Cherrypicker by Stephani Hecht
Blue Line Hockey, Book 7
eXtasy Books
Gay Contemporary
ISBN: 978-1-77111-243-7
Reviewed by Cassie




All Derry Cronwell wants to do is play hockey.  He’s signed with the Hawks, but knows his new teammates will be less than welcoming.  His older brother Pat is one of the Cougars, the most hated player on the most hated team of the league.  When the Hawks see Derry, they assume he’s cut from the same cloth as his brother: a brutal, homophobic jerk.  What they don’t realize is that even Derry isn’t immune to Pat’s abusive ways.  Derry’s determined to hide his fear of his brother from his new team—as well as his crush on the Hawk’s enforcer, Fallon.

Hawk enforcer Fallon hates the Cougars for a lot of reasons.  He hates having a Cougar’s brother on his team, and he isn’t at all welcoming to Derry at first.  Then he begins to see that Derry is nothing like Pat.  Can Fallon protect Derry from his brother and the rest of the Cougars?

I was disappointed in Cherrypicker.  The story had such potential.  Derry’s a sweet, wounded soul who needs someone to show him his worth.  Fallon is a protective tough guy with a heart of gold.  Watching them get together should have been great, but everything went so fast I couldn’t really savor their budding love.  Basically they meet, Fallon decides to hate Derry, and then he changes his mind and falls for the younger man in a flash.  On top of that, Pat, the villain, doesn’t really get his comeuppance—there’s not really any resolution to all the horrible things he’s done to Derry.  I wanted to know what happened to Derry’s money, and if Pat got into trouble for his behavior.  All the Blue Line Hockey stories have had such potential, but the payoff just wasn’t there in Cherrypicker.  It isn’t a bad book, but it’s not what I hoped it would be.