Breakaway by Catherine Gayle Review

Breakaway by Catherine Gayle

Portland Storm Series #1

The Stanley Cup playoffs start in just a few days and because Catherine Gayle's newest Portland Storm book, Dropping Gloves, releases soon and Toni Aleo's newest book in the Bellevue Bullies series, Clipped by Love, also releases soon, I decided to highlight hockey series that I love for the next few weeks. I am going to start off this week with Catherine Gayle's Portland Storm series. She has a spinoff series, Tulsa Thunderbirds, in the works as well and I can't wait to read about Hunter and Razor. But I digress, back to the Portland Storm series, the first book in the series is Breakaway. I read Breakaway for the first time last April. Toni Aleo, Catherine Gayle, Jami Davenport and 6 other authors had just released the anthology Seduced by the Game. In this anthology I read Taking a Shot by Catherine Gayle and met Katie Weber and Jamie "Babs" Babcock and instantly fell in love with the characters so I just had to read the series that these characters came from. I picked up Breakaway and On the Fly and then after that I have consumed every new book to the series. 

Synopsis: 
She’s reaching for a breakaway pass.

Dana Campbell has spent the past seven years in self-imposed isolation for a crime she didn’t commit. The danger is well in the past, but her panic attacks make it impossible to have a normal, healthy relationship with a man. Even her counselor has given up on her. She has to find someone she trusts to help her fight through the panic, or her seven-year ordeal will become a lifetime sentence. There’s only one man she feels safe enough to ask.

He got caught with his head down.

As the captain of the NHL’s once elite but now fading Portland Storm, Eric Zellinger knows a thing or two about keeping his focus on the job. Questions are flying about his ability to lead the team back to the playoffs. If they don’t make it, he might be shipped out of town. It’s the worst time possible for his best friend’s kid sister to divide his focus. How can he give her what she needs without jeopardizing both the Storm’s playoff hopes and his future with the team?

It’s her only chance, but it’s his last shot. 


Below is my review, my original review of Breakaway. 

4 Stars

I read Ms. Gayle's novella in the Seduced by the Game anthology and loved it so I had to check out her other hockey books. This one wasn't exactly what I was expected based on the blurb, but it was such a good book. Dana is broken because of an event in her past that even with years of therapy she can’t move beyond it, so she asks her big brother’s best friend to help her move on. Eric wants to help Dana but he just isn’t sure she is ready and doesn’t want to hurt her. The book goes back and forth between both of their points of view so you get to see how much Eric cares for Dana and how hard it is for him to help her since he doesn’t want to scare her or hurt her or ever make her feel the way she did after her attack because of something he did. You feel Dana’s pain over what happened, her pain from not being able to move on and her hope that maybe Eric can help her. It was a great book that I had a hard time putting down.

Now that I have read the book more times than I can count I really need to add to it. I need to add that while you see how much Eric cares for Dana, you also see how he is willing to push his feelings for her aside to help her get better. You get to see the extremely tender care that goes into every move he makes when it comes to Dana. You get to see a once strong, confident woman find herself again after a brutal attack and rediscover that not everyone is bad in the world. You also get to see how much of a family the Portland Storm are, not just a team, which is a huge and wonderful theme throughout the whole series. You get to met characters that when their book comes around you just fall more in love with them. It is a book that every time I read it I fall more in love with it. If you haven't picked up this series you definitely should. Now is also the perfect time to do so since the latest book will be out next week, but also because the box set Portland Storm: The First Period is currently on sale for $0.99. This set contains the first 4 FULL LENGTH novels so it is a ridiculously good deal, or if you just want to check out Breakaway it is currently FREE.

Portland Storm: The First Period

Amazon  -  B&N 

Breakaway

Amazon  -  B&N

Author Bio: 

Catherine Gayle is a USA Today bestselling author of Regency-set historical romance and contemporary hockey romance with a New Adult feel. She’s a transplanted Texan living in North Carolina with two extremely spoiled felines. In her spare time, she watches way too much hockey and reality TV, plans fun things to do for the Nephew Monster’s next visit, and performs experiments in the kitchen which are rarely toxic.

If you enjoyed this book and want to know when more like it will be available, be sure to sign up for Catherine’s mailing list. You can find out more on her website, her blog, at Red Door Reads, at Hockey Romance, at Facebook, on Twitter, and at Goodreads. If you want to see some of her cats’ antics and possibly the occasional video update from Catherine, visit her YouTube account.