Shot on Gold
Play-by-Play, Book #14
By Jaci Burton
ISBN# 9780399585166
Author’s Website: http://jaciburton.com/
Brought to you by OBS reviewer Heidi
Will “Mad Dog” Madigan has been selected to be part of the United States men’s hockey team during the International Games in Vancouver. This is the second time he’s been selected to represent his country and he has his eyes on the gold medal!
Amber Sloane is also at the games, her third appearance. She’s getting old by figure skater standards and this is her last chance to bring home the gold. She has been working her whole life for this and she can’t fail now. In the past, she’s followed her mother’s directives of keeping to herself, but this time she’s decided she wants to have some fun! She saw Will four years ago at the last Winter Games, and he never even noticed her, so imagine her surprise when he starts giving her attention this time. They spend all their free time together, but what will become of them once the games are over?
I couldn’t have timed my reading of this book any better. I started reading this right as the Olympics were starting up in real life! When Burton started writing this book, it hadn’t been decided if the NHL players would be participating, so in her book the professional hockey players were in it. I’m a huge hockey fan and reading about Will’s experience at the games, it made me that much sadder for the real hockey players that had their opportunity to represent their country taken from them this year. Will had such pride representing his country and working beside players that are usually his opponent and playing against people that are usually on his team. It’s an interesting dynamic for sure, one that I’ve never given much thought to.
I found Will and Amber’s coming together to be rather awkward and sudden. I thought it was strange that the virgin, Amber, told Will about the guys in the past that tried to get in her pants and how she won’t sleep with just anybody, was so quick to suggest having sex with Will! And, it was actually he who needed the time to think about if he really wanted to go there with her.
I liked Will. He was a typical Burton male, loyal to his family and friends and a great all around guy! And, of course he was a stud on the ice as well!
However, I can’t say I really cared for Amber all that much. I found her to be quite boring and a total stick-in-the-mud. I understand that her mother was strict on her up to this point, but I found she treated her mom pretty badly. Her mom comes all the way to Vancouver to see her perform and she didn’t even want to be bothered to spend any time with her. She’d rather go partying with her brand new friends then have dinner with her mom, and then was upset that her mom insisted on coming to the hockey game. Her friends seemed more accepting of her mother than Amber ever was. Amber acted like an embarrassed teenager instead of a grown woman.
The romance in this book was okay, but it felt incomplete to me. I kept waiting for that one big romantic gesture at the end of the book, or a glimpse of how Amber and Will were making things works, but it never came … the book just stopped!
This was still an okay read, but not nearly as good as I was expecting.
*OBS would like to thank the publisher for supplying a free copy of this title in exchange for an honest review*
