Isabella: Book #2 in the House of Donato Series

by Patricia M. Jackson

I am a sucker for a hockey player, ask anyone! Have your main man lace up a pair of skates and that’s it I’m all in!!

So a quick flick through the blurb and I was all set to spend the day with Chad “Manic” Murphy and the beautiful Isabella Donato and I wasn’t disappointed.

I loved Chad, he had a way about him that was just so charming but he used his charm as a means to an end, he was perfectly well aware of the effect he had on people, namely women and one flutter of those luscious baby blues and it was game over, except he promised his teammate that when it came to Isabella, he would steer well clear….How’d that work out for you Chad? Because when Isabella starts to tutor him in order to make sure he keeps his place on the team, the temptation is just too much…for both of them.

I loved the fact that despite his difficulties, the fact that he has overcome more than most to achieve what he already has, the author was prepared to show that it wasn’t enough to use your talent, that he had to apply himself, to stretch and work academically to not only overcome his reading difficulties and dyslexia but also the fact that he had been able to hide it so well up until now.

I got the feeling that Isabella emotionally felt as if she was on the back foot with Chad, he was more than I think she felt able to handle but their connection runs too deep and I doubt that anyone could resist him when he flexed his formidable charm but  her level headedness paired up with his “call it as it is” mentality have them pulling at different ends of the same rope at times and  I almost felt as if I was holding onto the middle hoping that they would eventually find a happy medium.

The author was able to illuminate their relationship just enough to absolutely allow me to feel the magic, the romance and yet the conflict that battled between them. But when he sideswiped everyone and turned pro, honestly I could have kicked his a**

I was left aghast at the fact that he had behaved like such a jerk, his decision had consequences that impacted them both and she was left reeling from the backdraft of something she should have had a say in, I felt as if it knocked her confidence and had her doubting what she had been feeling all along.

But as angry as I was at Chad, I didn’t like the situation that he found himself in and knew that he had his work cut out to get to be where he needed to be…back with Isabella, if she would have him that is.

The story is engaging, the characters are realistic and the plot is a triumph. I might not have liked everything that Chad did but I liked him. If he had been in front of me batting his eyelashes at me I think I would have fall just as hard as Isabella did, heck he was mere words and I was hooked!

But as the book took shape there were questions to be answered and directions to be determined, not everything is straight forward and not everything is as it seems…just the way I like it.