Steele: An Arizona Vengeance Novel

Just because you get married doesn’t mean the romance has to end. Even years down the road romance should still be a part of your relationship. Yes, life gets in the way, but you should never forget what made you fall in love. Jim is finding this out the hard way. Yes, he loves Ella, but his hockey career sometimes comes first and after all these years Ella is not happy with it. His feelings and love for her are always there but sometimes he doesn’t always show it. I guess he takes it for granted that she knows he loves her and is committed to their marriage. Ella has had enough so she asks him for a separation. Jim doesn’t fight her he just leaves never really hearing why she has asked him to leave. It is after months of being away from Ella and their daughter and alone that he starts to realize what he was doing wrong. How he put his family second to hockey and other things in his life. Now he wants Ella back and is willing to do anything and everything to show her he has changed and that they are the most important people in his life. It won’t be easy; talk is cheap as the saying goes but he is listening now. Which is something he never did before they separated. Sometimes we don’t realize how good something is until we lose it. Jim is determined to convince Ella to take him back. To remember the love, they shared and the family they created. She agrees to give him time to prove himself that he is ready to come back but it won’t be quick or easy. Now the simple things he took for granted he now appreciates. Like simple texts during the day to Ella, romantic “dates”, staying home and eating junk food and watching movies. But can Ella trust him again. This is all nice now, but will it always be like this or will he revert to how things used to be. But sometimes you have to take the risk if the outcome is worth it. Even though each story is a stand alone it is great to see all the other couples and what is going on in their lives. These books all represent a family of sorts. They may not be related by blood, but they are family all the same.

All Ella Steele wanted, was to be seen. After years of settling for second best, Ella asks Jim to move out. As far as she’s concerned, the separation is one step closer to divorce. They share a child together, a lot of happy memories, and their chemistry is off the charts....but that’s no longer enough. Ella feels “invisible”. While she knows Jim’s job is important to him, she wants to come first every once in awhile. In an effort to move on with her life, Ella starts dating “Mr. Ordinary”. Jim Steele dreamed of making it big as a NHL hockey player. He’s made a good life playing professional hockey, but somewhere along the way he lost what was truly important to him—his wife. It’s not until Jim sees her moving on with her life by dating “Mr. Ordinary”, that he realizes he may have lost what mattered the most to him. In efforts to win Ella back, Jim does a lot of soul searching and realizes just how selfish and neglectful he’s been over the last several years. He also realizes that Ella tried to tell him how unhappy she was, but he just wasn’t listening. So, he comes up with a plan to win back the love of his life. While this wasn’t the most suspenseful book in the series, it was a great second chance read. I loved how Ella didn’t just give in and actually made Jim work at fixing their marriage. Marriage is hard! I liked how neither spoke badly about the other in front of their daughter. I also liked how they didn’t make her choose sides. I enjoyed the glimpses into their past and Jim’s work into bringing the romance back in their marriage. Mistakes were made, but nothing that wasn’t fixable. Awesome story! I read a gifted copy and all opinions stated are my own.

4.25 stars—STEELE is the ninth instalment in Sawyer Bennett’s contemporary, adult ARIZONA VENGEANCE erotic, hockey romance series focusing on the members of the NHL’s Arizona Vengeance hockey team. This is Arizona Vengeance defenseman James Steele, and his wife, graphic designer Ella’s second chance story line. STEELE can be read as a stand alone without any difficulty. Any important information from the previous story lines is revealed where necessary. NOTE: Some of the events of STEELE cross over with, and run parallel to the events in book eight KANE. Told from dual first person perspectives (James and Ella) STEELE follows the rebuilding romance and relationship between Arizona Vengeance defenseman James Steele, and his wife Ella Steel. Five months earlier James Steele was taken by surprise when his wife Ella,the woman he loved, asked him to move out of the family home. Having no idea what had happened or why, Steele is floored when Ella tells him she feels taken for granted, and she and their daughter Lucy are no longer a priority for the husband and father he is supposed to be. Hoping to woo back his wife, James sets into motion a plan to seduce the woman he loves in an effort to make whole the family he destroyed. What ensues is the rekindling romance and relationship between James and Ella,and the potential fall-out as the game of hockey , once again, takes center stage. The relationship between James and Ella is one of second chances. For years Ella no longer felt she was a high priority in her husband’s life, and the game of hockey took up all of his time. Missing his daughter’s recitals, and school events were the final straw, and Ella made a decision to move on without the man that she loved. James Steele struggled in the five months he was separated from his family, even resorting to stalking the woman that called to his heart. Proving himself worthy, James would have to seduce Ella, in an effort, to put his family back together, again. The $ex scenes are intimate, erotic and intense, without the use of over the top, sexually graphic language and text. There is a large ensemble cast of secondary and supporting characters including most of the previous story line couples, couples of which , using our story line heroine, the reader gets a refresher about the who’s who on the Arizona Vengeance. STEELE is a story of family and relationships, friendships and love. The premise is heart warming and engaging; the romance is seductive and captivating; the characters are energetic and determined.