4.5 Smooches!
Synopsis
The moment everything changed didn’t happen in that cliché rockets-red-glare kind of way, it happened in the form of a waking nightmare. I caught my husband, my high-school sweetheart, the father of my children, balls deep in a sordid affair.
That was when I gave up on men and love.
I didn’t count on the NHL’s golden boy, the beautiful, arrogant Cooper Stone turning my life and my hockey rink upside down.
My kids are why I wake up in the morning.
Hockey is what Cooper breathes for.
We’re from different worlds and places in our lives but when our hearts collided something so wrong and different turned into something so right.
REVIEW
Something So Right is the debut novel from Natasha Madison, and I was very pleasantly surprised. I always go into a new author’s debut novel never expecting to find gold – hoping to – but never expecting it. I look for writing talent that I can see will develop over time and with experience, I look for a plot that interests me and characters I can connect with and like. Well, folks, I found gold here. Something So Right was a fantastic story that kept me interested and engaged and characters that I immediately connected with. But it was Natasha Madison’s writing skills that impressed me the most.
Thirty-five-year-old Parker, a divorced mom of two, is trying to find herself after her world imploded. She caught her husband, the man she’s been with since high school, in the act of cheating on her. Following their divorce, she’s left trying to dust herself off and stand on her on two feet. She takes over the family business, an ice skating rink with a reputation for stellar hockey training programs, and two years’ post-divorce, she still hasn’t opened herself up to the possibility of love.
Cooper Stone is a cocky thirty-year-old NHL superstar. He’s not looking for anything other than to get back into top form following knee surgery. He’s been referred to Parker and her rink, and he’s only there to train hard. He is not expecting Parker to be a woman, and a very sexy one at that. An only child to generous but standoffish parents who was drafted into the NHL at seventeen, he’s never had the full-on family experience before. Meeting Parker and her kids is a turning point for him, and he now knows exactly what he wants.
Parker’s world tilts on its axis when she starts training and rehabbing the NHL’s golden boy following knee surgery. Their chemistry is electric, and it isn’t long before they succumb to this crazy attraction. But he’s only there for two months – it can’t be more than a fling. Or can it?
I really loved this story. As a hockey fan and a goaltender’s mom, I could tell right off the bat that Natasha Madison is a hockey fan as well. The way she described the plays, and the bits of hockey knowledge and information peppered throughout this book made that quite clear, and it was something that I truly appreciated. But what made this book for me was the utterly relentless way that Cooper pursued Parker. I hesitate to use the word bull-dozed, because it sounds so bad, but he wanted a life with her so bad, he wasn’t really giving her any other options. And truthfully, that’s what Parker really needed – a man to chase her, to pursue her, to fight for her.
The chemistry between these two positively sizzled and left my Kindle smoking in my hands. Seriously, there were a few times I could have used a cigarette while reading this book. But it was the genuine and real love between them that shone brightly in Madison’s Something So Right that really captured me – it was sweet, it was genuine and it was so, so sexy and real. I loved them together as a couple and I adored them as a family.
If you’re a fan of an all-alpha male, if you like a great hockey based story, if it’s some serious steam factor you’re looking for, then this book is totally going to be for you. I really enjoyed it, and I’m looking forward to more from Natasha Madison. Something So Right gets 4.5 smooches from me!
~ Danielle Palumbo
