Shenanigans

SHENANIGANS is the sixth full-length instalment in Sarina Bowen’s contemporary, adult BROOKLYN hockey, romance series (formerly known as the Brooklyn Bruisers)-a series that now includes the all women’s Brooklyn Bombshells hockey team. This is Brooklyn Bruisers hockey player Cornelius ‘Neil’ Drake, and Brooklyn Bombshells hockey player Charlotte ‘Charli’ Higgins’ story line. SHENANIGANS can be read as a stand alone without any difficulty. Any important information from the previous story lines is revealed where necessary.

Told from dual first person perspectives (Charli and Neil) SHENANIGANS follows the friends to lovers, Vegas marriage, fake relationship between Brooklyn Bruisers hockey player Cornelius ‘Neil’ Drake, and Brooklyn Bombshells hockey player Charlotte ‘Charli’ Higgins. An awards ceremony in Vegas ends with our couple, a very drunk couple, pretending to get married, only to wake up the next morning, married for real. Hoping for a quickie annulment, Neil and Charli discover that leaving Vegas was the worst thing they could do. When a paparazzi posts a picture of the couple entering a chapel, not only does the Brooklyn hockey organization begin to round up the troops, but Neil’s well-to-do family, begin to circle wagons in an attempt to protect their family holdings. What ensues is the building romance and relationship between Neil and Charli, and the potential fall-out as both extended families take action, but action with varying degrees of threats and intimidation.

Neil Drake has lusted after Charli Higgins for as long as he can remember but never thought Charli saw him as boyfriend or marriage material. Charli always presented herself as not interested in the opposite $ex, disguising years of mistrust and threats at the hands of many men. When Charli draws a line in the proverbial sand with regards to their quickie marriage, Neil struggles with his growing attraction to a woman who believes she is unworthy of our hero’s love.

The relationship between Neil and Charli is a friends to lovers, fake relationship in which Charli is hoping for an immediate divorce. Targeted and threatened by both Neil’s family and her own, Charli is forced to walk away to protect the man with whom she is falling in love. Neil is quickly falling for the woman he married, a woman who stands up to protect our story line hero. The $ex scenes are intimate and passionate without the use of over the top, sexually graphic language and text.

The secondary and supporting characters cause most of the problems and issues in our couple’s lives-Silas (Superfan 3/Brooklyn Bruisers 7), Bess and Tank (Sureshot 4), the Bombshells’ coach Anton Bayer and his significant other Sylvie (Bombshells 5); Charli’s teammates Fiona, Angelica, and Samantha; her cousin Robert, and brother Dennis; Neil’s long-suffering mother Paloma Drake, his uncle Harmon, and his sister Paisley ; personal shopper Vera, and Neil’s ex Iris. The conflict resolution with Charli’s family ends rather abruptly-I was hoping for more.

SHENANIGANS is a story of family and dysfunction; secrets and lies; betrayal and vengeance, friendships, relationships, hockey and love. The character driven premise is emotional and intense ; the characters are animated, inspiring and energetic; the romance is spirited, edgy and tender.

Another fantastic novel in this series. The relationship between Neil and Charli is so healthy. They are such a great match. Charli is fierce, independent and challenging. Neil is determined, steady and dynamic. Charli’s trauma is intense but it doesn’t dominate the story in a way the could be triggering to a reader. Neil’s type 1 diabetes is a detailed with out being preachy or heavy. Overall I think Bowen did a fantastic job of creating a story with true depth all while keeping it true to the genre. Lots of spicy bits also.

⏤ 4.5 Maple Leaf ALC Review ⏤

"𝑰𝒕 𝒘𝒂𝒔 𝒅𝒓𝒖𝒏𝒌 𝒍𝒐𝒈𝒊𝒄," 𝒉𝒆 𝒔𝒂𝒚𝒔. "𝑩𝒖𝒕 𝒕𝒉𝒂𝒕'𝒔 𝒔𝒕𝒊𝒍𝒍 𝒍𝒐𝒈𝒊𝒄. 𝑬𝒗𝒆𝒓𝒚𝒐𝒏𝒆 𝒌𝒏𝒐𝒘𝒔 𝒅𝒓𝒖𝒏𝒌 𝒍𝒐𝒈𝒊𝒄 𝒄𝒐𝒎𝒆𝒔 𝒇𝒓𝒐𝒎 𝒂 𝒑𝒍𝒂𝒄𝒆 𝒐𝒇 𝒅𝒆𝒆𝒑-𝒔𝒆𝒂𝒕𝒆𝒅 𝒅𝒆𝒔𝒊𝒓𝒆."

Neil and Charli wake up in Las Vegas after a night of drinking to find out that they accidentally got married. As they attempt to fix their predicament while navigating the media and Neil's family, Neil and Charli may see that they mean more to each other than just friends.

An entertaining, witty, and sexy read. Neil and Charli have some awesome banter and later on some ice melting chemistry between them. Neil is so much more than just a billionaire hockey player, he also has a huge heart. Charli is a fierce and strong hockey player and, for once in a long time, a heroine I actually did not have an issue with.

This was my first Brooklyn Bruisers book and I loved it and can not wait to catch up on the rest of the books.

Jason Clarke and Vanessa Edwin did an amazing job as Neil and Charlie and made this story so much fun to listen to.

Shenanigans is the eleventh book in the Brooklyn Bruisers series by Sarina Bowen and is a sports (hockey), accidental marriage, billionaire romance told in the dual first-person point-of-view.