Desiree Holt

I am a hockey romance addict, so when I saw this anthology I had to have it. I have read a lot of anthologies, what I liked the most about this one is that it had a common theme. Each novella was about a different NHL player on the recent Stanley Cup Championship team the New Orleans Cajun Rage. The stories were about the individual player’s day with the Cup and a legend about them finding their true love on their day. I love how all the books were clearly coordinated. Players were show more mentioned in each other’s books, and Edwin Motz, the Keeper of the Cup, made an appearance in the stories. Even though each tale had a common theme, every story was amazingly different, enjoyable, and exciting. I like that some of the authors tied their books to existing series. I love that 20% of the royalties earned goes to the Homes For Our Troops charity, a nonprofit organization that builds mortgage-free, specially modified homes for severely injured veterans.

HOT ON ICE consists of eighteen stories:

DEEP CHECK (Station Seventeen #1.5) by Kimberly Kincaid. After a fight, hockey Center, Finnegan Donnelly couldn’t leave his hometown of Remington and his two best friends behind fast enough. Seven years later, he finds himself taking the Cup home to visit his ex-best friend Asher’s grave. While there he is reunited with January Sinclair, the other person, he left behind. DEEP CHECK is a sweet second chance hockey/firefighter romance.

BEAR NAKED by Katie Kenyhercz. After nine years, NHL Defensman, Bear Thompson, returns home to Bear Mountain Reserve in Canada. He wants to get permission to allow a television crew and outsiders onto the reserve for his day with the Cup in hopes of giving his people some good publicity. However, he needs to convince the Chief/his ex-girlfriend, Aria Paul, that it is in the Mi’Kmaq’s best interest. BEAR NAKED is a charming second chance romance. I loved the cultural aspects of this story.

BODY CHECK by Desiree Holt. NHL Defenseman, Matt Vorchak, is coping with a career-ending injury. He returns home to San Antonio for his day with the Cup, to do some apologizing, and soul searching. He seeks out Lizzie St. John, the girl he walked away from. BODY CHECK is a thought-provoking second chance romance.

BREAKAWAY BROOKE by Angi Morgan. Left winger, Deacon “Tripp” Sanders heads to McKinney, TX for his day with the Cup. Coming from a prestigious family, his life has been threatened. Unbeknownst to him, his family hires bodyguard, Brooke Henderson, to keep an eye on him. BREAKAWAY BROOKE has a bit of a supernatural feel. It is full of action and twists.

UNDER THE MIDNIGHT SUN by Kim Golden. NHL Center, Jonas Magnusson, is recovering from a concussion. He goes home to Stockholm for his day with the Cup; while there he is reunited Mariam Kidane.

IN SKATES TROUBLE (Chicago Rebels, #0.5) by Kate Meader. NHL right winger star, Ford Callaghan, takes the Cup home to Chicago; while there he meets the woman of his dreams, Addison Williams. Unfortunately, she is also the ex-wife of his team’s owner. I adored this story. I will definitely be following the new Chicago Rebels series.

CHECKING YES by Misty D. Waters. Left winger, Cooper Banks, left Dove Harbor, Georgia, after discovering a secret, leaving behind Savannah Jane Scott, the love of his life. Three years later, he returns home for his day with the Cup. CHECKING YES is a delightful second chance romance with many exciting twists.

PENALTY BOX BLUES (a Wild Thing novella) by Robin Kaye. Defenseman, Stryker Gyllenhal, pays off a debt to a friend by taking the Cup back home to Boise, Idaho; while there he is assigned a handler, his ex-tutor and childhood friend, Trish Reynolds. However, he doesn’t recognize her now that she is no longer hiding behind frumpy clothes. PENALTY BOX BLUES is a heartfelt read with a lot of insight and thought-provoking content. This was an adorable story that made me want to check out the Wild Thing Series.

FREE AGENT by Robin Covington. Jamie “DC” Washington has had an eventful year; he just won the Stanley Cup; he is a free agent, and he announced at a press conference that he was gay. While heading to Washington DC, for his day with the Cup, he bumps into his PT Etienne, whom he has been lusting after.

BLADE (B-Squad #2.5) by Avery Flynn. Goaltender, Flynn Kazakov spends his day with the Cup in Snow Bay, The Upper Peninsula of Michigan. Thief, Gillie Pike, tries to warn him that someone is attempting to frame him. BLADE is full of action and twists.

