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Book Review of The Penalty Box (New York Blades, Bk 4)

The Penalty Box (New York Blades, Bk 4)
reviewed on + 97 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 1


I have read all of Deirdre Martin's books so far and this was the definitely NOT my favorite. I loved all the others and have been eagerly awaiting this one but was disappointed. I don't really get the relationship between Katie and Paul other than he's gorgeous and now she looks good too. They don't have anything in common and they are both pretty screwed up. They spend the first part of the book trying to avoid arguments or tiptoeing around certain sensitive topics. Katie's obsessive need to keep their relationship a secret is irritating and doesn't make any sense. I really wanted to like Katie in the beginning especially with the way she succeeded in her weight loss goals and getting healthy but she was just too rigid for me to relate too. She almost acted as if she really didn't care all that much for Paul at all and was just using him to pass the time and that he gave her something to do,(it didn't seem like it was very hard to leave him) what with picking apart his problems with his early retirment and feelings of failure. I just felt that Katie could have been a little softer and that they could have related a little better than they did. It was a little bit better in the second half of the book but overall there wasn't enough chemistry between them and the book focused too much on their personal problems and not enough on their relationship. In fact it focused more on Katie's relationship with her sister and nephew than on any romance and then at the end it just kind of wrapped all up too neat within a couple of pages.