Consider Me

I enjoyed this a lot, even though it is really not very good. It is nauseatingly goopy, even for an inveterate romance reader. The third act break-up was horribly written and made no sense. I have said in other reviews that there is nothing worse than people you don't like having great sex and finding great love, but here it was okay with me even though in real life I expect I would not like Carter and Olivia a ton, and I would loathe Olivia's best friend, Kara but I enjoyed their great love and their great sex. I don't know what to say. When I can't follow my own rules how can I convince everyone that I am always right? It is a real conundrum.

The basics: Carter is a hot as sin and very promiscuous professional hockey player. Olivia is show more a sassy pint-sized high-school gym teacher. Olivia's BFF, Kara, is dating (soon marrying) Carter's BFF and when they meet at Kara's birthday party Carter immediately knows she is who he wants to go home with. Sadly for him, Olivia is not into one-night-stands, and that is all Carter is ever into. Things happen, Carter pursues Olivia and falls in love and wins the princess. As it often happens in romance the sluttiest boy turns out to be the most dogged and loyal of suitors. Carter is a little too golden lab for my tastes -- they are cute and fun, but too eager to please and desperate for love. For the long term in both men and dogs I always prefer the more temperamental stubborn breeds, those whose loyalty is unrelenting but needs to be earned, and who are just, well, a lot smarter and more dignified. Bring on your mastiffs, your Norwegian Elkhounds, your Great Danes. (My favorite dog ever was a Norwegian Elkhound-Standard Poodle mix. He showed me who was boss every day. Hint: it was not me. He had an unrelenting crush on Alex Trebek and refused to go out for a walk until the Jeopardy closing theme played, even if he had been locked up for 9 hours. RIP Louie!) That is a me problem for sure, but I don't think I am alone so be aware that neither lead here is someone you want on your trivia team. Still it was fun and sexy and diverting and I am signing up for book two! show less

Okay, so this book has been hugely hyped by a lot of bookstagramers. So, I did the only reasonable thing and added it to my TBR months ago, and decided now as the time to finally read it.

This wasn’t bad, but it wasn’t great either. The writing felt very repetitive, the long speeches from the MMC, Carter, were nothing like a real man would talk and felt way over the top and flowery. I enjoyed how goofy and funny Carter was and how he really worked on himself and wanted to communicate well.

The FMC, Olivia, was likable, but at times I got really annoyed with how she handled situations, especially how she handled Carter at the beginning of the book. I felt like she was kinda stringing him along.

But those side characters! I loved pretty show more much any scene with his teammates. And that’s the only reason I’m gonna give book two a chance 🤞🏻

Tropes:
- Sports Romance
- Reformed Playboy
- He Falls First
- Insta-Love show less

This review may contain spoilers, so fair warning, upon reading the review.

Book Evaluation:
Plot: 🎞️🎞️🎞️🎞️🎞️
World Building:🌎🌎🌎🌎🌎
Cover:📔📔📔📔
Hero: 🦸🏻🦸🏻🦸🏻🦸🏻🦸🏻
Heroine:🦸🏻‍♀️🦸🏻‍♀️🦸🏻‍♀️🦸🏻‍♀️
Intimacy Level: 🔥🔥🔥🔥
Relationship Building: 💒💒💒💒.25
Heart & Feels:💞💞💞💞💞
Witty/Banter/Reaction of Laughter: 😂😂😂😂
Page Turner Level:📖📖📖📖📖
Narration:🎧🎧🎧🎧
Ending:🧧🧧🧧🧧.25
Overall View: ✨✨✨✨.5

First Impressions
Consider Me is the first book in the "Playing for Keeps" series. This is also my very first Becka Mack. I had seen her around plenty show more especially on instagram and I was very curious about this. I had also seen this in recommendations alongside with Liz Tomforde books so I was fascinated to see how this one would hold up and I will say that Consider Me was completely different from what I expected in many ways. If you want something more lighthearted that has strong levels of spice and is a hockey sports romance, then this is a book that you need to pick for sure. It also has ome endearing side characters that only have you encouraged to read the rest of the series for.

First Line
Rolling on to my back, I inhale sharply and throw a hand over my head.

