When We Lied: A Grumpy Sunshine Hockey Romance

Name: When We Lied: A Grumpy Sunshine Hockey Romance
SKU: 42482
Availability: InStock

4.6 | 1,525 ratings

Price: 5.99

Last update: 05-15-2024

About this item

A brand new hockey romance from New York Times Bestselling Author Claire Contreras set in the same world as Until I Get You...

Finneas Alexander Barlow is a walking thirst trap. Tall, hot, and broody. Tousled brown hair, chiseled jaw, alluring green eyes, perfect teeth, well-groomed beard, broad shoulders, and lips good enough to bite. He’d look like a Disney prince if the prince was a broody ahole.

Four years ago, a fated meeting led to an inevitable hook-up. Just one. It’s his rule. One-time hook-ups, no information exchanges, and no repeats. I knew that even before he established his boundaries, and he kept his promise. I hadn’t seen or heard from him since.

A year ago, when tragedy struck, he came back to town and sought me out. Gone was the disarming grin and the innuendos he’d once used to make my knees go weak. Unfortunately, his ire was equally debilitating. Now he’s back as the face of Fairview’s brand new professional hockey team and he’s looking for answers I don’t have. Finn won’t accept that, though. He’s as determined to uncover my secrets as I am to keep them. He pushes as hard as I pull. It’s only a matter of time before the rope snaps. Now I can only hope I'm the one left standing.

tropes:
Morally gray hero
obsessed/possessive hero
college basketball player heroine
hockey player hero
Mystery
found family

Top reviews from the United States

Crystal

Lots of emotion, lots of drama!!

Reviewed in the United States on May 2, 2024

There are so many good things about this story. While it is set in the same world as her previous book, it is not as dark (which she did say off the jump). I really enjoyed the fact that both main characters are successful athletes. It adds a more complex layer to the sports romance genre that I appreciated. While Finn is very much an alpha possessive book boyfriend, he remains super swoony in how he loves Josslyn. Even when he was questioning her family in regard to his sister's death, he never wavered in his feelings for her. His interactions with Theo were just too good! Great depth of characters and relationships, whether between the main characters, or each of them and their families...there was so much to unpack in each one.

The main star in this book is the overall mystery of what happened to Mallory. There were so many moments when I thought I knew what was going on and then changed my mind....and then changed my mind again, only to start the thought process all over again. Even though, in the end, one of my many predictions was correct, I thoroughly enjoyed the ride.

Bridget

yes, read it.

Reviewed in the United States on May 5, 2024

Such a good book! Claire Contreras is an amazing story teller!

Suspense/mystery
No third act break up
HEA
Dual POV
Best friends brother
Trigger warnings

marilyn sitt

amazing book!!

Reviewed in the United States on May 7, 2024

So, not going to lie, i almost stopped reading at the beginning. The story seemed too convoluted, and I didn’t love their Onyx encounter (not a fan of the audience part!)
But, I’m so glad i kept reading!! The story gets better and better, and mostly clarified. Although i did guess the ending, there were definitely other guesses on my mind, and the author does a good job of keeping it suspenseful!
Finnnnn!! I really, really enjoyed seeing his transformation-watching him fall in love was adorable! I loved their chemistry together!!
Great story and great ending-and loved the little peeks we get of Lyla and Lachlan!

Lynette Loves

When We Lied

Reviewed in the United States on May 9, 2024

Genre/Trope: Sports Romance
Book Type: Standalone
Book Length: Novel
POV: Alternating Dual
Setting: A city called Fairview (New York maybe?)
Male MC: Finneas “Finn” Barlow is a professional hockey player that is returning to his hometown to play for their new hockey team. Finn is really grumpy, private and resistant to forming relationships of any kind. He comes from an incredibly wealthy family that is quite influential in Fairview. Finn is in his late 20s and has light brown hair and green eyes.
Female MC: Josslyn Santos is a college basketball player and social media influencer. She is a gorgeous Latina with a heart of pure gold. Josslyn is in her early/mid 20s and has long dark hair and brown eyes.
Endearment: Baby
Spice Level: High
Frequency of Spice: Medium/High
Angst Level: Medium
Cliffhanger: No
My Review: I really enjoyed this story. Finn and Josslyn were great together; they had amazing chemistry and although Finn fought his feelings for Josslyn quite hard, he couldn’t resist falling for her..and boy did he fall hard! There was a little suspense and action which kept it interesting. Some parts were a little slow, but it was very spicy, had great angst, and I loved it so much!

Interesting Romance/Mystery Crossover!

Reviewed in the United States on May 13, 2024

Plot: 4 ????
Spice: 2.5 ????
Overall: 4 ⭐

BLUF - I really enjoyed this book and this new-to-me be author and I can't wait to go back and read book 1!!

I did struggle with a couple tropes? themes? subplots? not sure the right word here and the actual personalities of the MCs as they were significantly more mature than college-aged/early 20s adult would be. How they carried themselves, handled themselves, etc. It was a slight stretch in believability for me.

The actual "college/university" aspect felt very much like an OBTW, versus actually pertaining to the plot of the book as rarely was anything remotely education-related mentioned. With how much the characters had going on, they would never have gotten the workouts done required of the elite level these student athletes would have done, even in off season. (2-3 hours a day, minimim, speaking from experience as a former DI athlete).

However, I just focused on the murder mystery part, the love story, and the friendships, and the story still felt perfectly complete, flowed fantastically, and the twist at the end was ????????????!!!

The tension of the mystery ran through the whole book and never got lost with the rest of the romance aspect which I really enjoyed! It was a fun combination to read!

Our MC is the epitome of Grump - literally as he's surprised when he laughs! And he only laughs for our FMC! And that was absolutely melt worthy. ????

Also, the interjections here and there of characters from a past book (I double checked!) will be a nice tie in for the people who read Book 1 in the Fairview series.

I'm definitely excited for future books on the series and can't wait to read more by this author!

Marcia Esders

I couldn’t stop reading this

Reviewed in the United States on May 8, 2024

I devoured this baby. Josslyn was all rainbows and unicorns, and Finn was like the Tasmanian devil, so different in most every way. So not only did we have the enemies to lovers trope, we also had a murder mystery to solve. It was absolutely brilliant….and I did NOT expect the twist later in the story. It was quite clever.

Best Sellers in

The Primal Hunter 9: A LitRPG Adventure

4.8 6704

7.99

Tangled Decadence (Egorov Bratva Book 2)

4.6 6921

7.99

The Wildflower: A Dark New Adult Bully Romance (Oakmount Elite Book 2)

4.4 1443

5.99

Deception: An Alex Delaware Novel

4.4 3726

1.99

Tangled Innocence (Egorov Bratva Book 1)

4.6 7063

2.99

Keres: An enemies to lovers, dark mafia romance (Chicago Ruthless Book 4)

4.5 6017

4.99

What I Should've Said

4.6 6768