ICE HOT (New York Nighthawks #1) by Tracy Goodwin-a review

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ABOUT THE BOOK: Release Date march 5, 2019

The Nighthawks are hockey’s new expansion team. They’re ice hot. And they’re all about the chase.

Christian: They call me a hockey god because I’m a beast on the ice . . . and off. Men want to be me and women just want me. But now that the New York Nighthawks expect me to lead their team to victory, it’s all work and no play. My eyes are on the prize. Until I meet Serena Ellis, a sexy, curvalicious blonde who doesn’t know me from jack. And just like that, I’m hooked.

Serena: I don’t do one-night stands—especially with celebrity jocks who date models. Lots of models. But the god of hockey is a temptation that’s hard for mere mortals to resist. And after the best kiss of my life, I’m ready to throw my one-night stand rule out the window. Except Christian Chase won’t let me. He doesn’t want a one-night stand. He wants it all.

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REVIEW:  ICE HOT is the first instalment in Tracy Goodwin’s contemporary, adult NEW YORK NIGHTHAWKS hockey, romance series focusing on the NHL’s newest expansion team the New York Nighthawks. This is New York Nighthawks team captain Christian ‘Cyclone’ Chase, and fashion designer Serena Ellis’ story line.

Told from dual first person perspectives (Christian and Serena) ICE HOT follows the building relationship and romance between New York Nighthawks team captain Christian Chase, and fashion designer Serena Ellis. Having met accidentally over a spilled ice-blue slushy, Christian Chase couldn’t get the curvy blonde out of his mind but a team get-together at a local bar found our hero face to face with the woman who rejected his teammate, the woman who has starred in all of his recent fantasies and dream. Enter fashion designer Serena Ellis, and the woman with whom Christian will fall in love. What ensues is the building relationship and romance between Christian and Serena, and the fall-out as jealousy, the media, and the social pariahs of the internet take turns destroying our leading couple.

Serena Ellis knows she isn’t a rail thin model, a fact pushed home on more than once occasion, but it is her curves that have made our heroine a fashion success. Struggling to get out from the controlling thumb of her well-to-do and judgmental parents, Serena finds solace in building her own brand, one curvy girl at a time. Christian Chase is a successful professional hockey player who finds comfort in the simple things like hockey, his friends and his dog. Making a name for himself places a target on his back, a target one of his fellow teammates is determined to hit every single time.

The relationship between Christian and Serena is one of immediate attraction but an attraction tempered by sins of the past: issues of trust, rejection and the possibility of failure. Trying to keep their relationship on the down low, Serena and Christian will become the leading story when jealousy, betrayal and vengeance for Christian to push Serena out of his life. 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 secondary and supporting characters including several members of the New York Nighthawks. We are introduced to Serena’s brother Lucas and his husband Charlie; her best friend and business partner Becca, as well as Serena and Lucas’ parents Harrison and Kathryn, and feisty grandma Savannah Ellis.

The world building focuses on our heroine’s low self esteem. As a woman of size and curves Serena has struggled to fit into the mold her parents have always wanted her to fit. An teenaged rejection followed by humiliation and pain have caused emotional scars for our story line heroine, and social media body shaming continues to focus on her insecurities wherever she goes. Christian Chase never knew the pain of destroying a woman’s heart but trying to protect Serena from the fall-out of jealousy and betrayal meant Christian was forced to push Serena out of his life.

ICE HOT is a story of jealousy, betrayal, heart break and love. The premise is sensitive and spirited; the characters are real and animated; the romance is dramatic and moving. ICE HOT is an impassioned look at one woman’s struggle to fit society’s mold, and one man’s struggle to protect the woman he loves.

Copy supplied by Netgalley

Reviewed by Sandy