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booklover1974's review
4.0
I really enjoyed this story! It was hilarious and sweet with a cute romance. The characters were easy to like and root for. Read it!
anasatticbookblog's review
4.0
A Favor for a Favor (All In book 2) by Helena Hunting
Narrated by Erin Mallon and Jason Clarke
Book 2 in a related Series. Can stand alone. Contemporary Romance/Romantic Comedy.
4.5 Stars
(My reviews don't reveal more than the blurb does. If you want a quick review, skip to the Down & Dirty)
While A Lie for a Lie (All In book 1) wasn’t my favorite Helena Hunting book (I’m just not a fan of the lying trope), I still loved it enough to grab A Favor for a Favor. I’m so glad I did because hate-to-love and all the delicious banter that goes with it is my favorite genre.
After Stevie walked in on her live-in boyfriend screwing someone else, she needed a place to stay while she got her life together. Her brother, Rook (RJ from the first book), a recently married NHL team captain, still owns his old penthouse apartment which is vacant at the moment. When Stevie shows up late at night, a hot mess, making a racket trying to get into the apartment, RJ’s across-the-hall neighbor throws all kinds of nasty accusations at Stevie.
"This guy takes the jerk cake with his asinine accusations. Such an epic waste of hotness."
Bishop is surprised and angry that a puck bunny is showing up at his team captain’s apartment when he just got married. He is already mad that Rook got the captain position over him, now he sees that the golden boy isn’t so golden. Even after finding out that it’s his sister, not lover, the damage has been done…or has it?
Bishop has a fondness for fun boxer briefs, and he just “happens” to grab his paper every time Stevie is in the hall, but two can play at that game! The hate-flirt continues until Bishop suffers from an injury the first game of the season. Luckily Stevie is a physical therapist. She is looking to get into professional sports without riding her brother’s coattails, so Bishop is perfect. She can give him extra PT, and he will add a professional player to her resume; A Favor for a Favor! But the chemistry between them is incendiary, and considering the location of his injury, that causes some problems!
"I'm having dirty thoughts about him. The kind I use as fodder for my private one-hand clapping parties after our nightly PT sessions. My vibrator has been getting one hell of a workout lately."
Though it was a really slow burn, A Favor for a Favor kept me hooked the whole time, and I loved getting to know the good side of Bishop.
“Bishop is a lot of things: sarcastic, assholey, determined, hotheaded, and a mammoth of a man. But his kiss is all the other parts of him I’ve gotten glimpses of over the past several weeks: sweet, gentle, soft.”
Likes:
- •I love the hate-to-love verbal sparring.
- •Visits from favorites in the Pucked Series.
- •Shippy’s underwear.
- •I love that Bishop wasn’t a man-whore.
- •They really took their time, it was slow burn without being too slow.
- •The chemistry was undeniable.
- •I listened with a smile on my face the whole time.
Dislikes:
- •Stevie’s drama about her brother being famous.
- •Too much of the ex.
- •I really like RJ even less after this.
- •The book was paced beautifully with a slow burn, then it just wrapped up way too fast.
The Narration:
Two of my favorite narrators, Erin Mallon and Jacob Morgan couldn’t have been more perfect for the parts. They absolutely made the story even better with their performances.
The Down & Dirty:
A Favor for a Favor by Helena Hunting is enemies-to-lovers at its best. The verbal sparring, slow burn and chemistry all worked great together for a fun, sexy and emotional read. Despite having a few nitpicks, I honestly enjoyed listening to every word of Bishop and Stevie’s journey from enemies to falling in love. I highly recommend A Favor for a Favor, and I look forward to listening to a Secret for a Secret next.
Rating: 4.5 Stars, 4 Heat, 5 Narration
Purchase A Favor for a Favor by Helena Hunting
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Both the book and audiobook are FREE in Kindle Unlimited, otherwise the audiobook is a $1.99 upgrade.
sabs_bookrecs's review
5.0
5/5 I read this on KU and am buying it in paperback immediately. This is an amazing example of an enemies to lovers sports romance. Character development was amazing. It’s a sports romance where the guy isn’t a player which is rare. The banter was fantastic and at times I actually laughed out loud. The conflict was believable and not cringe worthy or toxic. The build up to the spice was very well done and I loved the dual POV. This is an great quick read and has all the pieces to make a great book. This will definitely be my go too sports romance comfort read
halffast's review
4.0
A physiotherapist doesn't get along with her grumpy new neighbor -- an NHL player on her brother's team. After he's badly injured, she offers to rehab him so he can heal faster, while also helping her career. She has a mile-long list of reasons to figuratively keep him at arms-length, but physically, her hands are all over him, and she's not the only one who feels the heat between them.
This was a sizzling enemies-to-frenemies-to-lovers slow-burn. When Stevie and Bishop clash, sparks fly. Part of the sexy fun of this novel is that Bishop's injury is in a 'sensitive' area, and he makes no attempt to hide the fact that working with Stevie turns him on -- unwillingly, or so he claims. I liked the layers to Bishop's personality. He comes across as a grouchy asshole, but he's also respectful of Stevie's boundaries and is patient while she works through some complicated emotions stemming from her ex and her brother. While there was the requisite drama from the 80% breakup, it was handled in a mature and believable way and led to some nice growth from multiple characters.
