Chosen by Love (Bellevue Bullies 8) by Toni Aleo-review

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ABOUT THE BOOK: Release Date December 29, 2023

Cameron White is the most famous student influencer on the Bellevue campus. Not only that, she is one hell of a gymnast, ready to stick every landing her senior year. It’s time to go out with a bang.

In order to think outside the box for her final marketing project, she has a proposition for the only other popular content creator on campus, a guy who just happens to be someone she trusts, Benson Jeannott—her lover from her freshman year.

Given everything that went down between them three years ago, surely, he won’t say yes to her fake-dating idea. Though what she doesn’t know is that Benson has been chomping at the bit for a second chance with the one who got away.

Benson Jeannott is on his way to the NHL draft, but first, he has to help his Bellevue Bullies win the cup. He is supposed to focus only on his grades and his ice time. But if he thought he couldn’t sign up for the draft quick enough, that has nothing on how quickly he agrees to “date” Cameron.

Problem is, she wants this to be an arrangement, while he wants to be her forever.

Freshman year, the choice was Cameron’s to make. Now, can Benson make it clear he’d do anything for her to choose him?

••••••

REVIEW:CHOSEN BY LOVE is the eighth instalment in Toni Aleo’s contemporary, new adult BELLEVUE BULLIES erotic, college, hockey romance series. This is college gymnast/ influencer Cameron White, and college hockey player Benson Jeannott’s story line. CHOSEN BY LOVE can be read as a stand alone without any difficulty. Any important information from the previous story lines is revealed where necessary.

Told from dual first person perspectives (Benson and Cameron) CHOSEN BY LOVE follows the second chance romance and relationship between our story line couple. Cameron and Benson were high school lovers but choices were made, and Cameron ghosted our story line hero. Fast forward three years, both attend Bellevue College, and Cameron needs a subject for her final paper in social media. Pushed by her mentors into a fake relationship with Benson Jeannott, very few people were aware of their previous history. When Benson agrees to six months with our story line heroine, Benson is determined to reclaim our heroine, in the wake of secrets and their fake affair. What ensues is the rebuilding romance and relationship between Benson and Cameron, and the potential fall -out as Cameron continues to struggle with what happened in the past, taking blame for their relationship fall-out.

The world building focuses on the rekindling romance between our leading couple but also looks at the Benson’s brother by another mother Quinn whose own love life is about to implode. As Cameron and Benson’s ‘fake relationship’ becomes something more, one family is ready to walk away, while the other welcomes the couple with open arms.

The relationship between Cameron and Benson is one of second chances. Three years earlier Cameron pushed Benson out of her live but in the ensuing time neither one stopped loving the other. As Benson’s hockey career pushes toward a professional life, Cameron finds herself at a crossroads between gymnastics and a social media empire. The $ex scenes are intimate and seductive without the use of over the top, sexually graphic language and text.

There is a large ensemble cast of colorful and energetic secondary and supporting characters including several of Benson’s teammates and friends, including Quinn, as well as Benson’s hockey parents, and Cameron’s embittered and resentful mother, and loving step-father.

CHOSEN BY LOVE is a story of secrets and lies, heart break and guilt, forgiveness and love. The premise is emotional and captivating; the romance is spicy, sensual and passionate; the characters are animated and sassy.

Previous Reviews
Boarded by Love
Changing Lines

Copy supplied for review

Reviewed by Sandy

My name is Toni Aleo and I’m a total dork.
I am a wife, mother of two and a bulldog, and also a hopeless romantic.
I am the biggest Shea Weber fan ever, and can be found during hockey season with my nose pressed against the Bridgestone Arena’s glass, watching my Nashville Predators play!

When my nose isn’t pressed against the glass, I enjoy going to my husband and son’s hockey games, my daughter’s dance competition, hanging with my best friends, taking pictures, scrapbooking, and reading the latest romance novel.
I have a slight Disney and Harry Potter obsession, I love things that sparkle, I love the color pink, I might have been a Disney Princess in a past life… probably Belle.
… and did I mention I love hockey?

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