Home Ice

Red Valley Ravens

by Rachelle Vaughn

Home is where your hockey player is...

As Allison Monroe balances work, school, and caring for her elderly grandmother, she has little time left for herself. Sure, she secretly dreams of a fairytale romance, but she is content living vicariously through her promiscuous, quirky best friend Izzy. However, Izzy has other plans. Intent on finding her friend a man, Izzy drags Ally to a local hockey game. Ally doesn't know anything about hockey, except for Izzy's hormone-fueled description of sweaty men in uniforms, but she tries to be a good sport anyway. To Ally's surprise, she enjoys the fast-paced game and is even more stunned when she collides with star player Benjamin Price, practically knocking him off his skates.

Ben plays for the Red Valley Ravens and has everything that Ally does not: an exciting career, a multi-million dollar home overlooking the city, and, of course, a fast car. Ben opens up an exciting new world for Ally and easily sweeps her off her feet with his boyish good looks and athletic charm. When his contract with the Ravens expires and he is offered the chance to play for the best team in the league, which just so happens to be 1300 miles away, Ally risks losing everything. Will they end up on thin ice when life threatens to tear them apart?

With the support of her family and friends, Ally experiences life, love, and letting go, and discovers that the true meaning of home isn't necessarily an address.

Genres: Romance, Sports, Sports Romance, Hockey, Contemporary, Hockey Romance, Contemporary Romance

256 pages, Paperback

First published January 13, 2012

About the author

Rachelle Vaughn loves reading all genres of romance and writing about sexy nice guys, hunky hockey players, and the occasional bad boy. When she isn't writing, Rachelle enjoys watching action movies, trying new yoga poses, and hiking in the Shasta Cascades. She lives in Northern California with her husband.

Sign up for her newsletter here. Visit her website at rachellevaughn.com.

Reviews

[Jackie · Rating 2 out of 5]

I had a hard time with this novel. (note there might be slight spoilers ahead) The underlying story was great - regular girl meets up and coming star hockey player and they fall in love. But Ally was really hard to relate to. She had this perfect thing with Ben and for some ungodly reason she just kept saying no to a future with him. I didn't really understand her reluctance the first time Ben asks him to marry her. He is willing to bring her Grandma too and she can't even give a good reason that she's saying no. Maybe my biggest issue is that I just didn't like Ally and really she just seemed very whiny and stupid when it came to making what seemed to be easy decisions. I have read a lot of these types of books and overall, was just disappointed.

[Sherry Sweeney · Rating 5 out of 5]

So being a hockey mom and loving the sport, it always intriques me when I come across a hockey themed love story.

This story just really grabbed my attention quickly. Two best friends who are completely different go to a hockey game and it just goes from there, handsome jock of a hockey player who you think would be the typical jock type and turns out to be so far from that. He is a caring, genuine, super hot guy who just happens to be a superstar hockey player, (this is my hope for my son, a mom can dream right!!) There is ALOT of tear jerking moments so tissues are a must, really good story line and keeps you reading. I read this in a couple of hours just could not put it down.

Would highly recommend! and would LOVE LOVE to see more hockey themed books from this author!!!

[Debbie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really nice story!

[The Bibliophile · Rating 1 out of 5]

I wanted to write a long, scathing review on how the female lead, Ally, irritated me with her I'm-so-pathetic-and-unworthy-of-your-attention attitude and how I found the male lead, Ben, to be unbelievable.

In the end I decided it's not worth it and deleted everything.

If you like books where the female lead thinks she's to ugly, poor, etc. to end up with the male lead, but eventually does this book is for you.
If you don't... stay away.

[Tracy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very good read! This book was hard for me to put down. Loved the characters. This was such a sweet story with emotion that brought tears at times and sometimes a little bit of anger. Really enjoyed it!

[Kethnie · Rating 5 out of 5]

What is so hot about hockey players. Great writing and even better plot.

[Nancy · Rating 4 out of 5]

nice easy read! love the romance novels with the athletes!

[Colleen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Liked that this was equally a LOVE story as much as a steamy read. Love a good hockey romance!!!!!

[Rhonda · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this book so much! The main character, Ally, is so funny; I really enjoyed her inner monologue. I read it in 3 nights, it was hard to put down. This book made me laugh, gasp, cry sad, then sigh with loving relief! I really appreciated the bonus love story intertwined as well. Love this author’s writing style!

[Emily · Rating 3 out of 5]

Allison Monroe spends most of her time working and caring for her grandmother. She doesn't have time to meet a man, but as fate would have it she bumps into Hockey player Benjamin Price who is curious about Ally. Ally and Ben begin to build something, but Ben's career takes a lot of travel and trust which Ally fully gives. The problem is when Ben leaves to play for another team, Ally can't uproot her life to go with him, or can she?

This for me was just ho hum. I liked the idea but it was a bit melancholy and not a big fan of Izzy, Ally's best friend. At first the story takes off in a frenetic pace and I wasn't sure who lead was Ally or Izzy. Liked Ben, story had some good moments but was slow.

