Sunday, August 29, 2021
Sunday's Short Stack: Lost in Boston by RJ Scott & VL Locey
Meet the newest member of the Rowe family - Austin Rowe - cousin of Ten, Brady, and Jamie.
Drafted first round to the Boston Rebels is a dream come true for Austin Rowe. It doesn't matter that he’s skating in the long shadow of his cousins, being in the NHL is all he ever wanted and what he’s worked hard to achieve. He never expects to find love when he arrives in Boston, and it knocks him off his feet.
Robbie is killing time. Heading for his final year in college studying for a degree he doesn’t enjoy in preparation for a career he doesn’t want, he works part time in a coffee shop knowing his trust fund is waiting for him any time he wants it. He dislikes Austin on sight, but all too soon he’s won over by the gentle charm of the blue-eyed man. Glitter flies when these two meet.
When passion enters stage right, love isn’t far behind.
Because of it's short story status and my stance on no spoilers, there's not a lot I'm going to say about Lost in Boston, the beginning of a new series in the hockey world RJ Scott & VL Locey have created. What I will say is I loved every page of it!
I hesitate to say "get to know the Boston Rebels" as we've been aware of the team from the beginning since Tennant Rowe's big brother, Brady, plays for the Rebels. For those who are new to this hockey universe, Tennant Rowe was the star and half of the featured couple where it all began in Changing Lines, Harrisburg Railers #1 as well as 3 of the Railers novellas. However, Lost is the first in the Boston Rebels series and we meet Canadian Rowe cousin, Austin the Rebels newly drafted rookie.
From Austin getting lost in the city(hence the title Lost in Boston which I'm not taking for granted every one knows because it didn't connect for me until I started this sentence, what can I say?🤷 Summer heat is frying my brain😉) where he meets the deliciously fun Robbie to his fears that he's not strong enough to be who is in the public eye unlike his above mentioned cousin Tennant, I just wanted to wrap him in huge Mama Bear hugs and let him know that I understand his fears and it will be okay either way.
Lost in Boston may be a short introduction to the authors' new series but it's definitely not short on fun and heart. Can't wait to see what adventures the Rebels have to tell Scott & Locey and let us ride along on their journeys.
RATING:
VL Locey
Boston Rebels Series
RATING:
Austin
June
It was just a party.
A small family gathering— according to my mother— to celebrate my being drafted into the NHL. Nothing to worry about. Right. And I was Celine Dion. Whom I kind of secretly adored but kept it hidden because… hockey players didn’t listen to Celine Dion. They listen to Metallica and thrash. It was one of a few things I kept hidden because hockey players just didn’t.
Blowing out a breath, I studied the fifty or more people packed into our little backyard in Liberty Village. Ninety-nine-point-nine percent were either hockey players, married to hockey players, or had been involved with hockey in some way. To say that hockey was the lifeblood of the Rowe family would’ve been spot-on and then some.
Hockey ran through our veins. And no one had more of that elite blood than my older cousin, Tennant Madsen-Rowe who was here, with my other famous Rowe cousins Jamie and Brady. The sun was setting on Toronto. Shadows grew long as the party rolled along, but no one cast a longer shadow than Tennant. My father had groomed me to take his place as the most famous Rowe to ever play hockey. No pressure there.
Ryker flopped down beside me in the glider. He was another cousin— by marriage or something— and we’d never met in person before.
“I have never talked this much hockey in my life, and that’s saying something.” Ryker grumped.
“Yeah, it’s like air in the Rowe household don’t you know?” I tossed out, took a swig of my orange soda, and then burped. My gut was a tangled mess. If I didn’t draft high… well, I had to. My whole future rode on it. I couldn’t let Dad down.
“Oh yeah, I’m familiar.” Ryker leaned back and stared at the big men and beautiful women milling around. “Nervous about tomorrow?”
“I’ve reached the puking into my sneakers stage.”
He chuckled. “Yeah, been there and puked that.”
I smiled a little. “I’m sorry I didn’t make it to your wedding. I was in school and then had a tourney and—”
He waved me off as Tennant laughed at something one of my twin sisters was saying. Chloe and Dawne were fourteen and thought Tennant Rowe was the coolest and best-looking thing ever. Poor guy had been trailed by teens since he had arrived. “No problem. Jacob wanted to fly up with me to this, but we’re breaking ground on a project and he had to oversee it.”
“He seems nice. My dad keeps me informed about everything that happens with everyone in the States.”
“Yeah, he is incredibly nice.” Ryker glanced down at his wedding band and a softness settled over his face. “Anyway, I know you’re feeling as if your whole world is hinging on the draft tomorrow, and in a way it is.”
“Thanks!” Ugh, my gut was going to eat itself.
He chuckled. “I’m kidding. Seriously, you’ll do fine. Boston has been looking for a generational player and are willing to trade big names to get you. You’ll do fine. Just a word from someone who came up in that big shadow.” He jerked his chin at Tennant, who was baby and husband-free as little Charlotte was teething and had a slight fever so they’d gone inside. “Just be you. Play your game your way. Don’t try to be Tennant because no one can be Ten other than Ten. You’ve got skills, crazy good skills. Focus on what you bring to the game. Just be Austin.”
I stared at his profile for a long time. “Thank you. That actually kind of helps.”
“Sure it did. I’m a freaking genius.”
He laughed but I kind of thought that he was a freaking genius. “Would you mind if I kept you on speed dial for when I freak out?”
“Totally hit me up whenever. We are related. Sort of. Somehow.”
Poor guy. He had no clue how often I freaked out. I hoped his husband was as cool as he said he was because I could foresee lots of calls to Ryker over the next year or so.
The Boston Rebels were established in the roaring twenties as one of the Original Six teams in the fledgling new professional hockey league. Success came to them somewhat quickly as they won the championship in nineteen thirty-two by beating New York to become the first American team to bring home the cup.
From the first out NHL captain, to the bright young star making his mark, the defenseman fighting addiction and finding out he’s a dad, to the goalie being stalked by a killer, meet a brand new team of hockey players from the authors of bestselling MM Hockey Romance’, RJ Scott & VL Locey.
Saturday's Series Spotlight
Harrisburg Raptors
Owatonna U
RJ Scott
RJ Scott is a USA TODAY bestselling author of over 140 romance and suspense novels. From bodyguards to hockey stars, princes to millionaires, cowboys to military heroes to every-day heroes, she believes that love is love and every man deserves a happy ending.
USA Today Bestselling Author V.L. Locey – Penning LGBT hockey romance that skates into sinful pleasures.
V.L. Locey loves worn jeans, yoga, belly laughs, walking, reading and writing lusty tales, Greek mythology, Torchwood and Dr. Who, the New York Rangers, comic books, and coffee. (Not necessarily in that order.) She shares her life with her husband, her daughter, one dog, two cats, a pair of geese, far too many chickens, and two steers.
When not writing spicy romances, she enjoys spending her day with her menagerie in the rolling hills of Pennsylvania with a cup of fresh java in one hand and a steamy romance novel in the other.
VL Locey
Lost in Boston #.5
Boston Rebels Series
Harrisburg Series
Owatonna U Series
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