Blog Tour: A Secret For A Secret: Helena Hunting
A Secret For A Secret
Helena Hunting
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Release Date May 12, 2020
From New York Times bestselling author Helena Hunting comes a new romance about trading secrets, breaking the rules, and playing for keeps.
My name is Ryan Kingston, and I’m a rule follower. I’ve never been in a fistfight. I always obey the speed limit. I don’t get drunk, and I definitely don’t pick up random women at bars.
Except the night I found out that my whole existence has been a lie.
I got drunk. And picked up a stranger.
Her name was Queenie, and she was everything I’m not: reckless, impulsive, and chaotic. We did shots and traded secrets. And ended up naked at my place.
She left me a thank-you note in the morning and her panties as a parting gift. But no way to contact her.
Six weeks later I’m sitting in the first official team meeting of the season, and there she is. I neglected to mention that I’m the goalie for Seattle’s NHL team.
And Queenie? Turns out she’s the general manager’s daughter.
Ryan Kingston is the goalie, the good guy, the boy scout of their Seattle pro hockey team. He is polite and follows the rules...except maybe if he gets too much alcohol in his system. At least that is his excuse for picking up a stranger in a bar and taking her home for one hot night.
When Queenie was down and out, meeting Ryan at the bar made her feel better. Her life has been spiraling and she is kind of drifting. Sharing secrets is easier with a stranger. And an impulsive one night stand did not seem to be a problem.
But she has just moved back to Seattle to be her father's assistant. Her dad happens to be the GM for the Seattle hockey team. And soon that one night is coming back to haunt them both. More secrets.
It is an off-limits situation with uncontrollable chemistry. Sexual frustration leads to friendship. There is no way around it without trying to confront her father about their request to actually date in the open. But it seems for every step forward, more secrets are exposed.
This is a sexy, forbidden, opposites-attract, rom-com with heart and layers of issues. King is adorable and swoon-worthy despite his buttoned-up image. I loved King and Queenie together. King is the calm and center to her storm and chaos. But even King is full of surprises. Just when things would seem to settle down, something else would happen. Some secrets are omissions or even lies with repercussions. But the angst in the story is mostly external and not relationship-based about their actual feelings for the other.
But Queenie does have a lot of fears, insecurities, and self-doubt, and can be a bit much too handle. Will King be willing to weather the storm to be with her?
I loved Queenie's relationship with her youngish dad, Jake, and Ryan's with his momster. His family is kind of kooky and add some comic relief and drama. It is also fun getting more with the team, their significant others, and even their sweet offspring. They enjoy taunting each other, but are also an excellent support system. I would actually really like to get another book out of this series focusing on Jake. He's 40ish, hot, successful, protective, and ready to find love.
Ryan Kingston is the rule follower, clean cut member of the team. He is the one everyone relies on to be steady, calm, and level headed: key qualities in a goalie. But the news that his family wasn’t quite what he always thought it was sent him reeling, into a very out of character night of drinking and a one-night stand. He never would have imagined the one time he stepped out of his normal he’d meet a woman, his opposite, who fascinated him long after their one night together. What he also never imagined was running into her again in the team offices to learn she is the GM’s daughter.
Queenie was dealing with her own disappointment the night she met and went home with a stranger after a night of drinking. She hates feeling like she disappoints her dad, and her latest failure has her feeling like she’s let him down yet again. But her impulsive nature means she is often toeing the line, making rash decisions and facing the consequences later. Finding out she slept with one of her dad’s players is only the latest in a series of choices she feels her father would disapprove of.
These two are opposite in personalities, but they bring out the best in the other. Ryan Kingston’s world is typically a calm, ordered place. Queenie is the perfect storm to add Their relationship isn’t threatened by anything either of them does, but by the pressures around them and hangups with the past. I found myself entertained watching as they tried to keep to the no fraternizing rule set for her by Queenie’s father.
As this series continues I feel like my bond for this group has just grown, and I enjoy returning more and more each time. The side characters give this one such a kick, and I found myself rooting at several points (in favor and against) certain interactions between the side characters.
Ryan Kingston is the goalie, the good guy, the boy scout of their Seattle pro hockey team. He is polite and follows the rules...except maybe if he gets too much alcohol in his system. At least that is his excuse for picking up a stranger in a bar and taking her home for one hot night.When Queenie was down and out, meeting Ryan at the bar made her feel better. Her life has been spiraling and she is kind of drifting. Sharing secrets is easier with a stranger. And an impulsive one night stand did not seem to be a problem.