MAKING HIS MOVE by Susan Scott Shelley. Backup Goalie, Rod Fraser heads to New York. He bumps into his sister Kelsey’s best friend, Arielle Charton, who he has had a crush on. He tries to convince her to go on a date with him.

CHECK MY HEART by Christi Barth. Center, Kurt Lundquist, dying little brother Jasper, request that he win the Cup. Ten months later, he won the Cup but Jasper wasn’t around to see it. Kurt runs into Jasper’ nurse Lissette, whom his is attracted to but feels is off limits.

BLOCKED by Heather Long. Bad-boy right winger, Archer Durham needs to clean up his reputation. He becomes involved with pop star Hoshi Sato.

FULL CONTACT by Andie J. Christopher. Left winger, Anders Sorenson goes to Thunderbay Cove in Northern Minnesota. His teammates put a $150,000 bounty on his virginity.

COURAGE by Lena Hart. Coach Mason “The Rage” Courage fights to keep his marriage.

RANSOM by Nana Malone. Right Wing, Ransom Cox is stranded in a cabin in Hope, NY, with his high school crush, Lexa Carlisle. RANSOM is a fun romance.

CAGED by Virginia Nelson. Right Winger, Oliver “Ollie” Tremblay felt obligated to spend his day with the Cup in his hometown. Having bad memories, he left the town as soon as he could. He is reunited with his childhood crush, Maisie Miller. I like how the story flashed back and forth between the past and present.

THE WARM UP by Xio Axelrod. Defenseman, Constantine Zimin just won the Cup, but it is bittersweet because he has no one to celebrate it with. His twin sister died ten years ago; his parents couldn’t make it, and his best friend / teammate Jonas was in the hospital with a concussion. He heads home to Philly where he meets nurse, Sujarta Meriwether.

HOT ON ICE is an amazing read. Fourteen of the authors were new to me. The authors I was familiar with were: Katie Kenyhercz, Susan Scott Shelley, Desiree Holt, and Heather Long. I highly recommend this anthology to anyone that enjoys sports romances. I voluntarily reviewed an advance reader copy of this book. show less

This book seems to suffer from WTFitis.

I DNF'd this book at about 50% because I simply could not torture myself a single sentence longer.

I should have DNF'd this book during the opening chapter. The author spent quite a few paragraphs saying that Maddie (the heroine) was an Ice Queen workaholic...but the reader never sees this side of Maddie. Instead Dan (hero) walks up to her, grabs her hand and pulls her into a staircase of a very public building for some hot sex action. Hi, Dan! Nice to show more meet you. Great introduction, by the way.

So even though the reader is told "Maddie doesn't have sex with co-workers" and "Maddie is a workaholic" and "Maddie is an Ice Queen" what we see is Maddie boinking her co-worker of less than a month like a rabbit desperate to have bunnies.

I digress. I read quite a lot of erotic romance...but I'm starting to have a problem with the whole intro to the characters via a sex scene. Damn. It’s like romance novels are being written by hormonal teenage boys nowadays. Can I get dinner and a movie before I have to put out?? It’s a little hard to believe the connection between two people if they’ve only been on page for less than half a chapter before they’re boinking. One of the most important things for me in a romance (erotic or not) is the connection between the main characters. Please stop taking that away to be replaced with meaningless sex. Please?

I do realize that some authors are so skilled that they can pull off early sex scenes while still showing character connections. But most of them I’ve read so far are not.
/digression

Maddie takes Dan home with her where they proceed to have sex all night...but when she wakes he is gone. Maddie spends the entire next day looking for Dan with the single-minded obsession of a dedicated stalker...but when she sees him again it's only boink city. No real conversation. Somehow, after all the boinking, Maddie tells Dan that she stalked him all day and Dan tells Maddie he’s an undercover FBI agent who’s been set up. Dan needs to find evidence to clear his name and get the bad guy. And Maddie just has to be taken along.

I digress again.
Authors. Please. Stop having clueless untrained people force themselves into dangerous situations for the sake of a plot point. It only makes your character look TSTL (too stupid to live). It doesn’t make the character look brave or spunky or whatever. It makes them look TSTL. And just to be clear…I’m speaking of situations when the clueless untrained character “forces” the clued in and trained character to take Clueless along so that Clueless can “protect” Clued-in. Major. Pet. Peeve.
/digression

So, by now I understood that Maddie was TSTL and the sex felt empty because I hadn’t had a chance to get to know the main characters. So I DNF’d this book.

*le sigh* show less

This book seems to suffer from WTFitis.

I DNF'd this book at about 50% because I simply could not torture myself a single sentence longer.

