From New York Times bestselling author Elle Kennedy and USA Today bestselling author Sarina Bowen comes the next in the spin-off series of their wildly successful Him and Us books.
"I'm ridiculously attracted to you, Hottie. I figured I should be up front about that."
"Shut up and kiss me again, Snipes."
Hailey Taylor Emery has a hunch that Sniper87, her favorite client at Fetch—the anonymous virtual assistant service she runs with her ex-husband—is actually gorgeous hockey superstar Matt Eriksson. It's against the rules to check his file, but she's pretty sure she spends every day texting her lifelong crush and catering to his every need. Still processing her recent divorce, Hailey is perfectly content for this to be nothing but harmless online flirting…until Sniper87 wants to meet her. Face to face. utter panic.
Matt Eriksson is no stranger to heartbreak. He's still not over the destruction of his own marriage, and it sucks to be the only guy on his team who knows the that hockey and long-term relationships are a toxic mix. He barely sees his kids, and dealing with his ex makes him feel worthless. The only person in his life who seems to understand is someone who won't show her pretty the mysterious HTE, aka "Hottie."
Surely, though, it's nothing a pair of fourth row hockey seats can't fix. Superfan Hailey can't resist the offer, and Matt can't resist Hailey. But when the phone screens come down, can they get past their baggage long enough to build something real?
Title : Stay
Author : Sarina Bowen & Elle Kennedy
Series : WAGs (book two)
Format : eARC
Page Count : 320
Genre : romance
Publisher : Bloom Books
Release Date : September 17, 2024
Reviewer : Hollis
Rating : ★ ★
Hollis' 2 star review
I know I j u s t said it was unlikely I would be finishing this series but then I was late-stage approved for the ARC so hey here we are! And this was a little better than book one but not by a very large margin. While there were no DNF feelings, I was just.. bored. This was a snooze. It's a very low effort, low stakes, low investment kind of read -- at least for me.
Sure, once again, this might be a combination of something not aging all that well and my reading tastes (and standards) being a little (lot) different these days -- while unlike Good Boy this wasn't a reread it was still originally written in that era almost ten years ago, so. It still applies.
This is a book that can stand alone from the original Him/Us but does feature characters (mainly the main couple) from those books however more page time is given to Good Boy's couple. Having said that, you could easily treat this as a standalone as it focuses on a woman we haven't yet met, who runs a service pitched as having a virtual personal assistant for tasks and deliveries, who finds herself servicing (possibly a poor choice of word..) her favourite hockey player's needs (again, poor..) from home decorating to more. Meanwhile, he is sorta crushing on the assistant who he hasn't seen and doesn't know but circumstances throw them in each others' actual lives and, like, romance ensues. Whilst shallow conflicts unfold, one half of the couple worries about whether she actually has a boyfriend in name, and despite talking about their future and children at some point along the way is still survived to be told she's loved by the man who wants to have children with her.
Also, yeah, the return of the evil ex (ugh) trope used almost, sorta, twice.
Also also yes, incase you were wondering, every sex scene was skimmed. But hey at least it got me through the page count a little quicker!
This series was definitely a fail for me but also I think, in general, I've just outgrown these authors as time has gone on. Revisiting these stories may not have been fair play considering that but alas here we are and, as always, every reader's mileage will vary.
** I received an ARC from NetGalley and the publisher (thank you!) in exchange for an honest review. **
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