The Penalty Box

Vancouver Wolves Hockey #3

by Odette Stone

He's a professional hockey player that lives on the edge. I prefer to play life by the rules.

I’m the personal assistant at a sports agency that no one notices.
Unless they need coffee.
I don’t like sports and I like professional athletes even less.
I’m indifferent to the mostly male clientele, except for one.
Mica “the savage” Petrov.

When it comes to wild antics, Mica is the biggest offender of them all.
He’s reckless, wild and carelessly charming.
I’m mortified that I find him attractive.
But it doesn’t matter because the guy hasn’t taken a second look at me.
Not once. In two years.

Mica's career jeopardizing situation requires drastic measures to be taken to keep him in the game.
He’s got money, I’ve got debt and my boss has a crazy idea.
Which is how I found myself stepping up to save him from himself.
But at what cost?

How long can I keep fighting my attraction?
What ghosts from his past is he brawling with?
All I know is that I need to defend my heart before this big defenseman steals it away.
Can we win this game? Or is it too late for either of us?

The Penalty Box: Fighting Love Has Consequences.

Genres: Sports Romance, Romance, Sports, Hockey, Marriage Of Convenience, Hockey Romance, Contemporary

348 pages, Kindle Edition

First published July 21, 2019

About the author

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Odette has ranked in the top #50 of all Amazon Authors, with a Top #20 bestseller. This KDP All-star author loves to write contemporary, new adult and sports romance books.

She resides in beautiful Vancouver, Canada and she lives for coffee, walks on the beach (no, really), a good book and TV dramas. She is a proud dog mom to a beautiful fur baby puppy named, Mica. She has been described as introverted, funny, and an excellent listener. She's so good at keeping secrets, her friends call her "the vault." She hates being the centre of attention but she'll push you to take the stage.

Odette writes real, honest and intense romance novels. If you like hot, intelligent Alpha males, you've come to the right place! Her writing goal is to keep her readers up late at night, because they keep saying, "Just one more chapter, I'm just going to read one more chapter."

Reviews

[Maditales · Rating 1 out of 5]

Consent is nonexistent in this book

[Syndi · Rating 3 out of 5]

When Penalty Box was published,i can not wait to get my hand on this book. I remember i had such good memory of tje first book in the series.

Now i am left disappointed. Dont get me wrong, Penalty Box has many potential to be a good book. What does not click with me is how the plot executed. The first half of the book was great. Then somehow it goes downhill from there. The plot becomes so weak and meak. Unnecessary plot being added and secondary characters make everything confusing.

The romance is slow burn. Its just not burning hot for me though. There are moments i can not feel the connection between the hero and the heroine.

I still do admire the author talent in writting. She really can write. And because of that i settle with 3 stars.

3 stars

[Jessica · Rating 5 out of 5]

4.5

No one told me this was a hockey romance with a marriage of convenience! From the moment we met Mica and Charlie, I loved how Charlie just could not stand Mica. Mica is a Russian hockey player who has ties to some dangerous people, so he's arrested to get information on them. Because fo this, his reputation is in jeopardy, so he has to get married. Charlie is involved with some not so great people because of her brother, so marrying Mica could help solve her money problems. When they move in together, though, they find it harder to keep their hands off each other. I just loved their banter and how they had an undeniable chemistry with one another. Since this is a hockey romance, I loved when Charlie went to see Mica play and was there for him. This also had some moments of suspense with the dangerous people that Charlie was involved with and I loved how protective Mica became when it came to Charlie. I highly recommend this if you love sports romances and contemporary marriage of conveniences!

[ren ♡ · Rating 5 out of 5]

damn, at the rate I'm blazing through this series, I'm never going to catch up on my reviews 😭

frtc.

[Christy · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars

Mica is player for the Vancouver Wolves and he's got himself in a little trouble... he needs to clean up his image and his PR person comes up with the plan to get him married off to make him look like he's settling town. This is where Charlie comes in. She could use the money and has always liked Mica.

I did love the marriage of convince aspect, that is something I always love in books! I could have done without the drama towards the end with Andrew, seemed a little crazy to me and would have loved an epilogue, but overall it was good.

