Lucas by Sawyer Bennett

Lucas Fournier is only serious about one thing: hockey. The league’s fun-loving charmer, Luc is always up for a good prank or a great lay, and he has no intention of settling down. But being traded to the Carolina Cold Fury—and to play alongside his big brother, Max—is no joke. With another title in sight, the last thing Luc wants is to let his new teammates down. To succeed, Luc will need to keep his head in the game and the most . . . er, demanding member of his anatomy in check. But when temptation hits, Luc hits back harder.

Museum curator Stephanie Frazier has always put business before pleasure, which just about explains her nonexistent sex life. But when Stephanie meets Luc at a champagne-fueled gala, she finds herself flirting like crazy—and going home with the uninhibited athlete. For one night, she learns what passion is all about. She just never counted on the little surprise Luc leaves behind. And that’s when things really start to get . . . interesting.

 

Series: Cold Fury #8 | Publisher: Tantor Audio | Narrators: Cris Dukehart, Joe Arden  | Length: 8 hrs and 3 mins  | Genre: Contemporary Romance | Source: Publisher  | Rating: 2 Cups

Challenges Read For:  - Audiobook Challenge - Literary Pickers  Bed Sheets -Bad Boys of Romance

 

Can Luc have a better heroine, please? He deserves so much better than Stephanie… So much better…

 

The gist of this is one is that Luc and Stephanie meet at a charity event, wild and crazy monkey sex ensues, condom breaks, Stephanie’s up the duff, Luc is attempting to forge a relationship but Stephanie is wanting no part of it because she’s an emotionless ice queen who wasn’t loved by her parents (cue her woe-is-me rants).

 

I’m a little—okay, I’m a lot—growly about this one. Or rather, I should say that the heroine makes me growly with this one. I haven’t been this annoyed with a character since Stanton (ugh, don’t even get me started on him) from Overruled by Emma Chase.

 

So, Luc’s not a guy you’re going to put on a pedestal. He has his faults and he likes to play the field but, overall, he’s a guy who knows when it’s time to settle down and try to make things work. While he’s a playboy he’s also a man with family on his mind. He does act out towards the end but, if I’m being honest, fake boob Betty from the bar seemed like a better bet than being with ice queen Stephanie.

 

Stephanie’s the poor me type and never really changes. She just wallows in her self-pity and it got old fast. Yes, her parents neglected her when she was growing up and was content with throwing money at her rather than love but she was close to her nanny—who she admitted showered her with love—yet Stephanie still claimed she couldn’t/wouldn’t love anyone. Not only did she come off as an ice queen, she came off as a little unhinged. She also treated Luc’s friends and family the same way. There was nothing about her character that I could get behind.

 

While this is supposed to be a romance, I saw very little chemistry or connection between Luc and Stephanie. Honestly, this was like a sex-laden clusterf*ck. Luc was ready and willing to give a relationship a chance. Stephanie was constantly pushing him away then whinging when he actually did what she wanted and gave her space. And, heaven forbid, Luc try to do something nice for her because how dare he care when they were just friends with benefits.

 

To buy into any part of the relationship between Stephanie and Luc, I feel like I needed to see what happened once the baby came along and that never happened and, honestly, I just don’t see it happening.

 

Then there was a very valid issue that Luc brought up when he finally had enough, yet somehow Luc was made out to be villain while Stephanie’s sitting over there polishing up her crown of ice and getting all the praise of sympathy. Nope…so much nope.

 

Seriously, why did I torture myself by finishing this one? I should have DNF’d it about two hours in.

 

This one ends with an epilogue that’s actually from Van—Luc’s team mate/housemate who’s moody and secretive—and while it did make me interested in his story, I heard a snippet of it (a fellow bookclubber was listening to it) and, given what I heard, I have no intention of ever picking it up.

 

I’m a little conflicted about whether or not I’ll finish this series. My goal was to get through the ones I had in my Audible library (Zack, Ryker, Lucas, Reed, Marek) and the ones I had on my Kindle (Alex, Garrett, Max) then decide if I wanted to pick up the others (Hawke, Roman, Van). From the ones I read (I know, I read them out of order) it seems like the earlier books are better and had more story than the newer ones.

 

If anyone has read the later ones, please let me know if this series is worth continuing because I don’t want to waste anymore of my time.

 

This is the only book out of the series that Joe Arden narrates and I thought it worked out nicely. I’m generally pretty happy with his style. Cris Dukehart’s narration was okay. She occasionally came off as annoying but I’m pretty sure she was just channeling Stephanie.

 

Overall, I was rooting for Luc to run and find someone worthy of his love, time, and attention. As for Stephanie, I was rooting for her to take a long walk off a short pier. 

The Cold Fury Hockey Series

Alex #1

Garrett #2

Zack #3

Ryker #4

Hawke #5

Max #6

Roman #7

Lucas #8

Van #9

Reed #10

Marek #11