Power Play (Pilots Hockey #2) by Sophia Henry

Beneath her innocent facade, Gabriella Bertucci has her reasons to be standoffish with guys. Especially guys like Landon Taylor, a star defenseman on the minor-league Detroit Pilots and the object of a serious crush since he first walked into her family’s market. But when Landon comes through for her in a moment of crisis, Gaby starts to wonder if there might be more to Landon than hard muscles and fast skates.

Landon isn’t afraid of telling Gaby that he’s got it for her bad. The problem is, she seems unwilling to believe it. And though Landon enjoys his reputation as a cool-headed athlete, he hates losing—both on the rink and off. It’s his competitiveness that makes him so damn good at what he does . . . but it also makes him just a little bit complicated.

One minute Gaby’s tempted to give in; the next, she’s getting cold feet. How can she trust a guy who’s destined for bigger and better things to stick around? Then again, when Landon pulls her close with those powerful arms, the only thing that matters is right now.

Book: Power Play (Pilots Hockey #2) by Sophia Henry (Goodreads)
Published: February 16th, 2016
Pages: 194
Genres: Romance, Hockey/Sports, Athlete, ARC (author released copy)
Format: PDF
Date Read: February 5-9, 2016
Rating: 2 Potatoes 🥔🥔

I was given a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

I tried so hard to like this book more than I did. I really tried. But, the glaringly obvious spelling/grammar errors and storyline inconsistencies made that difficult.

Gaby and Landon have both had crushes on each other since they were kids and finally admit it after a tragedy happens within Gaby's family. Okay, that type of storyline I can get on board with. And I was excited about the fact that Landon was a hockey player (LOVE THEM!). But, the Gaby/Landon storyline barely develops, they go on one date (maybe two) and they are just in love and happy (with each other, anyway), blah, blah, blah. The hockey storyline is rarely referenced, except for the great elephant in the room that the oh so great Landon hasn't been called up to the NHL yet. I did like Landon (what I knew about him anyway), he seemed to really like Gaby but I needed more - more information about him, more moments between Gaby/Landon.

Gaby's family really made me mad - they were terrible to Gaby (especially her dad) and her brother Joey was just straight up annoying. And the pesky little detail of Gaby's rape? That whole situation alone was enough to make me give this book a 2 star rating. First of all, the whole arc of her rape came out of left field - there was nothing given away that would make you think it happened to her in the first place. And, if you are going to put something like that in a book, you need to expand a lot more on what happened - the reasons for peoples decisions in how its delt with and just provide more information in general.

And then, after all of the drama and horrible things that were done to Gaby, the end wraps up like a nice little bow. Where the heck did that happy ending come from?

I get that this was a novella, due to size, but I felt like the story could have been fleshed out so much more. It had so much potential from the summary and it seemed to be wasted. With proper editing and a more in-depth storyline this really could be a good book.