REVIEW: Chasing Stanley by Deirdre Martin
Dear Ms. Martin:
This is the fifth entry in your New York Blades series and I welcome the return back to action on the ice. Jason Mitchell is a new acquisition for the Blades having just been traded from Minnesota. While Jason is excited to be in New York and with the Blades, Jason’s Newfoundland, Stanley, isn’t really well acclimated to the big city living.
Jason has never done anything to train Stanley and in the city, even dogs need some rules. Enter Delilah Gould, a professional dog walker and trainer. Jason runs into her in the park and recognizes he and Stanley need help. He begs her to take the two of them on. Jason and Delilah fall for each other but their misperceptions about each other provide roadblocks to their happiness.
I thought the sibling rivalry between Jason and his twin brother, Eric, was great. Brother Eric lives in New York but plays for the New Jersey hockey team. Eric, at turns, brings Delilah and Jason closer together and farther apart.
This is a cute contemporary. Not as good as the debut novel, Body Check. (I think your best male creation is Ty). It's actually a bit more romantic than your last one, The Penalty Box which I thought bordered a bit on the chick lit/women's fiction edge.
The conflict is a bit of the redux of the one which appeared in Total Rush (social misfit heroine with eager to please hero) however the return to the hockey rink will please the fans who bought you in the beginning. All (and I do mean all) of your past characters appear at some point in Chasing Stanley.
One final note on the book and that is I found its sensuality to be very low. I don't remember you being so reserved with her sex scenes but I would rate this book “warm” on the sexuality scale. B.
Best regards,
Jane
I read the first three books but wasn’t very impressed with them. The hockey aspect is interesting but the characters seemed much too shallow and too close to being TSTL.
I may decide to read another later, but for now DM is off my autobuy list.