Review: Crazy Pucking Love by Cindi Madsen (Taking Shots #3)
Note: This ARC was provided by Entangled Publishing in exchange for an honest review.
"I thought you couldn't need who you didn't know, but I needed you before I even met you. I just didn't realize it until I had."
Eighteen-year-old college freshman Megan Davenport wanted to get a head start on her shot at freedom, choosing to enroll a semester early. Moving away from what had been her life ever since her parents were killed in a plane crash was a necessary first step and Megan has a list to make sure she stays focused on all her goals while in college. When she meets twenty-one-year-old junior Dane Kowalski at a party, she thinks she may be able to work her way on one of her items: finding a boyfriend who accepted and loved her for who she was. What she didn't count on was finding out that Dane just so happened to be her older brother's friend and teammate, and if it's one thing Beckett Davenport has always made clear, it's that he didn't want anyone on his team getting anywhere near his sister and vice-versa. But the connection had already been made. They tried to keep things purely platonic and Dane tried to stay away. The heart, however, wants what it wants, but no one ever said that falling crazy pucking in love came with guarantees--not when so much of Dane's past still held him back in ways Megan didn't even realize.
Megan Davenport was introduced to readers as Beck Davenport's younger sister in the Taking Shots series starter, Getting Lucky Number Seven, while Dane Kowalski made his first appearance in the second novel, Anatomy of a Player, as a member of the hockey team and Hudson Decker's best friend. In Crazy Pucking Love, both Megan and Dane are in the process of making necessary changes in their respective lives. She's done with the repressive life she was living before with her aunt and in the high school she was at, and he's done with being in any sort of committed relationship after failing to be exactly what his ex-girlfriend needed. When they meet, there's almost an ease and comfort that they've never really experienced with anyone else. I liked that there was a camaraderie and a geeky kind of playfulness that was all theirs. There's no denying there was already an attraction from the get-go, but then you can't also fake the friendship that they shared, even as they were trying to pretend that they could simply stay friends because Dane didn't think he could be anything close to what Megan needed or even deserved.
I confess that there were many times that Dane's whole back and forth when it came to his feelings for Megan had me wanting to smack him--repeatedly. I understood why he was hesitant--and clearly his being made to feel guilty by people within his family and by his ex-girlfriend reiterated his need to be distant with Megan--but it got to the point wherein he was coming off as selfish, thinking only of what was easiest on him, and not really Megan. But yes, just like with Megan, Dane won me over and over again. Maybe that's wrong and maybe it makes me a sucker, but the guy had issues and who are we to say which issues should take precedence over others? To each his own. Megan, on the other hand, rocked. After everything she experienced after her parents died, she made a choice to do better and have more. She knew when to press forward and when to back off, and that to me made her a really kickass heroine. She may have been only eighteen, but she was a very mature eighteen and she had more sense than peers my age. I adored Crazy Pucking Love and hope we see more of Ryder and Vanessa soon. Five-plus stars. ♥
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Read my reviews for the Taking Shots series:
Getting Lucky Number Seven (book one) - five-plus stars - My Review
Anatomy of a Player (book two) - five-plus stars - My Review
Crazy Pucking Love (book three) - stars - My Review (posted above)
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Release Date: 07 November 2016
Date Read: 07 November 2016
Learn more about Cindi Madsen.
