In Sure Shot, Sarina Bowen bolsters her Brooklyn Bruisers hockey team with a trade from Dallas and brings in sports agent Bess Beringer. But new guy Mark ‘Tank’ Tankiewicz and Bess aren’t actually strangers. They had a fling years ago, prompting Bess’ boss to advise mixing personal and professional wasn’t a good idea for a woman on the business side of sports.
Tank is one cheeky ladykiller. As usual, Sarina delivers plenty of steam and time on the ice. Requirements for a good contemporary hockey romance, for this reader. I was convinced Bess and Tank’s story was headed down a path similar to an earlier book. But what makes Sure Shot a great read is that it totally subverted my expectations.
Just as her sports agency is growing, Bess wrestles with hitting 30 and striking the balance between personal and professional. Where does family fit into her picture? She’s even devised a 5-year-plan to tackle it. But with Tank back on the scene, and an attraction that’s off-the-charts? He isn’t just a bull in a china shop, he’s a tank rolling right over that plan.
Sure Shot stands out for addressing infertility from a dude’s perspective. It also looks to lift up women’s hockey and touches on the men’s league’s issues with racism. When the Bruisers face-off with Dallas, there’s some sh-t talking that escalates to an epithet. Castro, the target, seems seems to brush it off. But I thought long and hard about it, and the oddity of it coming from a player with a Latinx surname. It’s seemingly small moments like that in the book that give you more to think about.
If you’re a long time Brooklyn Bruisers fan, Sure Shot is like coming home and getting to see all your friends. Because the gang’s all here: Castro and Heidi Jo; Bayer, Alex; Ari, Rebecca, Georgia; glimpses of Delilah and Silas. If you haven’t met them yet, you can totally jump in here and catch the back catalog later. Because you’ll want to. That’s the thing, for me, at this point, the Bruisers world is just one I love to hang out in, whatever the story. It’s always a lot of fun.
Seven books into this world, you’d think you’d start running out of stories. But in Sure Shot, Sarina skates full out with a sexy, second chance romance that’s not afraid to poke at some of hockey’s sore spots.
4 stars
CW: Childhood psychological and emotional abuse (not on page), opposing player drops racial epithet (mentioned above)
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Read my reviews of previous books set in the Brooklyn Bruisers world: