His Game, Her Rules

This book is so poorly developed. The characters have no depth. It’s like the author read a few books and decided to copy the story with no substance added.

When I read the blurb and saw "Eileen Francis is a world-class skater with a gold medal to prove it", my first thought was that she was a figure skater, which is one of my favorite winter sports (to watch). The heroine of this story was actually a part of the women's national hockey team.

The beginning did a good job of establishing her character quickly. She was passionate about hockey and teaching, and she had a lot of hopes built on becoming the skating coach for an NHL team. The prestige that would come with that position would bolster her reputation. Her personal life wasn't as rosy. The death of her parents in a car accident, and a very embarrassing and hurtful break up with her hockey-playing boyfriend of a year had left their marks. It was very apparent that she was definitely more comfortable on the ice, in her element, rather than getting into romantic entanglements.

My impression of the hero may have been a little skewered because the majority of his personality description came from the way Ellie interpreted him. On the surface he was pushy, cocky, but also a softie. Perhaps too soft to the point he was a little laughable as a hero. I didn't find anything sexy or alluring about him.

As a couple, I didn't feel the chemistry at all. Ellie was a basket-case of emotions, and she rarely ever knew what she wanted (except as a coach she was really good). From the first moment they met, Ty was excessively obnoxious in trying to get her to go out with him. The story went downhill from there. By 40% I was extremely bored with them. From beginning to end, all they did was argue over how to define what they were or were not doing. The words date and dating appeared for a total of 117 times. I think all the characters in this story either loved being loud or over-dramatic. I lost count of how many unnecessary exclamation points peppered the pages. Sadly there was no character development to speak of. Ellie remained the same person all the way through. If she wasn't changing her mind a hundred times about whether or not to be seen with Ty, then she was fishing for answers about why he was with her. The love scenes were all fade to black, not that that bothered me. The little bit of suspense with a creepy phone caller felt thrown in for no reason. The resolution at the end wasn't really one at all.

The plot was good, but the execution was poor. Instead of an engaging story, it was tedious. The characters had potential, but it was lost in juvenile dialogue, contradictions and repetitive conversations. I'm not sure the third person present tense POV helped either. I will not be following up on this series.

**I received a complimentary copy from the publisher via NetGalley for the purpose of an honest review.**