Offside with #55

Written by Piper Rayne

Narrated by Joe Arden and Melissa Moran

The last thing any professional hockey player wants is to be the old man in the game. The guy who doesn’t know when it’s time to retire. Still, I can’t bear the thought of leaving the game.

This past year I’ve reflected on all my regrets, and I told myself that once I retire it’ll be the time to find the right woman. But this is where it gets tricky.

I think I’ve found her—although she’ll deny our connection to anyone who asks. We’ve been sleeping together casually and since I’m still playing hockey, I’ve let her get what she wants—me—whenever she wants.

After being told my career as a player is over, the owner of Florida Fury grants me a shot to stay in the game. A coaching position I didn’t know I wanted until it was offered. The catch? He’s also passing the family business down to his daughter.

Who’s his daughter?

The woman who’s been in and out of my bed for the past year. Which means the woman I intend to make mine is now my new boss.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Piper Rayne Inc.
• Release date: May 30, 2022
• ISBN: 9798887140018

Reviews for Offside with #55

[Jessica Alcazar · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

PERFORMANCE REVIEW & RATING: 5 STAR

I have yet to have a bad listening experience with Joe Arden. I feel the story when he narrates it. His performance has a way of captivating your mind and putting you in a headspace that completely lures you into the story and holds you there whether the story itself does that or not. He is magic or rather his voice LOL

My first experience with Melissa Moran as a narrator and I can’t complain. She did an excellent job not just with her POV but also when she narrated as Joe.

The number one way a listening experience can be ruined, in my opinion, is when narrators do not compliment each other or rather the female is way off when she narrates the male POV or vice versa. Joe and Melissa did a great job with this!

STORY REVIEW & RATING: 3 STAR

For the purpose of this review, I’ll be using the word *read* interchangeably with *listened*.

I want to say first, before I go into a review of Offside with #55, that this is the first book in the series that I’ve read. That might be important to know when I tell you some of the things that didn’t work for me. Actually, there’s a whole bunch of circumstances around this story that did not work for me. Let’s go over some facts:

✔️ Jana Gerhart: newly appointed owner of an NHL team
✔️ Kane Burrows: goalie for said team until an injury forces him to rethink his future and previous owner (Jana’s father) offers him the head coaching position for the team
✔️ Jana & Kane have had a sexual buddies thing going on for quite some time before these roles were thrust upon them with little to no head’s up
✔️ Jana has a solid & rigid stance on how she sees her personal life evolving in the future (that’s the best I can do without giving away plot points lol)
✔️ Kane also has a solid & rigid stance on how he sees his personal life evolving in the future
✔️ Jana & Kane’s solid & rigid stances align perfectly with each other

until they don’t … BAM!

I’d like to go into detail about how very little fanfare was woven into the story about Jana becoming the owner or how Kane was handed the position of head coach, not say maybe goalie coach, with zero experience coaching or about how their sexual buddies relationship was just out there and nobody, including he news outlets, threw shade at them for it, but I’m not because those are not the biggest struggles I had with the storyline. The biggest struggle I had was with Jana & Kane’s solid & rigid stances on their personal future. See, those stances are not decisions people make lightly one way or another. GAH, this is really hard to review without giving away spoilers. MADNESS I say lol

Piper Rayne made a choice to throw in a wrench into this story at almost the very end without really giving that wrench the respect it deserved. It is a massive wrench you guys and I am so ridiculously disappointed in not just the flippant way it thrown in but also the flippant way one of our leads just flipped their stance like they were deciding they now liked honey on their pancakes instead of syrup. WTAF did I just read.

So yeah, I was having a good time throughout like 92%ish of the book and then it all went monumentally wrong. I can overlook a lot of things when reading fiction, but some things just can’t be overlooked and honestly, without that particular wrench Piper decided to throw in, this story had plenty of conflict to work with and would have been plenty emotionally driven. I’ve read a whole bunch of Piper’s books and never have I ever been blindsided like this. She’s a better author than this so I’m going to continue to read her work and hopefully not run into this again.

OVERALL REVIEW RATING: 3 STARS

Overall, I can’t say I don’t recommend this book, especially if you’ve been reading the series from the beginning. The chemistry between Jana & Kane made me root for them and they had a solid foundation from the very beginning which made it an easy read, for the most part. I like the interaction within the team and their camaraderie. This was a fun read until it wasn’t, for me. There’s a whole bunch of other people who don’t feel the same about what they read than I do and maybe you won’t either so go forth and do the thing, or not, your choice :)

[Karen · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Another great addition to the Hockey Hotties series! Really enjoy the world created by Piper Rayne in this series, and this romance takes place off the ice. With a new female owner and player turnedcoach leading the team hopefully to the Cup, this steamy romance between two stubborn leaders was fun. I did feel this ended a little sooner than I’d have liked, but the HEA was very satisfying. Narration was great, as usual within this series. I highly recommend!

[Kayla Cain · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Wish I could listen to the last ten minutes but the file is broken. Be ready to be let down.

[Stephanie Radloff · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

I've read this series and I was looking forward to reading (listening) Kane and Jana. Sadly, I found Jana immensely annoying, I honestly felt sorry for Kane.