SO MUCH FUN!!!

This is a slow burn romance (he's got a groin injury for goodness sake!) but unlike some others it doesn't feel like it. Things happen quickly, the pace keeps moving, and it's not until you're 75% through the book that you realise they're still not officially a couple. I mean, the connection is smoking hot right from the beginning, and they spend so much time together laughing and joking you don't even really notice the time passing. That is fine writing at its best.

This is also an enemies (to friends) to lovers romance. Bishop and Stevie (she's named after her father) are an amazingly snarky couple. Their banter is quick witted without resorting to nastiness or taunting, and they balance each other out brilliantly. But I also liked that they had an ability to talk things out for the most part. They way they opened up to each other in a way that they didn't with others was touching. Bishop was not portrayed as a meathead athlete, but as a truly contemporary man.

I also liked the fact that they had solid friendships outside of their relationship. Kingston seems like a standup guy, and I hope his relationship is the real deal. And contrary to some authors' beliefs, female friends don't call each other names to indicate closeness. Pattie and Jules are both strong women who honestly have Stevie's back, turning the dynamic duo into the three musketeers in a short amount of time.

The only things I didn't like about the story were RJ's (Rook's) attitude, and the fact that Bishop's taste in underwear is never explained. (Is it something his brother started as a gag that kind of turned into something more?)

Overall this was a fun and enjoyable read. Hunting is an author who improves with every story. I'm not counting down the days until her next release!

Helena Hunting scores another goal with her new hockey romance.

After finding out about her now ex-boyfriend’s extracurricular activities, Stevie Bowman is forced to accept her NHL star brother’s offer to help. Feeling down in the dumps, she moves into his spare apartment in the middle of the night, but only after meeting her new bad-tempered neighbor. She should be just fine though, if she can find it in her to avoid the gorgeous man from across the hall who picks up his newspaper in extravagant boxer briefs.

Bishop Winslow wanted the team captain position when he joined the Seattle’s NHL expansion team. However, his life and career aren’t going quiet as planned. First he gets a new noisy, sharp tongued neighbor who he thought was his team’s captain’s mistress but turned out to be his sexy sister. Then he gets put on the bench for weeks due to a serious groin injury.

Fortunately, Stevie proposes a mutually beneficial bargain: she helps him with rehab while adding a professional athlete to her resume. There’s only one catch. They need to keep it professional. It should be fairly easy for two people who seem to antagonize each other on a daily basis, right?

Hunting expertly crafts Stevie and Bishop’s relationship which evolves from mutual annoyance to a friendship, which develops into love, tiptoeing a line they know they should not cross even when they realize their potential for happiness.

I loved their banter and every single one of their interactions. They’re back and forth was hilarious and filled with sizzling hot chemistry. But what I enjoyed the most was Bishop’s transformation from @hole to swoon worthy hero. Hunting totally nails it while making me laugh and smile. While Stevie is a great heroine, she’s sweet, feisty, smart, and refuses to use any of her brother’s fame to advance her career, it was Bishop’s well hidden, gentle, soft and gooey heart that reeled me in and put this book on my favorites list.

A Favor for A Favor is a standalone hockey romance in the All In series by Helena Hunting. This is an enemies to lovers, slow burn romance, told from both points of view, with a happy ending.

After leaving her cheating ex and flying across the county, the night Stevie moves into her brother’s penthouse is not one of her finer moments. She’s disheveled, embarrassed, and frustrated. When she’s confronted by the half-naked beast of a man who lives across the hall, his attitude and general existence get under her skin immediately. When professional hockey player, Bishop pulls his groin on the ice he’s put on the bench and forced to watch from the sidelines as his team prepares for the season. When Stevie, a physical therapist, and brother to Bishop’s team captain, realizes she can help rehab Bishop and get experience with a professional athlete without using her brother’s connections to get ahead, the two put their differences aside and work together. Tensions (sexual and otherwise) run high but soon they fall into a routine and learn to appreciate and even like each other. But Bishop is grumpy and Stevie’s been hurt before, so the favors may have to stop before their feelings get the best of them.

Helena does it again! I always forget how much I love a good forced proximity trope. Add in enemies to lovers (my fave), and a sports romance, AND some cameos from my girl, Violet?? Yep, safe to say I LOVED this book! I loved Stevie’s sass and take no shit attitude just as much as Bishop’s surly and grumpy moods. It was so sweet to see how Bishop truly tried to change and work on himself as his feelings for Stevie developed and I love a couple who can can be playful and fun together.

I absolutely loved this book, it had me laughing a lot and had me wanting slap both main characters. This book was so well written and kept me intrigued and entertained the whole time. I can't wait for the next one.