[Ash · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book was an absolute train wreck!
Bad writing, lots of telling instead of showing and an incomprehensible amount of subplots.

The love scenes also made me cringe so badly that I knocked an entire star off the rating.

[Heather Adores Books · Rating 4 out of 5]

4⭐

Book 3 in the Vancouver Wolves Hockey series ~ fine as a standalone, but Ryan and Zoey from Home Game make quite a few appearances in this one.

Featuring ~ dual 1st person POV, sports romance ~ hockey/NHL, secret crush, fake marriage, forced proximity, some steamage

Mica & Charlie
Mica is in the wrong place at the wrong time and in order to stay on the team he agrees to a fake marriage to help his image. In steps Charlie who has had a secret crush on Mica for 2 years.

Oh Mica Mica Mica, I loved him. He had a super sad secret that made sense to why he never wanted to get married or have children.
Charlie had such a sweet soul and I hated how she got herself into debt.

Totally called who the bad person was that was messing around with Charlie.

This is my favorite of the series. There was not a set up for the next book, so I'm not sure who it's about, but I'm ready to hip check this series off my TBR with the final installment.

Narration:
Madeleine Dauer & Alex Kydd ~ 10 hours 13 minutes ~ Alex did a nice job transitioning between an American and Russian accent, although his female voice is a little whiney. Madeleine did okay with her differing accents too.

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[Rozberry🍓 · Rating 3 out of 5]

Puck Me Secretly - 3.75 stars
Home Game - 3.75 stars
The Penalty Box - 2.75 stars(bumping up .25 for the last chapter & epilogue)

To put it simply, this just wasn’t my cuppa. Which is surprising as it has not one, but two of my handful of favorite tropes/sub-genres(fake marriage & sports). Although I did give dnfing some thought a couple of times(tbh I stuck with it because I wanted know if I was right about a side character), I wouldn’t say I’m incensed by anything as much as I just feel very meh as a whole about it. I found it to be riddled with varying levels of problematic issues.
Such as...
- heroine is a bit of a doormat
- hero’s connection to a Russian kingpin felt a little culturally stereotypical
- flat writing/minimally developed characters
- no chemistry/connection til the end(& that was barely), resulting in a few uncomfortable love scenes
- too little too late attempt at adding character depth
- heroine frequently felt a bit like hero’s possession vs equal
- heroine’s connection to loan shark was shaky at best

Hopefully the next is better.

[delilah · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book started out fine but two chapters in and I was annoyed. I hate dnf-ing so I pushed through, and I really could have gone without reading this.

Spoiler-less review: The writing style was underdeveloped and there were even a few typos. Everything read so choppily and pre-teen esque, like a 13-year old writing their first wattpad story. Didn't feel any chemistry between the H and h. They start out meaning to have a banter-ish relationship where the h is cold and sarcastic to the H and the H is a flirty player, but that dynamic didn't make sense for them! She barely spoke to him in the 2 years she worked for his agent, and when he was around, he was charming and nice and wasn't a rude jerk, so why was she cold? Her reasoning was that she got that way when she had a crush on someone, but then every time the two of them were together, she was meek and shy and barely spoke? She talked a lot of game and then didn't follow through on being this resilient fmc.

Not to mention everything moved so damn quickly. I read this without reading the first 2, so maybe that's my issue, but still. We were thrown into the story with no background -- there weren't even character descriptions so I only had a vague idea of what everyone looked like -- even the characters that only exist in this story!

Then there were a million plotlines that felt jammed in to make the book thicker but they didn't make sense? And there were plot holes? And it was so damn predictable? I would read a sentence and make a note about where the plot was going to go from there and I was right every single time. No suspense to the drama, and the fmc was just so freaking annoying. she would claim she hated the guy and then when faced with having to help find him a fake wife, she would judge every woman and hate them. so then when faced with the opportunity to marry the guy, she hates that all the more? pick a struggle homegirl.

