Dirty Hit by Livy Hart is live!
The first book in the Portland Fury series, this is a fun and heartfelt read, a forbidden sports romance between a debut NHL coach and her star player. It’s fun yet dramatic with a nice amount of emotion and a gorgeous love story, and I really enjoyed this book.
Amazon
Blurb
Gender-bent TED LASSO meets THE DEAL in a new grumpy/sunshine hockey romance from bestselling author Livy Hart.
When a career-ending injury forces hockey superstar Sadie Rivers to hang up her skates, she never expects to be the NHL’s first female coach. The Portland Fury are the league’s worst team—and Sadie has one season to turn the franchise around. Critics of her “soft touch” coaching style make no secret of their skepticism, but Sadie has never bucked a challenge, on or off the ice.
Defenseman Leo McLaren is hockey royalty. Or he was, until a dirty hit last season left him with a shoulder injury and migraines that have destroyed his game. When he’s traded to the Fury, it feels like the end of his hockey dreams. That is, until the new head coach names him captain—and asks for his help getting to know the team, who resist her personal approach.
Secret coach-captain meet-ups lead to a tentative friendship that quickly turns into sizzling chemistry hot enough to melt a hockey rink. But with the season and both their careers on the line, Sadie and Leo will have to decide if love is a risk worth taking when the game they’re playing demands all they have to give.
Perfect for fans of Elle Kennedy and Emily Rath, DIRTY HIT is an emotional, super-spicy sports romance and the start of the Portland Fury series!
Review
3.5 stars
This is a fun and heartfelt read, a forbidden sports romance between a debut NHL coach and her star player, a veteran who is deeply unhappy at being moved to a new team. It’s fun yet dramatic with a nice amount of emotion and a gorgeous love story, and I really enjoyed this book.
Sadie is a former professional hockey player and the NHL’s first female coach. The weight of expectation upon her is huge, and she has got one year to transform her poorly-performing team if she wants to keep her job. And the way she plans to do it is to get to know her players, connect with them, and support them to perform their best. And she can’t do it alone.
Leo is a veteran player from a hockey dynasty. Hockey is his life, but a near career-ending injury has left him struggling to perform. When he is unexpectedly traded to the worst team in the league, he’s devastated and doesn’t hide that he’s not happy to be there, but he’s determined to prove himself. He didn’t expect to be made captain upon his arrival, and he certainly didn’t expect his new coach to rope him into getting up close and personal with his new teammates.
It’s a bit of a weird dynamic, I must say, and Leo is put in a really difficult position, but he agrees, and as Leo Sadie start to spend time together away from the rink, they open up to each other, they talk and start to understand each other, they become friends, and their secretive meet-ups soon become heated as attraction blooms.
What kind of man would I be if I, a lowly player, threw everything she’s worked for – is actively working for – into question because I’ve been struck with an unbearable need to touch her.
They know they can’t go there, and they fight it (at least initially), but they can’t resist their draw to each other, and they cave in spectacularly steamy style. More than just mad lust, there are strong feelings there from the beginning, which I really liked about their relationship, and watching them come together in secret is exciting, swoony and beautifully romantic.
Obviously, they have some pretty big hurdles, but I was fully on board with this romance. I admit, when we first meet these characters, I didn’t see it, but the romance develops naturally and easily, and I ended up cheering these two on, and loved watching them fall so hard for each other.
“I don’t know who you want me to be anymore,” I grit out. “Your player? A man who pretends he’s not?”
“Be yourself, Leo.” Her eyes are brazenly glued to my mouth. “Do what you want.”
At the same time, Sadie is fighting a resistant team, negative press, and dealing with the pressure of trying to keep her job, while Leo is dealing with a huge shift in his career that he never saw coming. All that while keeping their love a secret is a challenge, but Leo and Sadie are smitten and committed, and though they have their moments of freak-out, they are functional together and face their challenges maturely and sensibly, which I really appreciated.
“You have always been more than enough for me, hockey or not. We exist outside this sport, even when we’ve let it consume us.”
We get to meet the boys on the team, but don’t actually see too much of Sadie’s work with them or what she’s doing to turn things around. But in the way of stories about troubled sports teams, they start to come together and achieve success, and I enjoyed the growing relationships between the boys, and the obvious care they start to have for each other and for their coach.
Between the players coaching staff and management, this absolutely has the feel of setting up for a series, and I am keen to read more about these characters.
I enjoyed this one – 3.5 stars.
An Advanced Reader Copy was generously provided by the author for an honest review.