Stone (Pittsburgh Titans, Book 2) Sawyer Bennett Release Date: March 1, 2022
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About the Author:
New York Times, USA Today, and Wall Street Journal Bestselling author Sawyer Bennett uses real life experience to create relatable stories that appeal to a wide array of readers. From contemporary romance, fantasy romance, and both women’s and general fiction, Sawyer writes something for just about everyone. A former trial lawyer from North Carolina, when she is not bringing fiction to life, Sawyer is a chauffeur, stylist, chef, maid, and personal assistant to her very adorable daughter, as well as full-time servant to her wonderfully naughty dogs. If you’d like to receive a notification when Sawyer releases a new book, sign up for her newsletter (sawyerbennett.com/signup).Connect with Sawyer:
✦ Facebook: http://bit.ly/Sawyer_FB ✦ Reader group: http://bit.ly/Sawyer_NEP ✦ Twitter: http://bit.ly/Sawyer_TW ✦ Instagram: http://bit.ly/Sawyer_IG ✦ Goodreads: http://bit.ly/Sawyer_GR ✦ BookBub: http://bit.ly/Sawyer_BB ✦ Newsletter: http://sawyerbennett.com/signupTrinette Dungee 4 Stars!
Stone Dumelin was at the top of his game and had the world in the palm of his hand as a professional hockey player, but when a shoulder injury sidelines him and sends him down to the minors his world is turned upside down. Along with the sting of losing his career, he now has to watch his younger brother live the life he lost. The younger brother who was once his best friend, and who’s now been estranged from for the past few years.
The most tragic of events has given him a second chance in the majors. When a plane crash takes the lives of the entire Pittsburgh Titans Team, Stone is called up to join the newly formed team. Stone is not only trying to find his footing on this new team, but he’s grappling with the loss of his younger brother Brooks, who was a victim in the fatal crash. When Stone receives messages from Harlow Alston about his brother’s affairs, he responds to her by saying he wants nothing from his brother; but Harlow does not give up.
When her friend Brooks died in a plane crash it nearly broke Harlow, it had her tempted to go back to a lifestyle that wasn’t the healthiest for her. Brooks has tasked her with the ultimate favor. He’s asked her to reach out to his brother and execute his final wishes. Stone was less than receptive to Harlow’s requests. The Stone she meets is rude, brash, and arrogant, but Harlow knows it comes from a place of hurt.
Stone learns that Harlow isn’t just handling a legal matter for his brother, they were actually friends. Getting to know Harlow lets him get to know his brother all over again and helps him deal with his guilt and the loss. Harlow introduces him to a side of Brooks that he never knew existed, or at least his brother wasn’t ready to share with him.
What I loved most about this book is that Stone and Harlow are two very flawed people and their flaws aren’t sugar coated. While Harlow may appear to have her life together, she is battling demons of her own. It’s while battling these demons that she meets Brooks and learns about his life and his complicated relationship with Stone. In fact, Stone discovers that Harlow knows quite a lot about him. Although she’s only gotten Brooks’ version of him, she was able to read him pretty easily.
Stone and Harlow come from very different worlds. Harlow comes from wealth, old money with very supportive parents and family. Stone never knew wealth until he made it to the majors and his parents were far from supportive. He had a manipulative, sadistic, abusive father and an enabling mother.
I just recently finished another book where the phrase “The sins of the parents will be visited upon their children”, initially I took this to mean that the kids would ultimately pay the price for whatever wrongs their parents did. This statement also fits this story, but in a much different way. His father’s parenting of his brother and him had such an effect on him that it’s something Stone doesn’t realize until meeting Harlow’s family and Stone questions his ability to be in a relationship or have a family for fear that he will be just like his father.
Stone’s story seems to be broken up into two sections. The first being his struggle to overcome the guilt he felt about his brother, coming to terms with the type of person their father was, the type of father who would deliberately pit two brothers against each other in order to always have the upper hand. The second, focuses on Stone’s ability to accept his new life and the possibility of a new relationship.
This is only book number two in the series, but I’m loving how it’s going so far. The ability to build storylines that all center around one tragic event is proving to be very interesting. The other thing I loved about this book was the focus on Stone, although it’s a dual POV, the primary character remained Stone. Often times, dual POV stories tend to be heavy on the female character, but this one kept Stone at the forefront.