[Spoilers below]

More in-depth: okay so they marry for convenience but the fmc is already lusting after the mmc so she knows that she's in over her head with this. she marries him anyway because she's in debt to some gang (with the stupidest mob boss name "Yazimoto") and needs the money. there's no mention of her getting paid after the marriage. also she was in debt because of something her brother did, which they never explicitly mentioned what he did, and he was also in jail throughout the whole story so we never got to see him fully fleshed out. i literally forgot she had a brother until they would name drop him to progress the gang plot.

the fmc is annoying. talks a big game about being cold and rude to the mmc but then whenever they're together, she's shy and meek and 'in the background'. Um? Also he didn't do anything to warrant her rude behaviour, which is annoying because she (basically) works for him and that's just unprofessional on her part. They marry and then it feels like two pages before he stumbles in on her in lingerie and that immediately makes him lust after her for the rest of the book. It made me feel like if he never saw her in lingerie, he never would have pursued her at all.

the gang plot was dumb. mmc has a gang friend who also doesn't seem fully fleshed out, and even though he apparently has his own book, i believe books should be able to stand on their own. then there was the serial killer neighbour who, from the get go, I knew was a stalker and would be more than just a jealousy-inducing character. his reasoning for eventually kidnapping fmc was that she reminds him of his dead wife and that he believes his dead wife sent the fmc to him so he could move on. okay, fair, but then one chapter later and it's revealed he was never married? that he had two other bodies buried in his backyard? but then if he was never married, his motive for going after the fmc disappears???? um??? also, he had 2 golden retriever dogs that loved him but then the fmc's dog hates him. when asked why, the trainer says dogs sense bad people, but then his own golden retrievers didn't sense anything and they LIVED in the house where he kept some other girl hostage.

about that -- they mention 90% into the story (when the mmc has a stalker ex who goes missing to frame him or whatever) that there's some nurse who went missing and hasn't been found. already i knew that name dropping the nurse meant that she was a victim to the neighbour. further, why not flesh that out from the beginning? there was nothing on any other criminal activity going on and yet suddenly this nurse comes into the picture? sure

ALSO UGH. mmc is against having kids from day one. then proceeds to have unprotected sex with the fmc. he assures her he'll pull out, then he doesn't and he isn't apologetic about it. then they fck three more times, no protection. then he asks her to take plan B and she says no because of the side effects??? then he asks her to go on the pill and she does like three weeks later, and during those three weeks that she isn't yet on the pill, they fck a whole bunch without protection? and then wonder why she's pregnant? also, VASECTOMY????? like hello???? then he moves out for two weeks to think about things, doesn't call or text her when she tries for the two weeks to call and text him. then she gives up, but then we get his pov and he's wishing she would call and text him? last i checked, the phone worked both ways. also, i get his reasoning for not wanting to get married and have kids (his parents fought and refused to divorce, and then he watched his manny die while she was giving birth, and the nanny's baby died) but that still seemed a bit... idk irrational? like i get he's traumatized, but he never goes in to depth about HOW those events translated into his fears.

i feel like I'm rambling now. the mmc has a stalker ex who tries framing him for her disappearance but then she shows back up to confess she lied about it all and that's it?? wtf?

Also, the fmc had one friend who wasn't already friends with the mmc, and he was only mentioned through their text exchanges and then randomly drops into the book bc of his boy troubles and we don't even really know this character.

anyways. this wasn't worth it. i picked this up because someone mentioned there being a cute scene where the mmc tells the fmc (after they've married) that they have to go to a party and he's an affectionate guy so he'll be all over her, and then later in the night, the fmc is told that the mmc acly hates pda. that was cute, but also the only cute thing i found, and even the writing didn't make me love the scene as much as i wanted to.

i also don't understand how someone can be arrested for gang association, and the one thing to clean up that pr mess is a marriage? huh? 2 stars because of the one cute scene and because at least this book was only a few hours of my life.

[Antonella · Rating 5 out of 5]

Absolutely loved this book! It was so much fun, despite some heavier themes woven in. The chemistry between the leads was insane—the kind that sizzles off the page and keeps you hooked from start to finish. I honestly can’t remember the last time I refused to sleep just to finish a book, but this one? Completely unputdownable.

