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!

Review: A Lie for a Lie

Helena Hunting has been a romance author I'd been meaning to read for a long while. I'd heard good things plus she's Canadian. I was happy and excited when I got the chance to read A Lie for a Lie, a new series she was starting. It was fun and sexy and dramatic and I enjoyed it a lot.

Here's the synopsis:

Sometimes I need an escape from the demands, the puck bunnies, and the notoriety that come with being an NHL team captain. I just want to be a normal guy for a few weeks. So when I leave Chicago for some peace and quiet, the last thing I expect is for a gorgeous woman to literally fall into my lap on a flight to Alaska. Even better, she has absolutely no idea who I am.
Lainey is the perfect escape from my life. My plan for seclusion becomes a monthlong sex fest punctuated with domestic bliss. But it ends just as abruptly as it began. When I’m called away on a family emergency, I realize too late that I have no way to contact Lainey.
A year later, a chance encounter throws Lainey and me together again. But I still have a lie hanging over my head, and Lainey’s keeping secrets of her own. With more than lust at stake, the truth may be our game changer.

Knowing that Hunting has written hockey romances in the past, I knew she would include the sport in the story in a meaningful and realistic way. I'm not really a hockey fan but being a general sports fan and a Canadian, it means I know a lot more about the sport than the average person. I'm also a romance fan so I'm always happy when sports and romance come together in a great story.

This is one of those romances that drives you nuts even while you're rooting for the couple. Both Lainey and RJ have a lot of stuff they need to sort out but they take advantage of being thrown together with someone they find extremely attractive and dive in to a bunch of sexy times. The last thing either of them expect is to start falling for each other. It's no surprise then when it totally crashes and burns. Until they're thrown back together a year later. You want to yell at them both to just be honest to each other because then they'd save a whole lot of heartbreak. Luckily, they listen, eventually, and everyone lives Happily Ever After. (If you consider that a spoiler, I don't know what kind of romances you've been reading.)

I don't know if I especially liked Lainey and RJ but I did really enjoy reading their story. They were so very good for each other and I just love reading stories when people find their person. Especially when it's in such a bananas way. On a plane to Alaska? How fun and random!

I was super into A Lie for a Lie by Helena Hunting. I read it in a day because I just didn't want to put down the super swoony and emotional story. I'm definitely invested in this series and look forward to more stories about the hockey team Hunting has created.

*A copy of this novel was provided by the Canadian distributor, Thomas Allen & Son, in exchange for review consideration. All opinions are honest and my own.*