V. L. LoceyCritiques

The MC and first person narrator in this novel is raw and rough, but in the hands of reader Sean Crisden some magic is created. I don't know how on earth he did it, but Crisden got me to sympathise with the hard-headed brawler Victor Kalinski, "all-star forward for the Boston Barracudas".

He meets hockey team mate Daniel Arou who has a sufficiently saintly soul to see some good in Vic. Dan, of Inuit ethnicity, with a generous solid family, takes Vic on the ride of his life because he treats Vic as someone who is worth knowing, worth loving.

Unfortunately, on Hoopla, the audiobook doesn't come as a box set, so I have only read book #1 in this series, and that's all there is in Hoopla's catalogue by V.L. Lacy, who is new to me. Come on guys - you can do better than that.½

I feel for the way Xander 'had' to come out but we can almost feel the relief he feels at being free to love whomever he wants, and he wants his best friends little brother Mason.

This is a heartwarming story of the love between Mason and Xander thats hmm been brewing for years, with Xander scared and Mason resigned to never getting his man.

I enjoyed this sports based romance that wasnt full on sports, we saw the lives and trust between team mates and friends.

Excited to see where this series takes us next.

Wow Kyle and Christian's story has some dark moments and intrigue but it is a perfect love story!

I started this and its the first book in a while I read straight through without putting it down.

Second chance at love, snow storms and mystery memories. This is a well written read!

I have no idea what this was trying to be, but I guess at least I now know that I don’t need to read any more books by these authors. Mason and Xander are oddly barely on the page with each other, yet they’ve declared their love before the halfway point; there’s truly no character development happening here. Apparently there’s some backstory on Mason that was in a previous book in another series which is so random and doesn’t really get brought up or addressed until over three quarters in. Even after getting together, these two still are barely on the same page; it’s just other stuff happening in their lives, and I didn’t feel anything for them since I didn’t really get a chance to know them. The writing itself wasn’t bad, but the plot structure and lack of character development definitely wasn’t good; oh well I guess duds exist everywhere, and I’m usually pretty positive about books but this pissed me off.

I wanted to like it more than I did. The pacing was off and the narrative was clunky. The hockey aspect was practically non-existent. The characters were bland and the romance was very abrupt. Yes they had history but without it being shown it was just abrupt.

I also didn't realise this was a spin off series and prior series are suggested reading. To some degree it does stand up on it's own but mostly I was just lost in between who these people were and why they mattered and what had happened.

2 stars.

Simpatico e piacevole, una lettura veloce e tranquilla per una storia che si sviluppa serenamente nella normale quotidianità.

Victor is an insufferable asshole but I could not help liking him. This story is a romance but hardly a sweet one. Both Vic and Dan have tough shells and play roughly though they have a tender side that Ms Locey shows us on occasion. It's a well told, engaging story.

I think that this was one of Ms. Locey's weaker books. It was ok but very predictable.

Overall 2,58 stars

The Slide Home by Jena Wade - 3,5 stars

The National Game by G.S. Wiley - 2 stars

Summertime Blues by M. Durango - 2 stars

All That is Gold By Indra Vaughn - 2,5 stars

Calling The Shots By Katherine Halle - 3,5 stars

Balls and Strikes By Sean Michael - 2 stars

Goaltender’s Penalty By V.L. Locey - dnf

2.5 stars

Read as part of [b:Blue Line Collection #1|35113233|Blue Line Collection #1|V.L. Locey|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1494491844l/35113233._SY75_.jpg|56424757]

A bit over 2.5 stars

It was fine, but not as much as I expected from Stan's story, He's my favorite character in the series; yet in this book, I found difficult to connect with him. Same for Erik.

It seems to me that a first-person story wasn't a suitable choice for this story, due to the language barrier: When the speech emphasizes it, Stan's feelings and thoughts loses fluidity, which could be avoided if It were a classic third-person story, with dialogues, or thoughts in first-person, to reinforce his Russian identity.

Erik's case is worse. We're told that he is Swedish, but there are not expressions or references to customs that make us truly believe that he is Swedish.

2.5 stars

This story has moments that I enjoyed, but the general undertone is too cheesy for my tastes.

I loved Stan in previous installments, but here —in what I suppose is an attempt to display his Russian idiosyncrasy—, he appears as a big fluffy bear; that's cute in little doses, yet more than once I thought "Stan is Russian, not a simpleton!"

I really enjoyed the first chapter, but once Justin and Ten left the main scene, Ryker on his own was not enough to capture my interest, since I didn't care about Jacob at all.

I skipped so many pages that the story became completely meaningless to me. Thus, I'm abandoning this series.

I'm much more interested in the Arizona Raptors series, which I hope to start next month.

