Blurb:

Rip

In the fifteen years I’ve played for the Brooklyn Blades, I’ve won all the awards except the most important one. The Stanley Cup.

But my annoying ex-boyfriend is the team’s goalie, and the paparazzi is loving it. What’s worse is, my absentee father decides to make an appearance and won’t leave me alone.

I’m ignoring it all. My ultimate goal is to win the Cup.

Then my best friend’s younger brother, Adrian, shows up to interview me for the sports segment of the evening news. He’s nervous and unsure, so I have to help him. We grew up together,but I barely noticed him then.

I’m definitely noticing him now.

Adrian

Our sports reporter is injured, so I have to cover the hockey game when my ultimate goal is to be a hard news reporter. Not only am I camera shy, but I know nothing about sports. Sure, I know Rip Tremaine—I’ve had a crush on him for years. Not that he’s ever noticed me.

Maybe I can fake it.

Nope, I can’t.

But Rip saves my interview, and now the station wants me to follow the team. With my job on the line, Rip comes up with a plan: Get my own sports show to prove I can be on camera. I’ll pretend to be his boyfriend, and no one will know, not even my brother.
I’ll have unlimited access to the team.

And Rip.

We can do this. We’re professionals. He’s teaching me all about hockey…and kissing. And I’m helping him navigate his father’s betrayal.

Except neither one of us is pretending anymore. And our ultimate goal now is to win it the Cup, my job, and love.

Buy Link

https://geni.us/TheUltimateGoal

*****

Review:

I enjoyed this read. I liked Rip and I really liked him with Adrian, loved the whole best friend’s sibling thing as well as the Fake Dating trope. I felt like Stevens did a good job with integrating actual hockey with the romance (except that NHL lockers don’t actually have doors on them …) and that it wasn’t overly angsty. And while he is a self-centered @ss, I loved Rip’s ex Denis and hope that he gets his own story next.

But there were a few issues as well. There are inconsistencies that may be because I read an ARC but they seemed pretty central to the plot, with weird character choices and time jumps. Some of the character interactions seemed a bit juvenile and for all his talk about how he’s a grown man, Adrian seemed a little young for his age. I get that he’s inexperienced with low self-esteem (which I don’t really get why) but duuuuuude….he seriously couldn’t just shut up and get out of his own way with Rip 🙂

While I liked it well enough, and will try this author again, there were emotional moments that weren’t acknowledged and were great opportunities to deepen their relationship and make the story even better. I get the feeling that this isn’t normal for this author, based on some reviews I read, so I’m going to consider this a slightly awkward but enjoyable introduction to her books.