I don’t think I’m made for jail; they don’t have an ice rink.
Aiden
Author: Toni Aleo
Genre: Hockey Romance
Series: Nashville Assassins: Next Generation Book 1
Pages: 326
Release Date: April 30, 2019
To be frank, I had a difficult time even finding a decent quote from this book. I’m not sure how many times the phrase “just a f*ck” was said, but if I never heard the phrase again; it’d be too soon.
I found this book because I was specifically looking for books based in Nashville, and I love hockey romance books!! But unfortunately, it missed the mark for me. My blurb/thoughts below…
Blurb & Thoughts
Shelli Adler has known Aiden Brooks her entire life; their families are friends, and he literally held her as a baby – that’s kind of weird to me, not gonna lie. Now she’s all grown up, performing on Broadway, and he’s an NHL star in NYC, as well.
Shelli’s ready to give up Broadway and move back home to Nashville. Shelli wants nothing more than to catch the eye of Aiden. Strangely, her friend knows Aiden (and has ALL this time), and on her last night in town, he takes her to a party at his apartment.
Shelli works up the nerve to talk to Aiden, and he immediately starts kissing her, and they take it back to his room. That’s great news, right? He likes her, right? Wrong. Shelli’s wearing a wig, he’s drunk, and he doesn’t recognize her… awkward.
Also, to make matters worse, her “friend” Chris literally brought her to the party as a hookup girl for Aiden without telling her he does that. He “provides” girls for Aiden to sleep with – no strings attached. That was seriously not okay. So gross and messed up. “She’s solid, she was pissed that I basically made her a call girl and didn’t tell you who she was.” – Chris. Yeah, that’s disgusting. Oh, and the reasoning behind this. “In my defense, it was getting her back for all the times she rejected me.” NOOOOO. Do not do that. EVER. NO. Thankfully, Aiden did say that was wrong, but this book was basically over for me.
Anyways, Shelli manages to get out of Aiden’s apartment without him realizing who she is, once she realized he didn’t know. And luckily, she’s moving back to Nashville. Oh wait, unluckily, Aiden gets traded that same week to play in Nashville. And oh wait, did I forget to mention that her mom owns the Nashville’s NHL team, the Assassins?
And the rest of the book is pretty much just them fighting about it being “just a f*ck” (he’s kind of an asshole about it tbh), then being together and Aiden being afraid to love… he can’t love and won’t love because his parents weren’t together when he was younger, and he had a bad past encounter with a woman. Hiding the relationship from everyone. Fights over miscommunications. Until the end. HEA. Sorry to spoil it.
This hockey romance book could have been 200 pages and been much better. It felt like the longest 300-page book I’ve ever read in my life – I skimmed the last 20% because there was SO much filler dialogue, and I LOVE dialogue. I was shocked when I saw the length after reading it. I thought I had put in a good 400. I wanted a fun Nashville hockey romance book, and this really wasn’t an enjoyable read for me sadly. It’s a 1-star for me, because although I was able to finish without DNFing, the Chris situation is still irking me.
Let me know if you read this book – in the comments or over on Instagram! If you liked this book review, I’d love for you to share this post!
xo, Renee
P.S. It might seem like I hate hockey romance books based on my review for Checked and Dump & Chase, but I actually love them! You can’t go wrong with the Off-Campus or Briar U series from Elle Kennedy! A+.
