6.20.2014 | Friday

Light the Lamp

category: Book Reviews
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Light the Lamptitle: Light the Lamp
author: Catherine Gayle
series: Portland Storm #3
published: 12 June 2014
publisher: Night Shift Publishing
genre(s): contemporary, romance, sports
pages: 274
source: book tour, publicist
format: eARC
buy/shelve it: Amazon | B&N | BookBub | BookHype | StoryGraph | Goodreads

rating: four-half-stars | series rating: five-stars
WARNING: This book may be unsuitable for people under 17 years of age due to its use of sexual content, drug and alcohol use, and/or violence.


the blurb

Life’s been rough lately for Noelle Payne, but she’s not one to let negativity rule. So, she lost her job? She’ll find another one. The bank foreclosed on the house? Well, she can live out of her car for a while. There’s always an upside to be found…but now Noelle needs to find something to give her life meaning. She owes it to the universe to figure it out, too, because a stranger just saved her life.

When Liam Kallen’s wife died, his goal-scoring ability died with her. After a trade from the only pro hockey team he’s ever played for, he’s now playing for the NHL’s Portland Storm. Everyone said he needed a change of scenery, but nothing changes until he rescues Noelle. All of a sudden, the world once again looks bright and he’s lighting the lamp like he used to.

Noelle’s cheerful disposition is just the bit of sunlight Liam needs in his life. He wants to give her everything she needs because she’s everything he wants. The problem? She doesn’t believe she needs anything…at least nothing material. The one thing they both know she truly needs—a real purpose—also happens to be the one thing he doesn’t know how to give her. If he can’t help her find that, she might walk away and take all her sunshine with her.


my review

Light the Lamp is the latest in the Portland Storm series, this time focusing on a newer player for the Portland Storm hockey team.  Liam Kallen has recently been traded to the Storm from the Islanders and his game is suffering since the death of his beloved wife Liv.  One fateful night, he meets Noelle Payne, a damsel in distress that he is determined to rescue.  She is the epitome of a free spirit and is more than a little absent-minded when it comes to the more practical matters of life.

I loved both of these characters, but there were many times when I wanted to reach into my Kindle and slap one or the other of them into reality.  Liam was so keen on “saving” Noelle that he was smothering her, treating her like a wayward child.  But it was hard to be angry with him because he so obviously cared and had reasons to be the way he was.  Noelle seemed to think that he should be able to just magically understand who and what she was without really trying to talk about it and that drove me nuts.  But she, too, so obviously cared that it was hard to be against her.  In the end, these two are the perfect example of the yin and the yang in romance novels, each one supporting the other in opposite ways.

Things to love…

  • The romance.  I am not generally a straight-up, romance girl, but I like that the romance in this series comes with all of the issues that love really has, even if it is a little fast.

Things I wanted more/less of…

  • More hockey.  I love hockey, and there was a little less of it in this book!

This is a great addition to the Portland Storm series, but it should be read after the first two.  The fourth book in the series, Delay of Game, is due out in August!

About Catherine Gayle

Catherine Gayle is a bestselling author of Regency-set historical romance and contemporary hockey romance with a New Adult feel. She’s a transplanted Texan living in North Carolina with two extremely spoiled felines. In her spare time, she watches way too much hockey and reality TV, plans fun things to do for the Nephew Monster’s next visit, and performs experiments in the kitchen which are rarely toxic.

Rating Report
plot
four-stars
characters
four-stars
writing
four-half-stars
pacing
four-half-stars
Overall: four-stars

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