Overall, a great, well-written sports romance with no typos. It's second in the series but worked fine as a standalone.
This was a sizzling enemies-to-frenemies-to-lovers slow-burn. When Stevie and Bishop clash, sparks fly. Part of the sexy fun of this novel is that Bishop's injury is in a 'sensitive' area, and he makes no attempt to hide the fact that working with Stevie turns him on -- unwillingly, or so he claims. I liked the layers to Bishop's personality. He comes across as a grouchy asshole, but he's also respectful of Stevie's boundaries and is patient while she works through some complicated emotions stemming from her ex and her brother. While there was the requisite drama from the 80% breakup, it was handled in a mature and believable way and led to some nice growth from multiple characters.
Overall, a great, well-written sports romance with no typos. It's second in the series but worked fine as a standalone.
charlottenw1's review
4.0
"Will you be the olive to my Pineapple?"
Bish and Stevie hit so many of my favourite tropes, it was easy to become addicted.
Enemies to lovers
Neighbours
Work place
Sport romance
Yes, yes, yes and yesssss!
Stevie has to move into her brother - Rooks - apartment thanks to her now ex having an affair in their bedroom. She doesn't expect to have any interaction with the neighbours but Bish makes her his problem when he thinks Rooks having an affair on his wife with a Puck bunny. Rook and Bish don't get on in person or on the ice but Bish has morales and cheating is not something he respects. One thing leads to another and Stevie ends up spending a lot of time in close quarters with Bish thanks to a sports injury but nothings ever that easy.
I think I fell in love with Bish more than Stevie because I'm a sucker for a guy that admits his feelings first and it's laughable that everyone else had to tell him that he hadn't made his feelings clear to Stevie. He was not impressed at all that he could have been friend zoned. I mean who in their right mind would friend zone Bish??? Even is he is a bit of a douche.
Bish and Stevie hit so many of my favourite tropes, it was easy to become addicted.
Enemies to lovers
Neighbours
Work place
Sport romance
Yes, yes, yes and yesssss!
Stevie has to move into her brother - Rooks - apartment thanks to her now ex having an affair in their bedroom. She doesn't expect to have any interaction with the neighbours but Bish makes her his problem when he thinks Rooks having an affair on his wife with a Puck bunny. Rook and Bish don't get on in person or on the ice but Bish has morales and cheating is not something he respects. One thing leads to another and Stevie ends up spending a lot of time in close quarters with Bish thanks to a sports injury but nothings ever that easy.
I think I fell in love with Bish more than Stevie because I'm a sucker for a guy that admits his feelings first and it's laughable that everyone else had to tell him that he hadn't made his feelings clear to Stevie. He was not impressed at all that he could have been friend zoned. I mean who in their right mind would friend zone Bish??? Even is he is a bit of a douche.
read_on_reader's review
5.0
I honestly don’t know how the author does it but each book and each series get more amazing. I loved Bishop so much, his stony behavior to the outside world was such a contrast to how caring he truly was especially when it came to care for his brother. Bishop loved his younger brother and all his hard work was to make sure that his brother would be taken care of and his diabetes would always be watched, however his younger brother just wanted to be normal even it it meant living a lifestyle Bishop didn’t approve of. Bishop and Stevie’s first initial meeting doesn’t go too well because Bishop thinks she’s her brother’s mistress, so he misjudges her instantly and she thinks he’s a know it all cocky hockey player. These two had an amazing banter and even though they start off on the work foot things work out and they do a favor for a favor where Stevie helps Bishop’s rehabilitation and she gets to use his NHL status on her resume. What these two don’t realize is their feelings are real because they go from enemies to friends to lovers. They were perfect for each other and when they finally stopped overthinking everything, they did for each other was only friendly favors did they finally see they were made for each other. I did love seeing more of the other characters Rj and especially Alex, but with each book I find myself becoming more annoyed than entertained by Violet, I get she is the o.g. character and she had been hilarious and that she is the kind of matriarch of these books and craziness but her constant meddling in others’ lives and word vomit has almost made me end up not liking her as much as I use to, I just think I have found her humor to be annoying lately and maybe her humor has lost its spark. Still a great read and still some of my all-time favorite characters I just think a few have ran their course.
kaitlin_durante's review
4.0
4.5 stars.
Helena Hunting really knows how to make me happy with hockey romances.
She is the queen of hilarious out of their mind females and the hockey players who are along for the ride.
Stevie and Bishop had me laughing, smiling and swooning.
Can't wait for the next in the series!
Helena Hunting really knows how to make me happy with hockey romances.
She is the queen of hilarious out of their mind females and the hockey players who are along for the ride.
Stevie and Bishop had me laughing, smiling and swooning.
Can't wait for the next in the series!