“Sexy and fun with a delicious hockey hero!” -NYTimes Bestseller Lexi RyanIn my defense, I didn’t know she was his sister… play at all. And that’s a hit my career in the NHL can’t take. So the plan is simple. Keep my head down and finish out my contract with my fists checked.
There’s just one problem.
Allie. The girl from Vancouver eight months ago. The one with the sexy, shy, and sinfully bold smile and the sweetest, wettest mouth I ever tasted. The girl who blew my mind and then blew out of my life without giving me her number.
Turns out she’s the captain’s little sister. And even though my career depends on it… I can’t stay away from her.
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Great story, enjoyed this one, 5 hockey stars for this!
Meet Vaughn, playing here in Chicago hopefully temporarily, till he can get out to the new expansion team where his best friend is playing. He’s gotta really wow them so they will pick him up when the season is over. Only one problem he seems to have run into…the girl he know’s as Allie, he met one night, the best night of his life, is here, in Chicago, and her name is Natalie, and your not going to believe who her brother is!
Read along and see these two interact, you will enjoy this one looking forward to more by this author!
Loved this read. I enjoyed reading about Natalie and Vaughn. Their chemistry was fire hot and their angst was heartfelt. Loving this Slayers series!
Quick warning my thoughts may be scattered in this review, I kind of just type as I think of things, so bear with me here.
I only ever write reviews about books that have really given me some true entertainment, and this book is no exception. I loved the characters, the development of the plot, and how everything worked out. It was a sweet HEA that I think I will revisit many times in the future.
The main hero surprised me. I had him pegged all wrong going into the book. I thought he was going to be kind of jerky and cocky. Don’t get me wrong, he was cocky at times, but not to the extent where he became a douchebag. I actually liked him a lot, and thought that he complimented the heroine so well. All in all, I loved both of them, and am glad to have come across this series and author. I’m always looking for something steamy and interesting to read, and this book more than delivered on all counts in my opinion.
This book is definitely shorter than the ones I normally read, and usually I don’t like shorter books because I feel the room for development is shortened and doesn’t reach its full potential. That. Was. Not. The. Case. Here.
The story begins already in motion, and from the first chapter I was hooked. I read it in one sitting, and am gladly about to begin the second book in this series, which the author hints at in this book, and sets the reader up to be intrigued and curious to know what’s going to happen between the two characters in question. The steamy scenes were well written and constructed. My inner smut absorber was blissfully satisfied for these.
This is the first book I’ve read by this author, and I can tell that she’s going to become a favorite quickly.
Dirty Secret is the perfect sports romance! This first installment in the Slayers Hockey series is told from the perspectives of Vaughn and Natalie. 8 months ago, the two shared a passionate night together. By morning, Natalie (or “Allie”) is gone. Both Vaughn and Natalie spend the months between their meeting again in Chicago wondering about one another, neither having really gotten over the magic of that night.
Give me Vaughn! This sweet guy is so misunderstood. He comes across unfriendly and arrogant, but he’s actually kind, lonely, and ADORES Natalie. I really got where Nat was coming from when it came to her hesitation to get serious with a hockey player like Vaughn. She just wanted her dreams to be on equal footing. After growing up as an afterthought, she wanted to be more important than tagging along for someone else’s success. I loved the message at the heart of their story, that love is worth the trouble it can bring. Don’t give up on something special because it’s not what you planned on.
I can tell this will be a great series. I’m intrigued by the other Slayers, and I was happy to see the budding camaraderie between Vaughn and the rest of the guys.
I love hockey romances (funny, since I don’t watch them in real life) and this was a good one. I liked Natalie and Vaughn together, as they navigated the issues associated with dating even though Natalie is the little sister of Vaughn’s teammate’s Greg.
Overall, I think the worst part is that I believe that Greg has a book and this book makes it so I do not want to read his book. His immaturity was ridiculous and we don’t get much clarity regarding what is driving this rivalry and hatred between the Greg and Vaughn. Usually, when I have to write a review about this type of scenario, I only have to make a small comment about the big brother being an obstacle but I do think that the author made him too prevalent in the story.
Otherwise, I enjoyed the growing romance between the couple and I really loved the narration. Savannah Peachwood was great but Christian Fox really shined as he provided more “acting” than just a straight reading.
Loved every page
Fabulous hockey romance!
