Series: Play by Play #6.5, 8.5. 10.5
Audience: +18
Genre: Contemporary Romance, Sports Romance
Publisher: Berkley
Release Date: October 18th 2016
My Rating: 4 cups
Source: Netgalley
Blurb (from Goodreads):
No one brings the sexy out in sports like Jaci Burton, the author of the New York Times bestselling Play-by-Play novels. Now, she puts together a holiday hat trick with three novellas featuring the hottest sports around: baseball, hockey, and surfing—because hard bodies are always in season...
Holiday Games
For the high-achieving Elizabeth and her husband, baseball player Gavin Riley, failure is not an option. So when it comes to making a baby, they’re not about to let any holiday distractions get in the way of their necessary pleasures...
Holiday on Ice
It’s the season for giving and superstar hockey player Patrick “Trick” Niemeyer is ready to give dancer Stella Slovinski his heart wrapped up in bow. But he’ll have to melt the ice surrounding her heart to keep her from walking away...
Hot Holiday Nights
Christmas in Hawaii brings sports agent Tori Baldwin two presents: a young surfer at the top of his game and his business manager. But this hot threesome has to decide if the romantic wave they’ve caught is nothing more than a vacation fling, or the kind of love that could change their lives forever...
*Disclaimer: I received an eARC of this book from Netgalley and Berkley in exchange for an honest review. This does not influence my rating or my opinion of this book in any way.
Jaci Burton's Play by Play series is the first series that made me fall in love with sports romance, so when I saw this book on Netgalley I might have danced and made a few raptor noises, due to my excitement.
Holiday Games was absolutely adorable, mainly because of Elizabeth. I love Gavin, don't get me wrong, but Elizabeth is my girl. She's such a badass character, and she's actually someone I'd love to meet in real life. I love that she's a woman who made it in a career that's dominated by men, and she's good at her job. And Gavin is such a sweetheart, like always. I loved reading about them, about how their story continues. I also love reading about Liz being more open to other people. I remember that when we first meet her, she's this cold woman, that will do anything to do her job as she sees fit, which sometimes wasn't a good decision. But Gavin changed her in a way, and I really enjoy reading more about this Liz.
Holiday On Ice is one story I've been dying to read for a long time. I've always been curious to know more about Stella. It's probably one of my favorite things about this series, the fact that there isn't just one sport that it's explored. In this case, with Stella, we see a glimpse into the world of professional dancing. Stella and Patrick are really great characters! Their chemistry is amazing, it's just the type of relationship that I'm used to reading in one of Burton's books. My favorite scene is when Patrick sees Stella dance for the first time. There's just something so incredibly sweet in that scene, I just love it.
Hot Holiday Nights is the last novella on this collection. Victoria, the heroine of this book, is another female sports agent and, if my memory isn't playing tricks on me, she actually appears in the second book of this series, alongside Elizabeth. I have to say though, I wasn't as in love with this novella as I was with the other two. I can't explain it, but to me it felt more like a holiday fling than a beginning of a love story. I do have to say I really enjoyed reading about surfing. The two heroes, Alex and Ben, are surfers. Ben was actually a professional surfer before he had an accident that prevented him from even playing the sport at a competitive level, while Alex is currently a professional surfer. I loved reading more about this sport, and I hope there will be more books in this series that include surfers. Like I said though, I didn't feel as if this was the start of a romantic relationship, but a really hot holiday affair.
As always, Jaci Burton knows just how to write a hot relationship, and how to get me interested in finding out more about certain sports. I am curious to see which character will get their stories told next, as well as which sport will be featured in future books.
