Review: Pipe Dreams by Sarina Bowen

Title: Pipe Dreams
Series: Brooklyn Bruisers bk 3
Author: Sarina Bowen
Genre: Contemporary, Sports Romance

A goalie has to trust his instincts, even when taking a shot to the heart…

Mike Beacon is a champion at defending the net, but off the ice, he’s not so lucky. A widower and a single father, he’s never forgotten Lauren Williams, the ex who gave him the best year of his life. When Lauren reappears in the Bruisers office during the playoffs, Beacon sees his chance to make things right.

Lauren hates that she’s forced to travel with the team she used to work for and the man who broke her heart. There’s still undeniable sexual tension running between her and Mike, but she won’t go down that road again. She’s focused on her plans for the future—she doesn’t need a man to make her dreams of motherhood come true.

Lauren plays her best defensive game, but she’s no match for the dark-eyed goalie. When the field of play moves to Florida, things heat up on the beach.

One of Mike’s biggest fans doesn’t approve—his teenage daughter. But a true competitor knows not to waste the perfect shot at love.

Thoughts: Holy freaking crap is this book awesome. It just might be my favorite book in this series…oh who am I kidding Hard Hitter is my favorite, but still this is one is just as good, but for so many different reasons.

If you’ve read Rookie Moves and Hard Hitter than you know that Lauren HATES hockey. What we didn’t know until now was why, and let me tell you her why will make you cry! (You really might want some Kleenex for this one in places just saying)

My absolute favorite trope in romance is the second chance story. So watching Mike and Lauren get their second chance gave me all the feels, and had me re-reading parts after I’d already finished the book.

Reading the blurb and first chapter at the end of Hard Hitter, I wasn’t sure if I was going to like this book and Mike because I thought it was a cheating book, that Mike had cheated on Lauren in the past. AT NO TIME IS THERE CHEATING BY EITHER MIKE OR LAUREN IN THIS BOOK OR IN THEIR PAST! Once I understood that, and how Mike and Lauren had been together when he was supposedly a widower, who had been married while they were together earlier I was all in.

That combined with the fact that Mike is in a place where he can go after what and who he wants without having to worry about his daughter’s emotional state (which is a part of this story in a major as it should be). Because even though Mike left Lauren years before (and his reasons will be part of why you need those Kleenex) he never stopped loving Lauren and dreaming about the future they’d planned.

This is one of those books that will have you sighing and falling in love with the second chance romance all over again. It really is a must read for anyone who loves that trope.

Grade A