Unwritten Rules

Rules of the Game, Book 4

De: Brigham Vaughn

Narrado por: James Edward Jones

Rule number one: Don't fall in love with your family's sworn enemy.

Taylor Hollis brought home gold at the Olympics, then quit competitive skating at the height of his career.

Four years later, he lives a quiet life teaching figure skating classes and looking for the perfect guy with whom to settle down and build a family.

When the Evanston River Otters hire Taylor to take part in a feel-good media piece, he’ll have to defy his father and work with the son of the man he detests.

And his one weakness is a hot older guy who’s good with kids.

Rule number two: Choose your loyalties wisely.

Last season, Jamie Walsh left the Chicago Windstorm after a nasty divorce and falling out with his linemate.

Now he’s getting settled as a new forward for the Otters.

His biggest priority is his five-year-old daughter, Ava, but he can’t ignore how attractive he finds her skating teacher.

The only man he’s ever been interested in.

The more time they spend together, the harder it is for Jamie to ignore his feelings.

Too bad Taylor’s father has always blamed Jamie’s dad for ruining his hockey career.

Jamie and Taylor are perfect for one another but they’ll have to ignore both of their families’ unwritten rules if they let themselves fall in love with the enemy.

Trigger warning: frank discussion of eating disorders and past infidelity of secondary characters.

©2022 Brigham Vaughn (P)2023 Brigham Vaughn

Love this couple❤️

I love this series! I really enjoyed Jamie and Taylor’s book and the audio version was such a great complement to their story. This is a great couple, their story feels very authentic and I loved the purposeful way they come together. The backstory of their fathers’ complicated NHL past adds such tension to them falling for each other. Jamie and Taylor have crazy hot chemistry together and the narrator does an excellent job bringing them to life. Love this series, characters are amazing and the hockey is on point, which I appreciate.

Skating

This is a story of two rival families and an accident during hockey decades ago. Taylors father was injured in a NHL game and had to leave hockey. Jamie’s dad played for the opposing team and ran into Taylor’s dad causing the injury. There are bitter feelings between the families that carry down to the children. Jamie now plays hockey for the Evanston River Otters and Taylor is a figure skater. They run into each other at the Olympics and words are exchanged. Taylor is hired by the River Otters to help the hockey players with footwork. This storyline touches on several subjects including eating disorders, sexuality, medical debt, infidelity and love. As always the River Otter hockey team is fun to read about and see them evolve as a team.

Sweet Bi-Awakening Love

Jamie and Taylor had a lot of hurdles to overcome. This is the story of sweet, single dad Jamie Walsh who is a member of the Evanston River Otters and sexy, figure skater Taylor Hollis who is hired to help with a social media campaign to make the Otters look good after the scandal of Coach Tate and Gabriel in the last book. There’s a lot for these two former ’sort-of enemies’ to unpack and Jamie’s daughter Ava plays a huge part of the story. While the actual love story doesn’t revolve around Ava as much, she is an integral part of it and I love when kids are written well into a story. I can’t wait for the world to get this book because there is so much to love about it. It’s sweet, definitely sexy, and there are several mushy ‘awwwwwwwww’ moments along with some angsty sad stuff but I love the determined way Jamie sets his mind to making sure he doesn’t treat Taylor badly and the resulting love between them is so gooey that I love it!

James Edward Jones does a great job narrating this story and I really enjoyed his performance.

Didn't want it to end!

I'm not big on audiobooks, as I retain info better when I actually read the book, but I decided to venture out and see if maybe listening to a hockey book by one of my favorite authors would be different. I had already read the book, and it was an interesting experience hearing someone else read it in my ear. I can't say I'm a new fan, but at least I loved the book!

