Maybe This Time by Jennifer Snow

Blurb:
Starting over means a second chance . . .

Abigail Jansen is done with hockey . . . and hockey players. After leaving her two-timing NHL-star husband, Abby decides to start over in her hometown of Glenwood Falls, Colorado. There she doesn’t have to deal with people gossiping behind her back or hear the word “hockey”—until her daughter tries out for the junior hockey team. Now Abby has to face her fears . . . and coach Jackson Westmore. He’s tall, dark, handsome—and happens to hate her.

All through high school, talented hockey player Jackson Westmore had a crush on Abby, but he would never make a move on his best friend’s girl. He gave her the cold shoulder out of self-preservation and worked out his frustrations on the ice. So when Abby returns, newly divorced and still sexy as hell, Jackson knows he’s in trouble. Now even the best defensive skills might not keep him from losing his heart . . .

     

My Review:
3 stars — I received a free copy through NetGalley in exchange for an honest and unbiased review/opinion.

Meh.  It had a really strong start, and I really thought I was going to enjoy this one more than the first novella in this series, but in the end I was kind of underwhelmed.  Maybe it’s just that while I don’t mind miscommunications, if they get dragged on too long, I kind of lose the verve of the story.  And they happened just constantly throughout this story.  It was kind of the schtick I guess.  And I guess it was just too much for me.  Between the lack of communication and assumptioning going on all over the place, it didn’t leave a lot of time to get comfortable in the love part.

Jackson had some good points to him.  I had a hard time understanding the dedication he had to being a jerk to Abby because he didn’t know how to talk to her.  But I sort of got the direction the author was trying to go with him.  And when he was sweet to Abby it was awesome.  I loved the way he was as a coach as well, he was fierce towards Dani as well.  I still can’t quite figure out what his friendship with Dean was about.  I guess it really was mostly hockey centric.  But from even the few glimpses of the past, Dean always seemed like a jerk.

And on that note, I really didn’t enjoy the whole divorce aspect to the story.  In the end Dean was completely unredeemable, so then you wonder what they all saw in him at all.  It made it hard to buy that there were good years.  So I wasn’t sold on that.

Abby was an OK heroine.  She wasn’t really my kind of girl necessarily, so I didn’t have a lot to relate to.  And I wasn’t impressed at all with how she dealt with Jackson near the end.  It was pretty typical in these romance novels, but it’s not a…trope? that I’m a fan of.

So that was a whole bunch of negative…crap, whoops.  I mean, I still enjoyed the romance parts that we did get, and the chemistry between them was pretty solid.  And strangely Dani and Taylor’s friendship was a bit of a highlight.  I kind of liked that Dani was a bit of a brat at times too, it’s nice when kids aren’t just perfect, they feel more realistic.  Not sure if I’ll continue on in the series now.  I see potential for good stuff, but this just might not be the right author fit for this reader.