Light the Lamp (Portland Storm, #4)

by Catherine Gayle

[Kim Deister]

Light the Lamp is the latest in the Portland Storm series, this time focusing on a newer player for the Portland Storm hockey team. Liam Kallen has recently been traded to the Storm from the Islanders and his game is suffering since the death of his beloved wife Liv. One fateful night, he meets Noelle Payne, a damsel in distress that he is determined to rescue. She is the epitome of a free spirit and is more than a little absent-minded when it comes to the more practical matters of life.

I loved both of these characters, but there were many times when I wanted to reach into my Kindle and slap one or the other of them into reality. Liam was so keen on "saving" Noelle that he was smothering her, treating her like a wayward child. But it was hard to be angry with him because he so obviously cared and had reasons to be the way he was. Noelle seemed to think that he should be able to just magically understand who and what she was without really trying to talk about it and that drove me nuts. But she, too, so obviously cared that it was hard to be against her. In the end, these two are the perfect example of the yin and the yang in romance novels, each one supporting the other in opposite ways.

Things to love...

--The romance. I am not generally a straight-up, romance girl, but I like that the romance in this series comes with all of the issues that love really has, even if it is a little fast.

Things I wanted more/less of...

--More hockey. I love hockey, and there was a little less of it in this book!

My Recommendation: This is a great addition to the Portland Storm series, but it should be read after the first two. The fourth book in the series, Delay of Game, is due out in August! I gave it 4.5 mugs.