BOOK REVIEW...Delayed Penalty (Crossing the Line #1) by Shey Stahl

A minor penalty that is not called until the offending team gains control of the puck. As long as the non-offending team maintains possession, the referee allows play to continue and signals a delayed penalty by raising his arm.

I’m Evan Mason, an NHL hockey player for the Chicago Blackhawks. I spend my nights roughing up two hundred pound defensemen and, at times, spend more time in the penalty box than I do on the ice.

That’s my job. 

One night changed everything I thought I once knew about my life on, and off, the ice.

A girl. 

A brutally beaten girl left to die in an alley.
I don’t know why or how but something made me stay that night after taking her to the hospital. I didn’t know her, nor did I have an obligation to stay but something inside of me rooted me there telling me I should stay. Saving a life is worth something. At least I thought so. And I wouldn’t have been me if I just simply left her there. 

Any man who put his heart and soul into a game of hockey couldn’t just walk away when someone needed them. She had no one else right now. The same guy who saw determination where there was desire, now saw hope where there was once despair.

I couldn’t leave. That wouldn’t be me. No, not a man that put all he had into something some called just a game. I couldn’t walk away from her holding onto life, weak and powerless to something she had no control over.

So I stayed. In a room full of family members praying for their loved ones to pull through, I prayed for a girl I didn’t know and had never met before, to have a beating heart. While others’ sorrows turned to grieving pain, I sat waiting on the words of the unknown.

No bond is stronger than the ones you’ll bleed for.
Published June 5th 2013 (first published June 2013)

"Delayed Penalty" was a but 'Cinderella-ish' for me.  I mean, Evan was literally like a white in shining armor rescuing the fair Ami from a sexual abuse encounter that almost left her dead in an alley.  Their relationship was cute but I grew peeved and irritable with Evan treating Ami too much as if she were a piece of glass or porcelain doll.  I mean, I get where he's coming from and all trying to not take advantage of her but Ami was clearly consensual of being 'intimate' with him and was at times begging him to sleep with her.

Ugh. And the hockey part.  I love hockey, don't get me wrong.  But I found myself skimming over the game parts as well as the dialogue between Evan and his team mates. So boring.

Over all, "Delayed Penalty" did meant well but I still wasn't that interesting or emotionally invested in it. Sorry.


My Rating:

-Overall : 8
-Plot : 8
-Writing : 8
-Characters : 8
-Cover : 8.5