Mica Petrov is the kind of reckless, charming hockey player who should be a walking red flag—but instead, he’s utterly irresistible. He’s wild, unpredictable, and on the verge of self-destruction, which makes his dynamic with the heroine even more intense. She’s the complete opposite: structured, rule-following, and trying her hardest not to fall for him. But their forced proximity, banter, and undeniable pull toward each other make it impossible not to get swept up in their story.

If you love banter, slow-burn tension, protective heroes, and emotional depth, this one is a must-read. But be warned—you will lose sleep over it.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️


🎶Sex on Fire – Kings of Leon
🎶Demons – Imagine Dragons

[Melanie (mells_view) · Rating 4 out of 5]

It felt too real, too intense, to be anything but.

The Penalty Box is a slow burn marriage of inconvenience (lol) read. Mica and Charlie are reluctant to get fake married to save Mica’s career on the ice, but once they come together they can’t resist the natural attraction they have toward each other. It’s a slow burn, but once they start burning it is HOTTT. I enjoyed this story, because they truly do fall in love during the story. The attraction is quick, but the feelings take some time. There is a bit of a suspenseful side plot. There’s some angst, but honestly the couple navigates it all well. Such a good read and I can’t wait to see what’s next from this author!!


AVAILABLE NOW on Amazon & Kindle Unlimited!
*ARC provided by BookSprout

[No · Rating 1 out of 5]

lmao this was so bad it was hilarious.
Here are some favorite quotes:


“Come have a shower with me.”
“I just showered.”
Defiantly feisty. I liked it.
LMAO "defiantly feisty" does the author even know what that means? 😂😂😂

She cried out as I slowly pushed my finger into her tight little rosebud hole.




She tasted fantastic. Like hot sex, love, and my home.
I can't even fathom what that tastes like



anyway, I think I laughed at the writing in this book more than I enjoyed anything else about it

[Eden · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5⭐️ My word I didn’t expect to like this book as much as I did, IT WAS SO GOOD 😭. I thought it was just a little sports romance but it was SOO MUCH MORE 😩

[Grecia Robles · Rating 4 out of 5]

Sport Romance
Married of convenience
YASS GURL!!!
I WANT IT!!

Los matrimonios por conveniencia/ fake dating se están covirtiendo en mi trope favorito ( lo siento Friends to Lovers).
Y éste libro ha cumplido con todo lo que me gusta de éste cliché.

Mica Petrov es el defensa salvaje de los Wolves de Vancouver y se ha metido en un aprieto que le puede costar su estadía en el equipo y para poder encarrilar su reputación su agente decide que lo mejor es contraer matrimonio con una persona que lo pueda ayudar en eso y recurren a Charlie la asistente de su agente Krista.
Ella tiene un enamoramiento por él y para disimularlo, se comporta hosca con él y finge no soportarlo.

Y es que éste libro también me encantó, tenemos un protagonista ruso sexy as hell que es reacio al matrimonio pero que ya casado es posesivo y no la trata como su esposa falsa.
Hay demasiada tensión sexual y las hot scenes son ufff FUEGO.

Esta serie me tiene encantada de mis mejores descubrimientos de los que va de este año. Altamente recomedada.

Mi único pero con estos dos últimos libros es que no sale el protagonista del primer libro tanto que me gustó también y ni el del libro chiquito o sea ni lo mencionan.

[Inna · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 stars. Tough book to rate because I liked the story overall but there were some problematic portions that really irritated me.

Let me first say that this story was entertaining and kept my attention. I really was invested in the story and wanted to see where it was going. There are a few twists and turns and it really does stay interesting throughout (even if some of the twists are fairly predictable).

The issues that I had with this story mainly revolved around the hero and how he treated the heroine. He has been around her for several years and never once felt any attraction towards her. They are forced together and he still sees nothing in her to attract him. Until he sees her half naked, then he looks at her and realizes that she’s very attractive. 🤨🧐 I guess I just felt sad knowing that the hero would NEVER have been even tempted by the heroine if not for the situation they found themselves in. Also, the way he treated her for the majority of the story - by keeping her at arm’s length - was majorly off putting to me. I felt like the heroine was always all in with him, and he always had one foot out the door. The hard part to wrap my mind around, is that his past trauma definitely explained his weariness of relationships. BUT I still couldn’t quite forgive him for his behavior and actions towards the heroine. Maybe if she had had more of a backbone with him… but I felt like she let him get away with too much bad behavior.

