Lasairiona McMasterRezensionen

If you have not read a book by Lasairiona, you are missing out. Every book is a winner for me. Each time I fall in love with the featured couple and have a blast at the same time. Right away I was laughing at Raffi and Tori's first introduction.

I want to take a quick moment to shout out Raffi's parents. Love them both. They remind me of my parents with the love they share and no matter how old you get, you will still by their little child who they will give their advice to.

I fell hard for Raffi, He won me over right from the beginning but then with his interactions with his son and the love he showed for Tori, just cemented a permanent spot in my heart. I loved every spicy moment between Tori and Raffi.

Apollo and Edith’s story is one full of emotion and angst that grips you. As being strongly in the friend zone for awhile an incident puts them in a situation that makes them question it all. The pain and obstacles they both had to go through hurts your heart, but watching something beautiful grow heals your heart. I don’t’ want to spoil anything but this friends to lovers romance has it all for you.

Savannah and Justin’s story was one that was full of fun and misunderstandings that keep the readers glued to the pages. Savannah runs into Justin in college after an embarrassing moment in her favorite coffee shop and although she can’t stand him that attraction is still there. Justin is wrongly accused of cheating on Savannah’s best friend in high school and while that should be water under the bridge because it happened when they were younger and immature that doesn’t stop Savannah from hanging onto her hatred until she gets to know him for who he really is. My heart broke for Justin because anyone and everyone that he knew or loved kept either misunderstanding him or refusing to hear him out. Their journey was a cute and emotional one that I truly enjoyed.

Talk about an opening scene. I felt all the strong emotions that Apollo was experiencing for Edith while she was lying in a hospital bed. It was here that I was really cheering for him to be endgame with Edith. He did come on hard and fast in the beginning. To the point that Edith thought Apollo might be suffering from PTSB (yes, "b" not "d").

I can guarantee you that everything was in working order downstairs with Apollo. Ooh, those steamy scenes between Edith and Apollo. They could have melted the ice rink. Yet, my favorite moments were the ones where Apollo cared for Edith like shaving her legs as she recuperated.

I will leave you with a quote from Apollo "I am Clark Kent, and she’s my Kryptonite."

I am really enjoying this new hockey series by author, Lasairiona. It is so spicy, and I can't wait to continue this series. Ares already gets a win with his name, but he gets a bonus being a netminder and having a pierced...You know what I mean. A lot of the hockey romance books I read the male character is the captain of the team. It is not often that I read where the character is a Goalie. Don't let all the extra padding fool you as goalies are hot too.

When it came to Eloise, I have to admit that in the beginning it took me a while to warm up to her. She was so clueless when it came to hockey. she did not know what a hat trick was or that the fights are the best part of hockey! Yet, she made up for it with her feisty nature towards Ares. These two brought the hot chemistry.

As if I was not already going to read book three, Lasairiona leaves me with a cliffhanger. Pulling the Goalie scores a winning goal!

Lasairiona does it again with this final book in this series. She brings the heat, humor, charm, and engaging characters. I have really enjoyed reading these books and am sad to see the series end, but I am looking forward to what Lasairiona comes out with next.

I am so glad that Elliott got his own story. The more I got to know him from this series, I did want to see him get his HEA. Love that it came in the form of a second chance story with his childhood friend, Clare. Any woman that will sit in a bar alone eating fried mozzarella sticks and reading smut is A+ in my book.

Because these two had a past it did not take too long for them to fall for each other. Oh boy are the intimate scenes so damn hot! Enough to melt the ice. Two for Charging...yes, please!

I am a fan of this series. With each book I have grown to become more familiar with the characters as if they have been my friends for years. This newest book is no exception. It hits all the right elements...great characters, very good storyline, spicy romance, and HEA.

In the beginning, I had mixed emotions involving Will. He came off a bit sad that I just wanted to give him a hug but than in the next moment he would say something that was a bit offense that I wanted to slap him. Yet, when I learned the true reason behind why Will acted the way he did, I got a new perspective on him that turned it all around for me.

Where Quinn is concerned, I really liked her right away. She is fierce and compassionate. I like how she cared for Will. These two together were heating up the pages of this book. Two for Tripping scores a hat trick in my book!

Ok, I will admit that I did go into this book thinking it was going to be a bit heavier on the hockey. As a hockey fan, I am all about the sports romance books. The hockey aspect was kind of the second string, but I will tell you that the heat between Austin and Kenzie was so HOT that I am not mad about the lack of hockey.

Do not let the word "Dom" scare you away from this book. Austin is not the tyrant type of "Dom" but more of a gentle "Dom". He was aware of Kenzie and made sure she felt safe every time. Additionally, he made sure they both got pleasure. This is very important in this type of sexual relationship. Lasairiona brought the heat with this book, and I sure felt it... seconds, please!

AJ Williams has arrived back in Alabama to the shocking realization that his fiancée, Irish hockey fan Lisa Millar, has broken up with him via text. He has no idea why. He's still struggling with his bipolar depression, and struggling with whether or not he should try to win Lisa back, or move on and try to find love with another woman.

Meanwhile, life isn't standing still for AJ's family and friends. Ana has a love life developing. Britt's relationship with Roberto might not be what she has claimed. AJ's family might be about to expand in unexpected ways.

There's also, of course, the fact that AJ has to recognize that it's past time he corrected the mistake he made. Nothing he wants in life can happen unless he divorces Britt.

