Good Guy (A Rookie Rebels Novel‪)‬

Enjoyed their story and the chemistry between them. I wish that they would have gotten more pages on the being together, their happily ever after expanded upon. With their history and then their present feelings for one another, they definitely deserved more pages dedicated to them being together.

4.25 stars---GOOD GUY is the first instalment in Kate Meader’s contemporary, adult ROOKIE REBELS erotic, hockey, romance series-a spin off from the author’s Chicago Rebel series. This is former Special Forces Green Beret and Chicago Rebels newest rookie Levi Hunt, and sports reported Jordan Cooke’s story line. GOOD GUY can be read as a stand alone without any difficulty. Any important information from the original series is revealed where necessary. There is a slight cross-over with the author’s HOT IN CHICAGO firefighter series and the appearance of Kinsey Taylor-Almeida as Jordan’s best friend.

Told from dual third person perspectives (Jordan and Levi) GOOD GUY follows the best friend’s wife scenario as former Special Forces Green Beret Levi Hunt becomes the oldest rookie on the professional hockey circuit with the Chicago Rebels. Five years earlier Levi Hunt lost his best friend Josh Cooke to a roadside bomb in Afghanistan, leaving his wife Jordan a widow at twenty-three. Fast forward to present day wherein Levi Hunt has returned to the game that he loves, a game that will bring him face to face with the woman he has loved since the day they first met. Enter reporter and journalist Jordan Cooke. What ensues is the building relationship and romance between Jordan and Levi, and the potential fall-out as words said in anger trigger too many hard feelings between our leading couple.

Levi Hunt knew the moment he saw Jordan Cooke, he had fallen in love but Jordan fell for Levi’s best friend Josh, a man who would lose his life all too soon. Levi would soon discover that Jordan’s latest assignment was Levi himself, an assignment that would both push and pull our couple together and apart. Jordan Cooke knew getting the coveted story about Levi Hunt could make or break her sports reporting career but getting the real story meant going against everything she believed including the potential to destroy the man with whom she was falling in love.

The relationship between Jordan and Levi is one of second chances of a sort. Levi is a bit of a loner; a quiet but powerful hockey play who has been in love with his best friend’s wife for as long as he can remember but keeping his distance meant keeping away from the woman that called to his heart. Jordan knows that to get her story she is going to have to get close to our story line hero but getting close is about to backfire when her fellow reporters sense something else between our leading couple. The $ex scenes are intimate and passionate without the use of over the top, sexually graphic language and text.

There is a large ensemble cast of secondary and supporting characters including several members of the Chicago Rebels previously introduced in the author’s CHICAGO REBELS hockey series, team manager Dante Moretti; Chicago Rebels owners-Harper and Isabel Chase, Violet Vasquez, and their significant others, as well as the introduction of several members of the sports media; hockey players Theo Kershaw and Ford Callaghan, and Special Forces support team member Elle Butler.

GOOD GUY is a story of family, friendship, heart break and betrayal; a story of loss, love and second chances. The premise is entertaining and captivating; the romance is seductive; the characters are colorful and energetic.

Levi and his best friend Josh fell in love with the same girl ... but Josh met her first and the rest is history. Shortly after they get married, Josh is killed in Afghanistan leaving Jordan alone. Five years later, Levi leaves the Green Berets and becomes the oldest rookie in the NHL. Meanwhile Jordan has become a sports writer and when her boss finds out that Jordan and Levi know each other, he assigns her the task of getting the dirt on the oldest rookie. Jordan remembers Levi as this quiet grumpy guy and is hesitant to interview him. But when they meet again, the sparks fly.

This is a great spin-off series and I like the fact that characters from the Rebel Series appear in this book. I really liked Jordan ... after her husband died, she picked herself up and made a life for herself and was such a positive person. Levi was just a grump at first, but I liked him much better by the middle of the book. I just loved some of the other characters that I know will have books in this series and can't wait. A great start to a new series.

I received an early copy courtesy of the author through NetGalley in exchange for a honest review.