Safety info: I’d call this one SWE because of all the OM/OW drama and the mentions of the hero’s past. Hero was a major manwhore, heroine not a virgin, OW drama caused by a jealous woman who the hero had been intimate with once many months earlier but was no longer interested in (she tries really hard to break the couple up), OM drama caused by a friend the heroine makes who wants to be with her. No scenes with OM/OW, the hero’s past is mentioned A LOT, no partners during separation, no cheating.

[Auntee · Rating 4 out of 5]

I loved it (loved Mica and Charlie!) except for a few tiny things in logic that took me out of the story...

(When you have a stalker after you, roaming your property, and you’re a millionaire athlete living in an upscale community, wouldn’t you have security cameras all around your property? Even a Ring doorbell camera would do the trick!) But...ok, that would take care of the suspense angle of this story so you’d just be left with the fake marriage that turns into a love story which I thought was pretty hot...

Each story in this series gets a little bit better...although there are still a few little mistakes regarding hockey that a lot of authors seem to make that irk me (if you’re losing 4-2 you’re down by two GOALS, not POINTS. And you’re not jumping over the FENCE, you jump over the BOARDS). But that’s just me. Maybe it would help to have a hockey fan doing the proofreading? Maybe I’m just a nit picker...

Still a nice little story with a couple of likable characters, and yeah, it was plenty hot (gotta love a dirty talker) and there was this crazy suspense angle thrown in and it kept me turning the pages. So, a solid 4 1/2 stars.

[Ainhoa · Rating 4 out of 5]

So far this one has been my favorite of the Vancouver Wolves Hockey series.

I mean... We already established that it is a Hockey romance series with plenty of drama all around and this book is no different, but if you like drama prone hockey stories, you'll like this one as well.

I think I liked this one because, my oh my, it has my favorite subject ever, a forced marriage! So yes, I was going to like it! Charlie and Mica were so cute together, they communicated well enough throughout the story, (I hate all the drama the lack of communication creates... Just sit down and talk people!) and had their goals very clear from the beginning.

BUUTT... The drama! OMG! This writer likes the tension... it started with the SWAT scene in the first book and she kept on bringing it with the rest of the books! I won't tell, but you will see it coming if you read this book... And despite all, you will enjoy it (Hopefully?)

So yes, overall a good entertaining story, with steam and dirty talk, laughable scenes and cute characters.

[Travelogged Blogs · Rating 4 out of 5]

"Snark seemed to be her middle name, and whenever she bothered to look my way, her glances were often filled with disdain."

This is a marriage of convenience romance which is meant to solve both Mica & Charlie's problems but lines start to blur and now they're left questioning their own decisions. Deep down they both know that the marriage feels a whole lot real than it is meant to be but problem is- Mica doesn't believe in marriage and Charlie isn't ready to get her feelings hurt. What will they do? Charlie was pretty cute! I loved her ability to handle Mica and his hot and cold behaviour. She wasn't irrational instead she was mature, patient and understanding. More than that, I loved how Mica was so protective when it came to her!

“If you’re wearing my ring, you’re mine. Not to be touched by anyone.”

Mica & Charlie were amazing together and gosh the steam was on a whole another level especially when Mica started his dirty talk! 🤣🤣 🔥🔥🔥 I enjoyed reading Mica's character development and the progress of his relationship with Charlie was so smooth and natural, despite them being basically strangers in the beginning. My only complaint was the amount of drama that took place in the last few chapters, because of that the story felt long and it was too much to process when the book was coming to it's end. Regardless, I adored Charlie & Mica's chemistry and the side characters were amazing too especially Sniper and Sasha. I couldn't resist all the cuteness! If you haven't read this series.... go read it now because you don't want to miss on this marriage of convenience romance with a dirty talker Russian hockey player and the snarky assistant of his PR manager who hates his guts!