I should have DNF'd this book during the opening chapter. The author spent quite a few paragraphs saying that Maddie (the heroine) was an Ice Queen workaholic...but the reader never sees this side of Maddie. Instead Dan (hero) walks up to her, grabs her hand and pulls her into a staircase of a very public building for some hot sex action. Hi, Dan! Nice to show more meet you. Great introduction, by the way.

So even though the reader is told "Maddie doesn't have sex with co-workers" and "Maddie is a workaholic" and "Maddie is an Ice Queen" what we see is Maddie boinking her co-worker of less than a month like a rabbit desperate to have bunnies.

I digress. I read quite a lot of erotic romance...but I'm starting to have a problem with the whole intro to the characters via a sex scene. Damn. It’s like romance novels are being written by hormonal teenage boys nowadays. Can I get dinner and a movie before I have to put out?? It’s a little hard to believe the connection between two people if they’ve only been on page for less than half a chapter before they’re boinking. One of the most important things for me in a romance (erotic or not) is the connection between the main characters. Please stop taking that away to be replaced with meaningless sex. Please?

I do realize that some authors are so skilled that they can pull off early sex scenes while still showing character connections. But most of them I’ve read so far are not.
/digression

Maddie takes Dan home with her where they proceed to have sex all night...but when she wakes he is gone. Maddie spends the entire next day looking for Dan with the single-minded obsession of a dedicated stalker...but when she sees him again it's only boink city. No real conversation. Somehow, after all the boinking, Maddie tells Dan that she stalked him all day and Dan tells Maddie he’s an undercover FBI agent who’s been set up. Dan needs to find evidence to clear his name and get the bad guy. And Maddie just has to be taken along.

I digress again.
Authors. Please. Stop having clueless untrained people force themselves into dangerous situations for the sake of a plot point. It only makes your character look TSTL (too stupid to live). It doesn’t make the character look brave or spunky or whatever. It makes them look TSTL. And just to be clear…I’m speaking of situations when the clueless untrained character “forces” the clued in and trained character to take Clueless along so that Clueless can “protect” Clued-in. Major. Pet. Peeve.
/digression

So, by now I understood that Maddie was TSTL and the sex felt empty because I hadn’t had a chance to get to know the main characters. So I DNF’d this book.

*le sigh* show less

What are the chances that fate could bring together two strangers stranded in an airport during a snowstorm for a passionate one night stand?

Chelsea Haller's life in Tampa, Florida has been turned upside down: she lost her job as a graphic artist for an advertising company due to downsizing and she has ended a bad two year relationship. Feeling depressed and out of sorts, her friend Laura talked her into hooking up with a one night stand through Madam Eve's online 1 Night Stand Agency to show more get her out of the funk she is in. The one night stand fantasy destination: a cabin on a lake in Maine.

Alec Ramsey is a pilot from San Antonio, Texas, who just turned forty. For Alec, chasing women has lost its thrill, now he wants to find the right woman to settle down with. A friend of Alec's talked him into applying online for a one night stand with Madam Eve's 1 Night Stand Agency after he had found the love of his life. The one night stand fantasy destination: a cabin on a lake in Maine.

When a snow storm in Boston cancels Chelsea and Alec's connecting flights to Portland, Maine, both find themselves nursing drinks in an airport bar. An instant attraction with sparks of electricity flying and a swapping of coincidental delayed plans leads Chelsea and Alec to spend a passionate night together in his airport hotel suite.

Flyover is a short and sassy erotic romance story in the 1 Night Stand Series that is simply hot, hot, hot! Author Desiree Holt provides the reader with a titillating tale of strangers meeting up for a steamy one night stand through the magic of Madame Eve's 1 Night Stand Agency. With an instant attraction and sparks of electricity, the reader follows along as Chelsea and Alec spend a passionate night in a luxury suite where their comfortable connection with each other has them engaging in a heady erotic night of love making. I appreciate that the author weaves a story that flows smoothly between the couple's making a connection with each other and their sizzling sexual encounters, believe me I'm all for the sex scenes, but a nice little romance story built in gives the reader a thoroughly enjoyable fantasy fix!

Flyover is an enjoyable quick little escape into a sexy fantasy world that will leave you satisfied and with a smile on your face.

Disclaimer: I received a copy of the book from the author / publisher in exchange for my honest review and participation in a virtual book tour event hosted by FMB Promotions.

http://jerseygirlsizzlingbookreviews.blogspot.com/2013/04/flyover-by-desiree-hol... show less