Review: Alex by Sawyer Bennett

Alex

(Cold Fury Hockey # 1)

By: Sawyer Bennett

Pub. Date: October 14, 2014

Publisher: Random House - Loveswept

Pages: 224

Source: Netgalley

Hockey star Alexander Crossman has a reputation as a cold-hearted player on and off the rink. Pushed into the sport by an alcoholic father, Alex isn’t afraid to give fans the proverbial middle finger, relishing his role as the MVP they love to hate. Management, however, isn’t so amused. Now Alex has a choice: fix his public image through community service or ride the bench. But Alex refuses to be molded into the Carolina Cold Fury poster boy . . . not even by a tempting redhead with killer curves.

As a social worker, Sutton Price is accustomed to difficult people—like Alex, who’s been assigned to help her create a drug-abuse awareness program for at-risk youth as part of the team’s effort to clean up his image. What she doesn’t expect is the arrogant smirk from his perfect lips to stir her most heated fantasies. But Sutton isn’t one to cross professional boundaries—and besides, Alex doesn’t do relationships . . . or does he? The more she sees behind Alex’s bad-boy façade, the more Sutton craves the man she uncovers. 

I received this galley in exchange for an honest review.

Let me just start by saying how much I loved this book! When I first read the synopsis I was intrigued. I love books where a famous bad boy falls in love with a non-famous girl. While this story has been done over and over again, Alex is still original, and that is because of the characters. Both Alex and Sutton were written so wonderfully. Alex is just so beautifully broken, that I wanted and needed to get to the bottom of his issues. Sutton is a sweetheart who grew up to want to help people, especially children, who deal with addiction because she has seen her father battle it.

Alex is a fantastic hockey player and he knows it. But he has a horrible attitude on and off the ice. While he might play amazingly, he hates the game because all it does is remind him about how much his father abused him into being that amazing hockey player. Alex struggles everyday with it, and it's starting to take a toll. In order to stay on the team he has to work with social worker Sutton to create an anti-drug program, with him as the spokesman. The second these two entered the page together, their chemistry was ignited. It was so hot! I loved these two together.

I also loved watching Sutton break Alex's walls down and seeing Alex change because he wanted to be the best man possible. Not only for Sutton, but for Sutton's family and his own. I'm also glad when he really started talking to his brother and father about their shared pasts.

This was the first book that I read from Sawyer Bennett, and it definitely won't be the last! I'm very excited for the next book in the series, which will be about Garrett, a secondary character and Alex's teammate in Alex.