DINAHWhen my husband died, I never thought I would find love again. I definitely didn’t think I would find it in the arms of my younger best friend. Why would the hunky hockey player want anything to do with me? I’m a stressed out writer with a lot of baggage. Any other man would say, “HARD PASS!”But Noah was the best man I’ve ever known, and if it wasn’t for him, I might not be alive.But am I … for him, I might not be alive.
But am I ready to put my heart on the line again?
NOAH
I’ve pined for my best friend for so long, that my teammates issued an ultimatum.
“Make your move now or one of us will ask her out.”
They are just trying to push me, besides none of those jerks would ever be good enough for her. Makes me wonder if I even stand a chance.
Besides, what would a smart woman like her want with a dumb jock like me?
Get ready to meet The Philadelphia Bulldogs hockey team, in this all new-standalone novel. If you love sexy sports romances and friends-to-lovers with a HEA, this book is for you!
Content Warning: This book deals with the death of a previous partner, miscarriage, and infertility.
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Get this book for Noah!!! He is the most loveable guy ever!!!!!
Take The Shot is book one in the Philadelphia Bulldogs series, written by Danica Flynn.
It’s a hockey/ reverse age gap/ friends to lovers romance that is sweet, funny, and steamy.
The story was good, but there is lots of room for improvement. Since it is a debut novel, I think the author will gain more maturity and confidence as a writer, which will show in her stories.
I liked that Noah wasn’t the typical cocky athlete. He is sweet and sexy but talks like a teenager.
Also, Dinah acted younger than she was, and she kept going on and on about the age difference. At their age, a difference of eight years isn’t that much. Dinah also acted younger than her actual age,
In my opinion, the story sometimes dragged a bit and was too repetitive.
Sometimes a friends to lovers romance doesn’t make sense, but this wasn’t the case here. I liked how this couple grew closer and came together. I felt their connection and love for each other.
I loved the hockey aspect, I don’t know much about it, but everything was well explained.
Paul Stefano and Avie Paige narrated the audiobook. Paul Stefano has a deep voice and is entirely into the story.
Avie Paige has a soft, pleasant voice but sometimes sounds robotic. Like she wasn’t living the story but reading it.
I liked their narration, I’m glad I listened to the audiobook.
All in all, I enjoyed this audiobook. Danica Flynn shows her potential. Some scenes were really well done. I’m curious about the other characters’ stories and believe the only way for the author and her stories is up.
Noah Kennedy has been in love with his older neighbor, Dinah Lace, for two years. He never had the chance to tell her, but he’s tired of hiding how he feels. Yet at the same time, he’s not sure how a smart woman like Dinah could ever have feelings for a younger, sporty guy like him. To his utter shock, Dinah agrees to go on a date with him. But as Noah falls more and more in love, Dinah struggles with feelings of guilt over her late husband. Can Noah and Dinah have it all? Find out in “Take the Shot,” a hockey romance by Danica Flynn!!!
Wowowowowowow!!! I totally adored Noah and Dinah. They are a super sweet couple. I was rooting for them from chapter one!!! Noah, I just want to hug him. He’s the sweetest cinnamon roll over, despite being 6’2. As for Dinah, I love her sass. She might be tiny, but she sure is mighty. All in all, completely recommend. 5 steamy stars!!!
Philadelphia Bulldogs #1
Dinah, age 30 lost her husband in car accident two years ago and then had a miscarriage that almost killed her. Luckily she was found by their next door neighbor Noah who took her to the hospital which saved her life.
Noah and his roommate TJ are Canadian professional hockey players for the Philadelphia Bulldogs and live next door to Dinah. They all get along and hang out together as well as some other members of their team.
Noah is 22 and is best friends with Dinah but is also in love with her and would love to be more.
Dinah feels she is too old for Noah and he doesn’t see it as a problem. They slowly build into a relationship. Can she handle him being a hockey player taking hits on the ice and possibility losing him too?
Noah comes off as very immature/insecure and not what is usually portrayed of a hockey player. I think of him as a gentle giant since he’s so much taller/bigger than Dinah and he’s just an all around nice guy. He is her rock. He tells her “That I’m your heart, your home, and your love.”
I enjoyed the story and this is a new author for me. I loved the side characters and am looking forward to their books.
4 stars
First in a series. I liked the characters. There is a lot of steam. A good mix of hockey thrown in.
