Because sometimes love is the hardest game of all… daughter back home to Baltimore, where she started a new life working as a teacher—and playing hockey for the Chesapeake Blades. Now if only she could ignore the emptiness that haunts her in the middle of the night…
Nobody who knew him would call Jonathan Reigler a coward, but that was exactly what he was. Two years ago, at one of the lowest points in his life, he walked away from the only woman who ever mattered—and lost a piece of his soul in the process. Now it’s time to win his family back, and he’ll stop at nothing to regain the love and trust of the one woman who means more to him than life itself.
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Sammie and Jon have a true second chance at love. Sammie’s character is so real. She’s like so many women trying to juggle raising a child, having a career, and also try and fulfill her dreams.
Jon is a brave military man who thought he was doing the right thing for his family by walking away. While protecting our country he saw and was forced to do things he thought turned him into a monster.
Neither Sammie or Jon have moved on – they still have love for each other. They have work to do, but the love they both have for their daughter will help them bring their family together and make all their dreams come true.
This is the second book in the Chesapeake Blades series. This book is very different from the first, as it concentrates more on the couple and less on the team. That’s not a bad thing, this book is terrific. There is still plenty of team interaction and dialog between Sammie and her friends and teammates Taylor and Shannon. They provide great support and hilarity throughout! I seriously can’t wait for Shannon’s book, she’s a nut!
Sammie is a divorced single mom of an adorable 3-year-old daughter, Claire. She has a full-time job as a kindergarten teacher and also plays professional hockey. She lives with her parents after her husband divorced her while he was on deployment when Claire was a baby. He sent her divorce papers without any explanation as to what she did wrong. That’s what Sammie thought, it was something she did wrong. She was devastated. So when Jonathan Riegler returns to Baltimore and tries to talk with Sammie to explain why he handled things so badly between them, she wanted no part of it. Or did she?
Jonathan had my heart from the beginning. I truly felt so bad for him and the mistakes he made all the while thinking he was doing what he thought was best at the time. I loved Sammie, Jonathan and Claire, they were very believable characters! There is so much I want to tell you, but I don’t want to give anything away because this is such a powerful story of forgiveness, not only of others, but of oneself, giving love a second chance, overcoming fears, learning to trust, and dealing with PTSD. This was such a great read! I can’t wait for more of the Chesapeake Blades and the brave women that are paving the way for women’s professional hockey!
If you like second chance romance, then give this powerful love story a chance!
3.5 stars. Loving Hard is the second book in the Chesapeake Blades series. This is a series involving a semi-pro female hockey team. While this book is part of a series, it can be read as a standalone. As with the author’s other books, the action is hot and steamy, so definitely 18+.
The book blurb adequately describes the storyline so I’m not going to repeat that info here. The author did a good job of giving depth, thoughts, and emotions to these characters. As a hockey fan, I always like the hockey action, but like how this book also highlighted that off the ice the players are real people with issues just like the rest of us. I look forward to reading more of this series!
Forgiveness is hard. When someone has hurt us so deeply, forgiving them, letting go of that pain and hurt can be extremely difficult.
On the heels of forgiveness is trust. Trust is a fragile commodity. Once it is broken, it is so very hard to rebuild, put back together, or any other analogy you want to call it. And then there is your head trusting but your heart not following along, or, your heart is ready to trust again, but inside your head you are thinking “no way”.
Sammie Reigler finds herself in that situation. Forgiveness? Trust? Not easy. When her ex who divorced her (serving her papers when he was deployed overseas, no less), reappears out of nowhere and says he wants back into her life, she’s absolutely stunned.
And here’s one of the reasons I enjoyed this story so much – the characters are so real! The depth of what they are feeling: the confusion, anguish, turmoil, and even hate, all are emotions that one would feel in Sammie’s situation. How she deals with this, how it impacts the life she has built away from Jonathan for herself and her daughter – as their story unfolds, we feel all of those emotions with her. This is a beautiful second chance romance story!
The supporting characters are also wonderful! Besides being a mother and Kindergarten teacher, Sammie plays on the Chesapeake Blades hockey team. Luckily for Sammie, she has good friends on her team who want to support her once she opens up as to what’s going on in her life. Watching Shannon, Taylor, Dani and the others offer their opinions and insight is wonderful! Playing hockey is an important part of each team members’ life but the camaraderie amongst (most) of the players helps all of them. Yes, they take the game seriously, but when one of them is hurting, they are also there to support that person. Watching the dynamics between the players was fun – sometimes you just need a kick in the right direction and they are not afraid to dish it out to one another!
As I said before, this is a beautiful second chance romance story!