MAX (Cold Fury Hockey #6) by Sawyer Bennett-a review

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ABOUT THE BOOK: Release Date December 13, 2016

The ice is a cold mistress. As the league’s most eligible goalie, Max Fournier has access to his fair share of willing puck bunnies, but right now he’s more interested in bringing home another championship than a one-night stand. A romantic at heart, Max believes in love; he’s just not great at relationships. So when he finally meets a nice girl who’s not blinded by his celebrity, he’s feeling the heat—and the pressure to save her from herself.

Between working two jobs and raising her sister’s kids, Julianne Bradley doesn’t have time for sports—or men. All she knows about Max is that he’s the sexiest customer to ever grace her gas-station counter. And he sees past her tired eyes and makes Jules yearn for things she can’t have: a glamorous fling, a passionate lover, and the time to enjoy both. Max makes her feel like Cinderella, even though Jules has enough baggage to crush a glass slipper. Luckily, he’s no prince—only a fierce competitor determined to win her heart.

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REVIEW: MAX is the sixth installment in Sawyer Bennett’s contemporary, adult COLD FURY HOCKEY erotic, sports romance series focusing on the members of the Carolina Cold Fury professional hockey team. This is team goalie, twenty seven year old Max Fournier, and twenty five year old nursing assistant and artist Julianne Bradley’s story line. MAX can be read as a stand alone without any difficulty. Any important information from the previous story lines is revealed where necessary. Some of the events of MAX run parallel to the events of HAWKE (book 5).

Told from dual first person points of view (Max and Julianne) MAX follows the building relationship between Montreal born, Carolina Cold Fury goalie Max Fournier, and Julianne Bradley-a young woman struggling to make ends meet when she becomes a single mom to her late-sister’s three young children. Constantly hassled by rude and drunk customers as she works late nights at a local gas and convenience store, as well as her full time job as a nursing assistant Julianne struggles with her new found position as mother to her rambunctious niece and two nephews. Enter Max Fournier, goalie for the Carolina Cold Fury, and Julianne’s hero and white knight when life begins to overwhelm and threaten our story line heroine. What ensues is the building love and relationship between Max and Julie, and Julie’s less than positive encounters with social media, paparazzi, and the team’s condescending and spiteful puck-bunnies. Max’s need to help Julie places our heroine in a negative light as the media and paparazzi are constantly on the look out for damaging and heartbreaking stories.

The relationship between Max and Julianne begins as friends as our heroine endeavors to maintain order in her life. Two jobs, three kids and the ongoing grief from the loss of her sister find Julianne close to the edge of exhaustion and breakdown. Max is a man immediately drawn to Julianne, and the man who goes after the woman with whom he will fall in love. The $ex scenes are intimate and erotic.

Several of the previous story line couples play secondary and supporting roles, as well as a closer look at Hawke Therrien as he struggles with his relationship demise in book five.

The world building looks at personal lives of Cold Fury professional hockey players; the media and fan attention, as well as some of the behind the scenes promotions and struggles to keep their personal and public lives separate.

MAX is a sweet and sexy story line about a professional hockey player with an affinity for junk food, and a woman whose life changed in the blink of an eye. The premise is emotional and intense; the romance is passionate and provocative; the characters are real and inspiring. Sawyer Bennett writes from the heart; her stories are genuine; her characters are dynamic and fresh.

Reading Order and Previous Reviews

Alex
Garrett
Zack
Ryker
Hawke
Max

Copy supplied by Netgalley

Reviewed by Sandy

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Best-Selling author, Sawyer Bennett, is a snarky southern woman and reformed trial lawyer who decided to finally start putting on paper all of the stories that were floating in her head. She is married to a mobster (well, a market researcher) and they have two big, furry dogs who hog the bed. Sawyer would like to report she doesn’t have many weaknesses but can be bribed with a nominal amount of milk chocolate.

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