Item: Brooklynaire
Rating: 4.5
Author: Arielle

BOOK REVIEW: Brooklynaire (Brooklyn #1) by Sarina Bowen

Brooklynaire (Brooklyn #1)
by Sarina Bowen
Purchase on: Amazon, iBooks
Add to: Goodreads

Synopsis:
A sexy new standalone from USA Today bestseller Sarina Bowen.

You’d think a billion dollars, a professional hockey team and a six-bedroom mansion on the Promenade would satisfy a guy. You’d be wrong.

For seven years Rebecca has brightened my office with her wit and her smile. She manages both my hockey team and my sanity. I don’t know when I started waking in the night, craving her. All I know is that one whiff of her perfume ruins my concentration. And her laugh makes me hard.

When Rebecca gets hurt, I step in to help. It’s what friends do. But what friends don’t do is rip off each others’ clothes for a single, wild night together.

Now she’s avoiding me. She says we’re too different, and it can never happen again. So why can’t we keep our hands off each other?

It is universally acknowledged that I am something of a badass.

So again, like I said in my review for Overnight Sensation I knew part way through this book that I had made a mistake in reading these all out of order. I knew even more so when I went back and read books one through three after this one and saw a bit of a mysterious build up between Rebecca and Nate. Even the progression of getting to know both of these characters. Don’t get me wrong, I still was obsessed with this book but I think the anticipation of seeing these two finally get together could have been even greater if reading them in order.

Now there’s a document my HR department doesn’t want in the world. Dear Diary, it wasn’t until I snuck into Rebecca’s hotel room and screwed her seven ways till Sunday that I realized I was in love with her. Not helpful.

BUT ANYWAY. OMG. On to me blabbing on about how much I love Rebecca and Nate. And who DOESN’T love a good “H taking care of h” storyline. Even though I have an unhealthy obsession for hockey players in romances (like I have never been to a real hockey game, what the fuck, Arielle?!) I also love a good hot nerd. And badass heroine. And friends to lovers, especially when the one friend is clueless about it even though the signs have always been there. Lol I love the shit that Lauren gives Nate about it, too. So again, great book. Great sexy times. Great everything.

“Wait.” I sit up. “Did you bring me empanadas and tequila?”
“Yeah,” she says softly. “It’s nothing, really, but…”
I interrupt her. “Do you know I love you?”
Her mouth slams shut and her eyes get damp. “No. I didn’t.”
“It’s true, Bec. I’ve got it bad.”

Side note: It should be mentioned that every book in the Brooklyn Bruisers and Brooklyn series can be read as standalones. In my own personal opinion though, once you read one, you won’t stop until you read the rest.

BOOK REVIEW: Overnight Sensation (Brooklyn #2) by Sarina Bowen Overnight Sensation (Brooklyn Bruisers #5)
by Sarina Bowen
Purchase on: Amazon, iBooks
Add to: Goodreads

Synopsis:

Everyone knows the girl is off limits. But it's so good to be bad. 

There's this girl...
Heidi and I have been trading hungry looks all year, and everything she does makes me smile. But I don't do girlfriends, and I certainly can't get involved with the league commissioner's daughter. I need shots on goal, not a hookup and a widely misunderstood paparazzi photo.
Can I resist her, though? The way she teases me should be a game penalty for interference with my libido.  

There's this guy...
Jason wants me, but he won't admit it. That man looks at me the way a hockey player eyes the lunch buffet after practice--and I love it.
But when victory is finally within my grasp, I blow it and humiliate myself. Even then I can't even avoid him--as the team intern, I'm in constant view of his hard body and cocky smile.
I need another chance. Jason Castro is about to learn the true meaning of an overnight sensation.

*Disclaimer: So I read this entire on vacation but in a super random order. I wrote the reviews in the order I read them so that’s how I’ll be posting them, too!

Review:

“Here we are!” the driver announces cheerfully.
“My body is ready,” she whispers. I wonder if they teach that at charm school.

Ughhhh guyssss. Time to do some not-so-serious complaining before I actually start my review. Okay, I knew when I started this binge that this was going to be a problem…I read all five of the books in this series when I was on vacation in Florida last week with no computer. I SHOULD have just written a mini review for each on my phone but I didn’t want to waste any reading time because let’s face it….I NEVER am able to read that much anymore. The last time I accomplished it was two years ago when I was a library conference with no baby or husband to interrupt me lol. Anyways, SO HERE I AM, desperately trying to remember all of what I loved about each of these books. Bare with me….

“Hi Pete!” she greets the gray-haired bartender.
“Hello, miss.” He gives her a big smile.
“I’d like a shot of tequila with a whiskey chaser,” she says.
Pete rolls his eyes. “You’re underage. We’ve been over this. Besides—nobody orders that. We have to work on your smack talk.”
“What do I order if I want to make a statement?” she asks, pulling out a barstool and plunking her cute butt onto it.
“A buttery nipple,” Pete suggests.
“What if I’m avoiding dairy?”
The bartender laughs so hard he practically has an aneurism. That’s the thing about Heidi. Once you’ve noticed her, it’s hard to stop noticing her.

First of all, I need to throw it out there that these should be read in order. They don’t *have* to be BUT I did NOT read them in a really ass-backwards way and ended up meeting all these characters that I didn’t know and that didn’t seem as special to me because I hadn’t met them yet. (also as a side note, reading this one first ruined a bit of the anticipation on whether or not they were going to win the series or not during the first few books. In this one we find out right away that they had lost..) My favorite part of a sports series, or even any romance series, is when you get to meet this huge group of friends and they eventually wind up feeling like family. This series is no exception. I love all of these guys so much and am so glad I FINALLY took the time to read them all.

I can’t quite decide if this one was my favorite or if Brooklynaire was….either way they were all incredibly good. I loved the bossy and macho Castro and Heidi was fucking hilarious (and equally bossy). The sexual tension between them was delicious and their banter and the way their relationship began and then progressed was just…ugh perfection.

I also really liked how Heidi just didn’t quite know what to do with her life and didn’t even really figure it out by the end. I think it’s complete and utter bullshit that we as young people are supposed to just all suddenly KNOW what we want to do when we grow up. I mean I LOVE being a librarian but even I wonder sometimes if that’s exactly what I’m meant to be doing (I know I’ve got the surrounded by books daily part right at least lol). Her dad may have been a complete dick to her, and basically prevented her from initially taking that job with Rebecca but it was so satisfying, seeing her do all of the jobs that she was assigned to without any complaints. She is amazing and I love her to bits. 100% will go back for a reread at a later time.

“I love you against reason, against promise, against peace, against hope, against happiness, against all discouragement that could be.”