Power Play: A book I devoured in one sitting

Power Play by Avon Gale
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Avon Gale just nailed it! I’m so happy that I listened to you, Simone.



I thought it was going to be full of drama and angst because of the blurb that says Max couldn’t continue with his professional career as a hockey player thanks to an accident that involved Misha on the ice. Imagine my surprise when I see this is a feel-good story; the only one who’s got a bit angsty was Misha but as he says, is a Russian thing.

“Why did you do that? Why didn’t you take it?”
“I’m Russian,” Misha said with the faintest hint of a smile. “We angst, Max”

Misha is closed off at the beginning because he’s drowning in guilt even though what happened to them was 5 years ago and he cannot believe how easy is to Max to forgive him. Max is the light in Misha’s darkness; he actually helps him to move on and to forgive himself.

“[…] getting knocked down is just part of the game. What matters is that you get back up again.”

I devoured this book in one sitting and the whole time I couldn’t stop grinning and giggling thanks to Max and Misha. Max is definitely not the smartest one between these two and I like how Misha finds that adorable, he doesn’t care that Max is terrible in geography or that he doesn’t know who won the Cold War.

“Russians were sneaky. No wonder they won the cold war.
Wait… did they?”

Every time I think of Max I start laughing because I remember every single stupid thing he said or thought. I love how he knows he’s not smart and he just doesn’t care. According to Misha, he’s “indomitable.” He’ll always say what on his mind not matter what and he won’t ever shut up, not even when they were having sex but I didn’t care because it was so funny and it was so sexy seeing how Misha will shut him up *eyebrow waggle*

Oh boy, I really enjoyed this book. It has everything I like. It was sexy, it had really good banters (I liked when they were joking about Belsey), and the character and relationship development was splendid.

I liked the contrast between Max and Misha, they were completely different people, not to mention that both had different cultures and I like how they complemented each other. Max was the joyful guy and Misha was the tall and broody Russian. Their love felt real, their connection and chemistry were strong.

The side characters were amazing, the guys from the team really cracked me up and Max’s family was AWESOME. They were supportive and loving.

I only would’ve liked to have an epilogue, but I’m happy with what I got.

I know I skipped book 1 and 2 of this series but I’ll read them AFTER I read book 4 because I can’t wait to read about Isaac.

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