REVIEW: Empty Net (Assassins #3) by Toni Aleo

Empty Net

(Assassins #3)

by Toni Aleo

4 HEARTS

From Goodreads

Definition of an Empty Net: When a team pulls the goalie for an extra attacker, desperately seeking a goal.

Audrey Parker was in a horrible place.
She hated her job, her sister was getting married and moving out, but worst of all, she was in love with a total jerk. No matter what she did, every guy she met hurt her. All she wanted was her happily ever after. Her Prince Charming. Her Lucas Brooks! She didn’t know how to change her life but she knew she needed too.
Feeling like she was about to hit rock bottom, Audrey wakes up next to Tate Odder.

Tate Odder had lost everything.
After being brought up from the Assassins’ farm team, the Florida Rays to the Nashville Assassins, Tate hopes he’ll forget everything he has lost. He doesn’t. Each day gets harder to live in a place he doesn’t know. Even being the first rookie goalie to shut out an opposing team three times during the Lord Stanley Cup Finals, he still felt empty. With the loss of his parents and sister still heavy on his heart, Tate isn’t sure how to live like everything is okay.

But when he wakes up beside Audrey Parker, things start to change. She turns his life upside down with her kooky sense of humor and her bright clothing. She is intelligent and beautiful, and for once, he doesn’t feel empty.
Will Audrey be the person to fill the holes in Tate’s heart, making him whole again?
Or will another player ruin everything, leaving him feeling forever like an empty net?

Empty Net is the third book in the Assassins series by Toni Aleo. And definitely a must read.

Tate Odder feels all alone. He's lost his family a couple years earlier to a horrific accident and still hasn't come to terms with their death. He gets offered a dream position with the Tennessee Assassins, but leaves behind a fiance because she doesn't want to follow along. He's made some really great friends on the ice and off the ice. The team has pretty much welcomed him with open arms. He's having an amazing season as a star goalie, he's young and sexy, he's rich. He should have girls dropping their pants with just a look. The problem is he wants a wife and a family. He doesn't care that he's only 21 he knows he's ready to settle down and have what his parents had. And he knows just the girl he wants. Now, he just has to find a way to convince Audrey that age is not a factor and he knows what he wants and ready to have it.

Move on. It's just a chapter in the past. Don't close the book. Just turn the page.

Audrey Parker is struggling right now. She has an abusive boyfriend that talks to her like dirt, cheats on her and treats her like an afterthought on his best days. Finally, he dumps her for one of his many other girls, but of course calls her for booty calls and mind games. She's heartbroken and finds herself falling for his lines when he calls her for only one thing. He gets out of her bed and walks away and she's left feeling hollow all over again. The only time she doesn't feel the pain is when she is hanging out with her friend Tate. She knows he wants more than friendship and she's super attracted, but how can she take him seriously when he's so young?

If you have read the first 2 books in the series and my review of them you know that I have had issues with the girls being their own worst enemies. Ms. Aleo seems to write her heroines this way. However, I never really got this feeling from Audrey. Don't get me wrong she had issues, but I totally related to her. I imagine people who haven't had a history with this kind of man won't get it. But, I get it. It is spot on describing the feelings and the things you tell yourself when in this situation. Well done Ms. Aleo!

Hotness Rating
3 out of 5