Saturday, October 25, 2014

Review of "Scorin' On the Fourth of July"

I decided to switch things up a little and find a quick sports romance to present here.  However, keeping true to the spirit of this blog, I wanted to find one that had just as much sports as love or sex. I then wrote to a romance author whom I follow on Twitter more for her hockey tweets than for ones on books, Cassandra Carr, and asked her if any of her hockey stories would be a fit for this blog. She recommended this novella to me, so I picked it up and was glad I did. Here is my review of "Scorin' On the Fourth of July."




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.    

Book Format Read:
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.

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