Sawyer Bennett ‘s contemporary romance Alex: A Cold Fury Hockey Novel (Carolina Cold Fury Hockey Book 1) may deserve more of a review, but I didn’t like the novel and was, in fact, frequently vexed by it, so it’s getting the cursory treatment which, being honest, takes about the same amount of time, but it’s less taxing. To sum up: Laziness.
From Amazon: Hockey star Alexander Crossman has a reputation as a cold-hearted player on and off the rink. Pushed into the sport by an alcoholic father, Alex isn’t afraid to give fans the proverbial middle finger, relishing his role as the MVP they love to hate. Management, however, isn’t so amused. Now Alex has a choice: fix his public image through community service or ride the bench. As a social worker, Sutton Price is accustomed to difficult people—like Alex, who’s been assigned to help her create a drug-abuse awareness program for at-risk youth as part of the team’s effort to clean up his image. What she doesn’t expect is the arrogant smirk from his perfect lips to stir her most heated fantasies.
Dear Alex,
I don’t care about your private pain, if you are a public bastard.
Yours truly,
Me
Also –
1. Alex has an awful back-story, as is the way of both romance novels and life, but I don’t care. An explanation for your conduct is not an excuse. Alex is not a tortured hero, he is not a rake, he is a self-indulgent jerk. When the novel opens, he actually has a woman who shows up to service him and she is supposed to be pathetic because she wants a relationship with him. I don’t mind puck bunnies, I mind heroes who use people.
2. I may be over-thinking the maguffin, but can a hockey team’s management really force extremely successful and non-problematic (beyond a severe case of Head-Up-Tush) players into community service?
3. The characters were types more than people. Sutton’s type is Angel, Alex’s type is Poohead.
4. As the story progresses and Alex grows a soul, everyone has the world’s most painfully on-the-nose conversations about their relationships.
5. I didn’t find the character development believable, nor did I care about anybody.
6. I have no interest in the rest of this series. Pity.
Links to my other reviews can be found on my complete reading list of books sorted by author or Author Commentary & The Tallies Shameful.