But she has just moved back to Seattle to be her father's assistant. Her dad happens to be the GM for the Seattle hockey team. And soon that one night is coming back to haunt them both. More secrets.
It is an off-limits situation with uncontrollable chemistry. Sexual frustration leads to friendship. There is no way around it without trying to confront her father about their request to actually date in the open. But it seems for every step forward, more secrets are exposed.
This is a sexy, forbidden, opposites-attract, rom-com with heart and layers of issues. King is adorable and swoon-worthy despite his buttoned-up image. I loved King and Queenie together. King is the calm and center to her storm and chaos. But even King is full of surprises. Just when things would seem to settle down, something else would happen. Some secrets are omissions or even lies with repercussions. But the angst in the story is mostly external and not relationship-based about their actual feelings for the other.
But Queenie does have a lot of fears, insecurities, and self-doubt, and can be a bit much too handle. Will King be willing to weather the storm to be with her?
I loved Queenie's relationship with her youngish dad, Jake, and Ryan's with his momster. His family is kind of kooky and add some comic relief and drama. It is also fun getting more with the team, their significant others, and even their sweet offspring. They enjoy taunting each other, but are also an excellent support system. I would actually really like to get another book out of this series focusing on Jake. He's 40ish, hot, successful, protective, and ready to find love.
Queenie was dealing with her own disappointment the night she met and went home with a stranger after a night of drinking. She hates feeling like she disappoints her dad, and her latest failure has her feeling like she’s let him down yet again. But her impulsive nature means she is often toeing the line, making rash decisions and facing the consequences later. Finding out she slept with one of her dad’s players is only the latest in a series of choices she feels her father would disapprove of.
These two are opposite in personalities, but they bring out the best in the other. Ryan Kingston’s world is typically a calm, ordered place. Queenie is the perfect storm to add Their relationship isn’t threatened by anything either of them does, but by the pressures around them and hangups with the past. I found myself entertained watching as they tried to keep to the no fraternizing rule set for her by Queenie’s father.
As this series continues I feel like my bond for this group has just grown, and I enjoy returning more and more each time. The side characters give this one such a kick, and I found myself rooting at several points (in favor and against) certain interactions between the side characters.
“You think our GM got himself an assistant?”
I follow his gaze to the front of the room. Standing at the desk with her back to us, arranging papers, is a woman with wavy chestnut hair that nearly reaches her waist. “Maybe an intern?”
She’s wearing a navy dress that conforms to her very feminine form. I trace the dip of her waist and the curve of her hip, skimming down to where the hem of her dress hits the bend in her knee. Her calves are bare, athletic, and toned, and her heels boast a little bow on the back. Classy, yet sexy. “Possibly.”
“I hope the eye candy is gonna be permanent,” someone at the table behind us says, loud enough for everyone close by to hear.
“I wouldn’t mind if she helped me with my jockstrap,” one of the other guys chimes in, eliciting a loud chuckle from the rest of the table.
I glance over my shoulder and pin them with an unimpressed glare. I recognize Foley from Tampa, and Dickerson is an LA trade. They’re notorious womanizers. “Watch your mouth and have some respect. That’s someone’s daughter.”
“Take it easy, King. It’s not like we’d actually say that to her face,” Foley says.
I don’t have an opportunity to reprimand him further because the GM, Jake Masterson, and our head coach, Alex Waters, enter the room through the side door. The GM crosses over to the woman, whose back is still turned to us, and he gives her a smile that seems . . . overly warm. He leans in and squeezes her shoulder as he says something with his mouth close to her ear.
“Maybe she’s not his assistant. Maybe she’s his new girlfriend, ’cause that looks pretty damn friendly to me.” Bishop jams a sausage link into his mouth.
“Maybe,” I agree.
She turns slightly, giving me a glimpse of her profile. Her cheeks are flushed pink. I blink a couple of times, because she seems incredibly familiar.
“I think I know her,” I mumble, more to myself than to Bishop.
“Not as well as our GM does, by the look of things.”
It hits me like a puck in the chest without pads on. I do know her. Queenie. My one-night stand who bailed the next morning and left a Post-it and panties hanging from my doorknob. Destroyed panties. “Oh God.”
