Going for the Goal by Sara Rider Find the Author: Website, Twitter, Goodreads
Published by Pocket Star on February 13th 2017
Genres: Romance
Purchase links: Amazon, iTunes
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Source: Simon & Schuster
Sara Rider returns with the third book in the Perfect Play series—a fast-paced, icy hot romance featuring a sports agent fighting an attraction to the NHL’s bad boy…and his ability to melt her heart.
In this perfect book for romance and sports fans, professional sports agent Jillian Nichols knows how to play the game to get what she wants. But admitting to what she needs has always been a challenge. Will she ever let her guard down long enough to let someone in? Or will the bad boy hockey player Nick “the Punisher” Salinger have to fight harder than ever for a chance to win her heart?
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For the love of hockey
Sara Rider
Going for the Goal, the third book in the Perfect Play series, has a lot in common with the previous two books. It features a tough-as-nails woman in the world of professional sports butting heads with an equally strong but caring man who eventually wins her heart. But this book also takes a bit of a departure from the other two. Whereas For the Win and Keeping Score are set in the world of professional women’s soccer in Seattle, Going for the Goal takes place in New York City against the backdrop of professional hockey. The story is about Jillian Nichols, a sports agent, and Nick Salinger, an NHL star, rekindling a relationship almost a decade after a chance encounter neither one was able to forget. Today I want to share with you the top five reasons why it was so fun to switch gears with this book and take on a new challenge of writing about hockey:
- An established world: The NHL has existed for a century, making it one of the longest running professional sports leagues in history. It also means there is a very clear and established set of regulations to frame the storyline, which was a nice change. When I first started writing the series, no pro women’s soccer league existed, so I spent a lot of time researching and creating a fictional league.
- Beards: So. Many. Gorgeous. Beards. Honestly, what more is there to say?
- Aggression: Hockey is not a sport for the faint of heart. Writing an aggressive, physical character like Nick Salinger who isn’t afraid to use his body on or off the ice was a fun change of pace.
- High-stakes salaries: I’m utterly fascinated by what drives athletes to pursue their sports at the level they do. It was neat to see how money did (and didn’t) play into Nick’s career decisions, and upped the stakes of the storyline. Plus, there’s something deliciously fun about a hero with a giant bank account and a desire to spoil his woman in every way possible.
- Quality time with my husband: Nothing made my husband happier than hearing me ask if there was hockey on TV every night while I was writing this book. I’m a casual hockey fan, but I relied heavily on my hockey-fanatic husband for insight and information. Fortunately, that meant he and I got to spend many quality nights on the couch cheering on our favorite teams all in the name of ‘research’.
Thanks so much for having me on the blog today! I hope you enjoy Going for the Goal as much as I did writing it.
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