BLOG TOUR / REVIEW FOR CENTER ICE - BY CATE CAMERON

Center Ice (Corrigan Falls Raiders)

by Cate Cameron

Release Date: 05/19/15

Entangled Crush

Summary from Goodreads:

The hometown hockey hero won’t know what hit him…

Karen Webber is in small-town hell. After her mother’s death, she moved to Corrigan Falls to live with strangers—her dad and his perfect, shiny new family—and there doesn’t seem to be room for a city girl with a chip on her shoulder. The only person who makes her feel like a real human being is Tyler MacDonald.

But Karen isn’t interested in starting something with a player. And that’s all she keeps hearing about Tyler.

Corrigan Falls is a hockey town, and Tyler’s the star player. But the viselike pressure from his father and his agent are sending him dangerously close to the edge. All people see is hockey—except Karen. Now they’ve managed to find something in each other that they both desperately need. And for the first time, Tyler is playing for keeps…

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MY REVIEW / THOUGHTS:

I am not a sports fan at all.  I usually don't even like reading about them.  UNLESS, it's about ice.  I don't know what it is about ice.  It's fascinating the things people can do on ice.  Ice skating hands down my favorite, but Hockey....I don't watch it often, but have been to a few games, and love watching it.  It's so hard to watch them throw each other around but so amazing at the same time. I think what I liked the most about this book is that it was about so much more than the sport.

I really enjoyed that this book was told from Karen and Tyler's perspective.  It made it so much more appealing to me.

Karen, lets just say this poor girl was dealt a very raw deal.  Sent to live with her father that she didn't know after the death of her mother.  I cannot even imagine.  Being a teenager is hard enough, just pile all this hardship on top of it, it's bound to turn out to be an intense story.

Tyler a hockey star, working hard to make it to the NHL, with a father who is psycho about him getting there.  Pressure from his father, from his agent makes it more than a young man should have to handle.

When Karen and Tyler happen upon each other it makes for a great love story.  I loved that this was not an insta love story.  I really, really, really do not like insta love.  I know this will be a contradiction because I believe that love can happen at first sight.  OR more like Instant connection at first sight that can lead to love.  That is exactly what happened when I met my husband. I knew (I know it's hard to believe, but I did)  the moment I met him that I was going to marry him.  I had never seen him before in my life, but the moment we met, had dinner, I knew in my heart it was either going to end very well, or very, very heart breaking.  Thankfully for me it ended well ;).   So when characters meet and have an instant connection I love that.  When characters meet and instantly claim "love" and move to the next level is just so unrealistic to me.  It takes time to develop a love connection.  This is just what Karen and Tyler had going for them.  They met, instantly connected, yet didn't know why.  Until they got to know each other.  They were just what each other needed.  It's was put together so well.  I loved how Cameron brought these two flawed, beautiful characters together.

I love all the secondary characters in this book also.  They don't seem like secondary characters because in my eyes each played a pretty powerful role in the book.  Karen's father Will was a flawed man.  Very flawed.  Yet seem to be wanting to do the right thing by his daughter and his family.  Natalie, Will's wife is amazing.  Although I don't like that she let her man cheat on her and stayed with him.  Like I said, there was a lot going on in this story.

Tyler's father, and agent were horrible men.  I hate it when parent's make their kids life miserable because they want to relive their childhood through their children.  Let kids be who they want to be.  Not what you want them to be.  This was a great story about a young man, coming into his own and taking control of his life.

Karen's story was a great story about a girl who finds the crap side of life, and finds a way to rise above.  Not alone, but with friends and family helping along the way.

The only thing I am going to say that I didn't like about this book was the teenage sex.  Yes, I know that it goes on, but I do not condone it and I really don't like reading about it.  I know that this book will appeal to a lot of teenage readers and I want them to understand that there is so much more to a relationship than just sex.  This totally would have been a 5 star for me if it wasn't for the teenage sex.

All in all this was a beautiful story about love, family and overcoming adversity.  I enjoyed the characters, the writing, the setting.  Beautiful.  I am glad I was able to participate in this tour!

MY RATING:

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About the Author

Cate Cameron grew up in the city but moved to the country in her mid-twenties and isn't looking back. Most of her writing deals with people living and loving in small towns or right out in the sticks - when there aren't entertainment options on every corner, other people get a lot more interesting!

She likes to write stories about real people struggling with real issues. YA, NA, or contemporary romance, her books are connected by their emphasis on subtle humor and characters who are trying to do the right thing, even when it would be a lot easier to do something wrong.

 Author Links:

Website│Goodreads│Twitter│Facebook

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