Reviewed by Carissa & Danielle
TITLE: Enforcing Emory
AUTHOR: Mickie B. Ashling
PUBLISHER: Dreamspinner Press
LENGTH: 226 pages
BLURB:
Olympic figure skater Emory Lowe falls in lust the moment he lays eyes on his new neighbor, hockey player Nikolai Vetrov. On the surface, Nik is a typical badass enforcer, intimidating and dangerous, on and off the ice. The only son of Ukrainian immigrants, Nik has been groomed from childhood to fulfill his father’s dreams of seeing him in the Hockey Hall of Fame. Igor guides his son toward that goal with a controlling—and abusive—hand, steering him clear of anyone who might ruin his chances.
Although Emory is the US National Figure Skating champion, he’s in-your-face gay, and his audacious persona rubs Nik and his family the wrong way. Raised by supportive and loving parents, Emory is Nik’s polar opposite in every way but one—his desire to succeed. Underneath the fluff and glitter beats the heart of a fierce competitor, and this side of Emory’s personality begins to close the distance between the two athletes.
While the attraction is one-sided in the beginning, Nik finds himself responding to Emory’s flirting. But before the incongruous pair have a chance at any sort of relationship, they must survive the pressures of career, separation, and most importantly, Igor’s ruthless homophobia.
CARISSA’s REVIEW:
Emory is an out-and-proud figure skater, Nikolai is a determined-to-be-straight hockey player. Both men are looking to be the best on ice. With Emory making it into the Olympics, his life is already full of practices and, well, more practices. He doesn’t really have time for much else. That is until Nikolai moves in across the street and he finds himself drawn to the standoffish man. Which certainly complicates matters in both of their lives because Nik’s father is the homophobe’s homophobe–with a dash of violent abuser thrown into the mix for fun. Not that Em’s dad is a paradigm of virtue and hippy values–but at least he doesn’t care about Em being gay.
So with family issues on both side, work commitments all round, and a hockey player determined to not fall in love with any man–especially a skating celebrity–life couldn’t be less perfect for a new relationship to grow. But then again, love does seem to come at the most inconvenient of times.
*glares at computer screen* *types sentence* *erases sentence* *glares at computer screen*
I’m having a bit of an issue writing this review. It’s an issue that I usually have with books that I find hit a very middle ground with me. I can’t honestly say that this book was a joy to read, and yet it wasn’t the most horrible thing I’ve read either. It just was…not my cup of tea. For several reasons.
There were some good points. Hockey. Mostly anything with hockey in it is going to a automatic read (especially right now, when we are at the tail end of the playoff season and it looks hopeful that the team I’m cheering for this year might actually make it to the finals). Plus the fact that the author seemed to genuinely get hockey was a plus. Though there was certainly not enough ice time to really fulfill me–but that is pretty much a given since you had to actually tell a story. I was a little unsure if I would care for Nik because I have some pretty firm feelings about enforcers and their use in the game, but I actually like him. After a bit. He does, I admit, take a bit of time to warm up to. Let’s just say that first impressions are important, and this dude’s first impression was a prime example of an asshole (though, to be fair, there were assholes a plenty at that first meeting).
I also liked some of the reality that was thrown (bashed) into this story. Neither Em’s or Nik’s family were leave-it-to-beaver. Em’s dad is a nationalistic prick. Yet he does love and support his son. He is afraid that being gay is going to get his son dead, but he doesn’t make Em feel any less for just being who he is. I like that. I like the reality that this brings to the story, because families are rarely ever just ‘good’ or ‘bad.’ Most times it is a mix of both and just because some judgments are bad, it doesn’t make them completely evil.
But then we come to the other side of the road. And, well, to be frank this book slowly slid from ‘Afternoon School Special’ into ‘Soap Opera Extravaganza’ and that, in my opinion, was not a good thing. Most of the ideas behind the actions of certain characters were good. Just, the execution was a bit too heavy handed for my taste. Nik’s dad was too much like a cartoon villain, and by the end he wasn’t so much scary as he was ridiculous. I’m surprised he didn’t have a mustache to twirl evilly while he cackled.
Also, Em’s whole “I can be a hockey player because I was one when I was like five and I’m a good figure skater, so I am clearly superior all the men and women who spend almost every day of their lives practicing the sport” idea was just plain stupid–and a little too much like a Disney Movie. I know other characters bring up the idiocy of Em’s thinking, and I liked that, but after this point Em became nothing more than stereotypical airhead to me and I don’t have time for people like that. I just stopped caring.
Between Nik’s dad, and Em himself, I just got to about the 3/4 mark and decided I didn’t care anymore. In fact, I would have happily DNF’d the book if I wasn’t obligated to write this review. I don’t have the tolerance for clichés that I used to, and this one was a cliché factory.
Even if I really really hate giving hockey books low ratings, because they are something I am automatically drawn to, and I hate the thought that people might write fewer of them, I can’t in good conscience let that hold sway over the fact that I just didn’t enjoy this book. Which makes me sad, but there’s nothing I can really do about it. You might have a different reaction to this story, if you are not so quiet done with over-the-top villains and the weird-ass schemes, but just be warned that they are there.
RATING:
DANIELLE’s REVIEW:
First let me say I have been a fan of Miss Ashling’s writing from the first moment I picked up one of her books. Whether it’s in the Horizon series (re-released a little while ago and so worth the read!) or if it’s in her Bay Area universe to name two examples, they fascinate me and are an auto-buy for me.
The author’s style is unique, very entertaining and enthralling and it draws me in and keeps me interested for the complete story. She manages to makes me want to keep reading a book and has the ability to change the course of a story with a few simple sentences.
When I found out this book was releasing I was excited. I mean who doesn’t like a nice athlete/sport story? After reading this book it left me with mixed feelings. I was drawn to the story like I was with the other books but it felt different. I cannot exactly pinpoint what it was but I felt I was missing something. If I need to name a specific thing it would be the missing of the intimate sexual connection/situations between Em and Nik.
Although I liked them as a couple it felt off in a way, perhaps because of the heavy subject. I do send kudo’s to the author for broaching this subject and keeping it close to “home” mentioning Sochi.
The family bonding between Emory, his dad and family and how they take in Nik within their lives is beautiful but the family of Nik horrified me and made me scared of what can happen and what perhaps is happening in the world.
Like I said kudo’s for the author for engaging this subject and having me worried while reading and even after that.
In the beginning of the story we can see Nik fighting hard to not acknowledge the attraction he feels towards Emory to a somewhat frustrating level but when they are finally there they are in it all the way, despite Nik struggling when something unexpected happens.
The support of the team is cool but I really would have liked to have seen certain things been explored more and this is one of those things.
Overall I can honestly say I was fascinated by this story and the characters involved and it definitely kept me reading wanting to know where it would end.
PS: I would have given anything to see Em performing that olympic routine on Lady Gaga and to see the charity event with the hockey players!
RATING :
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