Boarded by Love (Bellevue Bullies, #1)

by Toni Aleo

[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.