Boarded by Love (Bellevue Bullies, #1)

by Toni Aleo

• ASIN: B00MQ1DTKY
• Publish Date: 2014
• Publish Status: Unknown
• Format: eBook (Kindle)
• Pages: 353
• Language: English

Reviews

[Sam@WLABB]

This is my first Aleo book. I have heard so many great things about her other series, I thought I would give this author a try. I love sports romances, and have no aversion to the the NA genre. This story was ok. I didn't love it. I didn't hate it. I would probably give another one of her books a try.

I liked the concept of this girl, who was pulled out of her hellish life by her uncle, and finally knew what it was like to be loved and taken care of, meeting and winning the heart of a notorious man-whore. I have no problem with tropes. I love tropes. I think my problem was somewhat with the writing. There were times, when I felt Aleo was trying too hard to make me feel something, and some ideas were repeated so many times.

Again, I did not hate this book. I was entertained, and I liked the characters and the whole hockey family thing.

[Cocktails and Books]

3.5 Stars

Toni Aleo always gives us great hockey romance books. She creates these amazing, often times stubborn and hard headed characters, who can always make you shed a tear when that big emotional climax comes in the story. BOARDED BY LOVE, a spin-off from her Nashville Assassins series, is no different.

BOARDED BY LOVE gives us Claire Anderson's story. You might remember troubled teen, Claire, from Phillip and Reece's story, BREAKING AWAY. Claire's in college now, starting her sophomore year, when she suddenly finds herself very much attracted to and being "chased" by the Bellevue Bullies hockey team captain and campus playboy, Jude Sinclair.

It was pretty much love at first sight for these two. They had some pretty explosive chemistry together and it was easy to see how both of them fall so hard and so fast (think Elli and Shea, but in their 20s. HAWT!!). Was it always believable, probably not (I know I would be jealous as hell of all the women Jude had been with or continued to chase after him), but that's part of what makes romance novels so fun...not all the bad stuff in real life has to pop up.

Claire still has some residual issues because of her past, which causes her to not always make the wisest decisions and ends up breaking the heart of two very important people in her life. And while that part of the book is very emotional and tears you up, I could see why Claire did what she did. She's a product of her upbringing, no matter what Phillip and Reese have done or will do to support her, and I felt (just a bit) that Jude's feelings took a bit more precedent over her "whys". What Claire did was wrong, but to know her is to understand why she needed what her secret gave her.

I can't wait to see what Toni gives us next in this series (I seriously hope is Jayden). If you love the Assassins series, definitely pick this one up.