Mister Hockey by Lia Riley
Hellions Angels #1
Contemporary/Sports Romance
July 11, 2017
Avon Impulse
Reviewed by Kini

Favorite Quote:

And typical Breezy behavior. On her tombstone it would read: She came. She saw. She made it awkward.

Jed West is Mr. Hockey. The captain of the NHL’s latest winning team, the Denver Hellions—and the hottest player on the ice—at least according to every magazine. .and Breezy Angel. Breezy has been drooling over Jed at games for years, and he plays a starring role in her most toe-curling fantasies. But dirty dreams don’t come true, right?
Then Jed saunters through the doors of her library, a last minute special guest for a summer reading event, and not only is he drop dead gorgeous up close, his personality is straight up swoon-worthy. He even comes to the rescue when she has an R-rated “Super Book Worm” costume malfunction. But when he mistakenly assumes she’s more into books than pucks, she’s too flustered to correct his mistake. And then comes a big kiss, followed by a teensy-tiny problem. Jed’s dating policy is simple: Never date a fan.
So what’s a fangirl going to have to do to convince her ultimate crush that he’s become less of a perfect fantasy, and more like the perfect man. . .for her?

I thought this book looked cute and I saw the author tweet about it saying that it was low angst, and I am all about low angst books. There is definitely some angst, but it isn’t overwhelming.

Our heroine is the spunky Breezy Angel. She is a librarian and kind of awkward and I loved her. She is a big time hockey fan and Jed West is her favorite player. Breezy frequently feels like she is not living to expectations of her. Breezy’s sister, Neve, is a journalist and served as the person to introduce Breezy to Jed when he fills in for someone else as a guest speaker at her library. They have an interesting meet-cute when Breezy is wearing a too tight costume and then it tears, queue up the awkward.
Breezy struggles a bit with her body image and later why Jed would be interested in her.

Her body tended to softness and a good cheese plate was better than size six jeans. She owned her juicy ass and had an allergy to any talk about how a “real” woman had a) curves b) no curves or c) hard-won muscles. Nope. Sorry. All a so-called real woman needed to own the title was a heartbeat.

I love to see heroines that embrace their bodies, regardless of their size. I love that Jed loved her exactly as she was. Her body issues and general insecurities come from her mother being fairly critical of her.

Jed is experiencing some potential concussion related issues suffered while playing hockey. Jed has just finished his season, so hockey doesn’t become a third character in this book. Jed is a pretty decent dude. He isn’t too overbearingly alpha, just the right amount of alpha. He is a surprise, sexy talker during the sexy times.

She was bare. Pink pussy perfection. “You’re staring,” she murmured. “Got that right.” If he had a magnifying glass he’d use it. She was peach soft, and there was only one thing to do with such ripe fruit. “I’m gonna eat you.” “Excuse me?” Her head jerked with surprise. Her breath came faster and Christ, he could smell her excitement. She wanted it. Almost as bad as him. “You heard me.” He leaned back on his elbows, dick throbbing. “Climb on my face, cowgirl. Let’s see what you got.”

I enjoyed the love story between Jed and Breezy. Things moved pretty quickly for them after they spent a couple of weekends together. It wasn’t quite instalove, but they definitely had attraction and chemistry, but the I didn’t feel the tension quite like I was hoping for. Their story progresses naturally and there are some cute scenes with Jed around Breezy’s family. Breezy’s grandma is the best.

It wouldn’t be a romance without some sort of conflict. I felt the conflict was fairly predictable and Jed behaved badly. But weirdly it was Breezy that did the bulk of the apologizing and big gesture. That was a little weird to me. Jed was the one that really overreacted and should have had to grovel more.

I enjoyed this book. Breezy was a great heroine. I enjoyed watching her learn to believe in herself. I believed in their story and their HEA, although I felt like the epilogue seemed a little rushed time wise and not quite enough time for things to have happened. The author did a great job of piquing my interest for the next book featuring Breezy’s sister Neve and the broody head coach of Jed’s team. Both were featured very minimally, but she weaved them in masterfully. This was a solid read and I would recommend it for as a quick, funny, emotional and low angsty read.

Grade: C+
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