A Favor for a Favor by Helena Hunting is book two in her All In Series. While every book can easily be read as a stand-alone, I recommend to read the books in order. The previous book is A Lie for a Lie and tells Rook and Lainey's story.
A Favore for a Favor is Stevie and Bishop's story.
Stevie is Rook's little sister, fresh from college with her first job as physiotherapeut. She doesn't lean on her famous brother, she wants success all on her own. That seems difficult when she's forced to move out of new home and away from her boyfriend.
Her new neighbor is Mr. McGrumperson himself. Bishop is a determined man. He wants to play sports and not much else. And when his sleep is disturbed by S. he isn't amused at all. Anyway, they become neighbors and both love to prank each other, til Bishop needs help while injured.
Lets just say their meet cute wasn't that cute at all , but on the way they grew on each other.
The book is an excellent written read, it's a beautiful story, excellent written and beautifully thought out and beautifully told. I liked the storyline and the characters are great.5 beautiful Stars.

Stevie comes in Bishop's life a night where her life has turned upside down. She is having a terrible day and meeting Bishop doesn't make it better, especially since he thinks she is trespassing. They are very quickly become enemies who enjoy looking at each other when the other doesn't notice.
That is until Bishop is injured and Stevie volunteers to help him while also gaining more physical treatment experience.

In the book we see the enemies to lovers trope but as a bonus, Stevie's brother is also Bishop's teammate, the problem is they don't get along.

This book is so fun, I like how they both challenged each other from the start. They made some assumptions which didn't help to make they come closer until later. This resulted in a delicious slow burn, which also helped to know the other person better. Their chemistry was apparent from the start, which only increased through the book.

Now, I am very excited to see the next book in the series.


*I received an arc and this is my honest review.

Overall really enjoyed this book, just not quite as much as the first one. I found myself getting frustrated with Stevie over and over. I wanted to love her (I did love Bishop), but I needed her to be a little more mature and grow a backbone. Fun and entertaining read, but not one I'll revisit.

Stevie and Bishop are an AMAZING couple! Their journey is fun, flirty and fiery.

Helena Hunting is a great sports rom-com author. Her Pucked series is one of my absolute favorites, and the All In series is a spin-off that not only gives us more Alex and Violet (two of the best romcom characters ever invented), but it introduces us to a whole new team of players and a new setting in Seattle. The detail with which Helena describes the sport, the cities, the characters, confirms that she is an author that is fully invested in providing her readers with the best read possible, which is why she is one of the top authors in the genre.

Stevie and Bishop's relationship gets off to a really rocky start - they absolutely hate each other. They consider the other the worst neighbor possible. Then, to top it off, Stevie is the sister of one of Bishop's teammates, and there is no love lost there, either. But when Bishop gets injured and Stevie has to help him recover, they get the time and opportunity to put the first impressions aside and get to know each other, and that's when the fun really begins.

Hilarious, touching, scorching hot, and simply amazing. The rom-com genre is in good hands as long as Helena Hunting keeps writing books like A Favor for a Favor.

This a 100% a one sitting read. It has everything you want in a romance novel: sizzling tension, lovable characters, and 🔥 chemistry. I didn’t read the first book in this series (although I will now!) but see that some of those characters are in this book. Rook’s sister, Stevie, and Rook’s teammate, Bishop, are the main characters but Rook and Lainey definitely make their share of appearances! Stevie is independent, sarcastic and feisty and Bishop throws it right back at her. It’s a classic enemies and lovers storyline once Stevie moves in across the hall from Bishop and immediately gets under his skin, waking him up in the middle of the night. Bishop manages to get himself injured on the ice and Stevie, a PT, offers (for her benefit) to rehab him. Their witty back and forth is everything as they try to keep the underlying attraction under wraps. Fantastic romance!

