LA Storm #1
Hollywood A-lister Finn might be Canadian, but he needs Cameron to show him how to hockey.
Actor Finn Kerrigan is at a crossroads. After growing up a soap star, then starring in a hugely successful trilogy of action movies, he's finally given the chance to read a heartfelt and passionate script that could change his life forever. The role would be enough for people to see him as a serious actor, and maybe even win him an award or two (and no, a golden raspberry award for his action movies doesn't count). Once established as a serious actor he’s sure he can come out of the closet and finally live his truth. When he lies to get the part of a hockey player on a struggling team, he suddenly has nowhere to hide. He might be Canadian, but the last time he skated he was ten, and no, he doesn't have hockey in his blood. With only a month until filming starts, he about to be exposed, but partnered with a player who’s supposed to be giving him tips, he doesn’t realize how many of his secrets will come to light. Falling in lust, one heated kiss at a time, is inevitable, but giving Cameron up at the end of the shoot could break his heart.
Cameron Chavkin is the face of the LA Storm. And the body, and the hair, and the smile. He’s at the prime of his career, men and women want to be with him, and he’s skating better than he ever has before. His house sits next to a famous rock star's mansion, his garage is filled with expensive cars, and he’s even been asked to mentor a once-famous actor in a new hockey movie. Life is pretty sweet. Until the bad boy of hockey meets Finn, a man on the edge with more secrets than Cameron has endorsements. Knowing better than to get involved, Cameron is swept up despite himself, and when it's time to say goodbye to the Storm’s most eligible bachelor is finding it hard to follow the script.
I'm not Canadian(though my Irish ancestors did settle there for a time before coming to America but no Canadian blood in my veins) but I am from Wisconsin, the frozen tundra, perhaps we're more of a football state than hockey but as I live so close to the WI/MN border and only get MN sports coverage, hockey is everywhere. Never been a hockey fan, don't hate it just never piqued my interest so I get the way Finn feels when he talks about hockey should be in his blood but not really flowing😉.
Truth is: again like Finn, I don't skate, haven't had a pair of ice skates on since 6th grade and the last winter our elementary school made an ice rink in a huge dug out hole for recess. So I completely get Finn's need for assistance as well as the pains(and the hoorays when succeeding) he feels trying to just master standing😉.
I want to wrap Finn so tight in a bone-crushing Mama Bear Hug to let him know that everything will work out, that his fans will accept his true self but in truth not everyone will. In fiction so many things work out in HEA, which is a great thing because we all need HEAs to brighten our days and to give us hope, but sometimes that makes the hate in the real world uglier. Hate may not be in the majority but there are times when it seems to have the louder voice. So again I understand Finn's reluctance to be open about who he is and what is driving him to master this upcoming role because it's more than just what it can do for his career it's about what it can do for him as a member of the LGBTQ community. I definitely teared up more than once during Finn's part of Script.
Okay, that got a little maudlin and preachy, I apologize for that. Don't let my above sentiment bring you down or steer you away from this first entry in Scott & Locey's new LA Storm series. Despite my emotional thoughts on Finn, Script is very fun, very entertaining, very dramedy bordering on rom-comy at times, and oh so very Scott & Locey.
I'll briefly mention Cameron(and it really will be brief unlike previous points), he is a player who is dealt the blow that no athlete or fan wants and yet 150% find themselves in at some point in their career/life. Falling short of that brass ring or silver trophy as in this case. Not everyone can win, somebody has to lose it's just the name of the game, if you can't accept that then you are in the wrong profession/fangirling-or-guying. Cameron understands that, doesn't mean he likes it but it's part of being in that life. Let's face it Finn couldn't have chosen a more perfect athlete to seek out for lessons in the art of hockey, skating, and losing considering the role he's training for.
On the ice and off, Finn and Cameron are a wonderfully matched pair and I can't think of a scenario for a more powerful chemistry-fueled start to this newest Scott/Locey Hockey Universe series. Spot on, Ladies, SPOT ON!
