Book Blurb:
When I catch my girl with my hockey teammate and best friend—scratch that, ex-best friend—I’m done playing nice.
Declan betrayed me. But I have the perfect way to get even: his sister.
Juliette is sweet, bookish, gorgeous… and completely off-limits.
Fake dating her should be easy. A little wining and dining, a little harmless flirting, and I’ll get revenge on the guy who wrecked my life.
But Juliette throws me completely off my game.
Beneath her button-up shirts and wide eyes is the sexiest and most fascinating woman I’ve ever met. All good-girl by day, lacy underwear by night.
She sees right through my bad attitude… and somehow likes me anyway.
Suddenly the one thing worse than losing my best friend, would be losing her.
I’m desperate for revenge. But hurting Juliette? That’s a penalty I just can’t take…
Tropes:
*Netgalley ALC *Sports Romance (Hockey) *Strangers to more *Brother's team mate
*Revenge romance *Grumpy/Sunshine *Forbidden Romance *rom-com *Hall Pass
*Spice *State Challenge Michigan (repeat) *team drama *workplace romance
Thoughts:
This is a new to me author but I do love a sports romance, hockey romance being my favorite of the genre, I grabbed this as an ALC from Netgalley and only wish I had a chance to listen to it sooner!
Going into this book I think you need to understand this main thing --> the name of the book is on point for our MMC's goal at the beginning, is it a bad idea (yes) does his plan divert pretty quickly after (also yes)... let me explain.
Aaron is a big NHL star for the team in Michigan he's noticed that his friend/team mate Declan has been off recently leaving early, not going to team gatherings (etc...) worried for his well being Aaron arrives at Declan's place and lets himself in only to find that he's fine... in fact he's fantastic minus being a back stabbing snake since he is in the middle of getting it on with someone else very close to Aaron... his girlfriend of over a year what! I guess friendship means different things to different people.
After tossing both of these relationships out the window... with friends like that who needs enemies Aaron happens to run into a beautiful girl Juliette (FMC) who is leaving an awful date (she knows who he is as he is her celebrity crush... and her brother's team mate). Although she usually doesn't do things like this she is sweet and shy she decides to go for it and invites him to her place for a one night of fun kind of thing... things don't get too wild and he doesn't stay the full night but he does realize on his way out that she has some interesting photos on her wall... in fact they are of Declan the now ex-friend... this must be his sister.
Juliette starts a job working in event services for the hockey team her brother plays for and learns that there are rules against dating co-workers/players but Aaron is seriously amazing... if given the chance maybe he's worth breaking some rules for.
Aaron sets about his evil (insert evil laughter) plan to hurt Declan by getting closer to his sister Juliette... step one invite her out, step two be charming af, step three make her fall in love, step 4 break up with her and break her heart... super easy it's a fool proof plan...
Only it's not because Juliette is quite possibly the sweetest girl he's ever met, she's not like the usual women he dates that are looking to be a WAG she notices the little things, makes him feel special and knows the life because her brother is part of it and he just likes spending time with her... He knows what he's doing is wrong but he was angry and humiliated and not thinking like a rational person at the time this started... but the longer he spends time with her the more he feels that he wouldn't break her heart without breaking his heart too.
I loved Aaron's sassy sister and Juliettes best friend was over the top unhinged at times but a fun side kick who always has her back.
Declan attempts to push Juliette away from his team mate... but naturally doesn't explain why and we all know that he doesn't want to come off as a huge jerk to his younger sister, which he would since he was in the wrong. So instead of saying what he means he dances around the topic and is super vague with her not telling her anything.
Tempers flare between Declan and Aaron and the longer the situation goes on and the longer Aaron waits to tell her the full truth you just know this is going to be a disaster... especially if someone else fills in why Declan and Aaron are not on speaking terms. But will Juliette want anything to do with him once she finds out what happened and what he planned to do, even if that is the last thing he would want now?
This was a fun fast listen, Aaron made terrible decisions and as the reader you know whats coming but can't wait to see how everything unfolds anyways, and thing is Aaron is a sweet guy he loves his sister and is caring towards others if he wasn't so mad about what happened he would have never come up with this terrible revenge plot, what was even more endearing was watching him realize that over the time he has been with Juliette he didn't want his plan to work because Juliette deserved better from him and he wanted to be the man she deserved.
The Narrators did a great job bringing this to life Lee Samuels & Amelia Hugh were a great duo for these characters.
Juliette was so sweet and didn't just let Aaron off the hook she made him work for it.
Declan... ugh! he's got a long way to go to get a redemption but hopefully the author will be able to do it and I'm looking forward to reading his story.
If you are looking for your next Hockey romance check this one out! I enjoyed this one!!
looking forward to reading the next book in the series, have you read this one yet? what did you think?
I enjoyed this one but here are some negatives for the book:
*If you are looking for detailed back stories and in depth getting to know the characters on page it isn't that kind of book, it's more superficial, and times they could have been talking they were "exploring" other areas of their relationship. I didn't mind too much I just realized it wasn't going to be that kind of book early on and went with it.
*The revenge plot was petty and of course unfair to Juliette (who is a sweetheart)... she had nothing to do with what her F-boy brother does in his free time
*If you enjoy a sports romance with more sports --> there is limited sport in this a few game mentions the main focus is the revenge plot that fizzles pretty quickly and Juliette sneaking around with this situationship since she knows it is against policy to not report it but can't stop herself from continuing to see him in secret.
*It's made out to be a brothers best friend but doesn't read like that because it starts after the situation that broke up their friendship so Declan and Aaron were not friends throughout the story.
*Juliette made a big deal about Aaron needing to speak with her brother and make up with him... but this was not in the book like what happened???
*The ending felt a bit rushed and the epilogue (this wasn't on the alc audio version... I got the e-book and read the epilogue) was only a few weeks later and didn't really add anything to the story.
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