Narration by Cris Dukehart and Graham Halstead
I first became intrigued with the men of the Carolina Cold Fury Hockey Team with Zack, the third book in the Cold Fury Hockey series. There we first meet the hero of Ryker, and his spirit as a man who is willing to do whatever it takes to take care of his two little girls won me over instantaneously. The fact that his soon to be ex-wife had also cheated on him with a younger player on his former team (a team which then proceeded to trade him rather than upset the 19-year-old cheating superstar), and the further nail in the coffin that Ryker’s ex abandoned her two little girls to Ryker so she could be free to continue traveling unhampered with her new boy toy, further solidified my resolve to hear Ryker’s HEA.
Ryker proves to be every bit the great fight for the underdog story that I highly enjoy, and then some. Additionally, Ryker provides an interesting view at the quandary that many professional women face when they realize that true love, and the family life that comes along with that, can be difficult to manage with a high-stress, C-suite career.
Having ended the last season on a goal that he failed to block, aging Carolina Cold Fury goalie Ryker Evans knows that it’s now or never for his career. Fortunately, the Carolina goalie that he replaced due to an injury is still recovering, giving him a second chance to prove himself in the new season.
As if the work pressure weren’t enough, he also is still coping with being a single parent and balancing the demands of his career with giving his two daughters the love and attention that normally two parents would give. Fortunately, his sheer will and determination help him get the season off to an amazing start. Now if only he can keep up the high standards.
Amidst this backdrop, the Carolina Cold Fury Team hires a glass ceiling breaking general manager, Gray Brannon. Brannon not only has to prove herself as the first female ice hockey professional team general manager, but she also uses unusual, statistically based models for managing her team, which many have criticized as being too experimental. However, as it turns out, Gray is not just a wiz when it comes to analyzing data, but also an incredibly attractive, if completely unapproachable woman. Preferring to devote her time to her career, she has avoided commitment all her life.
All bets are off though when Gray realizes the immense attraction she has to Ryker and also gets to know his views of the game and the fact that he is one of the few true supporters of her innovative management techniques. Even more surprising is the ease with which their interactions and conversations flow. Unaccustomed to feeling this way for anyone, Gray’s curiosity is definitely piqued when it becomes apparent that Ryker is also attracted to more than just Gray’s management strategies. However, any relationship between a general manager and her player would certainly be frowned upon and could cost her the position that she has fought so hard to earn. Could she ever put the one thing she has always fought for (her career) on the line for the one thing she never thought she would have or wanted (love)?
The only area that I will caution listeners on is the narration. Ryker is narrated in the typical new adult fashion with Cris Dukehart narrating the chapters from Gray’s perspective and Graham Halstead the chapters from Ryker’s.
While Ms. Dukehart does deliver a relatively solid performance, I had more difficulty with Mr. Halstead’s. In that regard, I found that he provided very little differentiation between characters making it difficult to discern who was speaking at anyone time. As it relates to the various male characters, including the numerous team members who play a role in Ryker, there was almost no difference in their intonations. In fact, even between Gray and Ryker there was only a very mild differentiation. Additionally, just in general, Mr. Halstead had a more youthful sounding voice than what I would have anticipated the veteran goalie father of two having.
Ms. Dukehart, on the other hand, did do a good job of providing noticeably different voices for the characters, including those of the same gender, rendering the need to rely on dialogue tags unnecessary. Additionally, I thought Ms. Dukehart’s choices of voices were, for the most part, personality and other characteristic appropriate for the various roles she recreated.
All in all, sports fans and fans of strong, successful heroines, and slightly older hero/heroine romances will enjoy both the setting, as well as, the development of the romance in Ryker. As for the narration, I think it was a generally solid performance, but if you like your narrations closer to audio theater style, then I highly suggest you sound sample Ryker prior to deciding on the audio format.
BJ
Narration: Dukeheart B Halstead C-
Book Content: B+
Steam Factor: Glad I had my earbuds in
Violence Rating: Minimal/Threatened Domestic Violence
Genre: Contemporary Romance - New Adult
Publisher: Tantor Audio
Ryker was provided to AudioGals by Tantor Audio for a review.
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