Everything you look for in a romance novel is here. There’s heartache, there’s joy, there are tears and of course love. The characters are written so brightly the literally jump off the page and stand in front of you. I enjoyed this book. It’s the first one I’ve read from this author. I will most certainly be reading more from her!
I loved this book. Had a hard time putting it down and do things that needed to get done. I really loved the storyline.
Noah to me was perfect. Not your typical idea of a jock but more realistic. I think jocks get a bad name and sometimes it gets old reading about how awful they are. It was nice to read a story that made him the kind of guy that every girl could fall for.
Dinah was a great fit for him. A woman struggling to heal after the death of her husband. She had a few secrets as well, one that only Noah knew about. His support and friendship was what she needed. The fact she is a few years older than him I think makes this story even work better.
I look forward to reading more of Diana Flynn’s books. To watch her develope as an author and only get better with time.
The premise of this book ticked all my boxes. Hockey romance. Check. Older woman, younger man. Check. Unfortunately, the execution didn’t work for me. I found that Dinah had a motherly way of talking to Noah which is not the vibe I want when reading a romance. Maybe because the author as trying to give her “older speak”? The other annoying thing I found with this story was that Noah was constantly asking for permission. I’m all for consent but asking for permission for every single action was irritating. Even Dinah, during a make out session, said “Stop asking me for permission. Yes.” This was a DNF for me.
I received a free copy from Netgalley. This is my unbiased review, motherly
This was a great premise, but lacked a little in the execution. Both Dinah and Noah were fairly strong characters, pretty well-rounded and believable. The peripheral characters were all quite entertaining, although many were rather one-dimentional. As this is apparently the first in a series, I’m sure that several of them might be fleshed out more in future books. TJ was definitely my favorite of the lot!
I adored Noah in this book! He was so sweet, caring, and understanding of Dinah and everything she had been through. When he finally got up the nerve to make a move on her, he was very nice and respectful. Consent was a real big thing with his character, and I always appreciate that in a story. He also did not have a problem letting Dinah take charge in the bedroom quite a bit, which seemed to work well for her. He held his own with her big, loud family. And he was very supportive of her second job of writing. Like she frequently said, he was so perfect it was almost like she built him in a factory.
I was not as enamored of Dinah, especially at the near end when she freaked out and did something very rash. Not that I didn’t understand her reasoning (stilted as it was), but even at that I thought she owed Noah more of an explanation.
I was glad that there was not any extreme angst because I tend to be quite sensitive. But at the same time I found it a little hard to believe whenever one of them was hurting because I just didn’t feel it from their characters.
I hardest thing for me to wade through in reading this book was the number of times that each of them ruminated to themselves that they weren’t good enough for the other. It was nearly constant, even when things were going well between them. Seriously, it occured several times per chapter, and probably 60 million times throughout the book — or at least it felt like it!
Other than that, however, and a few other minor style issues, I found it to be a fairly enjoyable book, definitely good for a light, quick read with ultimately a happy ending.
A new author for all of us – you want to love the story and give them a great review. And yet, the story didn’t quite have the spark I expected. Hockey and romance are two things I love in a story but the constant reminder of her being ‘so much older’ than him was annoying. No one seems to have a problem in the reverse and I hope the author doesn’t continue to bend to the norms. The potential is there so I will watch for the next story and expect more!
I received an ARC from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest and unbiased review. No compensation was promised or received for the review.
3.25 Stars!
Take the Shot begins with Dinah in her apartment on a Friday night attempting to finish a draft of her second romance novel. From the sounds next door, her best friends, Noah and T.J., are having another party, which is confirmed when Noah texts her and invites her over. Knowing she’s at a dead end for the night with her writing, she agrees and heads to the party.
Once Dinah walks next door, she finds the party in full swing. She knows most in attendance as they have become her circle of friends too. Noah and T.J. are hockey players and a lot of their fellow teammates are there as well. Dinah considers herself lucky to have these people as her friends, especially Noah. She lost her husband a couple of years before to a terrible car accident. Immediately after, she discovered she was pregnant, only to have a miscarriage that almost killed her. Had Noah not found her passed out in the stairwell of their building, she would not have survived. He took her to the E.R. and stayed with her the whole time. Neither had ever breathed a word to anyone else about what had happened. Dinah had never even told her family.
