My summary:

Kendra Ames is a TV producer on the hot seat of finding a main star for a dating show that she is producing. She approaches Lee Sullivan, a retired NHL star, to be the star—but they end up hitting it off with each other instead. And when an offer comes through from the network that will give them each their dream careers, Kendra and Sully have to manage him dating other women on TV while she produces it. 

My thoughts:

For a smut book, I thought this was actually pretty great. Lots of smut (starting really early on, ya’ll) but it still has a plot. I read this in basically two sittings so obviously I liked it. It has also made me realize that it’s really hard to rate a smut book with kinks that are not your kinks, but I digress. I love the women-positive messages in here, which is not quite how I’ve found most smut books to go, and that on its own gives it a high rating for me. 

I really like the angle of the new women’s professional ice hockey league. That whole story line was very female positive and, being that this league doesn’t exist yet but could, I loved the glimpse of what it would be like in the hypothetical future. I also like how strong Kendra is and her competency in her career and the respect Scully shows her. 

This is a smutty romance. I didn’t see a list of trigger warnings at the beginning and I don’t want to list them all here because some are spoilers. If you’re sensitive at all or don’t like a lot of detailed smut, just skip this one. There are a lot of kinks here that are pretty cringey for me so it’s hard to not downgrade the overall rating for that, but I think it is still well written for being a smutty romance. 

The author’s note at the very beginning details that she is a white author writing a black female main character. Given the criticism I’ve seen directed at so many other authors who have chosen to write main characters as different races or cultures than their own, I think it’s pretty bold. I applaud her reasoning and appreciate that she laid it out in the beginning, which hopefully dissuades some of that criticism heading her way. I think reading evokes empathy, and the more diverse the stories are, by any type of author, is a good thing.