Julia Connors: Cross Checked

 Boston Rebels Book 3

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/213814340-cross-checked

Alessandra Jones (A.J.) has worked hard her whole life she has been focused and driven to make a name for herself in a mans world and she's done it she's a general manager for the Boston Rebels Hockey (NHL) team and others are seeing all her hard work as evidenced by being up for the GM of the year award... this is everything she could have dreamed of and nothing and no one are going to get in the way of that... maybe

Ronan McCabe is a handsome, hot head hockey player he's up for contract renewal and is tired of being put off... he's the Captain and has worked hard for this team while he's been on it so he doesn't understand why they don't even want to give him even the small raise he's asking for (since he has extra responsibility)... feeling like he's being brushed off by his current teams management he is starting to look for other teams who might want to work with him... maybe he'll move closer to his sister out of state so his daughter can grow up with her cousins.

McCabe has a history with AJ she scouted him when he first started and after an incident on occurred she also got him traded... they didn't even have a conversation about it first he just got the boot.  Unfortunately he has mixed feelings since he had a bit of a crush on her back then and even though he kind of hates that she is now his boss... she's still beautiful, maybe even more so than she was when he originally met her.

After McCabe's nanny flakes on him and he has to bring his baby to the game with him AJ goes above and beyond and takes care of Abby (the baby) so that he can focus on his job and less on worrying about his daughter... in fact AJ really goes above and beyond for all of her team and even helps him find a nany (her younger brother).  Until her brother is available she continues to help provide "nanny" care to his daughter and ends up getting hurt when a fight breaks out in the stands.

McCabe insists on making sure AJ is ok and feels indebted to her since she saved his daughter from being harmed when the doctor insists that she have someone stay with her to help her with her daily activities McCabe takes the job seriously... it also helps that they just found out that they are neighbors... Helping with daily tasks leads to touching, spending more time together, and some definate lines being crossed now feelings are on the line... but can they ever make a true go of things when they don't even know where he is going to be next season?  If he does stay she is still his boss.  

*Hockey Romance *enemies --> More  *Forbidden Romance  *boss FMC  *Reverse Age Gap

*forced proximity *workplace romance  *single dad *Grumpy MMC *secret relationship 

*FMC (infertility complications, divorced, toxic ex, toxic family)  *found family *Slow burn *spice 

*insta lust/love  *State Challenge: Mass 

Thoughts:

I could kind of see the attraction from our MMC's side he didn't like her at the beginning of the book but he had a "thing" for her in the past prior to his trade to his current team. What I really wasn't feeling was AJ's side... she works with lots of hot/handsome hockey guys but since she's been so driven with her job for so long I just don't see her "risking" it all on a spur of the moment unethical fling with one of her players that was grumpy and guarded with her until she became his interim "nanny" even one she did have this past history with but it was never romantic in nature she had been married at the time and he was younger than she was.

McCabe tries to have actual conversations with AJ about where their relationship is going because he would like more but she runs off and avoids him.  The other thing is for a single dad romance his daughter really isn't in the book much.  

Looking over those things their whirlwind romance happened over the course of a very short period of time where he goes from disliking her greatly to "all in" just doesn't seem long enough for that even when they were sharing things with each other and having such a "deep" connection.  

This one was just ok for me I do love hockey romance and there were some moments I enjoyed but unfortunately this one just fell kind of flat for me I actually started this awhile ago (maybe like 6 months ago) got like 30% thru and lost interest because the plot just wasn't plotting for me...I ended up picking the book back up and having to start from the beginning because I really just couldn't remember enough of the story to continue from where I was in the book, and I found the same issues I had the first time the story is a bit repetitive and way longer than it needs to be (460 pages), there is a lot of spice (once it starts) and at points in the story it overpowers the plot.