Did I sleep with the GM’s girlfriend? Memories come barreling into my brain, and I want to sink into the floor. My behavior that night was highly atypical. Everything about that night was. I chalked it up to the alcohol, the family drama, and the fact that she seemed to be a very eager and willing participant in our adventures. Do not think about the things you did to her.
I’d be lying if I said I haven’t thought about Queenie and our night together. I’ve even considered driving by the bar where we met, but I don’t know if she’s likely to show up there. And it’s not as if I can ask the bartender about her without looking like a creep. Besides, if she wanted me to have her number, she would’ve left it.
“Are you okay? You look like you’re about to hurl,” Bishop asks.
I cover my mouth with my palm, not because I’m going to be ill but to hide the fact that it’s hanging open and I can’t seem to close it. Although my stomach is starting to do those awful somersaults that will soon turn into full-on nausea. The kind I used to get when I’d first hit the ice for a game.
This is bad. Really bad. I’ve never had a one-night stand before. I’ve always been in committed relationships, and I prefer to get to know my bed partners before they actually get into bed with me. Teen pregnancy was pretty common where I grew up in Tennessee, because there wasn’t much else to do apart from playing sports or getting into trouble with drugs and alcohol—my brother, Gerald, went the latter route. I obviously fit into the sports category. By the time I became a teenager, my parents had finally learned their lesson. It was drilled into me to never become that kind of statistic, or to turn my girlfriend into a mom before she was ready to take on more than senior-level algebra.
Ironic how my actual mother would’ve been one of those girls had my grandparents not made the choices they had.
“King?” Bishop nudges me. “You’re staring, man.”
Jake whistles with his fingers, causing the woman beside him to cringe but then quickly school her expression into an uncertain smile. “Who’s ready for a new season?”
He’s rewarded with a chorus of cheers from the players. Waters stands off to the side, clapping enthusiastically. He generally runs all team meetings, but Jake is a hands-on GM, so he always manages first meeting intros before he hands it over to our coach.
Jake waits for everyone to settle down and take their seats before he continues. “Gentlemen, I’d like to introduce you to my personal assistant, Queenie.” He throws his arm over her shoulder and pulls her into his side.
A hot spike of anger rushes down my spine—it’s a foreign feeling. I’m usually very level headed. But not right now. It’s obvious by the way Jake and Queenie interact that there’s a relationship there. Is she a cheater? Did she make me one? There’s a definite age gap. He’s young for a GM, but he’s in his forties, and I’m pretty sure she’s in her mid twenties.
“She also happens to be my daughter, so don’t get any ideas, boys.” He somehow manages to wink and glare at the same time.
And it just went from bad to worse.
My one-night stand isn’t my GM’s girlfriend; she’s his daughter.
From the New York Times bestselling author of the Pucked series comes a romantic comedy about instant attraction, second chances, and not-so-little white lies.
Sometimes I need an escape from the demands, the puck bunnies, and the notoriety that come with being an NHL team captain. I just want to be a normal guy for a few weeks. So when I leave Chicago for some peace and quiet, the last thing I expect is for a gorgeous woman to literally fall into my lap on a flight to Alaska. Even better, she has absolutely no idea who I am.
Lainey is the perfect escape from my life. My plan for seclusion becomes a monthlong sex fest punctuated with domestic bliss. But it ends just as abruptly as it began. When I’m called away on a family emergency, I realize too late that I have no way to contact Lainey.
From the New York Times bestselling author of Pucked and A Lie for a Lie, a new stand-alone romance about trading favors, battling wills, and winning love.
When I joined Seattle’s NHL expansion team, I thought it was the start of something great. But nothing ever goes the way you expect. Take my introduction to my new neighbor. She came rolling in on the hot mess express at midnight, making a racket while she tried to get into my team captain’s apartment. Did I mention that he’s married to a woman who definitely was not her?
Imagine my surprise when I end up with an injury that has me out of the game for weeks, and she’s the one to offer to help me. I should probably add that she’s not the captain’s mistress. She’s his sexy, pastel-haired younger sister.
So we come up with an arrangement: she rehabs me so that I can get back on the ice sooner, and she can add a professional athlete that isn’t her brother to her client list. Seems simple enough. As long as I can keep my hands to myself and my hormones in check.
Helena Hunting
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NYT and USA Today Bestselling author, Helena Hunting lives outside of Toronto with her amazing family and her two awesome cats, who think the best place to sleep is her keyboard. Helena writes everything from contemporary romance with all the feels to romantic comedies that will have you laughing until you cry.
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