Six months before 29-year-old Vaughn Vassar was, against his will, traded to the Chicago Slayers NHL hockey team, he met a young woman named Allie in Vancouver. He was instantly and massively attracted to her, and he considered himself extremely fortunate when, at her instigation, they spent an extraordinary night together. He’d never experienced anything remotely as intense as he enjoyed with Allie, and he was crushed when he woke the next morning to discover that she had vanished, leaving behind only a short note that said, “I can’t do this. I’m sorry.” Yes, she had warned him from the start that she didn’t date hockey players, but he could have sworn that she’d felt the same deep connection between the two of them that he had, even beyond the mind-blowing sex. A day hasn’t gone by since then that he hasn’t thought about Allie and yearned for what might have been. Until, suddenly, there she is, right before his eyes, in a local dive bar in Chicago where the Slayers hang out, surrounded by his team members.
Natalie Baxter AKA Allie, the fake name she’d given Vaughn Vassar in Vancouver, has done everything possible to avoid him for the last two months since he was traded to the Slayers, the same team her brother, Greg, plays on as the team captain. Vaughn is the team’s second-line center, her brother’s most hated rival since their teens, and an indiscretion that has come back to bite her on the rear. Though she’s 27 years old with a solid career as a physical therapist, she might as well still be the green teenage girl who couldn’t stand to upset her godlike big brother. Her single night of illicit bliss with Vaughn is a deep, dark secret from Greg, and a mistake never to be repeated. Even if Greg didn’t loathe Vaughn and would inevitably assume bad intensions on the part of his worst enemy by hooking up with his little sister, Natalie made a vow to herself back in her teens which is the main thing holding her back from Vaughn. All of her childhood and teens, Greg and his hockey aspirations were the sun around which their entire family rotated, and Natalie’s needs always came last. As a result, she swore that she would never put herself in that position again by getting involved with another career-obsessed hockey player. NHL wives and girlfriends have to be eternally willing to pull up stakes and move at a moment’s notice, sacrificing any personal or professional aspirations to their man’s NHL dream. Natalie will not permit herself to get serious about any man until he proves that he is capable of putting her first over everything else in his life.
After Vaughn discovers his Allie is none other than the little sister of his hated rival, Greg F-ing Baxter, he realizes that having anything further to do with her is career suicide. He has no intention of remaining with the Slayers more than a single season. He is determined to earn a transfer to the Oregon NHL team where his BFF is located, but the only way the Oregon owners are going to offer him a contract is if he does nothing further to stir up trouble with Baxter, and through him, the Slayers team. He slugged Baxter in the jaw early in his tenure with the team after Baxter goaded him harder than any human could be expected to endure. No one blamed Golden Boy Baxter. And it’s been made clear to Vaughn that another such blowup with Baxter will not only bomb his chances for Oregon—whose coach and owners are watching his every move, both on the team and in the Chicago community, prior to offering him a contract—it could get him kicked off the Slayers and even booted out of professional hockey altogether. No woman is worth torpedoing his hard-earned career. Especially a woman who doesn’t even want to date a hockey player.
Unfortunately for Natalie and Vaughn, their survival instincts are no match for their overwhelming desire for each other. Vaughn can’t make himself stay away from Natalie, and her determination to never date a hockey player pales in comparison to the potency of the secret crush she’s had on Vaughn since her teens. A crush that made seducing him in Vancouver impossible to resist, and is making tumbling into his brawny arms all over again equally inevitable.
This is the second book I’ve read by MLK, the first being Book 1 of the Slayers Hockey series, Dirty Player, of which this novel is Book 2. I loved Dirty Player, and this book is every bit as terrific. Though Dirty Secret can stand on its own, it enriched my experience of it due to having first read Dirty Player, which tells the story of Greg Baxter’s courtship of sports reporter, Julia Wesley. In this book, those two are married and are significant subcharacters affecting the romance between Natalie and Vaughn.
I absolutely love Vaughn. He is one of my all-time favorite professional-athlete, romance heroes. (And, by the way, likewise for Greg Baxter in Dirty Player.) Beneath Vaughn’s “resting prick face” and tough persona lies a generous, kind heart. In particular, the scenes with him coaching very young, special needs kids in hockey are adorable. He and Natalie are a wonderful, equally matched couple. She is strong, honest, down-to-earth, and as a former star hockey player in college, she is almost as fanatical about hockey as he is.
