Being
a single working mother isn`t easy. Just ask Maggie Charles. She`s
juggling a job she hates, a rebellious teenage son, and the aftereffects
of an abusive first marriage. There isn`t room in her life for a love
affair, not that anyone would want to romance someone her age anyway,
right? So why, after all these months, when she runs into the strapping
Wildcats` captain at a charity event, does the sight of Derrick
Andersson leave her so breathless once again? Is that really desire
burning in the captain`s green eyes when he looks at her? Is it possible
for a couple of been-there-and-done-thats to find love the second time
around?
I am so happy to see more middle aged characters in books
these days, all dealing with real issues such as divorce, raising kids as a
single parent and trying to find a new dream in life. The author did a
fabulous job with this shorter book in giving us a romance to remember and
courage to cling to while raising teenagers.
If you are a single parent you know the drill. You go
to work, come home late after rushing to the store for what you need to make
dinner, only to find your teenager has done nothing but play video games or
worse yet isn’t even home. This is how the book starts and what Maggie
faces when she walks in her house dropping groceries.
Being a mother and escaping an abusive marriage to her first
husband Travis she carries the guilt of how her teenage son is currently
acting. The only thing that seems to make him happy these days is video
games and the Philadelphia Wildcats hockey team, whose captain I might add is
Derrick Andersson, the man who Maggie ran away from years ago. With her extra
pounds and ton of stress, she tries to avoid watching Derrick and his team at
all cost, the reminders are too painful.
Derrick isn’t ready to accept that there are no second
chances in life. He still wants Maggie regardless of age, weight and
baggage, he only sees the woman that captured his heart and never returned
it. I loved Derrick’s accent and frustration when he was faced with
decisions about his career that were out of his hands. As if his own life
wasn’t full of chaos, he took on Maggie and Trevor and tried to find a way to
heal some of the damage that had been done.
Trevor really ticked me off and reminded me again why I was
so thankful when my son turned 21. He wasn’t going to learn anything the
easy way, no he was going to create a situation that would force him to grow up
in a hurry and make Maggie accept that there are some things she can’t stop no
matter what.
The author takes you on a beautiful ride with the rest of
this story, breaking our hearts in places while renewing our belief in love and
acceptance. I really enjoyed this book as a standalone, but then I went
back and read A Most Unlikely Countess: To Love a Wildcat. I wanted to
see if this book could really be appreciated on its own merit and while I
believe it can, you will gain a much broader understanding of the characters
that appear in this series as a whole and the overall theme. I would strongly
suggest you read them all in order but if you can only do one, you won’t go
wrong with Maggie and Derrick.
I absolutely adored Oh Captain! My Captain! As Maggie has
been with the series since book one, it was nice to see her get her second
chance at happiness. That she went the way of her predecessors and fell for a
Wildcat makes one wonder what’s in the water at that newspaper for geez sake.
Although I was already familiar with
Maggie’s character from the previous two books, I was not prepared to learn
exactly how rough she had had it. She’s been a single mom for the past ten
years, which she is grateful for because she was able to get out of the abusive
marriage she was in. As her story unfolds, you can’t help but feel bad for her
as life just seems to be handing her one serving of crap pie after another. Fortunately
the light at the end of the tunnel appears in the form of Derrick Andersson.
The Wildcats captain is everything she wants in a man but never thought she’d
get considering she was a single mother of one rather surly teenage boy.
One of the many things I loved about
this book was that Maggie and Derrick are adults in their 40s and they’re portrayed
realistically with aches and pains from their career (Derrick) and aging. It
made it so easy to connect with them. As Ms. Locey does such a great job of
infusing the book with humor, I not only got to fall in love with the couple
but I got to do so while laughing frequently. O Captain! My Captain! is an excellent addition to the To Love a
Wildcat series and I am sooooo looking forward to the next book.
Amazon US || Barnes & Noble || ARe
V.L.
Locey loves worn jeans, belly laughs,
reading and writing lusty tales, Greek mythology, the New York Rangers, comic books, and coffee. (Not necessarily in
that order.) She shares her life with her husband, her daughter, one dog, two
cats, a steer named after a famous N.H.L. goalie, a pig named after a famous President, and a
flock of assorted domestic fowl.
Two great reviews. I've read this series and I couldn't agree more. Love these books and can't wait for book #4!
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