Breakaway

The Sin Bin: West Coast, Book 1

By: E.M. Lindsey

Narrated by: John Solo

Length: 6 hrs and 26 mins

Publisher's summary

The last thing Ravi Chandola needs is to define his career by a single mistake he made off the ice. But it’s not that easy when you’re the captain of an NHL team and the press is always watching, waiting to pounce.

And to make matters worse, Ravi now has community service under the supervision of a former professional figure skater who hates him with a fiery passion. But things aren’t so simple when it comes to ice king Adrien Fischer.

He’s hot but cold.

He’s soft but sharp.

And in spite of telling Ravi there can never be anything between them, Adrien can’t seem to stay out of Ravi’s orbit.

Ravi’s life is complicated enough without this man who can’t seem to make up his mind, but as much as Ravi wants to walk away, he knows he’s in it for however long Adrien will have him. So what hope does he have left? Just a miracle that the ice king’s heart will thaw and allow Ravi in.

Breakaway is the first book in the Sin Bin: West Coast series featuring the fictional NHL team the Denver Huskies. This story contains bad geography, a best friend with feelings-burritos, platonic cuddling, cute squirrels, spicy food, and of course a happily ever after.

©2022 E.M. Lindsey (P)2022 E.M. Lindsey

Not your usual hockey story

This is a story of professional athletes overcoming trauma and finding love. Unlike most sports romance books, the MCs sexuality and coming out of the closet publicly was not the center of this book, which was refreshing. The characters are easy to like, even though they react to difficult situations like emotionally-stunted humans, like most of us are. While I enjoyed that the story was not centered on their professions, it definitely did not feel like a hockey-focused book and hockey definitely takes a backseat to most aspects of the plot. Very little of the game actually happens in the book, as compared to most of the MM hockey books. It's more of a hurt/comfort story, with steamy but mild domination/submission, with hockey on the periphery. John Solo does a great job with the MCs, but several of the side characters have foreign accents that did not come through well, but it wasn't enough to distract from the story.

4 Stars ⭐️

Ravi and Adrien 🔥❤️🔥

Every time I open or listen to an E.M. Lindsey book, I expect to be emotionally blown away..... once again, I am!!

I'm going to extremely vague with this review, I'd hate to spoil, because it's so worth the time!!

This author has an incredible knack for writing perfectly imperfect characters with stories that will break you heart and then stitch it right back up!!! This one was an emotional roller coaster...I adored Ravi ❤️ at times I wanted to hug him, Adrien on the other hand was so frustrating....he took a lot of patience and understanding, Ravi couldn't have been more perfect for him. The road to their HEA was a bumpy one, and wasn't easy but it was everything that they deserved ❤️ it was beautiful and love filled!

*John Solo's narration of this story was 🔥*

* I received an Audio Copy from GRR, this is my open and honest review *

Love Hockey

I read this book when it came out as it had two things I really love - hockey and EM Lindsey's writing. They do such a wonderful job of creating complex characters. I also am very appreciative of the sensitivity review they go through to make these stories so real. That being said, I still enjoy this story and John Solo's narration was perfect. Love the voices and not to mention he does well on the sexy times! I will listen to this one again!

Fantastic listen!

There were so many awesome things about this listen! The storyline kept me engaged and the characters made love and hate them at times. The narrator was fantastic and the hockey tremendously satisfying!

Ravi and Adrian

"𝙏𝙝𝙖𝙩'𝙨 𝙖 𝙨𝙝𝙖𝙢𝙚. 𝙔𝙤𝙪 𝙨𝙚𝙚𝙢 𝙫𝙚𝙧𝙮 𝙢𝙪𝙘𝙝 𝙬𝙤𝙧𝙩𝙝 𝙖𝙡𝙡 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙖𝙩𝙩𝙚𝙣𝙩𝙞𝙤𝙣."

Breakaway by E.M. Lindsey is Ravi and Adrian’s story and the first book in The Sin Bin: West Coast series.

Ravi is forced to do community service after an accident. Adrian does not make things easy on Ravi since his community service is for the same thing that ended Adrian's figure skating career.

I enjoyed the book when I read it and loved it when I listened to the audiobook. I picked up on things listening to the book that I missed when I read it.

I love Ravi and Adrain as well as many of the side characters and I am looking forward to this series as a whole.

John Solo did a great job as both characters and with bringing their story to life.

Breakaway contains… mm, sports (hockey), sports (figure skating), opposites attract, enemies to lovers romance, told in the dual third-person point of view.

4.5 Maple Leaf Review

I absolutely adored this story!

Despite a tense beginning, this book does not pack as much angst as I was fearing. It’s very high on emotions and surely there are very tense moments, but the story is also somehow quite sweet and the connection between Adrien and Ravi grows organically, slowly but without major bumps. I loved both characters, both scarred but resilient men that made me want to cheer them up, both as individuals and as a couple!
I adored John Solo’s performance, both Ravi and Adrien were portrayed beautifully and the characterization was on point!

Ravi and Adrien have an incredible connection!!

Ravi and Adrien have an incredible steamy connection. Powerful story about two characters that overcome physical and emotional challenges.

John Solo does a good job of sharing this story with us.

Ravi and Adrien are made for one another! Adrien’s hesitancy was real and definitely warranted but Ravi’s persistence and patience was beautiful and was everything!! Their connection was undeniable but their chemistry skyrocketed through the roof!

This was a great start to a series, with lots of interesting characters. So looking forward to Nolan, Marco, and Luka’s story next!!

well this was different

Being a die hard fan of E M Lindsey, I have read almost everything they have written and I gotta say that this may be the first time I really did not like one of the MCs. Not liking a mc makes it so hard to like the story, but Ravi made it worth it to me.

In this one we have Ravi, who due to someone else drugging him, has an accident and was charged with DUI.

Adrian was an Olympic hopeful who lost his leg in the accident. And is not a pleasant person. He was the one I really did not like.

These two eventually work it out and fall in love. Believe me, I was shocked that I loved the ending.

I really liked the best friends in this so I will be reading the next one.

John Solo did a great job with the narration and I really enjoyed it.

I loved it

This was one of the first books I have read by E.M Lindsey and this was really good. It has a lot of emotions. It is well written and it´s a book that can break you!

Heartfelt Story

E.M. Lindsey does their usual bang-up job portraying flawed characters finding the good in each other. I love the way they almost always include some type of disability in one or both of the MCs. This isn't just for representation, it's educational to the rest of us who don't live with or have exposure to people with disabilities.

I think I would have enjoyed this story more if I'd read it instead of listened to it. I know John Solo has a huge following, but I'm just not a fan. I usually don't mind listening to his narration and can ignore the things that bother me, he's just not a favorite of mine. However, his reading threw me out of the story too often in this book. His accents were horrible and either over emphasized or not emphasized enough, sometimes in the same scene. And the voice he uses for the 'big' guy is the same voice he uses for the 'not-so-smart' guy. He simply doesn't have the range of voices that I'm used to from other narrators.