There are multiple thrilling scenes of Vaughn playing hockey, with Natalie in the stands cheering him on, which are extremely well written. There is just enough hockey play and hockey lingo to be interesting to even non-fans of the sport such as myself, and it never inhibits the forward motion of the all-important main plot, the romance.
Though the sex between Vaughn and Natalie is definitely hot in this novel, it is never crude, and there is never sex for its own sake. Every sensual encounter between these two highly sympathetic protagonists is emotionally as well as physically passionate. Best of all, I was completely convinced that the lives of these two lovers would be forever blighted if they did not end up together, a crucial achievement for any successful romance.
All in all, this marvelous, HEA romance is a real keeper, and I am positive I will enjoy re-reading it many times in the future.
I rate this book as follows:
Heroine: 5 stars
Hero: 5 stars
Subcharacters: 5 stars
Romance Plot: 5 stars
Hockey Backdrop: 5 stars
Writing: 5 stars
Overall: 5 stars
Note: I was a lucky recipient of this novel through the Goodreads Giveaway. My thanks to the author and to Goodreads for the gift of this wonderful romance novel.
Oh, how I love a Mira Lyn Kelly romance! Dirty Secret does not disappoint. This hockey romance had me flipping the pages, smiling and burning up inside.
Yes, the book may have deepened the wrinkles on the corners of my eyes, but that’s why they created thick moisturizer.
This second-chance, big brother in-the-way romance had me lusting after Vaughn. Yum, yum, yum.
Personally, I’m the kind of gal who prefers to play the sport rather than spectate. And I’m extraordinarily wobbly on a pair of ice skates, so, there you go. But, the play by play action made me think dear Mira is one serious hockey fan. Mira could be a sports commentator. And, she makes me want to take the time, with a beer in hand, to watch a game.
I loved this book because it’s down to earth. My heart went out to Natalie. I’ve seen so many siblings get lost in the throes of one sibling’s sport success. And it starts so freaking young. To want a different life, a life away from whatever that sport is…….here it’s hockey, but you can substitute soccer, baseball, tennis…..if it has a ball, it’s game. That desire for a life away from said sport is real.
Vaughn proves himself swoon worthy to the tenth degree. He’s driven, focused, level headed and he knows how to love his woman. He’s a dream athlete. He pushes himself hard, doesn’t let the mind games off the rink play with his game on the rink, and he’s a genuinely good guy. He might be slightly behind the curve on social skills, but that’s only because of his deranged hockey fanatic Dad.
Series!
Dirty Secret also paves the way for Dirty Hookup. And, I’m kind of dying to hear about what went on with Quinn and George. Not that I personally have ever had too much to drink (there’s an evil twin I try to keep locked up who does all that), but my heart did go out to Quinn when it seemed he didn’t remember EVERYTHING…. So, in a nutshell, it’s the best kind of series. Warm, heart-melting HEA and I’m completely stoked for the next book.
I’m a Mira Lyn Kelly Fan, and if you’ve never read one of her books, you really should give her a shot, especially if you like series of stand-alone HEAs with interconnected characters so you get to keep revisiting characters that seem like old friends.
This is a little sister of my arch-nemesis book. Allie has had a crush on Vaughn forever, but Vaughn doesn’t know that she’s off-limits because when Allie gets the chance for a one-night stand, she leaps at it and keeps her identity a secret. It shouldn’t matter – her brother and Vaughn shouldn’t cross paths too often, but then they come teammates – yikes!
This book takes the main characters on a roller coaster ride on their way to their HEA, and the readers will experience every one of their ups and downs, but it is definitely worth it in the end.
I loved Vaughn and Natalie from the minute I started the book. I don’t think I set the book down once I started reading. From the moment Vaughn saw “Allie” at the local bar after she ghosted on him 8 months earlier, and couldn’t stop thinking of her, he thought he might get some answers from her. What he found out was that Allie was really Natalie and his hockey teammate’s little sister, so yeah totally and completely off limits. Especially since he is pretty much in a rivalry with said teammate. But there is just something about the attraction between Vaughn and Natalie (who he still refers to as Allie which is actually freaking sweet!). Neither can stay away from the other even though they try to keep their relationship a secret from the team and especially her brother. This was a fabulous book and I will definitely reread it because Vaughn and Natalie we an amazing couple and I absolutely loved this book. I can’t wait for more in this series!