Benched

Minnesota Caribou, Book 1

De: Colleen Charles

Narrado por: CJ Bloom, Teddy Hamilton

She's my friend's little sister. But I've ached for her for years...and I won't be denied.

What does the star center for the Minnesota Caribou professional hockey team do in the face of the ultimate betrayal?

Right, I've sworn off women because I caught my fiancee with my brother. Now, they're both dead to me. They represent an ache so deep, I might never recover.

I've never known a goal I couldn't score - or a girl I couldn't score with. Until I see her curled up in a sexy ball in my hospital room.

She's off-limits. Julia Wales is lush, smart, more determined than I am, and 100 percent taboo. For the first time in my life, I want someone I can't have. She's the successful business owner who obeys every rule. I'm the guy who breaks them.

Not since my injury have I shown a woman my scars. Until now...and there's no going back.

Contains mature themes.

©2016 Colleen Charles (P)2020 Tantor

A Hat Trick!

This is the first time I’ve read or listened to a book from this author. For the most part, I was entertained. I love hockey, and lived in Minnesota when I was younger, so I was able to actually picture the places mentioned in the book.

I really liked the two main characters of the book, Adam and Julia. I thought that Teddy Hamilton in CJ Bloom did a good job bringing those characters to life. They were a few places where I thought CJ got a little screechy.

The character that I loved the most was the best friend, Sue Ann. Everyone should have a friend like her. There a couple of people in the book who you would love to hate, but they get what’s coming to them.

Cute Story

Overuse of misunderstandings to advance storyline.
too many times where the FMC especially jumped to conclusions instead of asking questions when presented with conflict / tough situation. I know it's just a fluffy romance, but that's a pet perve for me and it makes it impossible to like the characters when it happens repeatedly.
Still a cute story.
*Spoiler*
And I'm happy the bad guy got arrested finally.

Narrators are great storyline is lacking

The orchestrated conflict in the story makes the female main character seem so naive and stupid.

Wasn’t Impressed… something’s lacking

The books started off good with the MMC walking in on the brother and the MMC’s girlfriend, would have loved to see more in the beginning of the book about the the interactions between the MMC and brother before introducing the FMC. There was just something missing! I felt like the connection between the MMC and the FMC was lacking connection also. I couldn’t picture them together! It was an ok book but not great. Teddy Hamilton made it worth it.

Weak Female Storyline

Oh my goodness. The writer of this story is so absurd. The female character personality is too darn weak. She threw in the towel on the relationship at every turn. Too weak. No duet narration either which cheapens the story. I like both narrators though .

Too much

Just too many roadblocks. Not EVERY plot problem needs to be put into one book

Blech

Listen all the twist and turns had me on the edge of my seat with the outrageous shit that was going down. But the fact that Adam never stood up for Julia never put Heather in her place until the very end of the book really fucking bothered me. And also why the hell didn’t they involve the police? Where were the lawyers? He’s a famous hockey player why didn’t he use his money to make shit right? It just boggled my mind and it was really annoying and just blah.

hockey romance

I really liked the concept of this story but overall it fell a little flat. Julia and Adam were a very sweet couple but everything felt really rushed and every time you turned around some drama was coming to light trying to keep them apart. I will probably read the rest of the series but I'm hoping they get better from here.

Annoying female MC

Benched is a well-written romantic mystery a with a swriously annoying FMC with body issues and a ton of self doubt. This surprised me because we start the story with her showing up uninvited to the MMC's hispital room. That act of bravery is what sets the the relationship between the MMC and FMC in motion, but it takes being pushed over and over again by the side characters for her to speak up for herself. I actually found myself shouting at my audio book at times because she refused to speak and allowed the miscommunication trope to fester. That said, the mystery is well written and kept me intrigued enough to stay until the end. The steam was fairly light (2 scenes) and didn't last long. The book needs a trigger warning for attempted sexual assault, which happens 2 times and isn't mentioned in the summary of the audio book.

Narration is top notch and flows very well.

Great story line

Wow! I was on pins and needles.
can't wait to read the rest of them!