Review: If You Want Me by Helena Hunting (The Toronto Terror #2)


Note: An advance reader copy (ARC) was provided by the author via Good Girls PR.

If You Want Me is the second novel in the Toronto Terror hockey romance series from Helena Hunting, and it's an age gap, falling for your father's best friend (or alternatively, falling for your best friend's daughter) romance. Peggy Aurora Hammerstein has had a crush on her father's best friend since she was a teenager, but she never thought it would amount to anything. What she didn't know was that Hollis Hendrix has been looking at her differently ever since she started working at the Terror's front office. He's trying his best to not give in to the temptation that is his best friend's twenty-year-old daughter. Doing so would definitely cause problems, not just for his friendship with Aurora's father, Roman, but within the team as well. Then there's that age gap, even if he is only thirty-three compared to Roman being close to forty, so it's not as if he's old enough to be her father. Yet no matter how much he wants her, Aurora could never be his... Or could she?

I love me a well-written age gap romance; add to that the complication of Hollis being best friends and teammates with Roman, who is Aurora's father. (Yeah, I prefer to call her Aurora than Hammer. Sorry, not sorry.) This wasn't a case of an older man who decided to corrupt a younger woman. If anything, Aurora had close to zero qualms about flirting with him and pushing his buttons whenever she had a chance to. I admired how she didn't shy away from her feelings for Hollis. That being said, I also applauded the fact that Hollis did feel it necessary to pause and think every now and again because his friendship with Roman meant such a great deal to him, as did the blossoming romance with Aurora. At the end of the day, these two were adults who made the decision to pursue something that was more than a momentary thing. Kudos to Helena Hunting for creating a female main character who was as confident and self-assured as Aurora was, but then this is something Hunting is already known for. If You Want Me garners 4.5 stars.

Release Date: 11 July 2024

Date Read: 09 July 2024

Learn more about Helena Hunting.

Purchase If You Want Me on Amazon.

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