Off the Record (Off #3)

***3.5 Stars***
What I love about this series is the deep love and devotion these men feel for their women (all except for the irredeemable Cillian OBraidagh in book four whom I despised.)

Ever Montgomery was betrayed and abandoned by her father when she was young. She has allowed that to affect every area of her life in a negative way. She is incapable of forming relationships and fears any man she would become involved with will abandon her like her father did. After all, she wasnt important enough for her father to maintain a relationship with her when she was his flesh and blood, how could she ever keep a man. She can spot a liar from great distance and this has made her a very good reporter.

Lincoln Caldwell is the very hot goalie for the New York Rangers. Hes gorgeous, carefree and loves to throw parties at his place and get women into bed, or against the wall, or bent over the dresser or…you get what Im saying, right?

Ever publishes an article about Linc that was supposed to be off the record. They had talked earlier in the evening at a party he was throwing and he showed interest in her and asked her out on a date. A little while later she went upstairs to visit the restroom and heard some things she shouldnt have. Since the restroom was not vacant she was going to use the one in the master bedroom. After all the door was left partially open. But when she started to enter there was Linc going at it with a woman up against the wall. Ever was appalled that he could have shown interest in her just a short time ago and was now having sex with another woman. A scoundrel just like her father. Unfortunately, this was also touched upon in her article and Linc was furious. He was most concerned how this would affect the all the kids that followed his career and how his reputation and image would be ruined.

In my opinion, if you are a any type of star or celebrity and you desire to be a good example to the children and teens who look up to you, you should live your life in a way that exudes that. But Linc didnt. It was kept on the down low and now he was exposed…IMHO it was his own fault.

I have a couple of book triggers and this hit a big one. Its bad enough reading about all the man-whores that are so prevalent in most books today, but if after meeting the one, even just an introduction, and then he is with another woman or women it just ruins it for me. And good grief, if he was going to do the down and dirty at his party with a house and yard full of guests did it not occur to him to close and/or lock the bedroom door? It wasnt uncommon for his guests to use the restroom in the master.

Off the Record is Sawyer Bennett’s third book in her Off Series. It can be read as a stand alone, but you will not be disappointed in reading the books prior to this one. This series is filled with strong compelling characters, which will hook you from the start. There are also great messages to be heard from each story.

In this book, you meet Ever Montgomery and Lincoln Caldwell. Ever is a recent graduate of Columbia and is making her way as a journalists. Ever has been betrayed by the two men she has ever loved. She is bound and determined to never let that happen again. She knows when to spot a great story and has an uncanny ability to spot lies from a mile away.

When Ever gets the chance to interview Lincoln Caldwell, the goalie for the New York Rangers, she jumps at the chance. He is a 24 year old star athlete with a huge fan base. After a series of events, Ever chooses to publish her opinion of him as a man for her story. To get retribution for the article, Lincoln and the editor of the paper she works for insists she follow him for 6 weeks to see the real him. Will Ever find she has misjudged Lincoln?

Sawyer has an amazing ability to develop her characters in this book. She pulls you in, makes you laugh, cry and feel a wide range of emotions as you dive deeper into the storyline. I will definitely be interested in reading more from this series!

Rating: 4.5 stars

This book was nothing I thought it would be when i started it, which made me like it THAT much more. I’ve read a lot of books lately – ones where the hero and heroine see each other and it’s instant love – which, let’s be honest, I am a sucker for. However, this book does not have that. Instead of instant love, it’s more like instant hate and I couldn’t have been happier!

Ever Montgomery, has a wall around her heart, not just one wall, but she has a cement one, ice one and probably a barbed wire fence as well. She has severe trust issues when it comes to men, which is completely understandable given that the only men in her life that she actually let in and trusted pretty much stomped all over her heart.

Meanwhile, Linc Caldwell is a hot, single bachelor who happens to be the starting goalie for the NY Rangers. Although he may be single, he isn’t the typical man whore that one would expect. Sure, he likes being with women and likes to have fun, but he has some standards. When these two meet, there was an attraction, although instant love is going a bit far. However, that mutual feeling was short-lived.

