Talk Nerdy Book Blog

TagSports Romance

Sanctuary of Mine by Shelly Pratt

By Sarah
In 4-stars, Book Review
July 16, 2014
S

Series: Standalone

Release Date: July 13th, 2013

<strong>Synopsis:</strong>
Mackenzie Deeks is struggling. Outwardly she plays the tough guy and acts like being a young adult with an eating disorder is no big deal. Inside, she’s crumbling.

Ever since her parents’ divorce, the only way she has been able to feel in control of her life is by purging the despair that has its grips on her and won’t let go.

Tyler Redding knows when someone needs help – he’s seen it before. This time, though, he’s not going to take no for an answer. From the moment he first sets his sights on Mackenzie, he’s unable to think of anyone else. But how can he focus on a football career when all he wants to do is date the most unassuming person he’s ever met?

As their lives become intricately entwined, it becomes more than wishful thinking when Mackenzie and Tyler find each other again as adults. With successful careers, a beachside lifestyle and each other’s love to contend with, life should be pretty damn good. But just when they think they’ve found their wonderful kind of normal, their perfect world comes crashing down.

It’s going to take a lot to keep Mackenzie from succumbing to old habits, but Tyler thinks he might just be the one to save her for good.

<strong>Ending</strong>

HEA
<strong>Representation</strong>
• LGBTQIA+ side character
<strong>Possible Triggers</strong>
• Bulimia
• Anorexic
• Death of family member
• Grief
• Sexual assault
<strong>Safety Rating:</strong> Safe
• No cheating
• No descriptive sex scene with OW/OM
• Does have the Hero and Heroine pushing away
• Does have a separation between the Hero and Heroine
• See Ending for HEA status.
• See Possible Triggers for Abuse and OTT sad parts.

Rating: 4.5/5 stars

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Out of Play by Nyrae Dawn and Jolene Perry

By Sarah
In 4-stars, Book Review
July 7, 2014
O

Series: Standalone

Release Date: August 6th, 2013

<strong>Synopsis:</strong>
Rock star drummer Bishop Riley doesn’t have a drug problem. Celebrities – especially ones suffering from anxiety – just need a little help taking the edge off sometimes. After downing a few too many pills, Bishop wakes up in the hospital facing an intervention. If he wants to stay in the band, he’ll have to detox while under house arrest in Seldon, Alaska.

Hockey player Penny Jones can’t imagine a life outside of Seldon. Though she has tons of scholarship offers to all the best schools, the last thing she wants is to leave? Who’ll take care of her absentminded gramps? Not her mother, who can’t even be bothered to come home from work, let alone deal with their new tenants next door.

Penny’s not interested in dealing with Bishop’s crappy attitude, and Bishop’s too busy sneaking pills to care. Until he starts hanging out with Gramps and begins to see what he’s been missing. If Bishop wants a chance with the fiery girl next door, he’ll have to admit he has a problem and kick it. Too bad addiction is hard to kick … and Bishop’s about to run out of time.

<strong>Ending</strong>

HEA
<strong>Representation</strong>
• LGBTQIA+ supporting character
• Native Alaskan main character
<strong>Possible Triggers</strong>
• Drug addiction
• Alzheimer’s
<strong>Safety Rating:</strong> Safe
• No cheating
• No descriptive sex scene with OW/OM
• Does have the Hero and Heroine pushing away
• Does not have a separation between the Hero and Heroine
• See Ending for HEA status.
• See Possible Triggers for Abuse and OTT sad parts.

Rating: 4/5 stars

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Delayed Penalty (Crossing the Line, #1) by Shey Stahl

By Sarah
In 4-stars, Book Review
June 30, 2014
D

Series: Crossing the Line*

Release Date: June 5th, 2013

<strong>Synopsis:</strong>
A minor penalty that is not called until the offending team gains control of the puck. As long as the non-offending team maintains possession, the referee allows play to continue and signals a delayed penalty by raising his arm.

I’m Evan Mason, an NHL hockey player for the Chicago Blackhawks. I spend my nights roughing up two hundred pound defensemen and, at times, spend more time in the penalty box than I do on the ice.

That’s my job.

One night changed everything I thought I once knew about my life on, and off, the ice.

A girl.

A brutally beaten girl left to die in an alley.

I don’t know why or how but something made me stay that night after taking her to the hospital. I didn’t know her, nor did I have an obligation to stay but something inside of me rooted me there telling me I should stay. Saving a life is worth something. At least I thought so. And I wouldn’t have been me if I just simply left her there.

Any man who put his heart and soul into a game of hockey couldn’t just walk away when someone needed them. She had no one else right now. The same guy who saw determination where there was desire, now saw hope where there was one despair.

I couldn’t leave. That wouldn’t be me. No, not a man that put all he had into something some called just a game. I couldn’t walk away from her holding onto life, weak, and powerless to something she had no control over.

So I stayed. In a room full of family members praying for their loved ones to pull through, I prayed for a girl I didn’t know and had never met before, to have a beating heart. While others’ sorrow turned to grieving pain, I sat waiting on the words of the unknown.

No bond is stronger than the ones you’ll bleed for.

