When the only sparks are with a man that doesn’t want what you want…

Synopsis

A bookshop face off!

NHL hot shot, Nick Hawkeye Hawke has 4 months to recuperate from a potentially career ending injury. All he has to do is take it easy and keep things low key. So, looking after his grandmother’s beloved second hand romance bookshop and working very closely with the ruthlessly efficient Samantha Evans is just what he needs right? Wrong!

Career driven Sam has impulsively decided to swap her highly stressful corporate job for a slower pace in her favourite bookshop at the exact time her biological clock has started to tick. And she wants absolutely none of that. But when your boss is a hot hockey superstar and you can’t stop daydreaming of him being your baby daddy, forced proximity takes on a whole new meaning.

With temptation around every book shelf, Nick and Sam find themselves skating on thin ice until they put themselves firmly in the friend zone. But the more they try to resist their slow burn, the more they want each other. How long can they stay in the zone until one of them breaks the ice?

Previously publishd as Risky Business

My review

Sam never expected that her biological clock would be ticking so loudly. Because now time is of the essence, Sam realizes that what she truly wants, is a baby. Little detail that is missing, is that Sam is still single… And with her swapping her stressful corporate life for a more peaceful job in the bookshop she loves. A bookshop that is taken over by NHL player Nick ‘Hawkeye’ Hawke. After his injury, running his grandmother’s second hand romance bookshop is the perfect way to keep his mind of the thought that his career may be over. But working with Sam may bring a whole different kind of challenge for Nick. Because her character and her curves make it impossible for Nick to not feel attracted to her. However, Sam has made it crystal-clear that she wants to find a man that wants children himself. And Nick is not that man. To make things even worse, Sam has asked Nick to find her possible matches.Yet that doesn’t stop them to become real friends, and learn that they may have more in common that initially thought. However, there couldn’t be possibly anything happening between them, as their future will go in different directions…

When I started reading this book, and with such a title, I was expecting a story with a little bit more focus on the sport – aspect. So when I realized that it would be more focusing on the book – aspect, I was pleasantly surprised, being a huge bookworm myself!

Haven’t we all had that moment in life where we realize that time is truly going by really really fast? And  that the things we would have thought to have achieved by now, are perhaps now just a faraway dream, replaced by something completely different.

In that mindset, I could relate to Sam, as seeing that I am getting closer to the 4 with time passing by, that biological clock for sure is ticking for me too!

And that is not the only thing that I could relate to with Sam, because I am too rather on the curvy side, with the accompanying doubts included.

Plus her love for books made me initially think I had found truly a kindred spirit in Sam.

But I also have to say, that at moments I found Sam a bit annoying or even a little bit childish. Yes, I understand her desire to find the perfect man. But as we are all imperfect in one way or another, I think that sometimes she was a tiny bit too harsh on her dates…

Of course sparks are very important, but it’s also true that sometimes those sparks don’t come immediately. And that looks can for sure ignite lust, but that love comes from someone’s persona.

And then those shouting eggs…

Nevertheless, I liked reading how Sam found her inner calm working at a place that brought her so much happiness in the past. Not only did I see truly a change in Sam, from a workaholic to a woman in a peaceful place, but also I saw how Sam starts to realize that being successful can be achieved in different ways, and doesn’t mean per se in a careerwise way.

Obviously, her new job is thanks to Nick, a NHL player recovering from a serious injury, and the person that has taken over the bookshop after losing his beloved grandmother.

Saying that Nick is a player, in you know which sense I mean, would be an understatement. To be strictly honest, I couldn’t blame him, as long as he didn’t hurt anyone’s feelings…

I found it great to see the body positivity in this book, because sparks for sure fly around between Sam and Nick, how curves are embraced in this book. But I also found it realistic seeing how Sam and Nick aren’t giving in that easily to those sparks, as they have different thoughts about their future, and those visions don’t seem compatible at all.

We see Sam and Nick both growing in this book, they not only learn to become each other’s friends, but they also learn to accept themselves, to believe each other and to trust each other. They also learn that with the right person, visions and ideas can change. But most important they, and especially Sam, learn to love themselves. Because if you can’t love yourself, how can you love someone else?