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bonnieg 's review for:
The Game Changer
by Lana Ferguson
I loved Lana Ferguson's first book, The Nanny, so I was psyched to read this one, and it did not disappoint. (There is another Ferguson book about shifters, but I am firmly on record that if a being goes from dog to human, or bear to human or any animal to human it is a hard no for me.)
Delilah is a baker with a local TV show (and a weekly local broadcast is apparently enough to pay her bills -- romance is fantasy.) Ian is a hunky hockey player, and her big brother's best friend since grade school. Delilah always had a crush on Ian, but she was a little kid to him. Ian and Delilah's brother grow up to be teammates on the book's Boston pro team (not the Bruins) which is owned by Ian's parents. Then there is a scandal in which Ian is perceived to be cheating on his partner, and he refuses to defend himself. The press is bad and impacts his mother and his now ex-wife and so he decides to escape the media glare by joining a team in Calgary. He is gone for several years, and before that Delilah spent 3 years baking in Paris so when he returns to Boston they have not seen one another in a decade, during which time Delilah has gone from a teenager to a woman in her late-20's. Ian is uncomfortable to find he sees her very very differently than he had in the past. It turns out that over those years she grew up physically, emotionally, and intellectually, and so did he, and they are very compatible.
Ferguson always writes swoony relationships, and she gets it right here. One of the things I love most about Ferguson's books is that people communicate. The failure to talk about what is going on is the thing that is most likely to make me dislike a romance. I never feel the urge when reading Ferguson's books to scream into the abyss "HAVE A FREAKING CONVERSATION" because her characters do that, they talk about things. Hurdles are external. Here though the external hurdles are what cost it a star. The main villain, Ian's father is one of those mustache-twirling villains who (metaphorically) ties people to the railroad tracks for little or no reason. Though clearly there is no truly good reason to tie someone to tracks, but you get me, right? Cartoon villainy is met with a slew of people who are saintly in an absurd way. Real people live in the gray, so nuance is good. This was way too black and white. Again, this is a fantasy so I don't ask for much, but Delilah's only "bad" trait is eating raw batter even if it has eggs and Ian's only bad trait is that he tries too hard to protect those around him from pain. That is not sufficient. They need to snap at someone, drink an improvident amount on a night out (or in), dislike kittens, fart, drive 5 miles under the speed limit, just do something unappealing! They are too perfect, even for romance. It is a minor complaint i suppose, but it bugged me. It did not bug me enough to ruin my enjoyment, I had a blast reading this, but still . . .
One last thing -- Ms. Ferguson is VERY VERY good at the dirty talk, which is something that works for me. This book is explicit, and Lana and I appear to have very similar interests based on this and The Nanny. Everyone's brain lights up from different stimuli so YMMV
Delilah is a baker with a local TV show (and a weekly local broadcast is apparently enough to pay her bills -- romance is fantasy.) Ian is a hunky hockey player, and her big brother's best friend since grade school. Delilah always had a crush on Ian, but she was a little kid to him. Ian and Delilah's brother grow up to be teammates on the book's Boston pro team (not the Bruins) which is owned by Ian's parents. Then there is a scandal in which Ian is perceived to be cheating on his partner, and he refuses to defend himself. The press is bad and impacts his mother and his now ex-wife and so he decides to escape the media glare by joining a team in Calgary. He is gone for several years, and before that Delilah spent 3 years baking in Paris so when he returns to Boston they have not seen one another in a decade, during which time Delilah has gone from a teenager to a woman in her late-20's. Ian is uncomfortable to find he sees her very very differently than he had in the past. It turns out that over those years she grew up physically, emotionally, and intellectually, and so did he, and they are very compatible.
Ferguson always writes swoony relationships, and she gets it right here. One of the things I love most about Ferguson's books is that people communicate. The failure to talk about what is going on is the thing that is most likely to make me dislike a romance. I never feel the urge when reading Ferguson's books to scream into the abyss "HAVE A FREAKING CONVERSATION" because her characters do that, they talk about things. Hurdles are external. Here though the external hurdles are what cost it a star. The main villain, Ian's father is one of those mustache-twirling villains who (metaphorically) ties people to the railroad tracks for little or no reason. Though clearly there is no truly good reason to tie someone to tracks, but you get me, right? Cartoon villainy is met with a slew of people who are saintly in an absurd way. Real people live in the gray, so nuance is good. This was way too black and white. Again, this is a fantasy so I don't ask for much, but Delilah's only "bad" trait is eating raw batter even if it has eggs and Ian's only bad trait is that he tries too hard to protect those around him from pain. That is not sufficient. They need to snap at someone, drink an improvident amount on a night out (or in), dislike kittens, fart, drive 5 miles under the speed limit, just do something unappealing! They are too perfect, even for romance. It is a minor complaint i suppose, but it bugged me. It did not bug me enough to ruin my enjoyment, I had a blast reading this, but still . . .
One last thing -- Ms. Ferguson is VERY VERY good at the dirty talk, which is something that works for me. This book is explicit, and Lana and I appear to have very similar interests based on this and The Nanny. Everyone's brain lights up from different stimuli so YMMV