Book Review of The Playmaker

Book Review of The Playmaker

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Book blurb and covers

Title: The Playmaker (Book 2 in the series)

Author: Dakota Madison

Genre: Contemporary Romance / New Adult Romance / Sports Romance

Kian Kavanagh, Mr. Fire on Ice, has just been called up to play hockey for the NHL’s new expansion team in Seattle. Finally playing in the NHL is a dream come true…except for one thing. Kian has to leave Northern Arizona and the love of his life, Taylor Thompson, to pursue his dream.

Taylor Thompson thinks she’s got life figured out. She’ll finish her final semester of college then move to Seattle to attend graduate school and be with her man. Until one fateful night when Taylor’s world is complete shattered and everything she’s ever wanted—everything she’s ever hoped for—is called into question.  

               

Will Kian’s love be enough to help put Taylor’s shattered world back together again or will tragedy tear them apart?

Come back on November 20, 2013 for my review of The Playmaker

Title: Fire on Ice  (review here)

Author: Dakota Madison

Genre: Contemporary Romance / New Adult Romance / Sports Romance

He's Fire on Ice and she's afraid to get burned again...

"You always think a guy is going to be different until he's not."

Firestorm Center Kian Kavanagh dominates the ice like a rock star dominates the stage. He's the hottest new player to be recruited for the Firestorm, a newly established professional hockey team in Northern Arizona.

After Taylor Thompson's heart was completely shattered by her high school's most popular jock, she vowed never to date another athlete. And she keeps that promise through her first three years of college by putting up impenetrable walls to protect her from heartbreak.
But after a chance meeting with the charming and irresistible Kian Kavanagh, Taylor's carefully constructed walls are in serious danger of being burned down by Mr. Fire on Ice.

Author Bio

Dakota Madison has been writing since she learned to read and fell in love with books. When she's not at her computer creating spicy new romances, Dakota is traveling to exotic locales or spending time with her husband and their bloodhounds.

Purchase Fire on Ice: http://www.amazon.com/Fire-Ice-ebook/dp/B00DZTY5O0/

Purchase The Playmaker: http://www.amazon.com/The-Playmaker-Fire-Ice-ebook/dp/B00FNGA14G/

Facebook fan page
https://www.facebook.com/DakotaMadisonAuthor
Blog: http://12novels12months.tumblr.com/

Book Excerpts

EXCERPT THE PLAYMAKER

I stared at the huge stadium in front of me. I was about to walk into Key Arena for my first game as a major league hockey player but I still felt small and insignificant next to the massive structure.

Me, Kian Kavanagh, a kid from the wrong side of Boston, was now an NHL player. It was something I had dreamed about since I was a kid and first set foot on the ice but it still didn’t feel real. I felt like I could wake up any minute and it would all be just a cruel dream. I had worked so hard and for so long just to be in this place and at this moment. Where I was from, people were well aware of what happened when their dreams died but no one ever taught me what it was supposed to be like when a dream came true.

The only thing that was missing, the only thing that could possibly make the moment any better, would be to have my girl right there with me.

My girl.

No other two words sounded sweeter.

I had to do a lot of hard things in life. Being raised, if you could even call it that, by a drug-addicted, alcoholic mother came with its share of shit storms. Growing up on the wrong side of town and trying to get through school on my own wasn’t easy. But by far, the hardest thing I ever had to do was leave my girl, my princess, and move to Seattle without her.

But she was a senior in college. She had to finish her final semester. And she was getting ready for graduate school. I wanted all of those things for her. Things that were important to her and made her Taylor Thompson.

She was better than me in every way and we both knew it. I felt so freaking lucky every day of my life that she wanted to be with a guy like me. Now that I was a major league player, I finally had something real to offer her. Something that made me worthy of being her guy.

 I rubbed the smooth heart-shaped gemstone that was in my front pocket and inhaled a deep breath. That gemstone, rose quartz, Taylor called it, was supposed to symbolize love. Taylor gave it to me our last night together in Arizona. She said it was a symbol of her heart and I was to always carry it with me. I never went anywhere without it. 

Taylor promised she would watch my games on television. I was so proud of her for so many reasons: for overcoming a really shitty high school boyfriend who betrayed her in an unforgiveable way and for following her dream to earn a doctorate in psychology. I was lucky my ass graduated high school. I did it by the skin of my teeth. Not because I was stupid but because I had such a shitty life; trying to survive was a bigger priority that school work. When I had to try and find something to eat because my mom didn’t give a shit about buying food, homework didn’t seem as important.

Being here, playing in the major leagues, was finally my chance to do something that would make Taylor proud of me. And I could prove that I wasn’t the complete loser that her parents thought I was. Maybe they could finally see me as being worthy of their daughter.

Review: 

Have you ever known one of those people or couples who seem to have the worst luck?  You know the ones who have everything that could go wrong go wrong and yet they still manage to come back strong and thriving.  Taylor is one of those people.  In book one we find out her high school boyfriend posted her first sexual encounter on the internet for all to see.  As if that wasn’t enough to turn you off sex, in college she is raped.  Unfortunately this last statistic is not unusual.  More women are raped than you would think.

But Taylor is strong and she fights back…eventually.  And boyfriend Kian, hockey player extraordinaire, helps because he loves her no matter what.

This book was a great conclusion to this storyline, but I have to say I didn’t enjoy it as much as the first one.  It was well written and satisfying, but the topic of rape made it harder to read.

I give this book 4 out of 5 clouds and kudos for tackling a tough storyline with  compassion and grace.

This product or book may have been distributed for review; this in no way affects my opinions or reviews.