4.75 Stars.
This is the first book I’ve read from this author, and I will continue to follow her. Soft Hands ticked a lot of my boxes. I love sports stories, I love athletes, and I love ice hockey, so 3 big ticks. I really liked Xander, he comes across as a ‘player’ on and off the ice, but he has a heart of gold, and once he falls, he falls hard. Jordan is the quintessential doubter. He doesn’t believe in Xander or his ability to commit to him, throw in the fact that he shouldn’t fraternise with a player because he works for the team as a therapist, and we have a few issues. I did find it interesting that in the Wendigo’s universe and their league, it seems to be very acceptable to be gay, so there wasn’t any bigoted behaviour, which is nice to a point, (in a perfect world) but potentially a little unrealistic. Jordan has had a crush on Xander for a while, and he believes his feelings are unrequited, Xander asks him out but Jordan shoots him down at first, thinking he wouldn’t be able to cope but he soon realises a little of Xander is better than nothing at all, so here is where things heat up and their personal relationship develops. I loved the massage sessions, and when they first get together it is seriously hot, and just gets hotter as the storyline progresses. We have the standard small misunderstandings, but it doesn’t bog you down, and the eventual self-awareness and self-discoveries that bring them closer together is really well done. I loved the development of the two main protagonists, but I also liked the secondary characters, who you can no doubt assume are the next book in the series. This is a good solid sports story, a little slow burn, sexy time’s, friends to lovers, easy to read well written novel.