DANCING IN THE RAIN

DANCING IN THE RAIN       KELLY JAMIESON

A retired athlete meets the daughter he never knew—along with the woman who reignites his passions—in this powerful standalone romance from the bestselling author of Hot Shot and the Heller Brothers series.

Drew Sellers is drowning in broken dreams and empty beer bottles. Hockey was his world, until a bum knee reduced him from superstar to has-been. Then he learns that, thanks to a one-night-stand back in college, he’s the father of a preteen girl with major issues. Her protective aunt sees right through Drew’s BS, but “Auntie P” is no stereotypical spinster. With her slender curves, toned legs, and luscious lips, she has Drew indulging in fantasies that aren’t exactly family-friendly.

At another point in her life, Peyton Watt would have been all over a cocky alpha male who pushes all her buttons like Drew. Right now, though, she needs to focus on taking care of her niece during her sister’s health crisis, all while holding down a job and keeping her own head above water. Besides, Drew’s clearly no father of the year. He’s unemployed. He drinks too much. And he’s living in the past. But after Peyton gets a glimpse of the genuine man behind his tough-guy façade, she’s hooked—and there’s no going back.

PAT'S REVIEW

There is so much going on in this book that I was left like the feeling you have getting off of a giant roller-coaster. It really has been a long time that a book has gotten to me like this one. Frist the characters are great. Drew Sellers is a retired hockey player, and is retired because of an injury, so he feels he should still be playing. His day starts around noon, and usually ends up at night in a bar somewhere close by. His now ex-wife took off with another hockey player, so in between feeling sorry for himself he does find time to play video games. His life changes the day he begins his day at 11:00am and goes to the local corner coffee house, when a women calls his name. she is talking to him and he vaguely remembers her name does remember parts of the night many years ago at Notre Dame, when he was playing for Boston College and after the hockey they stayed for a party and he hooked up with a girl, and yes this is her and yes she had his child 11 years ago almost 12. He is shocked and does not believe it, only when she says she does not want anything from him accept if he wants to meet her and that she is dying. Weeks go by and after he gets the results back he is the father he goes to the house to talk to the mom again and there with her is her sister who came in from New York. After agreeing to meet his daughter for the upcoming Saturday he chickens out in the middle of the week and while drunk calls the house to cancel. The sister or Aunt doesn’t say anything but goes over to his place to talk him out of cancelling, when he decides to answer the door naked because he figures it is one of those groups that comes around. It’s not, it’s Peyton or Auntie “P” surprise her response is I hope you don’t always answer your door this way. This begins there time together since from then on he decides to become part of Chloe’s life but also Peyton’s and Sarah’s. There are so many things about this story that touched me, the loss and the emotion you feel as a reader when Sarah passes. The acting out of Chloe after her mother’s passing. But what I really want to talk about is the scene where Drew is called down to the school because of her dress code violation and a commit that a male student made. He calls out the Vice principle and wants the boy and his parents in the office and won’t leave until he has his piece. “Once they are there he tells the parents that their son was out of line and that what girls are wearing are not a distraction for boys to learn”, what you are doing “is perpetuating rape culture to bring boys up to think that what a girl wears is responsible for their actions”. This has been something my wife and I have been fighting our local school about for years, and it was great to see that same argument in a book. There is so much in this book I could keep going on but I am not. You can see that I like this book more than just a little but a lot. So take a Dance in the rain and see what happens. I got this book from Netgalley.com I gave it 5 stars. Follow us at www.1rad-readerreviews.com