Blog Tour Review: Our Best Shot by A.M. Williams

Posted March 17, 2022 by Lisa Mandina in Blog Tour, Review / 4 Comments

My life seemed perfect until he came back to town. With his sights set on me, he’s ready to settle down and face any challenge. Fans of Briar U by Elle Kennedy will devour Our Best Shot by A.M. Williams, a small-town, forced proximity, hockey romance.

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I received this book for free from Indie Pen PR in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

Blog Tour Review:  Our Best Shot by A.M. WilliamsOur Best Shot by A.M. Williams
on March 8, 2022
Genres: Adult Contemporary Romance, Adult Sports Romance
Pages: 349
Source: Indie Pen PR
Format: E-galley
My Rating: three-half-stars
Goodreads

Blurb:

Rory

On the outside, my life seems perfect. I have my friends, family, and quirky small town to keep me satisfied plus my secret writing career that’s done better than I ever dreamed. What’s not to love?

There’s just one thing missing. But I don’t know what it is.

At least until he comes back to town. The man I crushed on so hard in high school, I couldn’t talk in full sentences around him.

He’s back, he’s ready to settle down, and he’s set his sights on me, the wallflower.

Every time I turn around, there he is. He wants to know about me. And no matter how hard I try to ignore him…I can’t. He’s everything I wanted as a teenager.

And as an adult? I’m discovering that he’s the total package and is ready to sweep me off my feet.

Alex

Deciding to retire from my professional hockey career was easy. I miss my family, friends, and hometown. I crave a slower lifestyle so I can finally settle down.

What isn’t easy? Figuring out how to coach teenaged boys in how to play hockey and win over the woman I can’t stop thinking about.

I think about her constantly and am constantly finding ways to run into her ‘by accident’. I want to know everything about her, but she’s hesitant and I have my work cut out for me to convince her to step outside her comfort zone and date me.

But I’m up for the challenge. I’m ready to show her what being with me could be like and that she doesn’t need to be scared.With outside forces working against us, can we get it together for our best shot at a happily ever after?

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Excerpt

Copyright 2022 @A.M. Williams

 “You want to sit for a little while?” Alex asked, pointing to a bench just ahead of us and off the main path.

I nodded, hoping that the bench would be enough out of the way that people wouldn’t notice us sitting there and stop staring.

We settled in and I sipped my coffee, looking the park over.

Compared to the weekend before, the park looked totally transformed.

There were bright tents throughout the trees with local crafters and artisans, and loud chatter filled the air from people walking around.

“This festival looks no different from when I came as a kid,” Alex said, pulling my attention to him.

I glanced at him and watched as he looked over at what I’d just been looking at.

“Are you surprised? You know we like tradition here.”

Alex chuckled. “Not really. I guess since it’s been so long since I was here, that I expected something to have changed. But nothing has. The same tents, same vendors, same atmosphere.”

I made a noise low in my throat. “There are some new vendors. They’re just peppered throughout. Some ones you’re thinking of don’t come anymore.”

What I didn’t say was that some owners had died because of how old they were and their businesses closed. The town had to get some new life for the vendors, otherwise this festival would have dwindled.

“Still. This is the same. If I close my eyes, I bet I could recall where everyone is and the order of the games at the rink. I feel like no time has passed.”

I said nothing at first. Then I asked, “Are you happy to be here at least?”

Alex met my gaze and nodded. “I am. It’s weird how I didn’t think about so much related to town while I was gone. I came home for holidays and brief visits, but everything else was just background. But now that I’m here, I can’t help remembering coming as a kid with my mom and sister. Hanging with my friends before our games. And all the other shit that the town does throughout the year.”

I thought about what he was saying. I didn’t have any experience not coming to the town events, considering I went to college close by and returned to town the minute I could. I’d kept coming to everything, even throughout college.

My Review

I was excited to read a hockey romance. There have been some good ones coming out lately, and this one had a lot of things about the story that sounded really good. The story started off really good, had my attention grabbed really quickly, and I sped through almost the whole first half. I really liked the characters and the story was unique in many ways.

While some dialog had been a little off or awkward as the story got going, it was not enough to disrupt me. About halfway through though, the first steamy scene though, that wasn’t the best for me. Again, it started a little bit awkwardly, and I kind of skimmed through it to get on with the story. As we got closer to the end, I started having a few other issues. I felt like the reasons for certain issues between our main characters were a little bit forced or didn’t make sense. It wasn’t just the drama for drama sake that normally bugs me, sometimes I just didn’t get it.

The villains in the story, while we got an explanation for why one of them was the way they were, kind of anyway, the other didn’t really make a ton of sense in how they behaved. I also had a little bit of an issue with Rory being as against letting people know who she was. While I understood her college issue causing her shyness or cautiousness about some things, it didn’t make sense in the long run. I mean I know LOTS of YA authors, not personally, but from following them on social media or attending events where they were speaking, and they were high school teachers or librarians. If she’d written something like romance, the type I read, or something that could be controversial, I could have seen more of how she behaved.

In the end, some of the issues I had were more to do with things I noticed from my writer’s viewpoint, things that I’ve had people point out about my own writing, or talk about when I read books on the craft or attend classes, etc. about writing. So I tried not to include that in this review. I really just wanted to talk about the things I thought as a reader.

Overall the story itself was enough to get me past most of the issues I had, the characters and the plot won out and made it a good read overall.

About the Author

A.M. Williams is just a simple girl from the south that found herself living abroad. When she’s not annoying her cat or reading, she’s spending time with her husband and traveling as much as possible. She has a serious case of wanderlust and wants to go as many places as possible while she can. She loves Cheerwine, sweet tea, and North Carolina (eastern style) BBQ as well as those crystal clear waters on the North Carolina coast.

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4 responses to “Blog Tour Review: Our Best Shot by A.M. Williams

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