I'm a huge fan of Brigham Vaughn's newfound hockey love (and the team she chose), which has spilled over into her hockey books, and I just can't get enough! The previous book hinted at this storyline, and my only complaint is that I read it (first) and whipped through the audio too fast (once I got started; that pesky thing called life gets in the way too often). Jamie has been one of my favorites, and it was great getting to know him better. He and Taylor were great together, and I'm glad that the bad blood between the families was sorted out - even if it'll take longer than one book for everyone to heal. Little Ava was in there stealing hearts while her dad and Taylor were giving each other theirs.

There were parts of the book that audio... enhanced. Jamie and Taylor were pretty steamy, and it was fun hearing Jamie explore his sexuality.

Great addition to the series

Love the story of Jamie & Taylor, so much sweetness and heart. Narration well done and made listening enjoyable!

Enemies to loves

Enemies to loves that never really was Enemies to loves. It was obvious since the beginning they both had the joys for each other but complications with family makes it had. I get it. This was a good read.

Amazing Hockey Romance

Hockey romance is always a plus for me. This one was fantastic, done incredibly well. Loved that it was also on a single dad!

I definitely liked Jamie and Taylor as a couple. They had a solid connection and great chemistry. Such amazing character development. I loved both listening to the audio and reading this book. Highly recommend!

More from the wonderful MM ice hockey series

I’ve read this author before. I listened to the audio book. This series continues with Jamie an ice hockey player and Tyler a figure skater. Their fathers had an incident years before on the ice hockey rink, that clouds Jamie and Tyler’s relationship. Jamie’s 5 year old daughter nearly steals the show. I’ll read more from this author.

Lots of Drama On and Off the Ice

This sports romance (hockey with a dash of figure skating) has all manner of family drama, but it's also not too heavy or overly angsty. At the top of that list is a sort of quasi-feud between the fathers of hockey player Jamie and retired figure skater (now coach) Taylor. The former hockey player fathers had an unfortunate on-ice run-in while competing years ago, and their sons internalized much of the fallout.

That's the premise of what makes this an enemies-to-lovers story - the fathers hating/resenting/being wary of each other and expecting the MCs to do the same - and honestly, it felt a little flimsy. (In an alternate universe, the fathers would make perfect MCs for their own HEA romance together!) But packed on top of that is Jamie's own unpacked drama of an ex-wife who had cheated with his best friend/teammate, and trying to raise his young daughter - who Taylor coaches in figure skating - amid that turmoil. So, no shortage of family drama.

Jamie and Taylor have considerable chemistry and, after fooling themselves into thinking they can keep things casual, do make a sweet couple. They share a whole lot of steamy times, which is a bit of sexual discovery for Jamie but not a huge focal point, and most of their relationship angst comes from their own baggage and feeling like their romance is forbidden, at least in the eyes of their fathers. The single father aspect is also crucial to the story, and credit to the author for making Jamie's daughter Ava so adorable and a fully developed character rather than a mere plot device.

One of the aspects of this story I enjoyed most was seeing MCs from the previous books popping up, since they all remain in each other's orbit being on the same hockey team. It made me want to go back and listen to player Gabriel and coach Lance's story again ("Changing the Rules"), which remains my favorite of the series.

Narrator James Edward Jones delivers another solid performance here, as he's been doing this whole series, and his voice makes for an easy, smooth listen. He provides each character with a distinct voice, does an especially great job voicing Ava, and his delicious French-Canadian accent for Gabriel remains on-point. I received a free review copy of this audio book and have left this honest review voluntarily.

True Love Found After the Ice!

I loved the set up for Jamie and Taylor's romance. The tougher ice hockey player and the retired hot figure skater. This just did it for me! These two were sweet together and the attraction was sizzling. The drama for them came from the Romeo and Juliet style feud between their fathers (I think I would like to see the fathers hook up). LOL. Jamie was such a sweet big man who loved his daughter Ava so much. He was really hurt by his ex-wife and teammate, so I understood his vulnerability. I enjoyed how the narrator told their story and I was left feeling the warm and fuzzy family feelings.