Cover Image: For the Win

For the Win

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Member Reviews

4 stars!
I love this series! I love the Wynn family!. Hockey romance is the best!
Yoga teacher meets hockey player in this sports romance. Harrison and Arya were adorable from the start. Yoga teacher and hockey player, a rough start, family drama and a stalker past all add up to Harrison and Arya's relationship and story.

This was a great read for me. Love Kelly Jamieson's books!

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Reading the adventures of the younger generation of the Wynn Hickey Dynasty is so much fun. The author has created wonderful characters with playful banter. Vivid descriptions of the characters, the settings, the hockey play and in this one, yoga classes, even the meals that they eat, are so clear that the reader could visualizing the story as a movie. And as throughout the series, Ms Jamieson provides a Family Tree at the beginning to help keep the relationships of this big, crazy family straight.

The members of this generation, one by one are all finding their "one". This is Harrison's story, but most of his relatives also appear. Harrison, at 26, is already one of the older players, when he is called up again from the farm to play with the Condors, due to injuries of some of the players. When his sister Everly, drags him and his fellow team mate and her boyfriend, Wyatt, to Paddleboard Yoga, he is struck in awe of Arya, the teacher, recognizing her as his "future wife". However, he does not know that she was a victim of a stalker and is very wary of men. But taking the advice of his coach about being determined in hockey and applying it to his personal life, he persists in pursuing her and she finally relents. She has trust issues and he is a guy, they have misunderstandings that almost break them up, but they are both intelligent enough to talk to each other, so they can work through them. I really like this couple.

I read an ARC from NetGalley.com. This is my unbiased and voluntary review.

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I love, love, love the Wynn hockey series. This book does not disappoint! Harrison and Arya are opposites but somehow find love. Arya is a yoga instructor and not at all what Harrison has in mind for a life partner. Harrison is from a hockey dynasty but remains on the NHL farm team. Does Harrison have what it takes to make it in the pros? Will Arya bend her rules and give Harrison a chance? Read For the Win to find out!

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Here you have Harrison Wynn who is the oldest player in the farm system for his team getting called up to the big team. He goes to water yoga and begins to make jokes which was from the ending of the last book, which had Everly and Wyatt finally dating. Now Harrison has been doing nothing but causing problem for Arya Ross the yoga instructor, she also ends up in the ocean and finally, Harrison feels bad.
Arya has shown up in a few of the books but just briefly here you get a full story with her. She ends up being hired for a while as a yoga instructor for the team Harrison plays for and she finally agrees to go to coffee with him and then an actual date. You slowly are led to her past which is one hell of a past and you see why she is leery.
Harrison is dealing with is issues of hockey and the family issues, though you do find more of those out as the story goes along. He really is attracted to Arya and the more that they date she eventually opens up to his sister and cousin. When they here what happened to her it begins to make sense about the way she acts.
Things begin to change for the two of them though really when he takes her to a bowling alley that is a refurbish and historic looking. She proceeds to kick his ass. From there the two of them are a couple, things are going well until she tells him about her past and he starts to worry that he treated her the same way, but instead of talking to her he bails. Now you wonder if he screwed the whole thing up. Read this wonderful story to see what happens.

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Although a standalone, the next book in the WYnn Hockey series has a lot of secondary characters and a secondary story running from book to book. I have enjoyed reading the books in this series, although this was not my favorite. Arya, the heroine, teaches Yoga. There was a ton of descriptions of Yoga poses...I skimmed a lot as it was tedious and unnecessary. I was sad to not see Harrison keep a permanent position where he wanted to play. In addition, there was too much miscommunication between Harrison and Arya...one was enough. I thought Harrison was sweet and Arya was kind. There is one more book in the series and I'm looking forward to it!

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I had been waiting for Harrison and Arya to get together for a bit now – and it was well worth the wait!
Arya has a bit of a past (don’t we all) that is surprising but leads into the storyline itself. Harrison never gives up on her, even when she wants to give up.

Harrison is a Wynn. And while he is still going through everything going on with the Wynn family dynasty, he is carefree and fun. His heart is gold and pure.

This is handsdown the best book in the series so far!

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Harrison is the oldest player on the hockey team. He is striving to prove he can make it in the NHL. Arya is a yoga instructor hire to work with the team. The two are like oil and water, they don't mix at first. Harrison doesn't want to be distracted from his goal but can't ignore his attraction to Arya. Arya doesn't want a man in her life. Harrison may be the exception to her rule of no men. A fun, flirty, steamy read that I recommend.

I received a copy of this book via Netgalley and am leaving a review.

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I have loved this series and was excited to read Harrison's story. I liked this book, I thought is brought some additional development of the Wynn family. Harrison, who feel likes everyone expects big things from him because his dad was a great hockey player. He loves the game, is he worth the chance or is he just hanging on and doing all he can to stay on the farm team? He needs to focus, and he has met someone who is a huge distraction.... a yoga names Arya... she is someone who does not trust easy. Will Harrison be able to give everything he needs to the NHL and follow his heart? Is one more important than the other?

It was a good book!

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4 Stars

I was pulled right into this story. The story has pain, laughs, naughty fun, and heartbreak.

If you have not read the below I would recommend reading those books(s) first:
Play to Win (Wynn Hockey #1)

This is Taylor and JP’s story. Taylor and JP meet at a wedding that turns crazy when her ex shows, and a fight breaks out. Now she is trying to avoid being alone with either of them. They are both crazy. The chemistry is off the chart between her and JP but can she really trust it? After all look how the last relationship ended. She has to decide if she is willing to give him a chance and he has to figure out if she is worth the fight.

