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A review by allingoodtime
Blocked by L.P. Dover
3.0
**I received an ARC of this book courtesy of Net Galley and the publisher in exchange for an honest review**
The good, the good, always start with the good. This book was smoking HOT! The chemistry between Dallas and Callie is off the charts. Plus, once you get past their walls, they’re both awesome people.
Of course, Dallas is a player…in more than one sense of the word. He’s hot, he’s talented, he’s famous so why should he rein himself in? He’s even kind of an egomaniac at first. I have to say the first (brief) interaction between Dallas and Callie, I don’t judge him for that. He was taking what was offered by an attractive consenting adult. Callie is a bit judgmental of Dallas’ past overall, but that’s a natural reaction.
We get to know a lot of the rest of the hockey team in this book, as well as family and friends. They’re all engaging and wonderful additions to the depth of the Breakaway world. Plus, we still got quite a bit of Kellan and Kristen from the first book.
This book swept me up into its storyline and kept me turning pages. This author has wonderful pacing and comes up with great plot lines and story concepts. So why only 3 stars? Once again, it was a problem with reality. If you have never read my reviews before, I want to tell you that I understand and believe in suspension of disbelief when it comes to fictional worlds. What I have a hard time with is sloppy research…things that are easy to look up or find out about that are just plain wrong in a story for no reason. These errors and twisting of times do not drive the plot in any way so I find them hard to forgive.
Once again, I find it hard to come to grips with the fact that this author is writing about hockey and seems to know nothing about the NHL. From the very first sentence of the story (if it remains the same, I was reading an ARC) it is obvious she is not comfortable or in the know on the vernacular of hockey (or sports?). Simple things like “shut out”, “arena” (seriously, I have never heard a hockey fan call it a coliseum), “goalie” (especially when the book is about a goalie), “period” should just be par for the course in this type of book. Since they are not, the language often seems stilted and slows the flow of the story down. Plus, there are far more people involved with a team than one main coach…even in the pee-wee leagues! Yet it’s Dallas’ responsibility to work with his backup goalie? Ummmm….no. Things are better here than the first book with regards to how often these guys have games, but they sure do an awful lot of partying for elite athletes in the middle of their season. Especially since they supposedly won 4 Stanley Cup titles in a row.
On top of the hockey issues, there are other things that just didn’t sit well. Callie’s nursing schedule was odd (although I probably wouldn’t have noticed as much if my brain wasn’t on the lookout for blunders after being triggered by all of the hockey issues), the reality show being live yet nobody knew about it was so far-fetched (no way an NHL team would allow this to happen during playoffs without some kind of releases being signed; even then it would be a reach), the way the coach and a player seem to be deciding who is going to take over when said coach retires. So many issues! Yet, somehow we have a whole wonderful paragraph on pond ice versus rink ice that is spot on. Why that attention to detail can’t be found throughout these books is beyond me.
Did you guys see Brokeback Mountain? This series makes me feel like screaming, "I wish I knew how to quit you!" I feel like Jack…Ennis gives him so little but he loves the little bit he gets so just keeps going back for more. Knowing he won’t be fully satisfied in the end. L.P. Dover gives me enough tidbits to keep me biting, to keep me hoping for more, to keep me coming back. She has scenes like the one between Dallas and Callie challenging each other in order to decide if they will keep their relationship a secret or not. That scene on the ice slayed me. Dallas just stole my heart and could do no wrong after that. Even when the inaccuracies were driving me bananas.
I said it before, I may need to read this author’s other work. With the way she sucks me in even though there’s so much that bugs me she has to have some wonderful stories out there that focus on characters doing things the author knows more about. But I’m not going to lie…I will continue this series because I am invested in these characters. I’ll just keep hoping that the author gets better at portraying the hockey world.
The good, the good, always start with the good. This book was smoking HOT! The chemistry between Dallas and Callie is off the charts. Plus, once you get past their walls, they’re both awesome people.
Of course, Dallas is a player…in more than one sense of the word. He’s hot, he’s talented, he’s famous so why should he rein himself in? He’s even kind of an egomaniac at first. I have to say the first (brief) interaction between Dallas and Callie, I don’t judge him for that. He was taking what was offered by an attractive consenting adult. Callie is a bit judgmental of Dallas’ past overall, but that’s a natural reaction.
We get to know a lot of the rest of the hockey team in this book, as well as family and friends. They’re all engaging and wonderful additions to the depth of the Breakaway world. Plus, we still got quite a bit of Kellan and Kristen from the first book.
This book swept me up into its storyline and kept me turning pages. This author has wonderful pacing and comes up with great plot lines and story concepts. So why only 3 stars? Once again, it was a problem with reality. If you have never read my reviews before, I want to tell you that I understand and believe in suspension of disbelief when it comes to fictional worlds. What I have a hard time with is sloppy research…things that are easy to look up or find out about that are just plain wrong in a story for no reason. These errors and twisting of times do not drive the plot in any way so I find them hard to forgive.
Once again, I find it hard to come to grips with the fact that this author is writing about hockey and seems to know nothing about the NHL. From the very first sentence of the story (if it remains the same, I was reading an ARC) it is obvious she is not comfortable or in the know on the vernacular of hockey (or sports?). Simple things like “shut out”, “arena” (seriously, I have never heard a hockey fan call it a coliseum), “goalie” (especially when the book is about a goalie), “period” should just be par for the course in this type of book. Since they are not, the language often seems stilted and slows the flow of the story down. Plus, there are far more people involved with a team than one main coach…even in the pee-wee leagues! Yet it’s Dallas’ responsibility to work with his backup goalie? Ummmm….no. Things are better here than the first book with regards to how often these guys have games, but they sure do an awful lot of partying for elite athletes in the middle of their season. Especially since they supposedly won 4 Stanley Cup titles in a row.
On top of the hockey issues, there are other things that just didn’t sit well. Callie’s nursing schedule was odd (although I probably wouldn’t have noticed as much if my brain wasn’t on the lookout for blunders after being triggered by all of the hockey issues), the reality show being live yet nobody knew about it was so far-fetched (no way an NHL team would allow this to happen during playoffs without some kind of releases being signed; even then it would be a reach), the way the coach and a player seem to be deciding who is going to take over when said coach retires. So many issues! Yet, somehow we have a whole wonderful paragraph on pond ice versus rink ice that is spot on. Why that attention to detail can’t be found throughout these books is beyond me.
Did you guys see Brokeback Mountain? This series makes me feel like screaming, "I wish I knew how to quit you!" I feel like Jack…Ennis gives him so little but he loves the little bit he gets so just keeps going back for more. Knowing he won’t be fully satisfied in the end. L.P. Dover gives me enough tidbits to keep me biting, to keep me hoping for more, to keep me coming back. She has scenes like the one between Dallas and Callie challenging each other in order to decide if they will keep their relationship a secret or not. That scene on the ice slayed me. Dallas just stole my heart and could do no wrong after that. Even when the inaccuracies were driving me bananas.
I said it before, I may need to read this author’s other work. With the way she sucks me in even though there’s so much that bugs me she has to have some wonderful stories out there that focus on characters doing things the author knows more about. But I’m not going to lie…I will continue this series because I am invested in these characters. I’ll just keep hoping that the author gets better at portraying the hockey world.