[Anne OK · Rating 3 out of 5]

Sometimes I just feel the need to read a sports romance. Hockey is not my favorite but it gets the job done especially when the storyline piques my attention. Two good main characters surrounded by an interesting and fun-to-read secondary cast. Hot, both on and off the ice, Ben Sinclair is tired of one-night stands, rink bunnines, and bars. He is looking for THE ONE but so far he's been looking in all the wrong places. Ally Monroe is just plain tired. She cares for her elderly and ailing grandmother, takes night classes at a local college, and works for at a local veterinarian clinic. Unlike her best friend Izzy, who is a proclaimed "manaholic," Ally doesn't date, hasn't had sex since she lost her virginity in high school, and doesn't have the energy to much care. But when Izzy pushes her to attend a "visitors day" at the ice rink, Ally literally slams into Ben. From there life begins to change for both Ben and Ally. The road to happily-ever-after is not always easy and there are some difficult bumps in the road for these two.

My biggest complaint with the book is the many spelling errors and incorrect word usage ("breaks" for brakes; "here" for hear, etc.). Overall, it was a solid story that flowed easily and enjoyable to read.

[Pat · Rating 2 out of 5]

Well... Allison is the most irritant character I have read about in long time... and I have been reading quite a lot.
It seemed she wanted to suffer. In the beginning it was quite nice her dedication to her job and her grams. Izzie brought some nice points to the story, as the crazy girl adding a little bit of flavour to Allison's dull existence.

However, when her romance with Ben is in its best, she stalls and freaks out. It felt like instead of getting out of her comfort zone and enjoy her life with him, she just decides to be miserable without any reason to be.
I just could not get it...

on the other hand, Ben was quite nice. although he did not convince me as the confident hockey player who wanted something else inhis life and found it in Allison. This reminded me of Toni Aleo's "taking a shot"book... exactly the same stuff.... but Shea was more likeable there than Ben here.

I guess Toni Aleo put the bar too high for all the other hockey romances... this one did not convinced me.

[Desiree · Rating 2 out of 5]

BORING. I found this book so weak that after about 3 chapters, I started skim reading, about a quarter way through I realized I didn't care about anyone, in fact, I didn't LIKE anyone! Her main character was ok, but her sidekick was a brainless slut 'with a designer bag', her romantic lead was a bore, in fact, everyone was a bore.

And even though the author gave back-stories and reveled their thoughts, I found this book read more like a summary, and a fact finding mission than a novel. I didn't enjoy it at all. The ONLY thing I liked about this book was that it was set around hockey, I love that.

[Erin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Sometimes it was hard to tell exactly whose POV the author was writing from at any giving time. It wasn't just the two main characters that were having it was others as well but it wasn't in a very defined why where you knew for sure this person was talking/thinking and this person isn't. It would just be like a sentence from someone elses POV then back to the other.

[Vanessa · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good story even though Ally needed to snap out of it! The ending was good.

[Grimm · Rating 5 out of 5]

this book is great! it has everything, well, almost everything :P ... the cover is bad :(
still, this book deserved 5 stars !!!!

[Kristy Mills · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a sweet love story. You couldn't help but fall in love with Ben. He was such a gentleman. One thing I loved about this book from the start was how honest they were with each other. The fell in love pretty fast and they had no problem telling each other that.


BUT... I got SO annoyed with Ally. I hated her reaction to his big news and proposal. I couldn't believe her, and I didn't really understand her hesitance. She loved him, what the heck was in her home town that was worth staying for. She knew her job was going under, she only had 1 friend, and he told her he would take care of her and her gram. I just didn't get it. I didn't get it every time she would deny him. :( I kind of would have liked a bigger ending too. I read, frustratedly, as Ally put poor Ben and herself for that matter, through the ringer. When she finally pulled herself together and decided to follow her heart I wanted to savor it a little more. I was hoping for a longer reunion. :( An epilogue, something. I was hoping he was going to take her back to his apartment and they would run into Courtney, when they couldn't keep his hands off her or something. I would have loved for her to see that. She bugged me.


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

FAVORITE QUOTES



Izzy loved hockey. And all sports, for that matter. Any event involving a group of men, preferably sweaty and parading in front of her, was a favorite past time of hers. Bats, sticks, clubs, balls. They just screamed testosterone.

Hi, my name is Izzy Sinclair and I'm a manaholic.

Hi, Izzy.


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~


"Why are we here again? You know how much I hate the mall." Ally slammed the door of Izzy's car shut. She said the word 'mall' like they were visiting 'the proctologist' or 'the landfill' or 'the electric chair'.

[K.G. White · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book was pretty bad. It failed on almost every level. The characters were described in stereotypes, essentially. It was difficult to care about them at all, when all we had to go on were very shallow and vague generalizations. Ally Monroe is a poor, orphan girl struggling to make her way through college while taking care of her sick grandmother. Oh and she loves animals and babies of course. Ben Price is a devastatingly handsome professional athlete. His wealth and good-looks mean nothing to him because he just wants a sweet and innocent good girl that he can take care of, most importantly she must not be aware of her own beauty. Throw in an outgoing, slutty best friend, Izzy and his playboy teammate, Dom, and you've got yourself the general ingredients to anyother lamely produced romance novel.