Noah was always glad to see Dinah. Unknown to anyone else, or, so he thought, he had been in love with Dinah for a long time but has always done it from afar. Things were changing though……his friends knew he was in love with her and they told him to make his move, or get out of their way. Needless to say, that didn’t go over well.
As Noah starts to make his move, Dinah finds herself surprised. After all, why would a younger man want to be with her? The two of them begin to navigate a relationship once he convinces her that he is serious. However, through a series of events, Dinah finds herself scared and does the only thing she can think of to protect herself….run. Both are miserable without the other and have to decide if, indeed, they will take the shot.
Take the Shot is a nicely written story by Flynn. Both of the main characters were pretty well written. Dinah is strong, smart and independent. Noah is an old soul, a gentleman and very protective. The chemistry between the two of them, however, was almost tentative. I liked them together, but something was just a little disjointed for me. The secondary characters leave you wanting more of their story, which is always a plus. All, in all, this was a good start for the Philadelphia Bulldogs series and I can’t wait to read the next one in the series. Well done, Danica Flynn!
Independent reviewer for Archaeolibrarian, I was gifted my copy of this book.
Sometimes, you just need a book that you just fall into, losing all around you, and reading about 2 people falling in love. And this is such a book.
Dinah lost her husband 2 years ago. Moving on seemed like a good idea, and a bad one, all at the same time. Her neighbour provides some eye candy, but he is so much younger than she is and she doesn’t think he would want anything other than friendship. Noah lives in the next door apartment. Noah has lusted over Dinah for ages, but she was married, then widowed. He wasn’t gonna make a move til she was ready. If she never did, he would be heartbroken, but he would rather have Dinah as a friend, than not at all.
This is a delightful read! I’m not the greatest fan of first person books, I make no secret of that, but I really rather loved this one!
Noah, bless him, 22 years old, lusts after Dinah, has done since he met her. But he kept it to himself, she was married. And after he died, he found himself helping her in more ways than he ever expected. But he waited, he WAS waiting for Dinah. Waiting for her to let him know she was ready to move on. He would wait, however long it took. Til his housemates gave him an ultimatum: Ask her out, or one of them would. They could see what Noah could not, that Dinah was lusting after Noah as much as Noah lusted after her. They just had to act on it.
And it is wonderful when they do! Yes, the attraction is powerful and hot, but there is much emotion here, not just steamy sex. There is much between these two, BEFORE they get to the bedroom, which would be spoilers to explain. And I really found those bits far better than the sexy bits, but thats not to say the sexy bits aren’t good :-p
There is a supporting cast who have their own problems, and I hope they all get their story in this series.
The hockey bits, I will admit, I tended to flip over, but then something happened in one and I had to go back, so, yeah, I actually read the hockey bits after that!
There are a couple of lines that are repeated, more times than was really necessary. BUT! I’ve seen that this is the author’s first book, so I’m not really complaining, I’m just saying!
A thoroughly enjoyable read, so for a first time author? Well done, Ms Flynn, very well done.
4 good solid stars
**same worded revivew will appear elsewhere**
Two and a Half Stars
Take The Shot is Danica Flynn’s debut novel and it covers some of my very favorite things. It’s a Hockey Romance / Reverse Age Gap / Friends to Lovers read and for all intense and purposes should have checked all my boxes. I found the premise of the story to be a good one but had a hard time with the immaturity of the main characters especially Dinah. As the supposedly older woman you would expect her to behave as such and instead she appeared more immature then Noah, her younger counterpart. Noah for his part, lacked the confidence that most professional athletes have (I’m talking confidence not cockiness) and it started to wear thin as the book went on. As I said, I think this book has potential but unfortunately did not play out the way I expected. I hope that her next book, improves upon this one and that I can rate it higher. (As an aside, as a Canadian I really got tired of all the references to Noah’s Canadianisms).
I was first drawn to this book because of its theme of friends to lovers, it being set in the sports world, and involving an older woman/younger man and I started this book with lots of happy anticipation. With each turn of the page I found moments that put a smile on my face but there was lots of frustration too.
