Benched

Minnesota Caribou, Book 1

By: Colleen Charles

Narrated by: CJ Bloom, Teddy Hamilton

Length: 7 hrs and 31 mins

Publisher's summary

She's my friend's little sister. But I've ached for her for years...and I won't be denied.

What does the star center for the Minnesota Caribou professional hockey team do in the face of the ultimate betrayal?

Right, I've sworn off women because I caught my fiancee with my brother. Now, they're both dead to me. They represent an ache so deep, I might never recover.

I've never known a goal I couldn't score - or a girl I couldn't score with. Until I see her curled up in a sexy ball in my hospital room.

She's off-limits. Julia Wales is lush, smart, more determined than I am, and 100 percent taboo. For the first time in my life, I want someone I can't have. She's the successful business owner who obeys every rule. I'm the guy who breaks them.

Not since my injury have I shown a woman my scars. Until now...and there's no going back.

Contains mature themes.

©2016 Colleen Charles (P)2020 Tantor

hockey romance

I really liked the concept of this story but overall it fell a little flat. Julia and Adam were a very sweet couple but everything felt really rushed and every time you turned around some drama was coming to light trying to keep them apart. I will probably read the rest of the series but I'm hoping they get better from here.

Annoying female MC

Benched is a well-written romantic mystery a with a swriously annoying FMC with body issues and a ton of self doubt. This surprised me because we start the story with her showing up uninvited to the MMC's hispital room. That act of bravery is what sets the the relationship between the MMC and FMC in motion, but it takes being pushed over and over again by the side characters for her to speak up for herself. I actually found myself shouting at my audio book at times because she refused to speak and allowed the miscommunication trope to fester. That said, the mystery is well written and kept me intrigued enough to stay until the end. The steam was fairly light (2 scenes) and didn't last long. The book needs a trigger warning for attempted sexual assault, which happens 2 times and isn't mentioned in the summary of the audio book.

Narration is top notch and flows very well.

A Hat Trick!

This is the first time I’ve read or listened to a book from this author. For the most part, I was entertained. I love hockey, and lived in Minnesota when I was younger, so I was able to actually picture the places mentioned in the book.

I really liked the two main characters of the book, Adam and Julia. I thought that Teddy Hamilton in CJ Bloom did a good job bringing those characters to life. They were a few places where I thought CJ got a little screechy.

The character that I loved the most was the best friend, Sue Ann. Everyone should have a friend like her. There a couple of people in the book who you would love to hate, but they get what’s coming to them.

Cute Story

Overuse of misunderstandings to advance storyline.
too many times where the FMC especially jumped to conclusions instead of asking questions when presented with conflict / tough situation. I know it's just a fluffy romance, but that's a pet perve for me and it makes it impossible to like the characters when it happens repeatedly.
Still a cute story.
*Spoiler*
And I'm happy the bad guy got arrested finally.

Narrators are great storyline is lacking

The orchestrated conflict in the story makes the female main character seem so naive and stupid.

Loved it!!

I loved reading the book version of Benched and absolutely adored this audio! Ms. Charles' words put to narration is an absolute joy and pure pleasure to listen to. I laughed, cheered, and gasped out loud several times. Lol!! Download Benched and enjoy it yourself!

Good story but major issue

Overall I finished this, it was very good the first half but overall I did not like our main character. She started so strong but her snap judgment and insecure ways was very off putting

Good Story

Good story
Great narration
But I don’t understand why they put up with these losers BS
But this is fiction and I enjoyed the book

Terrible plot, infrequent/minimal spice, great narrators.

The plot was unorganized and could have used some editing. Spice was minimal and infrequent. The redemption for me was the choice in voice actors. It was free and got me through a couple commutes to work.

Sigh

The concept of the book was good but it was confusing and like too many bad things happening back to back that made no sense or didn’t have a build up to it just popped in. Julia was good in the beginning but after heather got involved she because spineless whiny teenager like she was just annoying. After knowing that what she was told was a lie but still chose to believe it was bad on her part she just wanted something to be mad at.