1.5 stars

I skipped a lot. Almost everything in this book either bored or irritated me, and Dane seemed particularly insufferable to me.

Oh well, V.L. Locey is usually a hit or miss for me, this case was a ginormous miss.

Crashing the Crease - 3.5 stars

Long Change - 3 stars

Shutdown Pair -2.5 stars

Heir Apparent - 4 stars

In [b:Scoring Anthology|18395330|Scoring Anthology|Vincent Diamond|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1377732318l/18395330._SY75_.jpg|26020352] I DNF this story.

In this second try, I finished it. It must be one of the «funnily sexy» stories less fun and sexy that I remember reading.

My rating is due to the writing is decent.

Almost 3.5 stars

I see the same pattern as in the first story, going so much better in the second half.

So much that at some point during the first part, when Layton leads Adler to his office after "the" press conference for their first sizzling interlude. I didn't buy it; the situation seemed implausible in that stage of the story; I felt that the scene was there simply because someone said: "OK gals, it's the hour of putting some sex in the story", I thought this book wouldn't go beyond 2 stars.

But then the MCs were gaining depth, controlling his restlessness one, and moderating his inner Irish setter the other, not to mention the welcome interventions of Ryker, Brady and the Railers, especially Stan, who is my favorite character in the series so far.

This is a shorter work with a unique and fun voice - I very much enjoyed that. For me it ended rather abruptly. I would have preferred an epilogue to give me some sense of how things turned out.

Two Man Advantage is a comedy of errors, short, and incomplete. It's a journey, but to where, I don't know. It's bad. It's good. It's.... a heaping mess and worth a read, but it's not good. It's just hilarious. To quote the book "like a tornado having anal sex with a hurricane".

I didn't really warm to this romance novel at any point. The setting was a major disappointment—for a sports team based series I would want more of a presence of the sports and the team.

One of the things I love most about this extended world of hockey, created by RJ Scott and V.L. Locey is that it isn’t all sunshine and rainbows. Not every MC gets to be the best in the league and not every team wins the Stanley Cup. That dose of realism goes a long way toward making these books readable and relatable.

Back Check brings Joachim to Boston to replace retired defenseman Brady Rowe. While he has the skills to fill the holes on the ice, his life is a shambles of addiction and poor life choices. Nothing illustrates this more than him realizing he has fathered a child with a young woman, that in his drunken stupor, he has no memory of. Isaac has been caring for his sister’s daughter since her death. Now, the little girl is herself ill and the only thing that can save her is her biological father.

I really like how both of these men believe that their course of action is truly the best plan for all of them. I love how it takes the words of the child to make them realize what the reader has known all along is the right way to go. This book is full of feels and redemption. The underlying theme of the need for teamwork, communication, and found family run through both the main love story and the secondary ongoing story of the Boston Rebels

⭐⭐⭐⭐
Rating: 4 out of 5.

The Boston Rebels is another great, although a bit different, hockey romance series from VL Locey and RJ Scott. The latest hockey team set in the expanded world of the Harrisburg Railers, this series is less about hockey players who try to fit romance into their careers and ice thrills, and more about guys who fall in love and just happen to play hockey at the top level. You know, real life, where the hockey leaves off.

In this book, while off season Marquis Miller is tasked with providing a bid estimate on the refit of the plumbing in an historical European keep. Though he would rather be playing hockey, he knows his family’s business depends on him stepping up and getting this right. Prince Kaleb, though the youngest of the royal heirs of Norstoe, is the one shouldering all the responsibility while his siblings weather their various crises. Falling for the incredibly charming dapper Marquis, is just not a smart move when his family needs him to step up and lead by example.

More star crossed than sweet on the romance side, it is obvious to everyone from the most fleeting character in the book, to the reader that these two men belong together. Yet, with their lives on different continents and family obligations pulling at them, it doesn’t seem possible. The side stories with each of the royal siblings and the arranged marriage drama, are slightly surreal to be happening all at once, yet they were a great way to wrap up loose ends as the story progresses. I was super excited to see Erik Gunnarsson-Lyamin (among other familiar characters) come out to play hockey. In the extended adventures of the Railers, Erik almost always seems to be stuck at home with the kids, not that I would ever complain about stories with his husband and teammate Stan.

This book was worth the wait and now of course I am waiting for Rebels book 5 at the end of August. I will have to convince myself to not restart the reading list over, I could have all four series re-read by the time the new book comes out.

⭐⭐⭐⭐
Rating: 4 out of 5.
reviewed via Kindle Unlimited

On the whole, this one was OK as light reading at bedtime, and I understand even a romance novel needs to get its plot points from somewhere, but I found it really offputting how cavalierly one of the protagonists thought about non-biological parenthood, and as the biological father put himself first despite not having any involvement in the child's first two years.½