Playmaker By L.P. Dover Release Date: February 27, 2018 Publisher: Loveswept Book #3 of the Breakaway series Number of pages: 222 Kindle Edition Source: ARC from Net Galley Contemporary Romance/Sports M/F Rating: XXX Read 2/9/18 to 2/10/18
Maddox is such a great guy. Even back in the last book, Blocked, there were hints to the real heart of this character. As you read this story and get to the reasons why he did what he did, and why Lacey did what she did, it’s obvious he went about things the wrong way. But it’s also obvious that Lacey is a huge hypocrite!
Seriously, Lacey drove me nuts. For the first half of the book she constantly accused Maddox of behavior he didn’t have just because of pictures she saw. Her brother is a famous hockey player and was quite the dog before he met Cassie, so why can she not believe Maddox is capable of the same change in habits? Her best friend is a good-looking guy and she finds nothing wrong with sleeping at his house and him sleeping at hers, yet tabloid pictures cause her to not have faith in Maddox? Unbelievable! She drove me crazy and, truly, made it difficult for me to cheer for her and Maddox to figure things out.
I also had an issue with her not only keeping secrets from her brother, but expecting her brother’s wife and best friend to keep her secrets. This is never addressed and I cannot believe that Dallas wouldn’t be pissed that everyone around him was in on the secret behind his back. It may not pertain to him, but it is about his little sister! Plus, why would his wife even agree to keep so many things from him?
There comes a point when reading a story that has a lot of inaccuracies and mistakes that I try to be as fair as possible to the author. It’s no secret I have an issue with this author’s lack of hockey knowledge, and seeming lack of respect for her readers since she obviously doesn’t do any research on her subjects. But there are so many timeline issues in this story that I don’t know that it’s fair to point the finger at her on that one. Shouldn’t the editor and beta readers be catching these issues? Sure, I was reading an ARC. But by the time an ARC is issued it should have already been through the editor at least once and the have issues addressed from the beta readers.
For once, in this series, there aren’t a million hockey facts that annoyed me…probably because most of the story doesn’t take place during the season. But let’s just say that I really don’t think any professional hockey player would plan his wedding during playoffs, and the book starts with Dallas and Callie’s wedding which was taking place – you guessed it – during playoffs. There are definitely plenty of other hockey issues, just not as many as the last two books. Unfortunately, there also isn’t as much chemistry between the hero and heroine in this story. The chemistry Ms. Dover is able to inject into her books is what has kept me reading through my frustration. In this book, I felt a lot of telling was going on without a lot of showing.
Obviously there is something this author is doing right. Not only is she selling books, but she also has someone like me coming back again and again. I just can’t figure out why! Again, I feel there is a lack of respect for her readers that she is so sloppy with her facts…not just about hockey but about a lot of other issues. She generally writes good chemistry and has wonderful storyline ideas. Her heroes are very likable but her heroines are often whiney and hypocritical. Ugh! I just can’t explain it at all. I’ll be honest, if there’s another book in this series I’ll read it. But if is not a 3 star or better I will not continue with this author. Although I didn’t have high hopes with this story due to my past experience with this author, I still was let down more than I thought I would be.
2 stars
**I received an ARC of this book courtesy of Net Galley and the publisher. All opinions expressed in this review are my own and given freely**
All In Good Time 