Zack (Cold Fury #3) - Sawyer Bennett
On the whole I absolutely love the Cold Fury Hockey series and each book is great in its own right, bringing quite a unique story line for each player to the table. It’s an inter connected series and I would suggest you read the others before going any further as there is information pertaining to the previous books in here. I guess they could be construed as spoilers.
The boundary setting thing was a huge issue for me, and she just rolled over and took it. In fact little Kate took so much that I sometimes saw her as a doormat. She kept convincing herself, or more like deluding herself, that the things Zack were doing were all right. For every con Zack had and did she came right out with a pro and everything was alright again. That was hard to swallow for me. She didn’t come across as an extremely solid character at all but more a motherly, healer type. I wanted someone that was going to grow a back bone and kick Zack’s a$$. I also have the issue with timing….I mean is 5 months too soon for someone who proclaimed to absolutely love another? This book read like a massive guilt trip in some respects, with Zack trying to claw his way out of that mind-set and it was really interesting getting into his head to see how he did and didn’t handle it.
With the way Garrett ended I knew this book was going to be a difficult read in terms of subject matter. The book is a thinker all right, you can’t help but not. But it wasn’t as emotional as I expected to be, I was honestly thinking I would need my tissues for this but not a tear was shed. Sure I felt some emotion throughout but nothing to remark upon. You can see a struggling Zack trying to protect himself but half the time I felt he should have been utterly ashamed of himself.
I didn’t understand why he couldn’t give Gina what he gave Kate. I know it’s explained thoroughly throughout the book by Zack, but I just didn’t get it. I did like the fact that he never shirked away from Gina’s memory and neither did Kate, so the respectful angle to the dead remained. I think a reader needed that. But on that note poor Kate kind of lost under Gina and I didn’t feel she got to shine like she should have. I loved her southern charm and her ability to always look on the bright side (whether good or bad) and the fact that despite being drawn the short end of the stick that is life, she wasn’t this broken up mess of a girl. A broken Zack and a broken Kate would not have worked and I think the author understood this.
I have a favourite scene in this book and I’m finding that they are fast becoming my little guilty pleasures. So when you get to that first kiss scene….relish it. It’s absolutely beautiful and will give you all the feels.
The author tackles some tough subjects again; death, guilt, and poverty amongst others and in true Sawyer style it’s always well done and sympathetic to the reader. I’m still not sure what I think about this book, I maybe need some time to process it a bit more but it’s a solid 4 star read for sure and so worth picking up.
