Friday, August 2, 2019

Review - - Good Guy


Good Guy
by Kate Meader
A Rookie Rebels Novel - Book 1
Publisher: Kate Meader
Release Date: July 30, 2019
Reviewed by PJ
 




He's a Special Forces veteran making his pro-hockey debut. She's a dogged sports reporter determined to get a scoop. She's also his best friend's widow . . .

Fans can't get enough of Levi Hunt, the military veteran who put his NHL career on hold to serve his country and fight the bad guys. So when his new Chicago Rebels bosses tell him to cooperate with the press on a profile, he's ready to do his duty. Until he finds out who he has to work with: flame-haired, freckle-splashed, impossibly perky Jordan Cooke.

The woman he should not have kissed the night she buried her husband, Levi's best friend in the service.

Hockey-stick-up-his-butt-serious Levi Hunt might despise Jordan for reasons she can't fathom--okay, it's to do with kissing--but her future in the cutthroat world of sports reporting hangs on delivering the goods on the league's hottest, grumpiest rookie. So what if he's not interested in having his life plated up for public consumption. Too bad. Jordan will have to play dirty to get her scoop and even dirtier to get her man. Only in winning the story, she might just lose her heart ...



My thoughts:

My college boyfriend was a hockey player. I've been immersed in that world and know it well: the locker room antics, the favorite hangout bar, and, of course, the players. Kate Meader scores a hat trick with her spot-on depiction of all three. And I couldn't be happier. 

I love second chance romances and Levi's and Jordan's is one I couldn't put down. A second chance with a woman he didn't have the courage to pursue the first time they met. A second chance at love for a woman who was widowed much too young. A dream career on the line if they make the wrong step. And a sizzling attraction that flames higher each time they're together until it finally ignites in an inferno that had me reaching for a fan. I could not get enough of these two!

Levi is a wonderful book boyfriend. Here's a guy who is back to try his hand at professional hockey after bypassing what would probably have been a superstar career on the ice by choosing to serve his country instead. He had his reasons, and they are good ones, but I'll let you discover those as you read the book. He's multi-layered, complicated, grumpy, and stingy with expressing his feelings, but he has a wonderfully giving, loving heart. He truly is a good guy. And he evolves oh so nicely. ;-) 

Jordan is such a strong character. I admired her determination, her refusal to give up when life knocked her down, her positive, sunny disposition in the face of opposition. She's grown a lot in the five years since her husband's death. When they married, she was a perfect match for her goofy, lovable, young husband and content to be an Army wife. Seven years later, she's more complex, more driven, ready to take on the sports journalism world. Is she also ready to take on the complicated man who challenges her, fires up her sexual engine, and, unbeknownst to her, already loves her with all that he is? Did I mention how much I love these two?

But this story is not only about romance. Along with the humor and steam (and there's plenty of both), Meader tackles some hefty issues such as homelessness, PTSD, inequality between men and women in the world of sports, and sports journalism, and sexual harassment. She uses a deft hand to do so by seamlessly weaving each topic into the fabric of the story, never bashing the reader over the head but, hopefully, leaving them thinking about the important issues that have been presented. 

The secondary cast of Good Guy is all that and more. Many of them are familiar faces from Meader's Chicago Rebels series (and fans of the Hot in Chicago series will recognize Jordan's best friend, Kinsey) but there are also new characters introduced who I hope we'll be seeing more of in this new series. Fans of the previous series will be, I'm sure, delighted to catch up with favorite characters but new readers should have no trouble beginning with Good Guy. Fair warning, though. After meeting some of these couples, you may be heading straight to Kate Meader's back list for more sassy, steamy, heart-tugging, hockey romance!

Do you enjoy sports romance?

Have you read any of Kate Meader's books yet? 



6 comments:

  1. I haven't read this author and I haven't read sports romance in a bit. But must say that I am impressed with what you have to say about this book.

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  2. Have not read this author. I am a huge sports fan....I do not understand how anyone could not be a sports fan, but I digress. This sounds like a good series to me. I like second chances. I also am partial to stories about people who have put their lives on hold to serve. For a time I was a Navy wife, so that is close to my heart. Thanks for the review.

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  3. I have read sports related romances, several of them hockey related. I don't believe any have been by Kate Meader. Some of them have been pretty good.

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  4. I have read Kate Meader and this book is waiting for me on my kindle. I love sport romances. My oldermson is a sports reporter covering college hockey.

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  5. I've been reading The Chicago Rebels series and I love them. I am a big Chicago Blackhawks fan in real life so I am looking forward to reading more.

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  6. Love sport's romance. I have not read any of her books yet.

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