Double Play by E.M. Lindsey (Hit and Run Book #3)

Title: ⟫ Double Play (Hit and Run Book #3)

Author: ⟫ E.M. Lindsey

Rating: ⟫ 3.5/5

Blurb: ⟫ If self-destruction is an art-form, then Hervé is a master artist.

After all, he’s perfected self-sabotage since he was young and full of promise.

He’s spent his life running from his past and pushing away anyone who might break down his walls, but it wasn’t until his body betrayed him that he realized just how lonely his present had become. Now he’s in the countryside, trying to figure out if anything is worth salvaging, and wondering if he’s the sort of man who will ever be worth a second chance.

Even when Orion Coulter—one of the star pitchers on the Denver Vikings—shows up in his little village like some sort of predestined knight on a white horse, Hervé doesn’t trust him. How can he when Orion is close to all the men Hervé hurt?

But Orion’s situation is more complicated than Hervé realized, full of pain and grief, looking for some kind of escape. And while Hervé knows that he hasn’t quite earned meeting the man of his dreams, Orion’s quiet voice, tender hands, and impossible promises has him wondering if maybe—just maybe—the universe is willing to give him the chance he doesn’t deserve.

Double Play is the final book of the Hit and Run MM baseball romance series. It features countryside kisses, grief, redemption, long walks, careful handling, and a painfully tender happily ever after. 

Review: ⟫ I haven’t read any of the previous Hit and Run series and that may have influenced my experience with this book.

Well written, and extremely well researched, this book was an interesting read. I didn’t know about cataplexy although I knew a little about narcolepsy, and I found it quite educational. It features characters from the previous Hit and Run books (I assume so anyway), and there is obviously a lot of history playing a role in things. 

 Unfortunately,I think that may be what I struggled with. I haven’t read the previous books, knew none of the characters and therefore had no frame of reference and no ‘side’ in things. There were a lot of references to something Hervé did in previous books (and I know some people figured it out just from this book) but I couldn’t quite grasp what he had done that was so wrong, and I wasn’t sure I really cared.

That sounds really callous, but neither Hervé or Orion appealed to me at all – I felt their relationship moved at light speed when both of them were going through something completely life-changing and perhaps should have been more cautious. The struggles Hervé had with his health were handled sensitively and incorporated into the story – this wasn’t a case of saying a character is suffering from something and then never mentioning it again. But, again, I felt like he should be concentrating on stabilising his life and not on falling in love with someone based in a completely different country. I also thought recovering addicts were advised not to get into a relationship in the first year?

Basically, for me, this story didn’t connect and I think that is in large part because I didn’t have the history with the characters. As such, I personally don’t think that it can be read as a stand-alone novel. The sports was minimal, so I probably wouldn’t class it as a sports romance either.

The last two chapters were absolutely romantic, blistering and everything I could have hoped for. I just didn’t gel with the rest of the book. I received an ARC from GRR.

Soft Hands by E.M. Lindsey

Title: ⟫ Soft Hands (The Sin Bin : West Coast Book #2)
Author: ⟫ E.M. Lindsey
Rating: ⟫ 3.5/5
Blurb: ⟫ There are a few things Nolan Ouellet has come to accept about himself.

One: that his future with the NHL was irrevocably destroyed thanks to his reckless actions as a teenager destroying his knee.

Two: that he will never fall in love because the very idea of it sends his skin crawling.

Three: he will bed as many NHL players as humanly possible before he retires his game.

And four: he will never apologize for who he is and what he wants.

Then two men come barreling into his life and turn everything he knows upside down.

He still won’t play for the NHL, and he still won’t change who he is because he’s fought too long and too hard to accept his identity. But suddenly his future is starting to look a little different than he originally planned.

And that scares the absolute hell out of him.

When he met Marko Rudenko and Luka Wagner—two veterans of the Denver Huskies—they were supposed to be a game, just like everyone else. But now all he can think about is how to keep them around without compromising the person he’s become and ruining the love Marko and Luka have for each other.

Soft Hands is the third book in the Sin Bin: West Coast series which can be enjoyed on its own but is best read in order. Soft Hands features a goalie with a hard outer shell and soft marshmallow insides, a confused alternate captain who just wants to give up a little control, and a former NHL prospect who knows who he is, but maybe not what he needs. Soft Hands contains aromantic acceptance, no cheating, plenty of love and communication, and as always, a happily ever after.

Review: ⟫ I don’t think I’ve ever read something about an aromantic lead before so I was really interested in how this was going to play out. I liked the idea of no cheating and a lot of acceptance, so was happily in for the ride.

Unfortunately, this story didn’t really work for me – maybe the mood I was in? I just found myself feeling like so much of the angst and hand-wringing could have been avoided if the three of them had simply sat down and talked. Marko and Luka, for example, appear to have been together for quite some time but have never defined their relationship. That seemed odd to me – I understand a friends with benefits thing that lasts a few months maybe, but years?

Nolan made a bit more sense to me – historically, he’s not had much luck with people accepting him for the way he is or understanding what he means when he says he can love but he doesn’t fall in love. The attraction to Luka and Marko made sense, and I could also understand him not wanting to step on what they were building together. But, again, there seemed to be a lot of back and forth, with the three of them taking one step forward and then avoiding each other for weeks at a time. It felt like something that a teenager might do, not grown men.

The camboy thing was extremely hot – like sizzling – and I really enjoyed the scenes where Luka/Marko were together watching Nolan. But the scenes between the three of them together felt almost fade to black almost in their heat rating – I guess I wanted to see more of their dynamic in the bedroom and how things worked out there.

This was an enjoyable read, although there was some backstory I seemed to be missing with the character of Zane? I’ll happily look for more from this author and would say this is worth a read as long as you go into it accepting that miscommunication or lack of communication seems to be the words of the day.

I received an ARC from GRR.