The Main Protagonists
The Hero: Carter Beckett
Carter is a arrogant, cocky hockey player who loves women and never gets serious with any of them. He is a family man and devoted to his family and has the heart of a teddy bear underneath the self assured exterior

The Heroine: Olivia
Reserved teacher who is only looking for a long term relationship. She doesn't settle and doesn't aim for casual relationships. She is sassy and strong willed but has self image issues at times.

Summary
Carter Beckett is used to having everything at his feet, and that includes his pick of the most beautiful women to share his bed. He knows who he i and has a more jovial outlook on life. But when he meets Olivia, who is the best friend of one of his friends girl, he is falling hard for her. There is only one problem, she has no interest in him at all. Carter has never backed down from a challenge before and he knows that what he feels for Olivia is different than anything that he has ever felt before with another woman and wants to fight for her. But even if he can convince Olivia to take a chance on him, being his girl comes with all sorts of challenges and both Olivia and Carter will have to work hard together to build trust in their relationship that will stand the tide of challenges up ahead for them both..

What I Loved
Consider me was packed with so many aspects to it that you can immediately be drawn into. I had so much love for this one here and the way in which this story developed. I wasn't sure at first what I thought this would turn out for me because it was really snarky and I have become very picky on that lately is that seems to be in so many heroines lately and its way overdone. But I have to give credit to the author here, she really balanced out the heroine here. She was such a likeable character and I found her very relatable. Even though she has some insecurity, its aspects that I think as women we can all relate to.

Then we have our delectable hero....Carter Beckett. This hero is wild and fun. There is such charm to his character and the way in which is he with our heroine especially. I have never had issues with cocky playboys in romances especially when they are well written. And Carter Beckett has so much depths to him. I really appreciated the growth that we see in his character and the way he pines for our heroine and fights for her is beautiful. We also see how he has to face up to the consequences of the type of life that he has led. It showcases the lifestyle of being "sex focused" in your life and we see this in this story. We also see the hero going out to redeem himself to the heroine and build a relationship of trust with her.

Their relationship has its moments of being rocky at times but we also see great dimension that is capitalized on it. We do see some fun aspects to the sport of hockey which I appreciated. I also valued what we see for family bonds within the story. The spice in this story is just right on this one. So if you love higher levels of spice, then you will definitely receive that within this story.

What I Struggled With
So there were a couple of things that I really struggled with. The biggest drag on the story was how insecure the heroine is within the story. While I related with some aspects of it, the issue I had with her was her lack of trust in the hero. And its continual and I really wanted the heroine to have more faith in the hero especially towards the end at times. The third act wasn't executed as well as I would have liked. And the feels in this story is what really kept the rating of this one here so high.

Narration
The hero's narration was brilliant, I was always so excited when it was the hero's POV because the voice for his perspective was spot on. The voice for the heroine however, wasn't necessarily my favorite. But it wasn't horrible either, but it could have been done better in the long run.

Overall View
Consider Me was a brilliant romance that captivated my attention, my heart and entertained from beginning to end. A HOCKEY GEM

Favorite Quote(s)
“When you show me the type of love you need, I learn how to give it to you.”

“She’s like…waking up on Christmas morning when you’re three years old and you finally understand what it’s all about. She’s the moment the rain stops and the sun comes out, lighting up the sky with color, and everything smells new and fresh. She’s the first skate on a frozen lake, surrounded by snowy mountains and pine trees and the freshest breath of air. She’s rolling over in the middle of the night, pulling that warm body into yours and curling around it, and everything’s just right.”

“I love you through the perfect moments, and there are so many, but I will always love you through the imperfect ones too.”

Book Details (also in my shelves)
Sub Genre: Contemporary Romance, Romantic Comedy
Character Types: Athlete, Teacher
Themes: Sports-Hockey, Laughs, Pining Hero, Witty Banter
Tropes: Unrequited Love, Opposites Attract

Book Perspective
Duo POV

Relationship Conflict vs Plot Conflict
Relationship Conflict

Song This Book Inspires
Consider Me-Allen Stone

Recommendation For Reading Order
You can read as a standalone

Steam/Spice Explanations

Steamin' up the room -the sexual content is more explicit in the language and tone, heavier amount of sexual scenes.

Narrators:
Kasha Kensington, Alex Kydd show less

I'm choosing to pretend that I thoroughly read the last 200 pages. I think I have a really good idea of what's happening, why, and wha the conclusion will be and I just don't want to waste my time with rest...

Pretty good. More depth than I expected and entertaining

Cute story

Carter is just that man