Release Blitz: LOCKE: Sawyer Bennett
LOCKE
Portland Wildfire #2
Sawyer Bennett
Sawyer Bennett
August 11, 2026
He’s the league’s most dangerous enforcer. She’s the specialist sent to determine whether he’s too broken to save. Neither of them is prepared for what happens when the truth hits back.
Donovan Locke has a reputation carved in blood and penalty minutes. The league’s most dangerous enforcer, he’s an angry, unapproachable loner who fights harder and refuses to let anyone in. The Portland Wildfire only took him because no one else would, and Locke seems determined to prove every rumor true. He doesn’t do teammates. He doesn’t do relationships. He barely does conversation.
Dr. Livia Cross is quiet, brilliant and controlled. Officially, she’s the Wildfire’s new high-performance consultant. Unofficially, she’s been embedded by the league to evaluate one player.
One risk.
Locke.
Her job is simple: observe him, test him, and determine whether he’s safe to stay on the ice, or too volatile to keep playing. But the man she finds beneath the scowl and silence isn’t what she expected. He’s sharp. Watching. Walled off for a reason. And when sparks ignite where there should only be professionalism, Livia’s carefully built boundaries start to crack.
Locke doesn’t trust easily yet he lets Livia closer than he ever intended, long before he learns she isn’t who he thinks she is. And when the truth comes out, it won’t just shatter their fragile connection… it might end his career.
Dark, emotional, and electric with slow-burn chemistry, LOCKE delivers a gripping workplace romance between a guarded enforcer and the woman sent to evaluate him—until desire becomes danger, and the lines between loyalty and love blur beyond recognition.
Locke Donovan is a professional hockey player, and he is literally locked down. He is an enigma. His past has made him untrusting, angry, volatile, temperamental, quiet, guarded, and a loner. And fortunately for him playing professional ice hockey as a defenseman is one way to get out your aggression but unfortunately it’s come to a point now that he’s getting so many penalties that it’s getting him in trouble with management, so now he’s walking a thin line and the owner has mandated that he meet with the new director of Human Performance and try to deal with some of his anger issues.
Livia Cross has moved home to Portland after having her own successful private practice, and now she’s working for the Wildfire. She is smart, patient, optimistic, observant, and empathetic. Some of the team are embracing her ideas to help performance, both mental and physical, but the one man who probably needs it the most and is mandated to do it is very skeptical. She’s going to have to find a way to reach him if there’s any chance of her helping him keep his place on the team. His reputation in the league already is negative despite his excellent skills, and Locke is not going to make it easy for her.
But she is not intimidated by the growly guy and works to find ways to make small gains. It is a slow-burn, enemies-to-lovers story about trust, vulnerability, and teamwork. And about not letting fear stop you from getting close to people and living a fuller life.
It brings back characters from the first book and sets up some other stories for this series.
Livia Cross has moved home to Portland after having her own successful private practice, and now she’s working for the Wildfire. She is smart, patient, optimistic, observant, and empathetic. Some of the team are embracing her ideas to help performance, both mental and physical, but the one man who probably needs it the most and is mandated to do it is very skeptical. She’s going to have to find a way to reach him if there’s any chance of her helping him keep his place on the team. His reputation in the league already is negative despite his excellent skills, and Locke is not going to make it easy for her.
But she is not intimidated by the growly guy and works to find ways to make small gains. It is a slow-burn, enemies-to-lovers story about trust, vulnerability, and teamwork. And about not letting fear stop you from getting close to people and living a fuller life.
It brings back characters from the first book and sets up some other stories for this series.
Donovan Locke is notorious in the league as a vicious enforcer, but his anger has become a problem for teams, leading to trade after trade. He doesn’t connect with his teammates, and doesn’t engage with anything off the ice. His time in Portland might be his last chance to maintain his hockey career if he can’t find a way to manage his emotions on and off the ice. His coaches see promise in him, if they can keep him contained and get him to engage with his teammates. But this is his last chance before the league cuts him off.
Dr. Livia Cross was hired to monitor team performance, but also to focus on determining what it will take for Locke to be more predictable on the ice. She is an athlete herself, having experience playing hockey and studying physical performance and psychology intensively throughout her career. She knows she has her work cut out for her with Donvan, and is willing to bend some of the team rules in order to help him in a way that will see results.
When their meetings begin breaking down Locke’s walls and he starts trusting her, the lines blur between work sessions and personal business.
This was one of those stories that just felt easy to read from start to finish. I had been in a bit of a reading slump, and found myself able to continue this faster and in longer sessions than anything else I had been reading lately. It was a solid, slow-burn romance, with a little bit of emotional tension and baggage keeping things moving early on, and progressed just how I hoped it would as the story continued. And once those sparks started flying, it was hard to keep them contained!
I had an audio copy and listening to the story also helped keep the pace moving at a good clip. The narrators, Alistair Haynesbridge & Samantha Summers, did a good job bringing the characters to life. I had not listened to either before and I enjoyed both of their voices. There were a couple moments that pulled me out when the name of an Oregon town is mispronounced by one of the narrators, but those not familiar with the area probably won’t notice a difference.
Overall, this was a fun workplace, hockey romance with close quarters and a secret romance. The repeat characters made it easier to connect with a story with a character as closed off as Locke. Livia was easy to like with her calm, collected outlook, but Locke took a lot to open up and get to know. Locke may have some heavy things to deal with from his past, but this left me feeling refreshed and ready to read more. It was just what I needed to spark my reading self again.
Portland Wildfire
CROSBY
Our reviews
She’s here to expose hockey’s biggest flaws. He’s the complication she never planned on. Neither one is prepared for the sparks that fly every time they collide.
Juno Paxton has built her award-winning documentary career dismantling institutions people blindly worship. Her latest assignment is her most high-profile yet: immerse herself in the league’s newest hockey expansion team—the Portland Wildfire—for an entire season and create a behind-the-scenes film the league can parade around as “authentic.”
Juno doesn’t buy it. Not the hype, not the hero worship, and definitely not the polished personas of pro athletes. She expects egos, theatrics, and plenty of manufactured grit.
What she doesn’t expect is Crosby Hale.
The Wildfire’s starting goalie is stoic, meticulously focused, and infuriatingly camera-shy. He wants nothing to do with her film, her questions, or her insistence that he “show some personality.” Unfortunately for him, the league wants Juno’s documentary to center on the enigmatic goaltender who refuses to cooperate.
But the more time Juno spends with Crosby, the more she glimpses the steady, thoughtful man beneath his guarded exterior. He isn’t the stereotype she’s built her name exposing—he’s better. The more she learns about him, the harder it becomes to keep her documentary, and her heart, objective. And for Crosby, letting Juno in feels less like a mistake and more like the beginning of something worth fighting for.
Warm, witty, and unexpectedly emotional, CROSBY launches the Portland Wildfire series with a slow-burn enemies-to-lovers romance between a skeptical filmmaker and the goalie determined to stay out of her spotlight… until she becomes the one thing he can’t turn away from.
SAWYER BENNETT
Connect with Sawyer Bennett
Connect with Sawyer Bennett
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).
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