The last thing Ravi Chandola needs is to define his career by a single mistake he made off the ice. But it’s not that easy when you’re the captain of an NHL team and the press is always watching, waiting to pounce.

And to make matters worse, Ravi now has community service under the supervision of a former professional figure skater who hates him with a fiery passion. But things aren’t so simple when it comes to ice king Adrien Fischer.

He’s hot but cold.

He’s soft but sharp.

And in spite of telling Ravi there can never be anything between them, Adrien can’t seem to stay out of Ravi’s orbit.

Ravi’s life is complicated enough without this man who can’t seem to make up his mind, but as much as Ravi wants to walk away, he knows he’s in it for however long Adrien will have him. So what hope does he have left? Just a miracle that the ice king’s heart will thaw and allow Ravi in.

Breakaway is the first book in the Sin Bin: West Coast series featuring the fictional NHL team the Denver Huskies. This story contains bad geography, a best friend with feelings-burritos, platonic cuddling, cute squirrels, spicy food, and of course a happily ever after.

How was it?

The premise of this book is superb, and the beginning of it got me so bad that I had to pause and take a few deep breaths because I almost lost my sh!t. It’s tense and emotional but the way Ravi was first introduced, and how he felt really got me. from that point on I was in, I was curious to see how Adrien and Ravi’s story would mesh.

Considering how Adrien lost his career and the circumstances that brings Ravi into his life, I expected this novel to turn out differently in how the story developed. I was very surprised at how run-of-the-mil it turned out to be, the further into the story I got the less impress I was with the execution of the premise. For a good chunk of this novel, Adrien didn’t exactly made sense to me, he seemed petty and mean for no reason, even considering him not knowing the truth about Ravi’s circumstances, he was a d!ck and Ravi seemed like a doormat. The light Dom Sub dynamic in the relationship did not help even if I liked that the bottom of the relationship wasn’t the stereotypical one.

The story is a nice read but it ends up being lighter than one might expect when looking at the beginning of the novel. This was my first E.M. Lindsey novel so I didn’t what to expect but I love a sports romance, in particular, a Hockey one so this novel already had an advantage.

The audiobook version is read by John Solo who’s just amazing at what he does so I have no complaints there, the story just didn’t live up to its own expectations but remains an entertaining read.

E.M. Lindsey‘s books are available on The Book Depository and other book retailers near you.