FLOPPER (Vegas Venom 1) by Colleen Charles-a review

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ABOUT THE BOOK: Release Date August 23, 2022

As one of the top goalies in hockey I live a sweet Vegas lifestyle: VIP treatment at all the hottest spots in town – ushered past every velvet rope – and all the puck bunnies I can handle.
Until my whole world changes when fate takes my sister, leaving her precious baby an orphan.
Even though I’m still mired down in grief, I step up and adopt my niece. After all, I already adore her.
I’ve just started to get a handle on things when the perfect woman literally falls into my lap, sending me and my newfound single dad life reeling.
She’s everything I ever wanted, but how can I offer her my heart while it’s still broken?
After our first meeting, she confesses that she needs lessons in seduction. Easy enough. We agree that once I teach her everything I know, we’ll part as friends.
But when we kiss… I see stars. I catch feelings. And after one taste of her, I’m not willing to let go.
My Venom buddies try to warn me not to get too close, but they shouldn’t worry because I won’t let myself fall all the way.
Yeah, about that..

•••••••

REVIEW: FLOPPER is the first instalment in Colleen Charles’ contemporary, adult VEGAS VENOM erotic, hockey romance series focusing on the members of the NHL’s Vegas Venom. This is team goalie Noah ‘Flopper’ Abbott, and author/book store owner Molly Campbell’s story line.

NOTE: For information purposes, a flopper is a goalie prone to going down on the ice to stop pucks.

Told from dual first person perspectives (Molly and Noah) FLOPPER follows the building romance and relationship between goalie Noah ‘Flopper’ Abbott, and author/book store owner Molly Campbell. Three years earlier Noah lost everyone he had ever loved, and with the death of his sister Natalie and her husband Steve, Noah became the only parent to his niece Vivian, a young girl that would become his own. Fast forward to present day wherein Noah, who hasn’t had time for a personal life finds himself at The Last Chapter, a local book store, where he will meet owner Molly Campbell. An adult themed book party pushes our couple into a compromising situation, a situation in which Molly hopes to ask Noah for additional help. What ensues is the ‘friends with benefits’ situationship between Molly and Noah, and the fall-out when the truth about the past, digs a knife further into our story line hero.

Molly Campbell needs lessons in seduction, and Noah Abbott is perfect for the job but keeping their ‘situationship’ limited to a ‘friends with benefits’ only is a struggle for two people who have spent too much time alone, having had their hearts broken by similar situations. Noah Abbott is all about family, and as he and Vivian are the sole surviving members of the Abbott family, Noah refuses to get involved with anyone else. A ‘friends with benefits, education in seduction’ is the perfect situation for our story line hero, a situation that is about to get ugly when the past is revealed.

The relationship between Molly and Noah begins by accident when our heroine literally falls into Noah’s arms. From the outset, the relationship is one of friends to lovers that will quickly turn into something more but Noah is about to sabotage the woman he loves, pushing her out of his life, leaving them both with a broken heart. The $ex scenes are intimate, erotic and intense without the use of over the top, sexually graphic language and text.

We are introduced to a colorful and energetic cast of secondary and supporting characters: Molly’s assistant Mona; her agent Angela, as well as Vivian’s nanny Frannie, several members of Noah’s grief support group, and the Vegas Venom hockey team-Anders Beck, Latham Newberry, Clayton ‘Cash Money’ Hale; team owner Dante Giovanetti and newcomer Marco Rossi.

FLOPPER is a story of grief and loss, blame and recovery, family and friendships, understanding and love. The premise is emotional and heart breaking but the potential conflict is easily deduced; the romance is seductive and captivating; the characters are charismatic, dynamic , broken but struggling to heal.

Copy supplied by Netgalley

Reviewed by Sandy