<strong>Ending</strong>

HEA
<strong>Representation</strong>
No strong representations of the following:
• BIPOC characters
• LGBTQIA+ characters
• characters with a disability
And doesn’t address fatphobia
<strong>Possible Triggers</strong>
• Rape
• Physical abuse
• Violence (blood and gore)
• Death of family
• Grief
<strong>Safety Rating:</strong> Safe with Exceptions
• No cheating
• Does have OW
– The Hero has a friends-with-benefits relationship with an OW (who sleeps with a lot of guys on the hockey team). The OW becomes friends with the Heroine and stays friends with the Hero.
• No descriptive sex scene with OW/OM
– There are allusions to the Hero’s past with an OW (not a descriptive scene but thoughts like “freak in the sheets”).
• Does have the Hero and Heroine pushing away
• Does have brief separations between the Hero and Heroine
• See Ending for HEA status.
• See Possible Triggers for Abuse and OTT sad parts.

Rating: 4.25/5 stars

*Each novel in the series is Standalone

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Romancing the Bookworm by Kate Evangelista

By Sarah
In 3-stars, Book Review
June 26, 2014
R

Series: Standalone

Release Date: July 9th, 2013

<strong>Synopsis:</strong>
Sometimes, even the best-laid plans can unravel.

It’s spring break, and Tamara Winters would rather stay on campus and read romance novels than flaunt her size-fourteen body on a beach. But her best friend, Ronni, has other ideas.

Against her wishes, Tamara is whisked away to picturesque Maverick Bay, where she’s wrangled into waiting tables with Ronni at the Shore Shack for its busy week leading to Maverick’s Surf Invitational. There she meets fellow schoolmate Xavier Solomon, the Invitational’s organizer and campus womanizer by reputation. From the moment Tamara sees him emerging from the waves like a hero in of one of her romance novels, all she wants to do is run away from the feelings he inspires in her.

Little does she know Xavier has been watching her for weeks now. In fact, after failed attempts at asking her out on campus, he’s concocted a crazy plan: fabricating romantic situations straight out of her favorite books. Xavier quickly realizes that if Tamara gets a whiff of his designs, he might as well spell CREEPER across his forehead. Yet as they grow closer, he’s convinced it’s a risk worth taking. What he hasn’t planned on, of course, is his drug-addicted, alcoholic stepbrother, who decides to join the fun and put a wrench in Xavier’s scheme.

Spring break is proving hotter than Tamara expected. Will her romance novels be able to compete?

<strong>Ending</strong>

HFN
<strong>Representation</strong>
No strong representations of the following:
• BIPOC characters
• LGBTQIA+ characters
• characters with a disability
And doesn’t address fatphobia
<strong>Possible Triggers</strong>
• Drug addiction
• Alcoholism
<strong>Safety Rating:</strong> Safe
• No cheating
• No descriptive sex scene with OW/OM
• Does have the Heroine pushing away
• Does Not have a separation between the Hero and Heroine
• See Ending for HEA status.
• See Possible Triggers for Abuse and OTT sad parts.

Rating: 3.75/5 stars

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Blue Lines (Assassins, #5) by Toni Aleo

By Sarah
In 2-stars, Book Review
March 24, 2014
B

Series: Assassins*

Release Date: December 9th, 2013

<strong>Synopsis:</strong>
Opposites do more than just attract in Toni Aleo’s latest Nashville Assassins novel about a very bad boy and the good girl he can’t resist.

The instant Piper Allen sees Erik Titov, she wants him—wants his rock-hard body, sure, but the strength and mystery that lies behind that superstar hockey jock demeanor, too. So when he sidles up to her at a bar and slinks his arm around her waist, she’s lost. What follows is the wildest night of her life . . . followed by inevitable heartbreak the next morning. And then, a few weeks later, a very big surprise: two blue lines on a pregnancy test.

Only a check to the head could make Erik fall for a nice girl like Piper. But since their crazy-sexy night together, he’s been trying to forget about her alluring body by falling into bed with every woman in Nashville, and it’s not working. So when Piper shows up at his house with a baby-bomb to drop, it doesn’t take much for Erik to suggest the nuclear option: marriage. While it’s supposed to be all for show, the second they say “I do,” the ice between them starts to melt into sizzling steam.

Includes a special message from the editor, as well as excerpts from these Loveswept titles: Taking Shots, Trying to Score, and Empty Net.

<strong>Ending</strong>

HEA
<strong>Representation</strong>
No strong representations of the following:
• BIPOC characters
• LGBTQIA+ characters
• characters with a disability
And doesn’t address fatphobia
<strong>Possible Triggers</strong>
• Physical abuse
• Emotional abuse
• Objectification of women
• No OTT sad parts
<strong>Safety Rating:</strong> Not Safe
• No cheating
• Does have OW/OM drama
– The Hero wanted to sleep with the Heroine’s (horrible) twin in past books
• No descriptive sex scene with OW/OM
• Does have the Hero and Heroine pushing away
• Does have a separation between the Hero and Heroine
– The Hero was not celibate during his separation from the Heroine; they met up again 6+ months later.
• See Ending for HEA status.
• See Possible Triggers for Abuse and OTT sad parts.

Rating: 2.5/5 stars

*Each novel in the series is Standalone

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Ruin, A Series by Rachel Van Dyken

By Sarah
In 4-stars, Series Review
March 21, 2014
R

About the Series

I’ve devoured this series. I’m crazy in love with Wes and Kiersten’s story! The main theme in the series is fear and conquering the fear fostered throughout all these different characters’ life-altering challenges. But as Wes always says, “Do it afraid.”

The review of the series includes reviews on each of the following books (listed in order of release):

Note: Each book in the series is Standalone (except for the novella Fearless, which is an extended epilogue to the first book in the series, Ruin).

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