Review – Garrett by Sawyer Bennett

Garrett by Sawyer Bennett
Series: Cold Fury Hockey #2
Series Rating:
Published by Loveswept on February 17th 2015
Genres: Contemporary, Romance, Sports
Pages: 278
Format: eBook
Source: Purchased
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Carolina Cold Fury star Garrett Samuelson never wants to miss out on a single minute of fun. Whether he’s playing hockey, hanging out with friends, or walking the red carpet with a new date on his arm, he lives every day to the fullest. When he meets Olivia Case, he sees someone who’s exactly his type—confident, sexy, smart . . . his next fling. But the more he pursues her, the more Garrett shares a side of himself that other women don’t normally get to see.Olivia has been keeping a secret. While Garrett lives for the next thrill, Olivia’s not sure she’ll live to see the next day. She’s undergoing treatment for some serious medical issues, and she doesn’t have time for a relationship with no guarantees—especially one with a hot-as-sin womanizer who won’t take no for an answer. But as she gets to know the real Garrett, Olivia can’t help falling for him . . . hard. To reveal the truth would mean risking everything—but you can’t score without taking the tough shots.

We met Carolina Cold Hockey star Garret Samuelson in the previous book in the series, Alex. He’s gorgeous, young, rich, and more than happy to take whatever advantages those things afford him. He’s not looking for anything from any woman except a good time tonight, then he’s on to the next. I was excited to see that the second book in the series would focus on him, because he seemed like exactly the kind of guy that would fall hard when he fell.

And did he ever. Olivia Case is Sutton’s cousin. (Sutton is Alex’s girlfriend from the previous book). She’s also gorgeous and young, but that’s where their similarities end. She’s dealing with a lot of serious shit, and when Garrett first sets his sights on her and asks her out, she turns him down flat. Garrett is not one to turn down a challenge, though, and seeks her out. She’s recently decided that rather than let her medical issues cause her to miss out on everything life has to offer, she’s going to take the opportunity to seize life by the balls and do whatever she thinks would make her happy in the moment. And for the foreseeable moment, that would be Garrett. For the first time, he’s met a woman that he would rather have a second date with than have sex with. And she doesn’t want to wait.

“I don’t want you to regret it if we fuck tonight. ”

“And I don’t want to regret not fucking tonight.”

We find out  pretty quickly that Olivia has cancer Her oncologist has been pretty clear that it’s treatable, but not necessarily curable. It something that they are almost guaranteed to get into remission, but she will have to live with the knowledge that it can come back at any time. It could come back as the same cancer, or a different cancer. She decides that she’s not going to tell Garrett about it. She knows his reputation and isn’t expecting him to stick around. She doesn’t want him feeling sorry for her, she just wants the few dates she assumes they’ll have together, then she’ll start her treatment and maybe run into him at hockey events if she attends them with Sutton. Everyone will have fun, and Garrett can move on like he always does.

Garrett has other plans. The more time he spends with Olivia, the more time he wants to spend with her. She’s not like so many of the other women he’s met; she’s smart, confident, gorgeous, all her body parts are real, and she seems to like him for who he is, not what he can do for her career, or what he can buy her.

I’m not averse to change. I’ve just never found a woman that made me want to consider it before.

I loved Garrett and Olivia. I didn’t always agree with Olivia’s decisions, but I certainly understood why she made them. Serious illness is an intense thing for any couple to go through, much less a couple who’s only been on a couple of dates. Anyone would be insecure under those circumstances. But Garrett was right there for her through all of it. I know that some people will probably think Garrett made the swing from sleeping with everything that walks to fully committed to one woman a little too quickly, but that’s one of the reasons I love these bad-boy-reformed stories. When they fall, they fall hard and they fall fast. Olivia’s medical issues certainly played a part in it, too, though that wasn’t a big part in his interest initially. He was already falling for her before he even found out about it. And, despite how Garrett was living his life, I think he was ready for this. No matter how great Olivia was, if Garrett was completely against the concept of committing, he wouldn’t have.

All of the characters in this series are great. Alex and Sutton play a big role in Garrett and Olivia’s relationship, and it was so great to see how well they’re doing. Even though they got their HEA in the last book, Alex was so damaged in the beginning of that one, it wasn’t difficult to imagine him backsliding. But he was so completely there for both Garrett and Olivia, it was clear that he’s still doing really well. I love the whole cast of characters in this series. The next book was set up in a heartbreaking way, and I both really want to read it and don’t know if I’m ready for it. This series is the only Sawyer Bennett I’ve read so far, but once I’m caught up with it, I’ll probably check out some of her other stuff.

 

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