Review: A Favor for a Favor

Since I had quite enjoyed the first book in Helena Hunting's All In series (I reviewed A Lie for a Lie here), I was really looking forward to reading book two, A Favor for a Favor. What I wasn't expecting was to actually like this one more than the first!

Here's the synopsis:

When I joined Seattle’s NHL expansion team, I thought it was the start of something great. But nothing ever goes the way you expect. Take my introduction to my new neighbor. She came rolling in on the hot mess express at midnight, making a racket while she tried to get into my team captain’s apartment. Did I mention that he’s married to a woman who definitely was not her?
Imagine my surprise when I end up with an injury that has me out of the game for weeks, and she’s the one to offer to help me. I should probably add that she’s not the captain’s mistress. She’s his sexy, pastel-haired younger sister.
So we come up with an arrangement: she rehabs me so that I can get back on the ice sooner, and she can add a professional athlete that isn’t her brother to her client list. Seems simple enough. As long as I can keep my hands to myself and my hormones in check.

It's always tricky going into the second book of a series when each book features a new couple. Will you like them as much as the characters in the first book? What if you don't? What if you spend the whole book hoping just to get a glimpse of the first couple? Now, I don't want to say I didn't care if I didn't see RJ or Lainey in this book but...I was fine knowing they were a-ok in their HEA as I just needed to focus on Stevie (the aforementioned woman who's trying to sneak into the captain's apartment) and Bishop, RJ's teammate. I loved them. Especially Stevie. Bishop was a bit of a dick but Hunting managed to write him in such a way that you knew that wasn't really what he was like. It was kind of like that was just the persona he had to put on to survive his day to day.

I found myself really wanting to be Stevie's friend. She seemed like the type of woman I could really get along with. She was feisty, smart, funny, and had a big heart. I felt for her when she talked about having to deal with her brother's fame. I can't imagine what it would have been like to be the kid sister of a hockey superstar. I also liked that Hunting had a lot of great brother-sister scenes with Stevie and her brother, RJ, trying to sort out their complicated, but loving, sibling relationship (even though, yes, I wanted to get back to the sexy romance times with her and Bishop).

Stevie and Bishop's courtship was so much fun to read. They're flirting with each other in the most ridiculous way and don't even realize they're flirting until some kind friends and family point out that they can't stop thinking or talking about the other. Their whole relationship seems so unrealistic but I loved it. Because why couldn't the sister of the team's captain end up living next to a super hot and single player and they end up dating?

I could probably gush about this book a whole lot more but I'll hold off. Just know that Helena Hunting has written a great second book to her series and I think romance fans will love A Favor for a Favor as much as I did. I really cannot wait for the next book in the series!