The Game Changer

Oh how I absolutely adore Lana Ferguson's books. She has become an auto buy author for me. She gives me everything I want in a book, the chemistry is always there, with some humour and drama. And this time she's given me a hockey player and well this girl loves her hockey romances! Ian Chase is no stranger to the limelight but when a very public breakup becomes a PR nightmare he just wants to escape and focus on his game. When a solution is presented to him in the form of Delilah Baker he finds that his best friends sister is not so little anymore and he is noticing her in a very different way. Delilah is known as 'the darling of baking' on her local cable show so she is used to being in the public eye. But her ratings are low and she's under pressure to turn it around. Panicking Delilah decides to offer up her brother's hockey team to try and increase the ratings. But when they send Ian her way she can't quite believe her eyes. He has been her crush forever and she's never quite gotten over him. Cooking up a storm in the kitchen to increase ratings they soon become a hit and start to turn Ian's reputation around. What starts as a PR stunt soon quickly becomes a reality. I absolutely adored the two characters. They are fun and have a real connection. Their chemistry is hot and there are some great steamy scenes in this book as well as some real vulnerable moments. I love how the author played about and ignored stereotypes and so it was often Delilah comforting the big hockey player as he dealt with some tough situations. I also love how Delilah calls him cupcake. It's a real fun read. And I hope Delilah's brother gets a book as he is funny and feel he deserves a story. Also, I adore this cover! It sums up the characters perfectly.

The Game Changer is the third book from Lana Ferguson and this time we have a brothers best friend Hockey romance! Delilah Baker has a successful cooking show, but her viewership is beginning to drop and her producers are getting worried. A jokey comment from her brother that she brings on someone from his professional hockey team on to the show to draw in the hockey obsessed Bostonian audience turns into a reality when she panics and pitches the idea to her boss. Of course this plan happens to coincide with the return of Ian Chase, hockeys golden boy and the son of the teams owners that after some very bad publicity made the decision to move away for a few years. Knowing it might be his last year playing he decides it’s time to head home and finish his career with the team that means the most to him. When their respective PR teams decide to put them together, Ian finds himself back in the same room as Delilah but she isn’t the shy teenage girl he remembers. Instead he comes face to face with a beautiful woman full of confidence and faith in him that the media rumours weren’t true. Delilah’s teenage crush on Ian refuses to be ignored and all her old feelings for him come surging back. The episode they film is a huge hit and the media begin to speculate that they could be secretly seeing each other. Some gentle pushing from their PR teams sees them agree to put on a fake dating performance for the cameras. But soon it becomes clear that they might not be faking anymore. I loved the romance between Ian and Delilah and their secret/not so secret romance seemed to develop fairly quickly, perhaps because Ian is surprised by Delilah’s changes or because it becomes clear to him that he can completely trust her it. I think that this could have been a bit more angsty to add to the tension and drama around the big reveal of Ian’s secret because it was quite easy to guess and the confession didn’t pack much of a punch. I would have liked some more gestures from Ian to prove he was as serious about Delilah as she was about him. It seemed like a lot of the risk was one sided and he needed to step up a bit more. It was a fun read and I’ll be reading the next book that comes out in December which will be a Loch Ness Monster romance! But at the moment The Fake Mate is still my favourite of Lana’s books.

Loved this! Fake dating? ✅️ Spicy 🌶🌶🌶 ? ✅️ No third act break-up? ✅️ Cinnamon roll ice hokey player hero ? ✅️ Absolutely what I wanted from a book and enjoyed every page 😍

I loved this book, it was the perfect combination of some of my fave tropes/plotlines so i ate it up - childhood friends to strangers to lovers - fake dating / pretending to date to get good media attention - brothers best friend - secret relationship (tbf its only really a secret from the brother that they’re actually together and not just faking for the public) - sports romance (pro hockey) - baker fmc - no 3rd act break up!!! - dual pov, first persom

🏒 Hockey Player & Baker / TV Personality 🧁 Friends to Lovers 🏒 Brother’s Best Friend 🧁 Fake Dating 🏒 Dual POV 🧁 Slow Burn 🏒 Mutual Pining REVIEW: There is just something about the circumstances created in a fake dating romance — the so-called pretend intimacy, forced proximity and slow burn realization that the relationship isn’t so fake after all. This book has so many tropes that I love — hockey, fake dating, brother’s best friend, mutual pining?! Don’t mind if I do! This book is a true childhood friends to lovers story that has a nice mixture of mild angst, banter, drama and a few spicy scenes. I did feel that the FMC’s brother kind of stole the show in the chapters that he appeared and deserves his own book. Overall, I had a good time reading this book.

It was refreshing being able to read a childhood friend’s to lovers story with no third act break up. Always good for a little change in angst. I liked the pre-established connection that Ian and Delilah had, and to watch it flourish more. The 🌶️ were blush worthy (especially the shower stall 🙂‍↕️), and their willingness to support each other made for a well balanced development. The only reason it’s not 5⭐️ is because something about the pacing felt off, and I can’t figure out if it’s perhaps just the nature of the conflict and how it came about. Overall, I really enjoyed it though.

Cute story, nothing too remarkable about it but I enjoyed it greatly.

I enjoyed every bit of this story and hoped and hoped that I would not be annoyed at the end. Yay, I really wasn't. LOL banter, and definitely NSFW scenes (that BTW, I can now read in front of the family without a twitch!), and a premis that was not overdone. I'd love to see a Jack story, & would it be too much to ask for it to be JAbby? He might be ten years older than her, but it could work. I want Abby to be in the family even more. Nice work Lana and thank you for the enjoyment 🥰

Loved the book! Classic story line of brothers best friend and sister buttt still loved it.