Tropes/Themes:
-MF contemporary sports romance (professional hockey)
-Professional Hockey Player x Wedding Journalist
Marriage of convenience (the heroine is basically getting married so she can document it for her job…but after her fiancé breaks up with her days before the big day, the hero offers to step in as her groom)
-Opposites attract
-Forced proximity (they agree to stay married for 1 year, they also move in together)
-Hero falls first
-Dual POV
-Book #3 in an interconnected standalone series

Nope….nope nope nope. I really liked the previous two books in this series, so I’m a little surprised this ended up being such a huge miss for me. Based on the raving reviews online, it seems like I’m the outlier for whatever reason.

I’ll keep this review short because I literally don’t want to think about this book anymore:
-The heroine Jade was self-centered, selfish, insensitive, immature, and absolutely intolerable. She was honestly my biggest issue with the book. I never saw any character growth, self-reflection, or accountability on her end. She constantly played the victim and blamed all of her relationship issues and emotional intelligence on the fact that the mother cycled through relationships.
-It felt like Declan’s development and personality was an afterthought due to the amount of time focused on Jade. I liked aspects of his character a lot but felt like I could only like him so much due to how one dimensional he felt.
-There was absolutely no chemistry or relationship development whatsoever.
-The plot itself was lackluster and only focused on things I didn’t care about whatsoever (like stupid Jade and her stupid job).
-The side characters were 1000x more interesting than the actual couple
-The 3rd act conflict was ridiculous and not romantic in the slightest.
-Justice for Declan because he deserved so much better

I usually never write reviews like this, but to be honest this was pretty darn cathartic. I’m hoping I was able to sufficiently cleanse myself of this book and will now be able to jump back into Rebecca Jenshak’s backlist with a clear head and a saltless heart.

Story: 1/5
Audiobook: 5/5 (narrated by CJ Bloom & Connor Crais)
Length 8h13min

I have been excited for this installment from the Wildcat team. I love a good marriage of convenience and Jenshak wrote a great one. I loved the wit and banter between Jade and Declan even though they are completely different types of people. But him stepping up to the plate for her and helping her keep her security in life was amazing. There are lots of feels within these pages as these two unravel what is really between them. Great addition to the series!

"You can have whatever you want."
"Right now, I just want you."

3.5 stars

Unfortunately, I didn't love this book as much as previous novels in the series. I had a hard time connecting with Jade as I just couldn't understand why she was letting her boss dictate such an important aspect of her life. Declan was such a freaking sweetheart, and I hated seeing Jade take advantage of that--even if she felt remorseful for it. I was unable to fully connect with and sympathize with Jade because I felt like she kept making the same mistakes over and over, while simultaneously running over poor Declan's heart. Nevertheless, there were some sweeter moments between Declan and Jade, and I loved the scenes with our previous couples blissfully happy. Overall, this wasn't my favorite of the series, but I look forward to more by Rebecca♡

Tropes: fake relationship, marriage of convenience, cinnamon roll hero, down-on-her-luck heroine, hockey romance, forced proximity, band of brothers, found family, steamy