Review: Shut Out

Title:  Shut Out

Author: Kelly Jamieson

Published: June 7, 2016, Loveswept 

Genre: Sports, Romance, NA

From the bestselling author of the Heller Brothers Hockey series comes the first novel of a new hockey romance series featuring a college team whose players are heating things up both on and off the ice.
 
The Bayard College hockey team isn’t where Jacob Flass thought he’d be a season ago. He was a rising star in the Canadian major junior league, cruising toward a spot on an NHL roster—until a single disastrous night on the town brought it all crashing down. Now he’s out of options, except for playing well, studying hard, and staying away from girls. He’s not supposed to be flirting with the hottest, sweetest chick he’s ever met. But how could he possibly stay away?
 
Skylar Lynwood knows that Jacob is out of her league. She’s just trying to go with the flow, which isn’t easy when six feet and four inches of total hockey hunkiness is making a play for her one moment, then giving her the cold shoulder the next. Skylar’s head tells her that this rugged athlete isn’t worth her time, but her body says something altogether different. Risking her heart for Jacob may be the craziest thing she’s ever done . . . but she won’t let him shut her out.

Buy Link:   Amazon US

4 hearts

This is the first book in a new series for Hockey Romance Pro Kelly Jamieson. I have enjoyed her previous books so I knew I had to see what she was bringing to this new series. 

Jacob Flass has an unfortunate misunderstanding on his Canadian team and gets let go. His only shot at the NHL will be if he plays college hockey somewhere. He moves to the US and becomes the perfect student athlete. Stays away from girls until one beauty turns his head and he can't get her out of his mind. 

Skylar is much more the wall flower than her party girl roommates. And when she does make an effort, she gets turned down by the hottest guy at the house party. Fate would bring her and Jacob back together over the weeks to come. I really liked that they became friends first. Given both their pasts, it was probably the only way they would work out together in the end. 

This book is very NA. It is the college scene with all the college drama and all the new adult angst. I typically don't mind this genre but it seemed to me that there were more than necessary "incidents" that caused some pretty cliche reactions--across all characters. I'm a little removed from this age group, so I found my self not terribly interested in what was going on around campus. 

I did enjoy the two leads. I am happy that they got their issues out on the table and were able to realized how much better they were together than apart. Overall, an ok read. Just not my cup of tea. 

*ARC received via Netgalley for an honest review.

Kelly Jamieson writes romances with heat that's sweet. Her writing has been described as “emotionally complex”, “sweet and satisfying” and “blisteringly sexy”. If she can stop herself from reading or writing, she loves to cook. She has shelves of cookbooks that she reads at length. She also enjoys gardening in the summer, and in the winter she likes to read gardening magazines and seed catalogues (there might be a theme here...) She also loves shopping, especially for clothes and shoes. But her family takes precedence over everything else (yes, even writing). She has two teenage children who are the best kids in the world, not that she’s biased, and a wonderful husband who does loads of laundry while she plays on the computer writing stories. She loves hearing from readers, so please visit her website at www.kellyjamieson.com