I love this book.