Title: Hard Hitter
Series: Brooklyn Bruisers bk 2
Author: Sarina Bowen
Genre: Contemporary, Sports
He’s a fighter in the rink, but he’s about to learn that playing nice can help you score…
As team captain and enforcer, Patrick O’Doul puts the bruise in the Brooklyn Bruisers. But after years of hard hits, O’Doul is feeling the burn, both physically and mentally. He conceals his pain from his coach and trainers, but when his chronic hip injury becomes too obvious to ignore, they send him for sessions with the team’s massage therapist.
After breaking up with her long-term boyfriend, Ari Bettini is in need of peace of mind. For now, she’s decided to focus on her work: rehabilitating the Bruisers’ MVP. O’Doul is easy on the eyes, but his reaction to her touch is ice cold. Ari is determined to help O’Doul heal, but as the tension between them turns red hot, they both learn that a little TLC does the body good.
Thoughts: I’ve had this book for awhile but never picked it up. Until this week when I went on a Sarina Bowen binge read. In one day (okay it was really a Sunday but still…) I read all of her Ivy Years books (If you haven’t read these you need to LIKE RIGHT NOW) for which this series is a spin off. After the last book in that series I had to re-read Rookie Move…and then Hard Hitter and Pipe Dreams.
and O.M.G. I’m so freaking in love with Patrick O’Doul.
Like really really really in love with him. I would dump my book husband (Judd freaking Lauren from Nalini Singh’s Psy/Changeling Series) for him. Okay…maybe not dump Judd, I’d be in a Triad with them. Yeah, a Triad.
I wasn’t much of a fan of his in Rookie Move, but I wasn’t even two chapters into this book when everything changed and I was in love with him. Because man oh man, when they say still waters run deep, they are talking about Patrick O’Doul. He very much has his reasons for why he is the way he is. Reasons that had me wanting to just love all over him. And when he falls for Ari, well you’ll just have to read it for yourself.
Ari is a great heroine. There is a lot going on in her life and she has zero desire for anything permanent with Patrick. While she appreciates having him in her life and by her side while everything is happening to her, she doesn’t necessarily need him. She’s determined to stand on her own two feet for once in her life and be without a man. To bad she has a determined hockey player in love with her.
And because this is a romance, they get their HEA and I for one absolutely loved how it happened.
What I love about Bowen’s books and why I think everyone should read her, regardless of whether you like sports or not is her character development and the fact her characters are so freaking relate-able.
Bowen has landed a permanent spot on my auto-buy list.
Grade A
