About POWER PLAY:
In Sophia Henry’s blistering follow-up to Delayed Penalty, hailed as “sexy, fun, and full of angst” by L. P. Dover, a good girl and a hockey hunk face off against expectations—and this match is guaranteed to see plenty of action.
Beneath her innocent facade, Gabriella Bertucci has her reasons to be standoffish with guys. Especially guys like Landon Taylor, a star defenseman on the minor-league Detroit Pilots and the object of a serious crush since he first walked into her family’s market. But when Landon comes through for her in a moment of crisis, Gaby starts to wonder if there might be more to Landon than hard muscles and fast skates.
Landon isn’t afraid of telling Gaby that he’s got it for her bad. The problem is, she seems unwilling to believe it. And though Landon enjoys his reputation as a cool-headed athlete, he hates losing—both on the rink and off. It’s his competitiveness that makes him so damn good at what he does . . . but it also makes him just a little bit complicated.
One minute Gaby’s tempted to give in; the next, she’s getting cold feet. How can she trust a guy who’s destined for bigger and better things to stick around? Then again, when Landon pulls her close with those powerful arms, the only thing that matters is right now.
Review:
Though it wasn’t without its issues, I enjoyed the second book in Ms. Henry’s Pilots Hockey series, Power Play, quite a bit. I thought Gaby and Landon were very cute together, and liked that each had been crushing on the other for quite a while (they were friendly but not really friends for many years) before they actually did anything about it. It was adorable that they both went around for so long thinking that the other wasn’t at all interested in that way…(though kind of hard to believe that Landon was so surprised that Gaby liked him. I mean, come on, he’s a star defenseman. Who doesn’t love a super-hot star defenseman? Exactly.)
Landon was a really great guy–prime book boyfriend material. He was very understanding of Gaby’s issues, gave her space and time when she needed it, and stood up for her when no one else did. Gaby was determined to make her family’s new business succeed, even when she felt like no one would listen to her ideas about the store. I liked how Landon helped her to be able to stand up for herself in ways that she wouldn’t have dared to before. They were all kinds of cute together.
The parts that were less-than? For one, Gaby’s family’s attitude toward her and the family business bothered me. Especially when there was an issue with one of their distributors and Gaby’s mother–her mother, who didn’t really have anything to do with any of the family’s businesses on any given day–jumped all over her about it, calling her irresponsible and accusing her of trying to sabotage things to make her oldest brother look bad. It made me see red. Totally out of line, and no apology was ever made for it. Grrr. And when the Gaby’s family doesn’t respect her role in the family business issue was resolved (mostly) in the end, it felt like an easy out. It wasn’t quite believable that that was the real explanation.
Gaby and Landon’s relationship “black moment” seemed more manufactured than genuine. It didn’t make sense that they wouldn’t have talked more about it right then and there given what their relationship had been like up to that point. Though I did like what it prompted Gaby to do in the end–that was a nice touch.
Both Gaby and Landon had a tendency to act a bit more YA than New Adult throughout much of the book. They were supposed to be 19 and 21 (maybe 22?), but they often acted more like high schoolers–a bit too immature to be out in the world on their own.
Three words: needed. more. hockey! Though I loved that Landon was a defenseman. Have I mentioned I’m partial to defensemen? 😉
Overall there was more I liked here than I didn’t, though, and I’m definitely looking forward to the next book in the series, Interference.
Rating: 4 stars / B+
I received a complimentary copy in exchange for an honest review.