LA Storm #3
Can Jackson ensure the safety of his loved ones when the darkest elements of LA's underbelly seek retribution?
Oliver knows the clock is ticking on his dream of winning the Stanley Cup. After fourteen years playing for New York, he’s beyond frustrated to leave friends behind when traded to the LA Storm. As a widower and father of two girls, he’s facing the twilight of his career, and, worst of all, he’s lonely. Making friends is easy enough, but he craves someone to hold him at night. When Jackson, equal parts grumpy chaos and charm, lands in his life, friendship turns to lust, and love isn’t far behind. He finds himself drawn to Jackson, and as their relationship deepens, they become each other’s haven amidst the chaos of their lives. However, danger from Jackson's work threatens their peaceful world, challenging their relationship and forcing love to take a backseat to survival.
After bringing down a notable money launderer, Jackson's small team receives orders to delve deeper into the world of organized crime in Hollywood. His early success quickly spirals into an overwhelming web of criminal intrigue. In this new, uncharted territory, he feels increasingly isolated, both personally and professionally. The more issues he uncovers, the less he seems to close. Meeting Oliver shakes his world even more, especially when he accidentally falls for the widower and father of two little girls. A few nights of fun is one thing, but deeper feelings and kids are something he is not at all prepared for. Yet, despite his reluctance, he becomes deeply attached to the little family who has embraced him with so much love. Now, he just has to shield them from the dangers that have followed him to their doorstep.
This opposites attract romance features a single dad hockey player grappling with personal loss, a grumpy detective entangled in the complexities of organized crime, and a love story that happens despite the odds.
I just knew we'd see Jackson again after he was introduced in Second(ironically the 2nd entry in the LA Storm branch of the Scott/Locey Hockey Universe😉) and I was not disappointed. You couldn't help but feel he was straddling the line between good cop/bad cop(or perhaps good cop/overworked-potentially-leading-to-bad-decisions cop) and yet you also knew his heart was always on the good side of that thin line that is too often overlooked these days.
Again, I was not disappointed.
What is there not to love about Oliver? You just want to wrap him in the tightest Mama Bear Hug to protect him from the hurt he's dealt with but also to reassure him that this new start is truly that "a new start". Athletes who spend most of their career with one team and find themselves being traded as their career reaches the later stages can't help but have conflicting and crippling moments of doubt. Those crippling doubts can manifest in multiple internal questions: "how could they toss me away after all the years I've given them", "did they see something in my performance that I didn't", and "can I actually make a positive contribution to the new team" just to name a few. Oliver has to deal with that as well as being a single parent after the death of his wife and doing it in a strange city. Don't get me wrong, yes these raw emotions are there and important but Oliver doesn't let it bog him down, he's prepared to do what he must for his girls, for his team, and for himself.
Then a big monkey wrench is thrown in and he finds himself dealing with an attack to a friend and that's where Jackson enters the picture possibly complicating things even more.
Jackson, what can I say? As stated above he's overworked but good at his job and as for after hours Jackson time, well let's just say he has his fun when and where he can. When thrown together at a crime scene sparks may not beam but they definitely do more than flicker. Both men are ready and/or willing for a new start but just how bumpy or smooth that road is . . . well that's where the fun lies. There is no secret that both RJ Scott & VL Locey are all about the HEA so the end result is really never in doubt(and that's no spoiler). These authors are all about the journey and boy what a journey they bring to life in Shield.
I love when a book has more than one sub-genre and Shield is definitely first and foremost: romance, yummy, yummy, yummy romance. But in Shield we also get a little mystery and I can never say no to a good who-done-it?. Add in a little friendship, family, hockey(can't forget the hockey😉), and what you have is a lovely entertaining piece of reading magic.
How could I forget little Scarlett & Daisy? Oliver's little girls are a pure delight, they may not have a lot of page time but every scene they are in they completely own it. I loved how there is no accepting or not accepting when it comes to Daddy's first date with Jackson, it's just how it is and I firmly believe one day all of society will be in frame of mind but unfortunately we aren't there yet but having Oliver's daughters be there gives a sense of hope for the future. Maybe I read more into that scene than the authors put in to it but that's what I took from it.
What about Jamie? Oliver's old nanny-turned-BFF comes for a visit but stays when his occupational situation changes and from the looks of it, we'll get to see loads more of Jamie in the next Scott/Locey Hockey Universe LA Storm installment, Spiral and I for one can't wait.
I parked my Ducati in a small lot next to the clinic, the familiar sounds of the neighborhood enveloping me as I dismounted. The laughter of children as they played on the sidewalks, the distant buzz of traffic, and the occasional shouts from windows were more real to me than the place I’d grown up in affluent Dallas suburbs where money was king. I could do some good here.
As I walked into the clinic, I immediately felt at home. There was a warmth and bustle to the place, volunteers chatting, trying to make a difference, kids crying, parents in groups. I waved to Lazlo on reception. He’d changed the color of his hair again—now blue from green—and he grinned at me.
“Yo, Cowboy,” he called.
I headed that way. “Hey Laz, is Joe in?”
Lazlo frowned, leaned closer, and lowered his voice. “He gone all do-not-disturb, not seeing patients, and he’s losing his shit with everyone who knocks on his door.”
That didn’t sound good. Joe was former military, a medic, and the guy who ran this place on nothing but fluff and buttons. He was ruthless at recruiting volunteer doctors and nurses, an expert at guilting big pharma to donate, rough and ready, and dragging this entire community to good health one case at a time. But he was also a gentle giant, loved people as much as they loved him, and losing his shit didn’t sound like him at all. Maybe it was a money thing? I could help with that. I saved money every year for my girls, a trust fund that would see them happy and settled with a good start, but after that and my sole luxury—the Ducati—everything else I gave away.
Not that anyone knew, and they never would.
“Had a couple of referrals for you,” Lazlo said, slapping some files down. “Why don’t you take them, and this…” He placed a coffee next to it, “… see if you can cheer Joe up.”
Referrals were about moms with breast cancer, the same cruel disease that had taken Melissa, or those newly diagnosed with diabetes in fact, any families who struggled where Lazlo thought I could help I picked up the files, headed through the door to the consultation rooms, passing walls adorned with handmade posters and kids’ art, and finally through the last door, marked staff only, with my key card
I knocked on the door, juggling paperwork and the coffee, using my elbow on the handle, and tumbling inside with a grin on my face, all ready to cheer Mr. Grumpy up.
Only to find him at the wrong end of a gun, bleeding from a head wound, and barely able to move.
Saturday's Series Spotlight
Chestorford Coyotes
🏒👨❤️👨🏒💖👬💖🏒👨❤️💋👨🏒
RJ ScottWriting 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.
Shield #3
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