Book 2 in the All In series was just as good, if not better than, the first one (A Lie for a Lie). Readers will be happy to see Rook (RJ) and Lainey pop up quite a bit in this story, which is Rook's little sister, Stevie's story. Stevie is strong and she has spunk. She's honestly one of my favorite female characters in a long while. She changes her hair color frequently and doesn't take crap from anyone. Unfortunately for Stevie, the book starts with her finding her boyfriend Joey with another woman on their couch in their new apartment on her birthday. Talk about a bad day! Her older brother, RJ, a Seattle hockey player with loads of money and fame, offers his penthouse apartment since he and Lainey and their toddler Kody live in a house across town. Her arrival to said apartment, however, is momentous, and not in a good way, thanks to the uber-hot guy across the hall. Their first interaction is in the middle of the night; Stevie is tired, mad at her ex, and in a general mood unfavorable toward men. Can you blame her? The racket she makes while trying to get in the apartment wakes up the bear. The half-naked bear of a man she won't soon forget, that is. Bishop, who seems to have a new pair of ridiculous boxers on (and nothing else) each morning when he retrieves his paper, assumes that Stevie is RJ's mistress, and treats her as such, in his irritating cold and smug manor. Stevie assumes that the gorgeous females rotating through Bishop's apartment are his conquests, which is also inaccurate. Then Stevie finds out Bishop is one of RJ's teammates when he receives a serious groin injury during preseason. Stevie, a physiotherapist, has just started a new job at the college, where unfortunately her obnoxious cheating ex, Joey, works. Then, Billboard Boxers (as she and her new friends refer to her hot neighbor) asks her for a favor. And you always return a favor with a favor, right? Stevie starts additional therapy for Bishop which is a win-win because he gets back to the ice sooner, and she gets to treat a professional athlete and get a letter of recommendation. Stevie needs a little help from Bishop acting as her "fake boyfriend" to ward off Joey and his aloof reasoning for them to get back together. Bishop's fake boyfriend skills are hot, hot, hot! But, it turns out they need each other more than they want to admit to themselves. The lines between fake and real begin to blur and are soon completely obliterated. But, there's the problem of big brother RJ, who isn't too happy with Bishop going after her "baby sister." And another issue - Stevie wants nothing to do with the limelight of a famous hockey player. She doesn't want the fame - she only wants him.

I highly recommend this angst-filled, hate-to-love, sports romance. Helena Hunting is a rock star and I devour everything she writes. I read this in one evening and couldn't put it down. I loved Stevie and Bishop's story, perhaps even better than RJ and Lainey. I can't wait to see what's in store for another of RJ's teammates, King, in Book 3 (A Secret for a Secret) which is expected in May 2020.

Thank you to Social Butterfly PR for providing me with an early review copy in exchange for honest feedback.

5 PINEAPPLE AND OLIVE CROWNS

This. This book is why I love Helena’s writing. It is comical romantic and filled with unique and interesting characters. I truly enjoyed every character and moment between Stevie and Bishop.

Stevie is a heroine who is totally relatable. The reader understands how hard it would be to live in the shadow of your famous brother and to always question people’s motives. I enjoyed her temperament and her choices, and I loved her as an individual.

Bishop is a bit surly, which is understandable based on his current athletic and life changes. He has a lot riding on his shoulders, and he carries it without complaint. I truly loved the side of him that Stevie brought out, more fun and light hearted. I fell in love with him and he fell in love with her.

Some couples just have it on the page, and Stevie and Bishop do. From the banter to the sexual tension, I was enthralled by the evolution of their relationship. It was a fantastic and entertaining romance that I couldn’t put down.

Helena Hunting has a knack for taking unique and interesting characters and giving them depth, real 3d layers to who they are. Their flaws are relatable, the characters are lovable, and she gives a romance that is applicable to all people. That is why she is a favorite of mine.

Helena Hunting brings the humor and slow-burn heat to her latest story A Favor for a Favor and it was all I hoped for and more. While this is the second book in Hunting's All In series, it reads as a complete standalone. It's not necessary to read the first book (A Lie for a Lie) but I do highly recommend it because a) it's awesome and b) it'll give you some great backstory on Stevie and RJ's family and relationship. But if you haven't read it, you can still jump in with this story and enjoy everything it brings and you won't feel lost at all.

I instantly fell in love with Stevie who rode in on the hot mess express and bulldozed her way into not only my heart but Bishop's as well. She was such a fun and unconventional character. She was strong and direct and I adored everything about her. She pushed Bishop's buttons in the best ways and that made their relationship truly dynamic. Bishop.....I was completely and unequivocally smitten with that man! Broody, filled with testosterone and with a chip on his shoulder, he and Stevie got off to a tough start. But as I watched their friendship/relationship flourish, I saw him blossom as well. He had so many layers to him and as each was peeled back they exposed the multi-dimensional man underneath. Together, Stevie and Bishop were the perfect compliment to one another. Their fun, flirty banter and interactions had me in stitches and I couldn't wait to see what was going to come next with them.

Fans of Hunting will enjoy the scenes with Violet from the Pucked series.....because who can get enough of her crazy? Not me, that's for sure! And if you haven't met her yet, you're in for a treat! Hunting also introduces us to a host of new characters and I can't wait to learn more about them in the future. A Favor for a Favor is a definite YES for me! 5 stars

3.5 stars. The banter was EXCEPTIONAL in this book. I loved these characters when they were together, but I didn't love them in their other social settings. Stevie avoided confrontation to the point that it really bogged down the story for me. But I love Helena Hunting and she always brings the banter and the heat! Can't go wrong with that.

4.5 stars

I’ve become hockey fan without even noticing because I love the author’s stories and I’m here for anything she’s writing about.
I loved this book so much. It’s funny and heartwarming all the way.

