EMPTY NET by Toni Aleo

Empty Net by Toni Aleo
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

NetGalley free read

I have to say there were a lot of gramatical and spelling errors, but that aside, I'm loving each book in this series more and more.

Audrey and Tate meet up at the bar where Fallon is having her bachelorette party and end up having a one-night-stand without knowing who each other are. At Fallon and Lucas's wedding, they discover that Tate is Lucas' best friend and new Goalie on The Assassin's Hockey team and Audrey is Fallon's sister, as well as they have been living next door to each other for over a month, yet never seeing each other. I can understand how that happens with the horrible schedule these hockey players seem to have.

I know it happens, but I just can't get past the fact that Audrey would let Levi treat her an talk to her the way he does. She seems so desperate for love. Taking all his crap because she believed, deep down, that she didn't deserve a good man because she couldn't give him a child. She had some scaring and issues with her tubes due to an abortion she had when she was seventeen.

Tate is adorable and knows that he wants Audrey no matter how badly she thinks about herself, and even though she's almost seven years older. The fact that they heal each other, from Tate losing his family to a crash and Audrey not being able to have a baby and feeling she's not worth a good man, is so sweet. You can read their growth in every word in as the pages progress.

I felt at the end of TRYING TO SCORE that Levi was going to be trouble in Lucas' life. I wondered if he was afraid of Fallon coming into Lucas' life and find out that that he was taking advantage of Lucas. I felt it odd that he was upset that Fallon wanted to help Lucas learn to read. And I was right when it turns out that Levi is seating from Lucas. I also didn't understand why they would allow him to be at their wedding. Even if Audrey was still dating him, he shouldn't have been there and the way he was treating Audrey, Lucas should have fired him when he was kicked out of the house in the last book. The fact that Levi was allowed to get to Audrey and hurt he so badly, I was shocked and clutching my mouth as he was hurting her. I was so invested in the characters and what was happening to them.

After Audrey is hurt, her father reverts back to his horrible ways. I don't understand how that man can be so cruel to his children. Audrey is almost thirty years old, obviously in a loving relationship, which her father should want for her. But what does he do? He makes Tate more upset by telling him he could have him removed from her hospital room. I was thinking Tate should marry her while she's in the hospital so her father could have nothing to say about anything.

I loved this one, it wasn't perfect, with all the errors, which is the only reason I didn't give it five stars. But I'm becoming a big fan of Ms. Aleo's storytelling. Sometimes the women are ridiculous and can't get out of their own way. And the men seem to put up with an unusual amount of crap and keep trying beyond what could be considered normal. But we can all dream that it's possible and I love that about these books.

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