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New Release Review: SCORING HIS HEART by Suzan Butler (Texas Highlanders #3)

Suzan had me at “hockey”…

2015-scoringhisheart1

Scoring His Heart
by Suzan Butler

About SCORING HIS HEART:

Zoe Logan has always believed that those she loves will always leave her. It’s why she fights so hard against anyone getting close, but when sexy defense Gavin Ferrara zeroes in on her, she finds herself falling hard and exploring the hidden parts of herself that he brings out in her.

Gavin’s always trusted that playing hockey is the most important thing to him. But when a strange encounter from months ago leads to more between him and the local bar owner’s daughter, he’s torn between what he wants and what’s best.

WARNING: This book contains a threesome hot enough to scorch the sheets, a dirty talking Russian, a bisexual Italian, the college virgin who brings both of them to their knees, and the best anatomy and physiology study session ever.

Review:

This is a definite case of I liked it, but

I liked the characters. We see things from Zoe, Gavin, and Mischa’s points of view, which is an effective way to tell the story. We get insight into what they’re all thinking…but we also see all three of them have some major what the heck? mental moments. You could get serious whiplash from each of them at some point in the story when everything was going along just fine, when bam! they somehow decided in the privacy of their minds that it wasn’t fine after all–with very little, if any actual reason for the switch in the outside world of the story. It was frustrating at times.

The chemistry between all three was fantastic, and the sexy scenes were sizzling…but ultimately their relationship(s?) felt unfinished. One character went way too quickly from I never really noticed that person before, huh, I wonder why? to I love you. Seriously, way. Too. Fast. There was a very small handful (three, I think?) of horizontal–or mostly horizontal, anyway–encounters and one dinner out with other people before the declaration. And the third person in the relationship (trying very hard to keep it spoiler-free, though you can probably figure out who is whom in about 30 seconds) didn’t end up with any kind of resolution at all–they went from start to finish believing that they’d never have a true, lasting relationship with anyone. In the book they went from an intense three-way scene to slipping alone into the bathroom to…nothing. They had one more conversation, essentially giving another character advice and then just disappeared from the story. I really wanted that person to realize their own self-worth, figure out that they were loved, heck just feel valued as a person, but it didn’t happen. 🙁

This was a quick read–I started the night before and was finished the following afternoon with lots of breaks to pick up the kids, shop, do homework, etc–but the pacing of the story felt off. Things happened quickly for the characters when they were on the page together (reference back to the above paragraph especially) but in between scenes there would be large stretches of time when they weren’t in touch at all. After a huge scene between all three of them, almost two weeks goes by before the hero seeks out the heroine. Two. Weeks. Sure, he was on the road for nine days (though there’s only a little actual hockey in the book, which was disappointing), but surely he’s heard of a thing called a telephone? Especially when you made the big declaration last time you all spoke? Argh.

If the book had gone on longer a lot of these issues could probably have been resolved. We could have seen some kind of an HEA for character #3, and the relationship between the other two could have gone at a more realistic pace. I’m also not quite sure why Gavin’s 16-year-old niece was brought into the picture, because that really added a major squick factor to their big scene–she was somewhere in the house, (hopefully, please god) asleep, but still….

So…would I read more in the series? I think I’d give them a try. Hockey players, after all, are my catnip. For everything here that didn’t quite work for me, another aspect of the story did, so there’s hope that another book in the series might hit the back of the net.

Rating: 3 stars/C+

I received a complimentary copy in exchange for an honest review.

 

On Sale in Print and Digital: March 17, 2015

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