If you love forced proximity, enemies to friends to lovers, and a grumpy hero, you need to preorder A Favor for a Favor immediately! I mentioned in my review for the first book in Hunting’s new All In series, that while I loved A Lie for a Lie, Favor was even better. And it’s true, Stevie and Bishop were EVERYTHING!
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Stevie is the younger sister of the hero in Lie, Rook and a lot of the characters come up again in this book, I think this one could totally work as a stand alone. But for full character appreciation you might want to read Lie first! Warning: reading either book from this series will make you want to go back and read all of the Pucked series. So many characters are still present and I absolutely love seeing all those couples with families. ⁣
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I really liked Stevie’s character when she was introduced in Lie, but I grew to love her so much in Favor. And Bishop was such a swoon unworthy, grumpy hero. This one is total slow burn goodness, the banter between Stevie and Bishop was everything. Hunting knows how to write some damn good banter, it’s what made me love her books in the first place! The interactions between these two is so, so good. I swear you could feel the chemistry popping off the page. I talk a lot about how Lex and Amie from Hooking Up are one of my favorite contemporary romance couples ever, but Stevie and Bishop are right up there with them now!
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I can’t stop gushing over how fantastic this one was, hands down a five star read for me! A Favor for a Favor releases 1/28 (and will be on KU!), but if you’re thinking about preordering I highly recommend it!

HH never fails to make me giggle with her humorous dialogue and quirky, lovable characters. HH’s characters are always likable. Bishop and Stevie are different than any of her other characters, which makes for interesting world building and complex relationships. This book is only one of many reasons why HH is a one-click author for me: I knew that I wouldn’t be able to put it down once I started. So, I waited as long as I could to read it, knowing that it would be over too soon. I was right. Bishop is addicting.

After the disappointment of A Lie for a Lie, this book had a lot to live up to (well in my eyes anyway) and I'm so excited to say that absolutely loved this story!

Lainey moves into her brother's (RJ) apartment after coming home and finding her boyfriend balls deep in other women. Rook is the moody neighbor next door who happens to play on the same team as RJ and ends up with a nasty injury just as the hockey season is starting. So they come to an agreement that Lainey can rehab Rook so that he can get back on the ice sooner and she can add the experience of working on an NHL athlete to her resume.

Rook and Lainey had great chemistry and I liked their banter a lot. The story went at a nice pace, with the relationship between the main characters developing a good rate. I enjoyed the thrill of all the sneaking around, it produced some very funny moment.

Overall I would definitely recommend this book.

I have always loved Helena Hunting's Pucked series, so when I saw that she started a new series, All In, I was so excited to dive in. A Favor for a Favor is the second book in the series. Stevie has just moved to Seattle - she's fresh out of college and a breakup. Her brother, Rook, has offered her his penthouse apartment to stay in while she settles in. But his apartment comes with an obnoxious and rude neighbor across the hall, Bishop. Bishop thinks that Stevie is Rook's mistress and has a terrible first impression of her. Soon enough, the two are attempting to one up each other with their door antics and it starts to look a whole lot more like flirting.

Bishop has an injury that is keeping him off the ice and when Stevie finds out, she offers to help in his therapy to speed up his recovery and get him on to the ice faster. The more time they spend together, the more they realize that they might actually like each other. Their attraction grows and soon enough the two can't get enough of each other. There are many complications with the two of them coming together (her brother, her ex, his career), but the two work together to make it all work.

I really enjoyed this book! And I am loving this series! The banter between Stevie and Bishop is so good and I really like the two of them together! I was hooked immediately into this story and flew through this book. And then I was sad it was over. I cannot wait for book three!

I absolutely loved this book. I was hooked from the beginning with the witty banter between both characters. Whenever they are together, their antics made me laugh. This book is not only funny but sexy as well.

The story between Bishop one Stevie was one of the best books I have read in a while. I was hooked from the first page, and couldn’t get enough of their personalities. It is definitely a must read book, and probably my favorite Helena book to date...sorry Randy. 😬

Stevie is such a fun, intelligent character, but she comes off as a hot mess at first. She has her reasons, and the way Bishop reacts to her had me wanting to know how their story was going to play out.

Bishop is closed off and feels like he wasn’t given a fair chance on his team. This animosity towards his team and teammates plus Stevie living across the hall makes his broodiness even worse which in turn makes the story that much more intriguing.

I honestly could not get enough of these characters. Their actions, self control, and overall slow burn relationship had me on the edge of my seat the whole time. It was such a fun experience and the secondary characters added just the right amount of witty banter that we have all come to love in the Pucked and All In series. Kingston has so much mystery surrounding his character, and I want to know what’s up. The scenes that included Violet had me laughing out loud and making me want to reread Pucked.

-An Arc was generously provided in exchange for an honest review.