Review: Brooklynaire

Brooklynaire by Sarina Bowen
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

It's always difficult when a series comes to THAT book, the book that has been foreshadowed in all the other books, the book that fans have been wanting since day one, the final book in the series. This is that book. Don't start the series here!

Also, I love Sabrina Bowen but that cover! Bleurgh.

Nate Kattenberger is geek, a nerd, a billionaire and the owner of the Brooklyn Bruisers. Seven years ago he had a small tech business, full of guys eating pizza and playing ping-pong, all brains and no commonsense. He hired Rebecca Rowley straight out of college as office manager to bring order to chaos and she has been his right-hand woman ever since, well until two years ago when he brought the glamorous ice-Queen Lauren in to take her place in Manhattan and put Becca in as assistant to Hugh Major, the General Manager of the Brooklyn Bruisers.

The plot of this book overlaps with that of the previous book, Pipe Dreams, which concerns Lauren and Beacon, the goalie for the Bruisers.

When Lauren falls on the ice and gets a concussion which won't heal, Nate takes things into his own hands and moves her into his sprawling mansion, complete with AI butler, 24/7 security and a housekeeper. Will the two most cautious, oblivious lovers in the history of romance ever realise that they are totally right for each other?

I understand why some of my friends liked this but didn't love it. It's the one we've been waiting for and it's really hard to deliver against all those expectations. But I think Sarina pulls it off. The angst is low-key and kind of off-centre (trying hard not to spoil for the slower readers), we get to see Nate in all his geekyness, including an obsession with palindromes. We travel with the Bruisers and sit in the owner's box at games, I felt hoarse in sympathy for all the screaming and shouting that Becca does for her team. Nate gave me the perfect ending. It's not all angst-angst-angst and there are no manufactured ridiculous misunderstandings to make you sigh in exasperation. It's just like one of Becca and Nate's hot tubs, hot and soothing and fun.

Wonderful end to the series, wonder what happens with you know who and the thing ...

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