[rj]

DNF @ 17%

not my cuppa. manwhore hero with doormat heroine

hero and heroine have been in each others lives for 2 years in a professional space. she's secretly lusted after him for 2 years while he's barely noticed her and has been dating other women. and of course she's been celibate the whole time!! personally, not a safe read.

i want my heros all in and chasing after the heroine once they meet, and if they were to be in each others lives beforehand then i'd rather both of them didn't care for each other or both secretly wanted each other and didn't sleep with others.

reading some other reviews i see the lack of connection between MCs doesn't get better until the end so DNF-ing

[literaryelise · Rating 2 out of 5]

two years later i did make it through the entire audiobook but this is definitely the worst in the series. the narrator reading the entire thing in a bad russian accent was quite unbearable but yes, i did mostly enjoy myself. Still convinced this author hates women, though.

———

okay i’m calling it 😭 DNF @ 40%. this was too cringe and felt like a bunch of popular tropes strung together. the writing was less than stellar and there was a weird fixation on “feminine” and “masculine” energy/attributes that i found off putting. like we get it he’s a “hulking gigantic ox buff man” and she’s a “soft dainty broken young woman” and he wants to protect her. enough!! enough!! 😭

[Lori ◡̈ · Rating 1 out of 5]

DNF at 53%. It was a NO! from me, or should I say, Nyet/нет!

Way too much non-hockey non-romance stuff going on in this story. We’ve got the Russian mafia, the Japanese mafia, seemingly corrupt police detectives, a mysterious stalker that could be one of two weirdo characters…

Not a big deal, but I have yet to read a hockey romance starring a Russian player/hero where the author gets her Russian names correct. This hero’s name is…. Mica? I live in Russia, and I have no idea how to pronounce that in my head as I read it. Is it supposed to be like Micah? Or is the author going for a shortened nickname version of Mikhail/Michael? If so, then it should be Misha. His Russian mafia friend is called Andrusha. Ok, that’s right, it means his given name is Andrei. But it’s an endearment that only family or friends would call him. Not police officers, etc. Not a big deal, but comes across as …..silly, not seriously researched or written.

As for the storyline, the heroine had no personality. I wouldn’t say she was a sunshine, I wouldn’t say she was an ice princess, she was just ….there. Besides lacking a personality, she also lacked common sense. She has the Japanese mafia upset with her… or it might be random stalkers, and she’s really scared but she responds in the most irresponsible ways to her threats.

Example: she knows there’s a stalker trying to scare her so she turns on all of the lights in the house and sets the security system to on as she leaves to go join a community dog walk. She returns to the house shortly afterwards and finds the front door wide open and all of the lights turned off. Now, a normal person would call the police at that point. Nope, she decides to go in the house herself with some creepy neighbor guy and clear the place herself…

Then the front doorbell keeps getting rung at 3am by the stalker. Our scared heroine grabs a kitchen knife, turns OFF the security system and opens the door to see who is there! What an idiot… 🥴

There were so many times this hero/heroine could have been killed had the stalker/mafia been standing there with a gun.

The romance… I found this book recommended on you tube on a Best Slow Burn list. It definitely was not a best, I’ve read way better slow burns. This hero kept trying to have sex, but they got interrupted or the heroine turned him down multiple times. To me slow burn is more that H/h are both fighting their attraction as long as they can and then finally give in. I didn’t get that feeling at all. Another thing, I didn’t like the hero’s dirty talk. It’s like his personality completely changed into a caveman asshole, it wasn’t sexy at all.

The hero’s response to our heroine being threatened by a stalker was asinine too. The threats only happen when he is away on the road to away-games. He decides to spend $70,000 for a security German Shepard dog. How about install security cameras to see who is constantly ringing the doorbell and looking in windows, etc? Or a bodyguard? He has friends in the Russian mafia, get one of them over to his house to watch his house/wife when he is on the road. So many stupid things going on, I completely lost interest in our couple and the storyline.

[Karen · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really loved this story!! It's not so original or unique but just done so well.

I loved the characters...you got some real depth and development. It seemed realistic.
Charlie crushed on him and he didn't take any (sexual) interest in her for two years when she was assistant to his sports agent. Mica was a NHL player who had plenty of easy conquests.

