I found this book to be a quick read, which is often good. It was good in some ways, but at the same time, aspects of this story could have been built on to flesh the story out more fully. Yet I appreciated that Tor and Neve didn’t drag out their misunderstanding. As you may have gathered, I’ve waffled on my rating for this one a bit.

This story is a bit of a rival-to-friends-to-lovers tale. The reason these two are rivals is because they are trying to deny their attraction, which is not obvious to them until they stop fighting that attraction. Both Neve and Tor know a relationship is close to impossible without one of them having to give something up in their career. I was relieved when they finally broke down and got down with each other.

Part of this story has Neve not only meeting Tor’s ex-wife and their child but also going to said ex-wife’s wedding with Tor. I appreciated the care the author took with Tor’s views of his ex and his love for his daughter. Tor and his ex may not be friends, but they care about one another and deeply respect each other. I was glad she wasn’t made into a shrew as is often the case.

Just as the previous book dealt with the serious issue of CTE in athletes, this story deals with what a lock-out means to the team’s organization as a whole. It’s not a deep dive, but it’s good to see that acknowledged, as well as the difficult position the coaching staff is put in when such things happen.

I’m enjoying the characters in this series as well as the pacing of the books. I’m happy to have re-discovered this author for myself. But for those who read my review of Mister Hockey, I still have issues with the male narrator. He’s just not getting a good voice for the female characters at all.

This woman writes like a republican.