REVIEW: Textbook Defense- Book 5 Hockey Ever After- Ashlyn Kane & Morgan James

by
Textbook Defense Book Cover Textbook Defense
Book 5 Hockey Ever After
Ashlyn Kane & Morgan James
Gay romance, Hockey romance, Contemporary
Dreamspinner Press
2/4/2025
Kindle
387
Amazon

Amazon Link: Amazon

Rowan Chadha’s job as a children’s librarian might be temporary, but at least it comes with adorable, hilarious patrons. When he bumps into Jordy Shaw—NHL star and super-hot dad of one of his favorite library kids—at a charity event, he suggests they team up as a fake couple to fend off unwanted attention, never expecting the connection to last.

Jordy is in desperate need of a new nanny, and his daughter, Kaira, already adores Rowan. When Rowan’s apartment becomes uninhabitable just as his library contract ends, Jordy offers a stopgap solution: Rowan can crash in the nanny suite in his home and help with Kaira while Jordy trains for the new season—just until Rowan lands a new job and Jordy can find permanent childcare.

As the lines between fantasy and reality blur, the attraction that’s been simmering between them bubbles over. But while they’re free with their bodies, they struggle to defend their hearts, knowing their arrangement has an expiration date. After all, Rowan’s a librarian, not a nanny, and Jordy could be traded at any moment.

Their arrangement is temporary, right? Or maybe some things are worth staying for….

Review By Linda Tonis
Member of the Paranormal Romance Guild Review Team

Amazon Link: Amazon

Rowan Chadha is a librarian filling in for a woman on maternity leave. On Sundays he runs the reading group for children and that is where he met a man that would change his life. Jordy Shaw’s six-year-old daughter’s favorite day is reading day at the library and that is who Rowan meets, six-year-old Kaira and her father professional hockey player Jordy Shaw.
When Jordy’s fifteen-year-old sister announced to him that she was pregnant he immediately came to her aid and adopted her daughter. Now as a single father his life is consumed with his career and his daughter. He doesn’t date since his divorce from his wife and has no time for anyone or anything other than his career and child.
Fortunately, Jordy gets summers off like Kaira and spends every minute he can with her. When he went to the library with her, he was blind to the fact that the librarian was flirting with him and had no idea they would meet again.
At a charity function Jordy finds himself hiding away from a woman who is constantly stalking him and finds himself hiding in the same place as another man Rowan also in hiding. They both decide to fake being boyfriends and it works.
Rowan is trying to get a full-time job with the library but so far it is not happening, he also finds his apartment filled with black mold forcing him to move until the mold is all cleaned out. Jordy is having problems of his own, his nanny who has been with Kaira since birth has to leave to care for her mother and now, he is in need of a new nanny.
Two men who are in trouble and the answer to their troubles is to have Rowan move in and care for Kaira till he finds a new job and can return to his apartment. Kaira loves Rowen so both men’s problems have been resolved.
Unfortunately, what should have been a solution to the two men turns out to create a new set of problems, both are attracted to each other only the lack of communication between the two what should have been the start of something wonderful becomes a silent issue.
Jordy has hints that he will be traded uprooting his life and his daughter’s so asking Rowan to follow him seems impossible. With all the chaos surrounding them the hardest hit is a little six-year-old girl whose life is about to be turned upside down.
Rowan loves Jordy, Jordy loves Rowan, and both are convinced that they’re not loved in return. Loved this book and read it in one sitting and highly recommend it.

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