Please give a warm welcome to author Toni Aleo to Readers Confession!! This is one of my most favorite authors this year. I found her on her last blog tour, through Reading Addiction Blog Tours, and total fell in love with her book. (See review here)
Definition of an Empty Net: When a team pulls the goalie for an extra attacker, desperately seeking a goal.
Audrey Parker was in a horrible place.
She hated her job, her sister was getting married and moving out, but worst of all, she was in love with a total jerk. No matter what she did, every guy she met hurt her. All she wanted was her happily ever after. Her Prince Charming. Her Lucas Brooks! She didn’t know how to change her life but she knew she needed too.
Feeling like she was about to hit rock bottom, Audrey wakes up next to Tate Odder.
Tate Odder had lost everything.
After being brought up from the Assassins’ farm team, the Florida Rays to the Nashville Assassins, Tate hopes he’ll forget everything he has lost. He doesn’t. Each day gets harder to live in a place he doesn’t know. Even being the first rookie goalie to shut out an opposing team three times during the Lord Stanley Cup Finals, he still felt empty. With the loss of his parents and sister still heavy on his heart, Tate isn’t sure how to live like everything is okay.
But when he wakes up beside Audrey Parker, things start to change. She turns his life upside down with her kooky sense of humor and her bright clothing. She is intelligent and beautiful, and for once, he doesn’t feel empty.
Will Audrey be the person to fill the holes in Tate’s heart, making him whole again?
Or will another player ruin everything, leaving him feeling forever like an empty net?
Review:
Let me start by saying that Toni Aleo, is one of several new authors that I am totally in love with. I got lucky and found Toni a few months ago when I signed up for a blog tour. It's a contemporary romance book with the hero being a hockey player. Meh, hockeys not my thing I thought, but I'll try it out. I'm so glad that I did. Okay enough about Toni, onto Empty Net.
Empty Net started not too long after Trying to Score, if you follow the series (don't worry they can be read as stand alone books). Audrey is Fallon's sister (heroine from last book) and hasn't had much luck with men. She's been "dating", I'll say that loosely, Levi. Levi is not well liked, but Audrey sticks up for him at every turn.
Levi was...there's no better way to say it, he was a DICK! He was verbally abusive to Audrey. He would put her down by nasty names, telling her lies about how she looks and making her believe that no other way would EVER want her. Audrey is convinced that Levi is in love with her and he just doesn't know it. SURE, ok! It's never that simple, right?
Audrey is a funny, smart, creative, strong, beautiful and fun woman! She isn't happy in her life at all, not in her career (job) or her love life. She typically does things that make others happy and not herself and she always gets run over because of it. She's very big into fashion and has a total obsession with shoes. Nice high heel shoes!
Tate Odder is the new Assassins star goalie player and Lucas' best friend (hero from last book). Tate is Swedish and has had to learn English since being in the states. He has a hot accent, gorgeous face and small, tall and muscular. Sounds great, right? Oh yes, he's yummy! But, although Tate is this famous rookie hockey player doesn't mean he's perfect. He's dealing with the death of his family with no one to help him cope.
A chance meeting with Tate and Audrey and sparks fly! Time goes by and they don't realize they were so close to each other but yet so far away. Tate is persistent while Audrey wants to run away! LOL! Since they have ties to each other, no matter what they won't get away from each other.
Once their relationship gets under way, boy do the sparks fly! They are phenomenal together. The chemistry is off the charts. It's just so easy between them, I loved it. They could do the simple things like vegging out in front of the TV and eating snacks while having a great time. There is cute banter and continuous flirting going on that makes you swoon over and over.
"I wanted to do something that would make me happy." Tate smiled, "So I make you happy." Audrey smiled, "Cocky ass."
I connected with Audrey on a lot of levels. I never quite went through all the relationship issues that she did but I can relate. ***minor spoilers*** Audrey yearns to have children, which I can totally relate to. I've struggled with this for year and continue to do so. Going through the happiness for others, yet jealousy at the same time. It made my eyes water several times hearing Audrey's thoughts being similar to my own. It's not easy when having children comes so easier to so many people and not others.
"Audrey could tell that it had, but as always, when she spent time with little kids, she yearned to have her own. It was something about their little faces, hands and toes that got Audrey every time. She wondered what it could be like to feel a baby inside her, to see it come into the world and then help it grow" -Audrey
Tate having family issues was another touchy subject for me. Can I relate? No, thankfully. But his pain was palpable. I again found myself with tears in my eyes for his loss and pain he went through on a daily basis. He has to portray a happy Tate, when he was miserable inside. I don't even want to imagine the dark feelings I would have if I was to go through a similar situation.
Audrey and Tate are able to find each others savior. The one that they contact to and find that they are whole once again. I'm not going to giveaway the ending, but GRRRRR! It had me VERY upset and filled with rage. After the craziness, the book ending as it should have.
"Audrey giggled, "I'll cut a bitch." Tate's laughter shook her body as she laughed along with him. When her laughter subsided she said, "No really, she can't have you. You're all mine." "Am I now?" "Yup, sorry buddy, my heart is invested here."
If you haven't read Toni Aleo's books I would HIGHLY recommend to try them. She writes amazing love stories, not the insta-love, but REAL LOVE with trials and tribulations and lots of hard times. I'm so happy to have had a chance to review this book for Toni! :-)
About the Author:
I am a wife, mother, and hopeless romantic.I have been told I have anger issues, but I think it’s cause of my intense love for hockey!
I am the biggest Shea Weber fan ever, and can be found during hockey season with my nose pressed against the Bridgestone Arena’s glass, watching my Nashville Predators play!
When my nose isn’t pressed against the glass, I enjoy going to my husband and son’s hockey games, my daughters dance competition, hanging with my best friends, taking pictures, and reading the latest romance novel.
I love things that sparkle, I love the color pink, and did I mention I love hockey?
Twitter: @tonilovesweber6
Get the first 2 books in the series
*Disclosure of Material Connection: I am a member of Reading Addiction Blog Tours and a copy of
this book was provided to me by the author. Although payment may have been received by Reading
Addiction Blog Tours, no payment was received by me in exchange for this review. There was
no obligation to write a positive review. All opinions expressed are entirely my own and may not
necessarily agree with those of the author, publisher, publicist, or readers of this review. This disclosure
is in accordance with the Federal Trade Commision’s 16 CFR, Part 255, Guides Concerning Use of
Endorcements and Testimonials in Advertising*
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