Dinah’s been through the emotional wringer in her past with the death of her husband in a car accident, along with having a miscarriage, and my heart ached for her over her losses and the fear she’s left with in trying to make it on her own. They’re losses that she’s slowly starting to move on from though. Luckily she has a sweet and dependable neighbor she’s always been able to count on and the two of them have been dancing around their feelings for each other over the last two years. On a whole Dinah was a realistic heroine with fears and doubts resulting from her tragedies. I liked her interactions with her neighbor Noah, though sometimes there were moments of awkwardness and times she treated him like a little boy instead of a potential lover. Dinah has major issues with the age difference between her and Noah too and it became a repetitive concern that dimmed the joy of her finding a new love for me. The age difference wasn’t even that much…8 years…with both of them over 21. Even though she was older there were times where her dialogue felt like a teenager’s words with the constant use of “dude”. I don’t know if she was trying to be hip, but it became cringeworthy and became less frequent as the story progressed.
Noah’s a nice guy with a good heart, a sexy hockey player with a bright future. He was drawn to Dinah from the very start but respected the boundaries of her being a widow and his neighbor. He wants her though and is constantly getting a push about it from his teammates, a push he desperately needs as fear and uncertainties will forever hold him back otherwise. It’s a slow journey for them to finally becoming more than friends, a repetitive journey of an inner war with himself, and I was rooting for him every step of the way as I enjoyed these two together. They weren’t a perfect couple in their presentation, but I feel that they will grow beautifully together.
This is Ms. Flynn’s debut novel…and it shows with a story that’s a bit rough around the edges. Noah’s a sweet and sexy hero but talks like a teenager at times. When it came to intimacy with Dinah he was over the top in getting consent from her which pulled me out of the moment and made him seem as if he didn’t know what he was doing. Dinah’s dialogue was also rough and seemed to come from someone much younger and belied the strong businesswoman she was supposed to be. The hockey world presented here was realistically depicted with serious issues (like concussions) on display along with seeing the team not always win. I also enjoyed the glimpses of the other Philadelphia Bulldogs and their appearances give me great hope for the next installment in this series as Ms. Flynn’s career evolves.
3.25 STARS!
4 stars for this one!
This was my first book by this author, I enjoyed the characters and the story line!
We follow hockey player Noah, who has a thing for his neighbor Dinah, a young widow but yet still older than him by eight years. They are close because he was there for her through all her turmoil, and she considers him one of her best friends. She has no clue that he’s had a crush on her forever, and when he lets her know, she’s not sure if she’s ready to move on after the loss of her husband, even though it’s been quite a few years. Will she allow herself to fall for her younger neighbor and enjoy her life again, or will she let the chance at happiness to slip by her? Read along and find out!
2.5 stars
I received an ARC of this book from NetGalley for my honest review.
This is the debut novel for this author, so hopefully her style will improve with practice. The basic plot is that Dinah is a thirty year old widow who has a day job as a marketer and is a writer in her nights. She lives next door to 22 year old Noah an TJ, two Canadian pro hockey players. Noah fell in love at first sight when he met married Dinah. Her husband died , and Noah was there as a friend. Two years have passed and now they start to explore whether they can be more than friends. I like the overall plot, older woman with the hot hockey player, but there were so many thing that drove me nuts.
POTENTIAL SPOILERS
1. The backstory of Dinah’s husband’s death and her miscarriage really should have been a prologue. It was awkward that two years have passed and no one knew the details about this and it had to be explained multiple times.
2. The dialogue seemed stilted, like what an older person thinks how a younger person would speak.
3. Too much use of the word dude and the f-word. I have no problems with swearing, but the author seems to be having Dinah use it to be “cool”.
4. Noah is depicted as a super polite Canadian. Which the author interprets as having the personality of a twelve year old girl. At one point, I expected him to give a note to Dinah “Do you like me? Yes__ No__”
Bottom line, this series has some potential, but this book doesn’t quite do it for me.
Noah has to finally ask Dinah out on a date!
Writer Dinah Lace was trying to move on with her life after being a widowed when she realized that there might be something between her and hockey player Noah Kennedy who lived next door. Noah knew that Dinah needed time and he was going to give it to her but when his teammates told him to either ask her out or one of them was going to ask on a date.
Take the Shot by Danica Flynn starts off pretty good but the author has so much about the age difference between Noah and Dinah that isn’t a problem between them. I love friends to lovers type of romance books but this didn’t quite make it for me.
I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book from NetGalley. All thoughts and opinions are my own.