This is the first book in the adult sports romance Brooklyn Bruisers series by Sarina Bowen.  Each book can be read as a stand-alone and features different members of the fictional Brooklyn Bruisers NHL hockey team.  This story focused on rookie player Leo, as he joins the team just as his ex-girlfriend’s dad get the head coach position for the team – and then realizes that the woman running PR for the team is in fact said ex-girlfriend. Helloooo second chance romance.

In high school they were the perfect couple—until the day Georgia left Leo in the cold…

Hockey player Leo Trevi has spent the last six years trying to do two things: get over the girl who broke his heart, and succeed in the NHL. But on the first day he’s called up to the newly franchised Brooklyn Bruisers, Leo gets checked on both sides, first by the team’s coach—who has a long simmering grudge, and then by the Bruisers’ sexy, icy publicist—his former girlfriend Georgia Worthington.

Saying goodbye to Leo was one of the hardest things Georgia ever had to do—and saying hello again isn’t much easier. Georgia is determined to keep their relationship strictly professional, but when a press conference microphone catches Leo declaring his feelings for her, things get really personal, really fast….

This is the first book I’ve read by Sarina Bowen and it definitely won’t be my last.  Also the coolest thing about Bowen – her website lets you search her works by trope which you seriously need to check out here.

This was a fun romantic read all around, with characters and a romance that you want to root for, good people with happy feels, redemption, studly hockey players, and well written sex scenes. After all the romantic suspense and stories with sexy assholes I’ve been reading, it was super refreshing to read a romance where the hero was just a super sweet nice guy, because Leo is the type of guy you’d want to take home to your parents.  He makes you feel safe and sexy in a way that’s so not high stakes but down to earth, real life, and believable.

Georgia went through a traumatic attack when she was in high school so trigger warning there, though the scene isn’t written in or even hashed out in conversation between characters but the book instead acknowledged how the event affected the characters.

This is a second chance love with a will they/won’t they, lets keep this secret for a while, oh no our relationship is doomed before it gets started nonsense, kind of romance.  It was really satisfying and while I would never want to get back with anyone I dated in high school, it definitely felt relatable and brings you back to all the feels of first love and what-ifs of the one that got away.

I was most intrigued by the owner of the team, Nate, because he was a bit of this mysterious enigma and his story isn’t until book 4 but I’m thinking I might jump ahead to  his before I hit book 2 and 3.

Recommend for fans of contemporary sports romance, nice guys, and second chance romance.

4 stars!