They have a date, they fall in love, they live happily ever after. Nothing remotely interesting or special about their love story and the way it is written is almost purposefully convoluted. Let's face it, the confusing writing was the only source of tension and drama we got while reading this snooze of a book.

Some final words to describe this book: schizophrenic, awkward, disorganized, lame, utterly stereotypical.

Some examples of the awkardness: "Holy crap, you look sensational!" -Ben to Ally

[Maria (semi hiatus) · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a cute read. I love hockey romances and this one didn’t disappoint me. I loved Ben, he was so sweet. Your typical nice guy with a good heart. You don’t get many of these heroes in romance novels these days. Aly was sweet and so insecure. How many times Ben told her he loved her and wanted her to go with him to Colorado. She just kept pushing him away. Change didn’t go easy for her, she just needed some extra time to adjust.

I think Gram’s role could’ve been a bit bigger. She played a big part in Aly’s life and she seemed so sweet. But she was a background figure and that was a shame. It seemed like her only role was for Aly to hide behind when things got too fast and she didn’t want them to change.

When Ben moved to Colorado there were some scenes with other women that didn’t add up. All safe for our safety gang out there. It just didn’t sound like him. He wasn’t a manwhore, nor did he do hook-ups, so these encounters were not making any sense.

This book is basically about Ben and Aly, but you also get the POV’s of almost every other character in this book. That was a bit odd. Now Dom... That guy was so despicable, just yikes. That guy is a walking STD, nothing was likeable about him. I may hope this author won’t decide to dedicate a book to this guy, because I won’t even pick it up with safety gloves. And let’s be honest, she couldn’t write anything at all to make him redeem from the shit he did and thought in this book.

[Dee · Rating 2 out of 5]

ehhhh

[Anneleen · Rating 1 out of 5]

Stopped Reading this book. The story had so much Potential but it just didn’t happen. I lost the plot somewhere in the first chapters and the whole book lost it’s appeal.

[Virginia · Rating 5 out of 5]

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

[Addison · Rating 5 out of 5]

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
This contemporary romance explores the world of hockey through the eyes of Allison, whose life changes after meeting star player Benjamin. It combines heartfelt themes of family, dreams, and personal growth with a sweet, sports-centered romance. The story offers an enjoyable glimpse into the challenges of balancing love and life, though some readers might find pacing or clichés in the genre familiar.

[Gina · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is the story of Ben and Allison --I would have definitely given this book a 5 star rating if Allison wasn't such an idiot! I really enjoyed the story though.... Allison has been raised by her grandparents after an accident claimed her parents lives. She lives with her gram who is 86 years old and takes care of her. She meets Ben by chance when she goes with her friend to a Razor's hockey practice. There is mutal attraction and the two fall in love! Ben then gets traded to Colorado and Allison doesn't want to move - even though he was willing to move Gram with them! It a love story that has it's ups and downs but Allison's unwillingness to give consider anything really is a downer -- I'm just glad Ben had the patience of a saint!

[Lindsay]

He may be a hottie, but that alone wasn't enough to hold my attention. For some reason this book and I are not getting along, so I'm putting it down to be read at a later date.

I love sports themed romances and I’m in the mood for one, but I guess not this particular one.

I’ll definitely try this again at a later date.


Just in case anyone is interested…this is the Ben I was seeing as I read:

[Amber · Rating 3 out of 5]

I really loved the story plot. I think the plot was a hit. The characters were excellent.

The reason I rated it 3 stars was because after Ally's big life change, I felt the writing went poorly. The book started out strong and ended weak. I won't lie...I had to skip a few pages because I became bored with the story and wanted to know how it ended.

This author has promise...I hope for future writing she is able to put forth the effort to finish a book strong.

[Ninoshka• · Rating 2 out of 5]

Nah,no me gusto.

Pero como deseo el libro de Izzy & Dom yo espero que esta autora haga un libro de ellos dos porque si no me volveré loca y seguiré leyendo las únicas chiquitas parte que hay en este libro de ellos , me encantaron ellos dos :/

Aquí me quedare esperando...

[Izzi · Rating 3 out of 5]

The overall story is ok, maybe even good, but there are all these errors along the way that annoys me so much. Poor grammar, bad sentences, Grams is sleeping in the room, but suddenly she is out with Ruby, the flight time to Denver could not possibly be 6 hours and the list goes on... Has it even been edited at all? Hopefully the author gets a better editor, because she tells a pretty ok story. It just deserves better "wrapping".

[Stacey · Rating 4 out of 5]

this book was cute, i loved ben. as for ally, ummm.......i think she created a little too much drama, and unnecessary heartbreak for herself, but in the end i guess it worked out. i do not think in real life a guy in ben's shoes would have been that patient, or remained faithful as he did while he was heartbroken. but maybe he would have.
an enjoyable book :D

[Jill Fox · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was ok, but I have read better.

It seemed to drag on in some parts but there was some really good parts of the book as well.

Would have loved a small epilogue just to see how there happy ever after was going.