Luca by Brenda Rothert

This post contains affiliate links you can use to purchase the book. If you buy the book using that link, I will receive a small commission from the sale.

Title: Luca
Author: Brenda Rothert
Series: Chicago Blaze #2
Published by: Indie
Release Date: April 23rd 2019
Format: eARC
Pages: 210
Genres: Romance, Contemporary, Sports Romance
Source: InkSlinger PR
Reading Challenges: Lenoreo's 2019 New Release Challenge
Find it: Goodreads ✩ Amazon ✩ B&N ✩ Kobo ✩ iBooks
My rating:

Blurb:

Abby I only have one love now—the home furnishings business I’m building into an empire. Maybe money and success can’t love me back, but they keep what’s left of my heart safe. One-night stands are my way of scratching the occasional itch I get for something more. And no one’s better for that than a sexy as sin hockey player I’ll never see again after one very hot night together.

Luca I used to love two things: hockey and women. But now my nieces and nephew are my top priority, because I’m raising them after tragedy stole their parents. Somehow I balance single parenthood and my career as a forward for the Chicago Blaze. There’s no time for women, until I get knocked on my ass by Abby Daniels. She’s everything I’ve ever wanted, but her devastating past may end us before we even get started.

My Review:

I received a free copy through InkSlinger PR in exchange for an honest and unbiased review/opinion.

4 stars — This was a strange one for me, b/c I loved both Luca and Abby’s individual stories, and their eventual together story, but it took me a bit to be invested in their romance…but I was still satisfied in the end.

I was so intrigued by Luca and his situation when we met him in Anton’s book, and he didn’t disappoint.  He was a hero who was so easy to fall in love with.  He was kind, honourable, easy-going, with a deliciously dirty mouth.  I LOVED the way he was with his nieces and nephews.  From the first chapter in his POV, I was hooked by him.  I felt his grief, his struggle, his concern over how well he was doing raising these kids.  He was what I love in heroes: a GENUINELY good guy.  And while I’m usually not a big kid person, you couldn’t help but fall in love with Cora, Jack & Emerson.  They were unique, delightful, but also realistically kids (so not delightful all the time).  I loved the family he had created with them.

Abby took me a bit longer to glom onto, because we got her story in bits and pieces.  The Abby we first meet I had nothing in common with, and while I liked her, I didn’t connect with her as well.  But as we got to know what made her tick, I did empathize with her past and how that had shaped her.  I particularly LOVED her friendship with Percy.  I sincerely hope we see more of Percy in this series, because she was easy to love.

As for Luca and Abby together…well, they were hard to become invested in at the beginning, since they started as a genuine one night stand.  Sure, the steamy chemistry was good, but I find I tend to be less invested if I don’t get the feelings first.  I actually didn’t really feel the growth of their feelings for one another…it just sort of happened.  It wasn’t believable for me.  BUT, if I just accepted that part, I loved where their relationship went once they sort of stepped things up.  It’s kind of a conundrum, but I decided to just go with the flow.

As I mentioned above, there were some great secondary characters in this one, from the kids and Percy to Luca’s teammates.

I think normally the misstep in the relationship would have had me marking this one a 3.5 stars or lower, but I really loved the individual stories, so I decided to go with my gut.  Luca’s story alone was worth the time reading.  Can’t wait to see who Victor’s going to match up with!