Book Review: Hip Check by Dierdre Martin

Hip Check
New York Blades #10
Author: Dierdre Martin
Reading Level: Adult
Genre: Contemporary Romance/Sports
Released: February 5th 2013
Review Source: Berkley
Available: Amazon

Summary: (from goodreads) Esa Saari is a hockey player for the New York Blades with a bad-boy rep both on and off the ice. But when he suddenly becomes the guardian of his eight-year-old niece, Nell, he knows his excessive lifestyle is about to get body checked.

So he hires a live-in nanny. Her name is Michelle Beck, and she gets along great with Nell. What surprises him, though, is that he instantly hits it off with her, too. Getting romantically involved would be a bad idea, but he’s finding it impossible to ignore the intense connection between them.

Michelle, however, takes her job very seriously, and must decide whether to listen to her head or her heart. And Esa’s got to decide if he can give up his bad- boy image for the love of a good woman…

I really enjoy these small romance novels. They are easy and quick to read and always have an uplifting quality to them. Hip Check is fun, the characters are amusing and the story line is……well…..cute.

Esa Saari is from Finland, lives in New York, is a professional hockey player for the NY Blades full-time and a womanizing partier in his spare time. The death of his sister fills him with guilt and to top if all off, his sister left him her daughter. Nell, eight years old, sweet and beautiful, throws Esa for a loop. Not only does he have to make a home for her, think about school for her but he also needs to hire a nanny.

Through a mutual friend he finds Michelle who has recently found herself open for a job. Esa hires her immediately but more for himself because he knows he is clueless as to how to deal with his niece. Michelle is just the no nonsense woman he needs to kick his butt into gear. She forces him to make decisions, to spend time with Nell and to set new boundaries for himself on her behalf. Unexpectedly, Michelle throws him for a loop too. Esa is not used to being told what to do by a woman. He is very much attracted to her, which is surprising since she’s not at all his type.

Michelle is still dealing with the loss of her own mother at an early age, taking care her father and brother and her professional standards. Will she take a leap of faith? Can she finally figure out that she deserves to have a life of her own? More importantly will Esa become the man he needs to be to take on the 2 additional women that have bombarded his life?

I’ve not read books by this author before Hip Check, but I will be looking into that. I thought this book was wonderful and I hope you like it as much as I did.