It's an emotional rollercoaster, and AJ isn't even sure he'll survive it, never mind find his way to the happy ending he wants.

It's a good, solid, new adult romance. I do want to caution readers that if depression and bipolar issues are potential triggers for you, be careful.

I received a free electronic galley of this book from the publisher, and am reviewing it voluntarily.

AJ Williams and Lisa Millar continue their complicated courtship.

The complication Lisa knows about is AJ's in-name-only marriage to his friend Brittany, who has a real relationship, but "needed" AJ to marry her so she could stay in the US rather than returning to Canada.

The complication she doesn't know about is that AJ suffers from bipolar depression. His shame about his condition (which is, yes, one of the symptoms of the disease) makes it really difficult for AJ to do the sensible thing: tell Lisa, and let her decide whether she can cope with it. No, instead he tries to conceal it, and even stops taking his medication because he's trying to be the person he wants to be for her. It's been a long time since his last serious episode, so surely it's reasonable to think it's gone... No. But yes, depression, bipolar depression, and other conditions and the medication that controls them can make this seem reasonable.

Naturally, this becomes a very difficult situation for Lisa to deal with, especially when AJ becomes depressed enough that he believes she's fed up with him and will be better off without him.

It's tricky and dangerous and McMasters portrays AJ's state of mind and resulting behavior very well.

It's that same effectiveness at portraying what's going on that makes this a hard read for me. My condition is "just" depression, not bipolar depression, but some of the challenges are very similar.

So, be aware you'll be diving inside the mind of an extremely depressed person--and his episode of hypomania is not necessarily better, just different. It also ends in a cliffhanger, but the third and final volume will likely be out by the time you read this review.

I received a free electronic galley of this book from the publisher, and am reviewing it voluntarily.

AJ Williams is a college hockey player, with two Canadian best friends. One is Jeremy, his hockey teammate. The other is Brittany, a..k.a. Britt, whose visa is running out, and who wants to stay in the US, so she can be with her boyfriend, who is also not a US citizen. She's come up with a brilliant plan--AJ should marry her, a completely phony marriage, so that she can stay in the US.

This is of course a really stupid idea, and selfish on Britt's part, but AJ feels obligated to support his friend.

Jeremy, meanwhile, talks AJ into joining him in an online chat with his latest love interest and her best friend. That friend, Lisa Millar, is Irish, turns out to have a large overlap in musical interests with AJ, and is, improbably, a hockey fan. She's been watching AJ and Jeremy's games online.

You can see where this is going. AJ is soon a technically married man, with a girlfriend in Ireland he's getting more and more involved with.

Then his younger sister, Ana, like all the sensible people in his life, doesn't approve of the business with Britt, gets in touch with Lisa, and arranges for her to come for a visit. She hasn't told Lisa about the paper marriage, and he springs her arrival on AJ at a post-game "meet the fans."

This can't end well. It doesn't.

On the one hand, of course Lisa finds out about Britt, and is very, very hurt and betrayed.

On the other hand, a player on another team, that AJ has been clashing with already, gropes Lisa in a bar because he knows AJ is interested in her. This soon leads to a clash on the ice that ends with AJ badly hurt.

I like the characters, especially AJ, Lisa, and Jeremy.

The secret marriage is stupid anyway, and the idea of a rich, white Canadian needing tricks like this to stay in the US when her rich parents actually support the idea, is beyond stupid.

Then we have the lesser stupidities, the failure to do basic checking of the differences in terminology between British and American English. I had never encountered the term "air hostess" before, but its meaning was pretty obvious--the exact equivalent of "flight steward/stewardess" in the US. A couple of decades ago, that is. If not longer.

Why does this matter? Because it comes out of the mouth of AJ Williams, talking with Jeremy on the plane to Ireland, and then texting with Lisa. Lisa could perfectly plausibly have said "air hostess," I gather, but it came out of AJ's mouth first.

And no, I don't believe that.

I grew up reading both British and American books, in a working class white ethnic (a term Millennials may never have encountered, because it is so over now, and started getting scolded out of use in the mid-seventies) family. I knew the British spelled some words differently, and I knew they also used different words for a bunch of things. I've been told by British friends and acquaintances that British children were not exposed to that Awful Stress and Confusion, and any American works that got published in the British Isles got "translated" so that perfectly ordinary American teens would wind up talking about adverts and frocks and "fancying" a person of the gender they find interesting.

I find this bizarre. I wouldn't believe it at all if I hadn't seen a few books with these pointless substitutions in their British editions. But clearly it has happened in the past. Is it still happening now? This is the first time in a while that I've seen evidence of this blind assumption that of course it's completely reasonable to put British idiom in the mouths of Americans who would have had no occasion to pick it up. And this is particularly egregious. It's not "carpark" instead of "parking lot." Steward/stewardess got the boot from American English for a reason--it's was pointlessly, needlessly gendered. It's a throwback to a time when the idea of jokes about female flight attendants saying "Coffee, tea, or me, sir?" was considered funny. And to my ears, which may be just me, "hostess" sounds even worse in that regard. It assumes the flight attendant is there to be a social hostess, instead of having serious safety functions on board an airliner in flight.

And on a pure language level, it's not the term that would come out of an American's mouth, and that kicks me out of a book for a moment, even if the plot is more satisfying.

But I did really like the characters.

I received a free electronic galley of this book from the publisher, and am reviewing it voluntarily.