REVIEW: Sweet Thing by Kate Meader

KaetrinB- Reviewsabusive parent / age gap / Contemporary / hockey / nanny / NetGalley / single dad / Sports2 Comments

Content notes:

Dear Kate Meader,

Lars Nyquist is a defenseman for the Chicago Rebels. He’s part of the ‘dream team’ on defense with captain, Theo Kershaw. Theo is in his mid-40s and the coming hockey year may be his last. Theo has won multiple championships but Lars has yet to win his first. The Rebels are hungry for a championship win and giving Theo the send-off he deserves. This year, Theo’s eldest son, Hatch, has now joined the Rebels too so there’s even more to play for.

Lars’s dad, Sven, was a pro hockey player too but he was disgraced and banned from playing after a second lot of betting on games. He was mean and a drunk and a few months earlier, he was killed in a single-car crash when he drove into a tree. Lars hadn’t had any contact with his father since his dad was banned from the game but he still has complicated feelings about it. Theo and Theo’s family, took Lars under their collective wings and Lars has become a regular at the dinner table and almost part of the family himself.

Adeline Kershaw is Theo’s eldest daughter. She had a crush on Lars which he found out about after overhearing Addy talking to her bestie, Rosie, at a party one night at the Kershaw’s house. Lars is embarrassed and gently turns Adeline down. But her confession does get him thinking. 

Addy is 13 years Lars’ junior, his captain’s daughter. Theo is arguably Lars’s best friend. The idea of Lars and Addy together is, to say the least, fraught with problems.

After Addy’s confession, she and Rosie leave for what is effectively a world tour, planning to be away for 18 months or so. But now Addy and Rosie are back a couple months early. They cite homesickness and, for Addy, wanting to be around for Theo’s (possibly) final playing year but really what happened was that she was mugged in Greece and has trauma from it. She’s still working through her reaction to the assault and wants to be near her family. She hasn’t told anyone about the assault. She doesn’t want to worry anyone and she certainly doesn’t want her dad to be off his game.

Now 23, Addy is convinced her crush is done with. Except then she sees Lars and… maybe not so much. Oops.

Lars is determined to be not like his dad and not-so-secretly worried he is a chip off the old block. He had a hook up in a bar bathroom and it turned out the woman he was with was married. She had omitted that important piece of information. Still he has regrets. 

Then, Vicki, his hook-up from the previous year, bobs up with a baby in tow. Her husband is not so into raising someone else’s daughter and Vicki wants to try and save her marriage. So, she dumps 7-month-old Mabel in Lars’ arms and does a runner. (While I wasn’t a fan of Vicki, I did like that Lars was concerned about her wellbeing despite being unhappy with the situation.)

Theo has five children, including a “surprise”, Tilly, who is now aged 4. When Tilly was born, Addy took a year off college to help raise her so her mother, Elle, could continue with her business, which I gather was just getting off the ground. (This is not presented as a bad thing in the book. It’s just a thing that happened. Elle is a very devoted mother and Theo is a doting dad. Addy felt no resentment and she wanted to be home anyway. She didn’t like being away for college.) Anywho, Addy has experience with babies and Lars has none. There is a game in only two days and Lars needs childcare immediately if he’s to play. 

Lars is understandably thrown for a loop to know he’s a dad. He knows nothing about babies and his own experience with his father leads him to believe he would not be a good dad. (He’s wrong of course.) It takes time to hire the right nanny, so Addy ends up being nannying for Mabel and Lars until Lars can find a candidate he’s comfortable with. 

This of course puts Lars and Addy in close proximity and eventually the attraction that simmers between them boils over. It’s only a matter of time until Theo and the rest of the team finds out. Oh dear.

I did think Addy and Lars were good together and Addy did not end up having any qualms about taking the stepmother role on. The ages were just a tad confusing to me. I ended up under the impression that Theo was extremely young when he and Elle first got together. Their book, Instacrush, is on my TBR but I haven’t read it yet. Maybe it’s because maths isn’t my strong suit but I got a bit squinty about how everyone’s ages fit together.

There are many many books about the Rebels and those who have read the earlier books will probably get a kick out of glimpsing the lives of previous characters. 

I liked that there was more to Lars’ reluctant to be with Addy than just his relationship with Theo or the team’s season. He had some deep issues about his father that he had to work through and this turned out to be the main reason. I liked Addy and Lars together and felt confident that Addy was able to hold her own in their relationship. On the other hand, the way the conflict between Theo and Lars (after finding out about the relationship) was both a bit over the top and a bit hand-wavey. 

Ultimately, Sweet Thing was an entertaining read from a reliably good-for-me author. It didn’t reinvent any wheels and it wasn’t earth-shattering but then again, it didn’t need to be.

Grade: B-

Regards,
Kaetrin

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Kaetrin

Kaetrin started reading romance as a teen and then took a long break, detouring into fantasy and thrillers. She returned to romance in 2008 and has been blogging since 2010. She reads contemporary, historical, a little paranormal, urban fantasy and romantic suspense, as well as erotic romance and more recently, new adult. She loves angsty books, funny books, long books and short books. The only thing mandatory is the HEA. Favourite authors include Mary Balogh, Susanna Kearsley, Joanna Bourne, Tammara Webber, Kristen Ashley, Shannon Stacey, Sarah Mayberry, JD Robb/Nora Roberts, KA Mitchell, Marie Sexton, Patricia Briggs, Ilona Andrews, just to name a few. You can find her on Twitter: @kaetrin67.

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