Any Man of Mine By Rachel Gibson Release Date: January 1, 2011 Publisher: Harper Collins Book #6 in the Chinooks Hockey Team series Number of pages: 384 Kindle Edition Source: MCL Contemporary Romance/Sports M/F Rating: NC-17 Read 5/22/18 to 5/24/18
There are a lot of things I loved about this story. Even in the beginning, when Sam and Autumn basically hated each other, there was still some kind of chemistry sparking. At the time, I couldn’t quite understand it since, through Autumn’s eyes, Sam was a pretty terrible father. I couldn’t even see how I would ever end up liking his character. Luckily, through flash backs and being able to see things from Sam’s point of view, Sam grew on me.
Oh, Sam still had things he had to make up for. But as he said, he wasn’t as terrible a father as Autumn imagined him being. Her hatred and embarrassment of what happened between them gave her a type of blinders when it came to his good attributes. I can’t blame her for that. The way their relationship ended was very traumatic and she was left totally alone. Of course she would have a lot of bad thoughts when it came to Sam.
I have siblings and I love them all very much. But I couldn’t quite understand the extent of Autumn’s brother’s animosity toward Sam. I get not liking the guy, but it’s his nephew’s dad. Vinnie loves his nephew, Connor, so you would think he’d try to be civil when they’re all together. Toward the end I started thinking it was because Vinnie saw too much of himself in Sam and that made him uncomfortable. I also couldn’t help but feel that Vinnie is maybe or a crossover character into another series by this author because the way his part of the storyline ended was quite abrupt and incomplete.
Speaking of abrupt…I’ve been waffling on my rating because there were also things I wasn’t crazy about. Such as the kind of abrupt conclusion to the story. Up until the last chapter I really liked the pacing of the story. It took a while for Sam to wiggle his way into Autumn’s life and that seemed real. That last chapter just really seemed like the author had met her word count commitment and needed to wrap things up. Don’t misunderstand; I like how the story ended…I just wasn’t crazy about how the ending was written. I’ll have to split the difference on the rating.
I feel this series, as a whole, has gotten better and better for the most part though. There are far fewer errors than there were in the first books. This was not my favorite of the series, but that’s more because of that last chapter or so. Overall it was a wonderful tale. I can definitely see the progression of the author’s talent as this series has progressed.
3.5 stars
P.S. I dare you to read the title of this book and not sing, at least in your head. I swear I had Shania Twain’s voice in my head the whole time I was reading this one!
All In Good Time 