Packed full of popular tropes like best friend's brother, single mom, and a marriage of convenience, keep reading my Damaged Defender by Anne Martin book review to see if I think it's worth your time to read.
I received a free ARC of this book in exchange for my honest review.
Book Info
Title: Damaged Defender
Author: Anne Martin
Publication Date: March 28, 2024
Category: Contemporary Sports Romance; Hockey Romance
Relationship: Best friend's brother (m/f - Zane and Kesley)
POV: Told from the POV of both the male and female main characters
Series or Stand-Alone: This is a stand-alone book that is part of a series set in the same universe for Heatwave Hockey.
Length: Long (304 pages)
Ending: Ends with a happily ever after set five years in the future
Overall Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
Open or Closed Door: Open door
Spice Level: 3 out of 5 peppers - There are few detailed spicy scenes that feature dirty talk and mild kink.
The book is more plot-driven with some smut sprinkled in.
Get more information on how I choose my ratings for books.
Book Boyfriend Material: Zane is the type of book boyfriend who is rather broken after a series of unfortunate events.
He chooses to process his guilt and anger on the more risky side. He's also moody and loves to bicker with the FMC. But we all know there's a thin line between love and hate and love wins out.
Readability: Easy to read but I did find a handful of grammatical errors. This was in the ARC review so they may have been fixed in the official release version.
Themes: Best friend's brother, second chance/enemies to lovers (kind of), single mom, close proximity evolved to marriage of convenience. So. Many. Secrets.
Possible Triggers: Note that all triggers may not be listed here and could potentially spoil parts of the book. I always suggest visiting the author’s site for more information if triggers are a concern for you.
Click/tap here to view triggers.
Death of fiance and unborn child (child isn't biologically one of the main character's), grief/guilt, heavy drinking.
Available On: Amazon including Kindle, Kindle Unlimited, and paperback.
Please note that the availability options listed were applicable at the time this review was written but may change over time.
Synopsis From Author
One night with the enemy player next door…now he’s calling me his wife.
Seven years ago we shared a night, and the next morning–he didn’t remember.
Now I’m a journalist working my way up the news media ladder.
When my best friend’s moody brother moves in next door.
And now an endless parade of rowdy hockey bros stroll our shared hall.
He’s mister tattooed and dangerous. The Houston Heatwave's top defender.
And the actual bane of my existence.
An injury on the ice has me playing nurse for one night.
But when he asks me to marry him for convenience, I know he bumped his head too hard.
He needs a wife to fulfill an inheritance clause to save his family’s legacy.
I need intel on his hockey team, my career depends on it.
So I wear the Heatwave team jersey–with his name on it.
Soon I’m falling into this bad boy’s bed and we’re both scoring.
But Zane O’Connor’s scars are hidden.
And I have secrets of my own.
If he finds out we could lose it all–and Houston, we’d have a real problem.
Damaged Defender is a spicy marriage of convenience, pro hockey romance. It’s the second book in the Houston Heatwave series and can be enjoyed as a standalone with a guaranteed happily ever after for our enemies turned lovers.
My Review
Damaged Defender is the second book in the Heatwave Hockey series. Check out the Pucked Together review for the first book.
We have Zane who had been through a lot without being very old and coped with his feelings from these events in an unhealthy manner.
He may feel like he doesn't have a whole lot left in life that he deserves but he's determined to not lose his inheritance property that holds a lot of meaning for his family - the only problem is that he has to be married.
Then we have Kesley who is a single mom trying her hardest to be a successful journalist but has a shady boss who requires her to take on a questionable assignment that just so happens to involve the local hockey team.
Even though Zane and Kesley constantly bicker and fight, they realize they can use each other to get what they want in life but will there be consequences?
I'll be upfront and say I liked this book significantly less than Pucked Together.
This book continues with Zane, another member of the hockey team who is known to be the bad boy and lives rather recklessly due to unresolved anger and guilt.
While I have no problem being entertained by unrealistic drama in books, one of the secrets that comes out in Damaged Defender was just a bit too much for me to find enjoyable, thus the lower rating.
In the end, I was happy that things got resolved and there was a satisfying ending.
Likes
- The storyline moves pretty quickly
- You get to catch up with characters from the first book
- Another pet featured, this time a hilarious parrot
Dislikes
- The ping-ponging of how the main characters felt about each other didn't read well for me
- I found the secret involving the two main characters and the FMC's child to be just too much even for a book, especially for how long they've been neighbors and how long the secret was kept
- Rehashing the same issues over and over in internal monologues
I really wanted to like this book more but it honestly just fell flat for me.
I don't mind books with over-the-top drama, which was also heavily featured in Pucked Together, but I didn't find it enjoyable in Damaged Defender.
The actions of the main characters just didn't make sense to me and actually got more annoying the more I read.
I'll admit that lack of communication or miscommunication is one of my least favorite plots, especially when it spans a long time.
Without giving away too much of the plot, the fact that the FMC kept a major secret for 7 years was very unfair to two of the other characters and just too unrealistic for how often they saw each other, no matter how much the FMC tried to use the excuse of the person not being ready to know.
I would have been okay with the rest of the drama, and there definitely is more drama and secrets, but that part honestly ruined the book for me.
I also found the ping-ponging of how the main characters felt about each other to be annoying.
Angst can be entertaining but going from frenemies to agreeing to use each other for your own benefit, to lovers, to them both admitting they've been in love with each other for years but refusing to communicate at all even though one of the characters knew a whole lot of truth the other MC didn't remember telling - was frustrating.
The book wasn't totally terrible, though. I enjoyed that we got to see many characters from the first book and catch up with them.
I also loved the talking parrot who brought a lot of laughs while reading.
It was also nice to see how the hockey group and friends came together to act like family and be there for each other, sometimes even forcing you to see what's been in front of you all along.
I’d recommend Damaged Defender if you enjoy hockey romance and don't mind far-fetched drama and quite a bit of internal monologue over the same issues.
Even though this book wasn't my favorite, I would read another book in the Heatwave Hockey series if it continues.
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