After her interview with Linc, the article she writes may seem like it is based on facts, but in actually, may have been written in haste. Enter instant-hate. By this point I sat with my Kindle rubbing my hands together waiting for the fireworks to go off. Don’t judge, but I eager to see how this would go down. Without any choice in the matter, Ever finds herself spending the next six weeks living, breathing, eating Linc Caldwell to really get to know him and write an article based on fact and experience.

What Ever wasn’t expecting was a man that had a heart of gold who wasn’t just some athlete that lived in luxury, but rather one that worked hard, gave back to the community and loved his family. Ever’s walls may have been slowly breaking down, but could Linc trust her to really see the real him or would she just use everything she sees against him?

Ever is the type of character that normally I’d want to smack upside the head repeatedly, but for some reason, I didn’t with her. I totally understood why she guarded herself and her heart so closely and quite frankly, I didn’t blame her! She was annoying at times but never to the point where I was so frustrated with her that it put me off. She was a character I was rooting for. I wanted her to let Linc in, I wanted her to let herself let love in, I wanted her to trust again.

Linc was pretty perfect. I loved that he wasn’t just a typical athlete that slept with anything with a pulse. I loved that he also kept his guard up with Ever after she wrote that article. I loved that he stood up for himself and that no matter how much he may have wanted Ever, he didn’t let her walk all over him. He didn’t become a crying mess when her heart of ice wouldn’t let him in. He didn’t crawl on his knees for her, he stayed true to who he was and I admired him for that. Simply put, Linc is a real man and I loved ever part of him!

This is the first book of Sawyer Bennett’s that I have read and I can speak from experiences when I say that this is a complete stand alone book. You do not need to have read the other two books in the series, Off Sides and Off Limits, to read this one. However, those of you who have read those books, you will be happy to know the characters from them do pop up throughout the story!

I really enjoyed this one, I think mainly because it was a bit different than some of the other books I’ve read lately.

Somehow I managed to read the ‘off’ series out of sequence, but to date I’ve really loved all of them. They’ve all been sweet, low angst, well written sexy stories and while this was no exception, I didn’t enjoy it as much of the others.
First up, I thought the storyline was just too improbable; she’s a junior reporter, he’s an ice hockey star, they meet through a mutual friend and there’s an attraction followed swiftly by a misunderstanding and she ends up writing a bitchy opinion article that suggests he’s a man whore. Ok so no newspaper I can imagine would print that article in the first place, but he decides to get even by forcing her to spend six weeks with him to discover what he’s really like. Yep he invites this hostile, untrustworthy reporter into his home and what’s more her editor apparently pays her to spend six weeks with this guy in order for her to write one puff piece at the end of it. Yep….really. But I went with it and followed their story, which like the rest of this series is sweet, hot etc etc… Then right at the end, another thing happens straight from my list of things I hate to read in stories – a huge pda moment, this time in the form of an article she writes (and again, it’s an article that no newspaper would ever print) that had me wincing with its naffness. Ew, just, no.
Fortunately, the rest of the book saved it and I know lots of people love pdas but sadly not a great read for me.

I really enjoyed this story, it’s the 3rd in the ‘Off’ series, and it is just as good as the other two!

The story follows Lincoln Caldwell, the hockey playing brother of Nix from ‘Off Limits’, as he deals with the aftermath of an article written about him, showing him in a not very good light. The article is based on opinion rather than fact, and he is determined to have this wrong righted, by whatever means possible.

Ever Montgomery is the journalist that wrote the said article, after she misinterpreted an overheard conversation. She has trust issues with men, and Linc Caldwell appears to be no different to every other man she has met; but will her story change after spending six weeks in his company?

Linc is a great character, and I felt more empathy towards him in the story than I did for Ever. Not that Ever wasn’t perceived as a nice person, but I didn’t completely warm to her. Linc’s character was believable and more real, and I enjoyed his chapters more!

Ever seemed to be too closed off to any possibility of anything good happening in her life, which, considering her back story, is understandable, I just felt that she could’ve been more receptive. However, that is just my opinion!

This is still a great story and I would absolutely recommend this as a good read, I really did enjoy it and hope that there will be more to add to the series.

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