Title/Author:
“Scorin’
On the Fourth of July: A Red Hot and BOOM Story” by Cassandra Carr
Tags:
Hockey,
fiction, romance
Published:
May
27, 2014
Length:
93
pages
Stars:
4
of 5 stars (very good)
Review:
No
matter what sport or which city, it is always a trying time when an athlete
goes to a new team either by trade or free agency. In this fictional hockey story, free agent
hockey star Mikael Maatta leaves Minnesota for Buffalo and is immediately asked
to participate in a summer charity hockey tournament. While both adjusting to his new location and
playing in the tourney, he becomes smitten with the goalie on his team, Terri
Kirkland who was on the gold medal winning US women’s hockey team.
While
the story is centered around the budding romance between Mikael and Terri, I
was interested in the book when I asked Carr if any of her hockey books
contained a lot of hockey talk as well as the romance. This was an excellent
choice for that as I believe it was very helpful to have both characters
playing the sport. It was realistic as
well in the respect that it wasn’t a stretch to have Terri playing goalie
against the men, as this was a summer charity tourney, where the intensity is
not as high as it would be during the regular season. But this also showed off the skills of Mikael
as well and why Buffalo signed him. I enjoyed the game action scenes in the
book.
This
book did not disappoint in that respect as there were many excellent passages
that were not only about the game itself, but also a lot of behind-the-scenes
activity that many teams will undertake when a new player arrives. The adventures of finding Mikael a place to
live, transportation and clothing are documented and I found myself enjoying
these as well as the smooth skating and excellent saves of the two main
characters.
Something
I do have to say is that there was a conversation between Mikael and Terri that
I hope was supposed to be humorous.
Mikael was asking Terri (who was familiar with the area) where he could
enjoy water activities because he didn’t get a chance to do so in
Minnesota. Really? In the Land of 10,000 Lakes, this supposedly
intelligent adult man couldn’t find a place to enjoy water activities? I was laughing at this part.
This was fairly light banter between the two characters and it stays that way through most of the story, even though their attraction grows. This is not an erotic story, however, which was surprising given the title. It is more of a sweet love story that has its tender moments as well as the anxiety they feel as Terri will not be on the team and is worried that in order to continue her career, she may have to travel far away.
Unlike
other sports romances that I have read that are short on the sport and heavy on
love and/or sex, this story had a very nice balance of the two. Add that to the
in-depth writing that shows Carr’s extensive knowledge of hockey and you have
a quick read that would be enjoyed by readers of sports books as well as
romance readers.
Ebook
(Nook)
Buying Links:
About the Author:
Cassandra Carr lives in Western
New York with her husband, Inspiration, and her daughter, Too Cute for Words.
When not writing she enjoys watching hockey and hanging out on the computer.
Cassandra
has won numerous awards for her writing and also had one of her books cited as
a Top Pick/Recommended Read by over a dozen review sites.
For more information about
Cassandra, check out her website at http://www.booksbycassandracarr.com,
"like" her Facebook fan page at http://www.facebook.com/AuthorCassandraCarr or follow her on Twitter athttp://www.twitter.com/Cassandra_Carr.
No comments:
Post a Comment