SWEET THING (Chicago Players 1) by Kate Meader-review

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ABOUT THE BOOK: Release Date July 15, 2025

Lars

I just found out I’m a dad.

My one-night stand dropped a baby bombshell in my local bar where I was celebrating my team’s win. Then she fled, leaving me holding my new daughter.

Thank God for Adeline. The daughter of my teammate and closest friend on the Chicago Rebels, she practically raised her little sister and knows exactly how to deal with this situation. I need a nanny; she needs a job. Problem sorted, right?

Not so fast …

Adeline

I think you’re the sexiest guy alive.

That’s what Lars Nyquist overheard me say while recounting my embarrassing crush on him. Yeah, that Lars Nyquist. Defenseman for the Chicago Rebels. Owner of the thickest thighs in the league. More than a decade my senior. Oh, and my dad’s teammate.

My only option? Leave the country, of course. Luckily, I’d already planned a round-the-world trip with my bestie and by the time I returned to Chicago a year later, I expected my blunder would be long forgotten. Shows what I know. Now I’m lying awake in the bedroom next to his while playing nanny to his surprise little girl. But I can ignore this stupid infatuation. I have to. Even though the sight of Lars learning to be a dad leaves me breathless and takes that crush to a whole other level.

One that has the potential to break my sorry little heart …

•••••

REVIEW:  SWEET THING is the first instalment in Kate Meader’s contemporary, adult CHICAGO PLAYERS erotic, hockey romance series focusing on the next generation of Chicago Rebels star Theo Kershaw (Instacrush. Rookie Rebels). This is twenty-three year old, Adeline Kershaw, and thirty-six year old defenseman Lars Nyquist’s story line.

Told from dual first person perspectives (Lars and Adeline) SWEET THING follows Lars Nyquist in the wake of the discovery that he fathered a child three months earlier. Approximately one year ago, in the wake of his father’s death, Lars had a one-night stand that apparently resulted in a child he knew nothing about but while celebrating a winning game at the local bar, his one-night stand dropped the baby in his lap, and walked away without looking back.Desperate for help, Lars accepts the Kershaw family assistance including the nanny duties of Theo Kershaw’s eldest daughter Adeline Kershaw, the woman with whom Lars will fall in love. Adeline Kershaw made an early return from a year’s long journey throughout Europe and the far East but life was unkind to Adeline, and our heroine returned with secrets of her home. Having lusted after Lars for most of her life, Adeline gladly accepted the temporary position of Lars Nyquist’s nanny, a position that would eventually break her heart.

The world building focuses on Lars’ struggle as an instant single father. Believing himself unworthy as a father, having survived the dysfunctional family dynamics of his late father’s addiction, Lars battled between head and heart knowing to fall for his teammate’s daughter was all kinds of wrong, but especially to fall for a woman thirteen years younger. As Lars and Adeline navigate their attraction, someone else is determined to destroy what has barely begun.

The relationship between Lars and Adeline is one of unrequited attraction. Adeline’s friend Rosie, knows that Adeline’s heart will break if Lars rejects our story line heroine but Adeline is determined to prove there is more to the relationship than nanny and boss. The $ex scenes are intimate and passionate without the use of over the top, sexually graphic language and text.

There is a large ensemble cast of family and energetic secondary and supporting characters including Adeline’s parents Elle and Theo Kershaw, and her siblings Hatch, Conor, Landon and Tilly; Teammates Dash Carter, Lars’ one-night stand Vicki, and fellow defenseman Rowan MacFarlane.

SWEET THING is a story of secrets and lies, betrayal and dysfunctional family dynamics; family and relationships, acceptance and love. The character driven premise is emotional and dramatic; the romance is fated and heart breaking; the characters are determined, dynamic and broken.

Copy supplied for review

Reviewed by Sandy

Originally from Ireland, USA Today bestselling author Kate Meader cut her romance reader teeth on Maeve Binchy and Jilly Cooper novels, with some Harlequins thrown in for variety. Give her tales about brooding mill owners, oversexed equestrians, and men who can rock an apron or a fire hose, and she’s there. Now based in Chicago, she writes sexy contemporary romance with alpha heroes and strong heroines who can match their men quip for quip.