Sports

Let me list the reasons why dating a sexy, charming, pro hockey star is a bad idea:
1. He’s one of my closest friends
2. All our friends are friends
3. The wounds I’ve got from past relationships go deep. And so do his.

We’re both devoutly single -- it’s just safer for the heart that way. But there’s no reason not to bid on the gorgeous, clever athlete at the charity auction this weekend. If I win, it’ll be a friends-date.

And I do win.
I win him big.
And hard.
And all night long.
The trouble is . . . what happens in the morning?

Lauren Blakely is a prolific writer and I can certainly understand why her style appeals to so many: it’s easy-going, light-hearted, never heavy on the angst, with highly moveable characters who have solid friendships and are affected by them. Her books (or series of books) as a result, do tend to be clustered according to these friendship-groups as pairing after pairing gets featured, which make you feel as though you’re part of this inclusive, close-knit circle.

My tendency to jump from book to book of her randomly however, means that I don’t exactly know the circumstances surrounding each pairing, but each book safely reads as a standalone. ‘Thanks for Last Night’ is one of those kinds of read I think of classic Blakely by now, with a friends-to-lovers romance that glides smoothly through the pages without many (or any) hiccups apart. Teagan and Ransom are tossed together as the last single-people of their group and after a little ribbing, reassurances, get their act together when they find that resisting each other is…pretty much futile. Somewhat past their HEA, the end is weird (again, I haven’t read her previous books), with quick switches in POVs to other secondary characters that left me totally at sea.

‘Thanks for Last Night’ gets a middle-of-the-road rating from me, usually since as much as I think Blakely writes such breezy, light rom-coms, few of them are true standouts. Her many-protagonists start to blur into each other and remembering them a day later is difficult, let alone a month later. I’m not entirely inclined to go back to the first book in the series simply because I can’t seem to get excited enough to want to read about all her pairings.

It isn’t to say that Blakely’s books are not enjoyable; they are at the very moment as I go through them but past the HEA, there’s the real struggle I have to associate Blakely with the kind of storytelling that lasts I guess.