Book Review: Northbrook Elite Hockey Series

 What am I doing in this time of social distancing? Writing some and reading occasionally if my girls permit that. I don't have a lot of spare time, but this month I seem to be in a hockey mood. I haven't watched much hockey in my life, but I'm re-reading the Northbrook Elite Hockey series for the third time.  I enjoyed the first collaboration of these three authors, The Belltown Six series, but I think they nailed it in their more recent endeavor. Unlike Belltown, I like every single book in the series and every character.
Six professional hockey players from around the country learn that the beloved club team (where they got their start) is in huge financial trouble. They reconnect with each other and work together to save the Northbrook hockey program and bring it back to its former glory and prestige. In the first book, Faceoff, Clint McCarthy and Bree Stone, siblings of two members of the Belltown Sixpack, reconnect at a basketball game and start hanging out together, working to find a balance between their previous casual friendship and their new attraction to one another. It's Bree who takes on the problem of Northbrook and implements the strategies to bring it back to life with the help of Clint and his friends. Personally, I think her roommates/helpers are intriguing as well and I wouldn't mind a separate spin-off series about their road to success and love.
I think the best part of the series is the witty dialogue and the depiction of the hard-working, fun-loving pack mentality that gives these men a slightly juvenile sense of humor displayed when they get together or text each other in The Pit group chat. I also love how much I learned about hockey while reading this series because I know even less about this sport than I do baseball. There are good descriptions of terminology, plays, and actions on the ice so it was easy to follow and inspired a desire to attend a hockey game again.
My favorite book of the series is #4 Crosscheck because it stars the best character in the whole series: Zane "Zamboni" Winchester's daughter Hope. She is so adorable and he is such a great father and role-model for her. I've read this book so many times since it came out in February because I can't get enough of the combination of Zane, Hope, and her Zumba instructor Mara. These are all clean romances, but I will say that this one has more intense kissing than the others and that aspect put me off at first.




The series consists of Faceoff, Powerplay, Rebound, Crosscheck, Breakaway, and Shootout.





If you want to learn more about either series, check out the authors' facebook page for Belltown and Northbrook: Swoony Sports Romances.