Crushed by Elise FaberMy rating: 4 of 5 stars
Will Johansson became an honorary member of the Cartwright family when he boarded with them while playing for a local junior hockey team. The Cartwrights' daughter Lily secretly had a crush on him back then, but because of their four-year age gap, he saw her as nothing more than an adopted little sister. Years later, sports psychologist Lily has been unemployed ever since she exposed a scandal at her former workplace. Her professional reputation has taken a hit, so she's shocked when the general manager of the San Francisco Gold shows up at her front door and offers her a job. In need of a place to live until her new apartment is ready, Lily's father arranges for her to stay with Will, now a professional hockey player for the Gold. As soon as he lays eyes on Lily for the first time in years, Will realizes that his feelings for her have changed, but knowing that she's had a tough year, he does his best to keep her at a distance. He can't help wanting to protect her, however - whether she thinks she needs it or not.
The push-pull between Lily and Will was intense from the moment they reunited as adults, in large part because of his need to try and protect her from anything and everything that might possibly hurt her - even himself. It took a long time (and some amazing advice from his teammate Brit, the real star of the book for saying everything to Will that I was thinking) for him to realize that she was a grown up capable of making decisions for herself. I loved the way that Lily stood up for herself in the end and set clear expectations for their relationship going forward. I wouldn't have minded seeing Will grovel a bit more, but I believed that he had learned his lesson and would do better in the future, so I was satisfied with where they ended up.
Overall, I enjoyed "Crushed" and recommend it for all contemporary/sports romance fans. After the groundwork laid in this book's epilogue, I am very much looking forward to the next book of this series.
*Review copy provided by the author. All opinions expressed are my own.
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