Lucas

By: Sawyer Bennett

Narrated by: Cris Dukehart, Joe Arden

Length: 8 hrs and 2 mins

Publisher's Summary

The Carolina Cold Fury hockey team is stacked with hotshots. But when a new player joins their ranks, he learns that even superstars can't go at it alone when it comes to love.

Lucas Fournier is only serious about one thing: hockey. The league's fun-loving charmer, Luc is always up for a good prank or a great lay, and he has no intention of settling down. But being traded to the Carolina Cold Fury - and to play alongside his big brother, Max - is no joke. With another title in sight, the last thing Luc wants is to let his new teammates down. To succeed, Luc will need to keep his head in the game and the most...er, demanding member of his anatomy in check. But when temptation hits, Luc hits back harder.

Museum curator Stephanie Frazier has always put business before pleasure, which just about explains her nonexistent sex life. But when Stephanie meets Luc at a champagne-fueled gala, she finds herself flirting like crazy - and going home with the uninhibited athlete. For one night, she learns what passion is all about. She just never counted on the little surprise Luc leaves behind. And that's when things really start to get interesting.

©2017 Sawyer Bennett (P)2017 Tantor

Loving that Cold Fury boy!

I've been looking forward so much to this 8th Cold Fury story! We have a new player, Lucas (who is previous book Max's brother) and our heroine is Stephanie, a natural history curator. They meet at a fundraiser for the museum where he's there representing the hockey franchise. After meeting they go out for drinks and end up having wild sex at her apartment, where they discover the condom broke! Guess who has to make a decision about whether he will be part of his child's life or not? Not to mention, she never even saw herself having kids. The story is entertaining and the narration was perfect! Loved it.

2 of 2 people found this review helpful

hot hot hot

this book follows suit just like the rest of the series I can't wait to move to the next book I have not had one bad story yet. these are awesome hot hot hot ladies.

1 of 1 people found this review helpful

Good not great

This story wasn’t bad. It wasn’t great either. It was good. I like Stephanie. I like Lucas. I think the story was more realistic then some of the previous stories. It did keep me interested in the series so on to the next book!

Not just in and out bed books but books with plots

I like Sawyer Bennett books because they always have a plot line that doesn’t depend only on the in and out bed scenes. They contain meat in the series. No pun intended 🤭🤗

Disappointing

I have loved the Cold Fury Hockey Series and or as great as Joe Arden is at his narration, but I struggled with this book on so many different levels.

First, I definitely did not like the dysfunctional female lead. I know that it is typical to have one person struggle to want to be together in a relationship, but our heroine came off somewhat mental ill. Her cold nature did not scream strong, but more like bitchy and compounded with Cris Dukehart whinny voice I wanted to scream, "Walk away! She will be your worst nightmare." Don't get me wrong the overall concept of the story was good, but our heroine was too damaged for too long in the story. I have read other similar stories like this when one of the characters is completely damaged, but some how they progress to try to find a normal balance. I was not convinced by the end of the book that there really was a happy ending in their future. Just because someone says I love you the last chapter of the book, but continually expresses their inability to love throughout most of the book, is just not believable enough to give me a warm fuzzy HEA.

Maybe this book would have been better if I would have read it. I really did not the female narrator's voice.

5 star narration for Joe Arden 3 star for Cris Dukehart Overall 31/2 to 4 stars C+

I really enjoyed Lucas!

Lucas is quite the man-whore, full of zest, playful, yet intense, focused, and wildly sexual. Stephanie is as closed off as you can get. She's equally as passionate as Lucas but that's where the similarities end. She's a very private and isolated person...until Lucas Fournier and one night of wild, monkey sex forever changes their lives.

A baby. A phenomenal one night stand. A very damaged woman. And a man-whore hockey player. That's not the picture perfect family anyone could envision!

Friends with benefits? Check. Morning sickness? Check. Stress? Check. Fournier family? Check. Fraser family? Checked out!! Hockey? Check. Hot sex! 🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥 CHECK!!

Nothing is easy in this "relationship" except the sex. It's all about sex and being there for the baby. Until things change and Lucas wants more. He wants everything. Steph has nothing to give. She is not willing or capable of more. Pushing her in gentle baby steps is the best way to proceed. And it's working! But it doesn't take much to set the tenuous "relationship" up for failure. Hastily spoken words in the face of hurt and self-preservation could destroy it all.

This HEA was filled with self-doubt and pain. Oh yeah! And crazy monkey sex! But there's so much and I was cheering them on, yelling at them, telling them what to do all throughout the book (and, no, they did not listen to me 😀). But their HEA was hard-earned and put a smile on my face after an emotional journey.

I loved the audio for these two characters as I read the audible version.

Uh, no. Just no...

The story of Stephanie and Lucas was beautiful and lighthearted - until it wasn't. I understand the reasons for Stephanie's avoidance of a relationship (familial, romantic) and the emotions and trust that go along with it, but I felt that the author was a bit heavy -handed with regards to the subject matter. My real problem with how she (the author) resolved the conflict actually left it feeling unresolved to me - almost as if she had a deadline in which to finish the book and chose the conflict resolution to race through - skimping on much needed detail.

The end of Stephanie's and Lucas tale wasn't brought to conclusion. Even if she writes in a subsequent book about the baby's birth, it will never be as impactful or heartwarming as if she completed it in this book. If the author wanted to begin Van's and Simone's story she might have wanted to present that in a separate epilogue (the first epilogue being the COMPLETION of this story) or included it as the beginning of the next story after this story's epilogue.

On a better note, the narrators were excellent. I had never listened to a book narrated by Cris Dukehart will certainly do so again if the opportunity presents itself. She gave believability as well as the appropriate amount of angst to Stephanie's predicament and struggles. As far as Joe Arden's narration is concerned, he never disappoints and turned out yet another great performance as the character, Lucas.