The need to marry was a bit contrived but we went along with it. Charlie needed a bit of help and Mica could help.

I think the hockey parts were brief but set a realistic tone on those long road trips.

I loved the secondary characters so much.
The twists in the story were many. Hang on.
I had to review some just to keep it all straight.

So well done, Odette. A nice Canadian story!

[Rachael · Rating 3 out of 5]

Did I dream up this book? Cause what in the fake marriage hockey mafia stalker suspense was this??? This authors’ writing is truly something. It’s absurd and over the top, yet I can’t look away. It’s like she was trying to make it a dark romance, but it didn’t quite work out.

My main complaint was WHERE WERE ALL OF THE SECURITY CAMERAS ON THE OUTSIDE OF THE HOUSE??? That would’ve solved 99.9% of what was going on. 🙄

This NHL team has some crazy drama and shit luck I’ll tell you that.

[Intel Chicky Reads Romance (Kara Merideth) · Rating 5 out of 5]

FLOVED it!

Story: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Trope: fake marriage
Angst: 😱😱
Smexy: 🔥🔥

Gaahh!! This series is killing it! Was really excited for Mica's story and it did not let me down. Super sweet, some laugh out loud moments, and a dash of suspense. These characters have you falling hard for them and keep you hooked till the end. Can't wait to read the last book in this series - they've all been fantastic!

[Lindsey Garner · Rating 2 out of 5]

Some of you might be thinking, “Lindsey, are you okay?”

The answer is no, obviously not.

[Marion · Rating 1 out of 5]

THIS BOOK CONTAINS RAPE by the love interest (man) on the main character (woman).

WHAT MORE DO YOU NEED TO KNOW?

This book shows a sick and twisted version of « love » (if it can even be called that), and clearly the characters have never had a sex ed lesson.

I couldn’t bring myself to finish this book, which was supposedly romance, in the sense that it is expected that the reader, in a way, falls for the love interest, just like the main character.

I can not tolerate a man who rapes anyone, let alone his girlfriend. He did it because he was horny in the middle of the night and DIDN’T BOTHER TO WAKE HER UP before penetrating her.
« I didn’t even wake her. I just entered her from behind and slowly started to fuck her awake. She lay curled on her side, her head buried in her pillow. I pinned her one arm behind her back »
I hope I never hear « but she enjoyed it » as a counter-argument, like I unfortunately have for « the wall of Winnipeg and Me ».

This made me put the book down and I was glad I had not bought it. I would never want to give money to an author who ROMANTICIZES RAPE within a relationship.
She was UNCONSCIOUS, therefore UNABLE TO GIVE CONSENT. She might not even have fully woken up? Many women have been RAPED and TRAUMATIZED that way.


QUICK SEX EDUCATION MOMENT : PULLING OUT is NOT an EFFECTIVE CONTRACEPTION. Sex does not need to be had to completion for a woman to get pregnant (or catch an STD, for that matter), despite what severely under-educated people might think.
This author spreads misinformation which could lead to UNSAFE SEX!



I am DISGUSTED by this author. I also think they took too many pages out of the book « The wall of Winnipeg and Me » (which contains basically the same trope, and sexual assault from the love interest on the main character).

[Christy · Rating 2 out of 5]

If any slab of human slime had left me like that after I told him that I was pregnant, the baby and I are stealing his credit card and taking an all expense paid trip to Italy.

I don't care how miserable and traumatized Mica was - a child is the responsibility of both parties. You don't get to opt out of that obligation because you had a horrific experience when you were ten. Am I heartless? Maybe. But so is abandoning a child so idk what to tell you.

Mica doesn't really have to do anything after he ditches Charlie and their unborn child to go and get drunk and play hockey. He just sees Charlie at a gala one day with another guy and goes: woman mine! No hand on woman! Bad! And then he drags her away so that they can have sex. 🙂

Eat my meatballs, Mica. You kind of suck.

[Sabrina · Rating 4 out of 5]

Get it here:
Amazon US * Amazon UK

[Kelly · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5⭐️ best one in the series by far!! LOVE!! give me marriage of convenience any damn day. I basically listened to this audiobook in one sitting, I couldn’t stop.