Was I ready to say goodbye(at least as a front and center team) to the Boston Rebels? No. But then I wasn't ready to move away from the Raptors when Rebels started, Owatonna when Raptors came, and certainly not the Railers when Owatonna began. As the Railers are the cornerstone of the Scott/Locey Hockey Universe we still get the occasional holiday/lifetime milestone novella though. Truth is we never really say goodbye to any of the players in the authors' universe as it's the same league and returning favorites tend to pop up here and there. And when LA Storm ends and a new team emerges, I'll be sad to say goodbye to them as well, but when you're a sports fan there is always the sadness of the offseason which is kinda what going from one team series to the next feels like, one ends but a new fresh start begins and the adrenaline rush of a clean slate is wildly addictive and seductive.
I don't know just how many stories the Scott/Locey Hockey Universe has to tell but long as they keep creating them, I'll keep reading them. Not too bad for a not-really-a-hockey-kind-of-gal, guess loving these stories despite of my non-fanness speaks more volume to the greatness of these stories more than anything I've said above. Keep 'em coming, ladies, KEEP 'EM COMING!!!
“But you’re Canadian.” Atlas stared at me in shock. “Wait, Vancouver is in Canada, right?” My agent pulled out his cell phone as if he were going to check where in the world my hometown was.
I stopped him. “I am, and it is.” Where did he think it was? South of LA?
His shock turned into bewilderment, and he pinched the bridge of his nose. He’d been my agent since the early days when I was a child actor in a soap and was an uncle-type figure who’d watched me grow up. It was him who’d gotten me a lead in the low-budget Rapid Action from Byrnes-Rose studios, which, after becoming a surprise hit, had spawned two sequels, Rapid Start, and Rapid Recall, and made me a lot of money. And him. In all that time I’d never seen him so confused in all that time
He had a raft of clients, and was used to having things dumped in his lap, but it seemed I’d finally done something way beyond his understanding.
“But you want to read for the lead in a hockey movie.”
“Uh huh.”
“And you can’t skate.”
I closed two of my fingers together. “A little. I skated when I was younger, but then… acting. I mean, I can stay upright. Or at least I could when I was ten.”
“But don’t all Canadians do the hockey thing? From birth? I mean, I’ve seen videos of teeny tiny Canadian babies skating around with those penguin trainer things.”
I sighed. “Not every Canadian is into hockey, just like not every American is into football.”
Atlas inhaled sharply. “Blasphemy!” And for a moment he waved in front of him as if he were making the sign of a cross—I’d insulted him and the rest of the U.S. in some way. I enjoyed watching football highlights—mostly because of the men in tight pants—but being picked up to star in a soap at ten meant my formative years had been all about the role, the marketing, being a public figure, and not anything to do with funny-shaped balls.
Or pucks.
My life had always been way too filled with other things for me to get into sports.
Unless you counted me getting into Roscoe Lewinsky, the tight end for the LA something or other, because I got into him, and he was tight and just as much in the closet as me.
I snorted a laugh, and Atlas stared at me with a comic-book open mouth and wide eyes, as if I’d lost my damn mind and wasn’t paying attention to his meltdown at all.
He pointed at my chest, turning a dark shade of red. “You told me… you said you could do this…”
“No,” I began with exaggerated patience. “What I said, when I was drunk, I hasten to add, is that as a Canadian it’s my civic duty to be the star of the next Grierson blockbuster featuring the great sport of hockey. That is what I said.”
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Writing love stories with a happy ever after – cowboys, heroes, family, hockey, single dads, bodyguards
USA Today bestselling author RJ Scott has written over one hundred romance books. Emotional stories of complicated characters, cowboys, single dads, hockey players, millionaires, princes, bodyguards, Navy SEALs, soldiers, doctors, paramedics, firefighters, cops, and the men who get mixed up in their lives, always with a happy ever after.
She lives just outside London and spends every waking minute she isn’t with family either reading or writing. The last time she had a week’s break from writing, she didn’t like it one little bit, and she has yet to meet a box of chocolates she couldn’t defeat.
V.L. Locey loves worn jeans, yoga, belly laughs, walking, reading and writing lusty tales, Greek mythology, 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 flock of assorted domestic fowl, and two Jersey 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 hand.
RJ Scott
VL Locey
EMAIL: vicki@vllocey.com
Script #1
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