I felt I could connect with the characters and the story was a great read.

I recommend this book.

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I am loving this Wynn family! I have been waiting patiently for Harrison and Ayra story ever since that first awkward water yoga session. They each have battles to win and secrets to hold on too but maybe it's time to let someone in. Ayra has had a terrible experience with men and now just chooses to keep to herself. When Harrison splashes into her life she has no idea who he or how convincing he could be. Harrison soon realizes that he needs to treat Ayra with kid gloves and show her the respect and tenderness that she deserves. We also have the amazing cast of friends and family that surround them on their journey !It will be a tough road but when you find that someone it is certainly worth the risk!
~~Michele McMullen ~~

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A big thank you to NetGalley and Random House Publishing/Loveswept for the ARC. I am voluntarily reviewing this book. This is part of a series, but reads well as a stand alone. Cute story. I liked Harrison and Arya. Harrison has a crazy family. Parts made me laugh! 3 stars

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As hard as it is to believe, this was my first book by Kelly Jamieson. Me, lover of Hockey Romance Reads with a borderline obsession for them, has never read a book by this author. What can I say, I’ve been living under a rock. “For the Win” did not disappoint. Harrison is a good looking, sexy, goofy, big hearted, lovestruck hockey player. Arya is a shy, quiet, beautifully damaged yoga instructor. The two meet when Harrison is dragged to one of her classes and he makes quite the impression behaving like a a besotted lovestruck fool. From this point on he becomes laser focused on getting the woman he’s decided is going to be his future wife. Harrison is the ideal main character because once he sets his mind to it, he focuses his energy and attention on getting the girl, and get her he does. A great introduction to Kelly’s books, I look forward to reading more by this author.

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I loved the latest Wynn hockey novel from Kelly Jamieson. For the Win is a sweet romance with lots of steamy moments along with tons of hockey.
If you are looking for a great romance with strong, sexy characters and a slow burn, For the Win is for you. I can’t wait to see what happens next with the Wynns!

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I loved reading For the Win. Arya and Harrison's romance was one of the sweetest that I have read in a while. I thought that Arya's backstory was painful and I understood why she kept Harrison at arms length. The backstory with Bob was heartbreaking. But, I was a little miffed that his older sons weren't told the same time as his other kids. The sex scenes were on fire!!! I can't wait to read the next book.

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The Wynns are still #winning !! *happy sigh*

Note: Even tho technically, this book can be a standalone, you’re missing out on the family ARC if you don’t start at the beginning. Your choice…..

Harrison and Arya managed to not only entertain me, but tug at my heart at every single turn! I didn’t really think that Harrison would pull a 5 Star from me, but he did! GAH, this family is everything!!

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I love the Wynn’s and all of their disfunction. Harrison is trying to find his place in hockey bouncing between the AHL and NHL. Arya is the local yoga teacher that immediately catches Harrison's eye. He tackles getting her to go out with him just as he does his hockey career and cannot understand her resistance. Little does he know Arya is holding onto a painful past. I loved these two together. Even though Arya has trouble trusting men, I loved that she knew it was time to get back out there and didn’t dwell on it for half the book. The issue with Mr. Wynn unravels in this installment and we see all members of the family, not just Harrison struggle with his diagnosis. I was so invested in this couple that I didn’t want their book to end. I really wanted this couple to have an epilogue. I know these books all overlap and we could catch up with them in the next one but I would’ve loved a little peek into their forever.

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“For the Win" is the latest in Kelly Jamieson’s Wynn Hockey series. Our hero is Harrison, who has made appearances in the previous books as the somewhat goofy but charming player recently called up to the NHL from a farm team. Our heroine is Arya, also appearing before as a serious-minded yoga instructor with a past she won’t talk about.

First off, to love this book you gotta love yoga. I mean really, really love it. There are pages and pages of descriptions of poses, classes, and yogic thinking and beliefs. I enjoyed it at first but since I am only a sporadic practitioner it got old.

(Sometimes I think we can learn a lot about writers’ current circumstances, even down to where they recently vacationed, by what they feature in their books. I remember a long time ago reading a Nora Roberts book set in a family vineyard and filled with excruciating detail about grapes and harvests and planting etc. Of course, she’d recently set herself in a fancy vineyard and learned all about it. So I hazard a guess Jamieson is either a recent and enthusiastic convert to yoga or a dedicated student who is writing about something she loves. Just my theory!)

Those following the series know the Wynn family, with its convoluted dynamics involving two generations and an ongoing family feud set in the world of hockey, has the kind of sprawling family tree that requires an actual family tree printed at the beginning of the book. Harrison, though not considered one of the brilliant Wynns by the rest of the clan, has always seemed to me to be one of the more reasonable members, frequently defending the one being pummeled by others. I liked him a lot.

Which brings me to Arya. I thought her Big Secret, once revealed, was pretty mundane and not much to build the “I’m attracted to you but it can never go anywhere because I don’t do relationships” plot.

Once that gets sorted out Jamieson closes up shop in “For the Win” with a mysterious character much talked about making a surprise appearance. I have to say it’s a great set-up for the next installment.

ARC received for an honest review.

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This is the fourth book in the Wynn Hockey series, a fact I was unaware of when I started reading it. I read the first two books, and when I saw that For the Win was available for review, I snapped it up. It was only after I started reading that I realized I’d missed book three in the series, which apparently came out late last year. Luckily, I’m not a stickler for reading in order.

Harrison Wyatt is 26 years years old, which in most contexts is still pretty young (at least to a crone like me). For a hockey player who wants to play at the pro level, though, he’s getting to be a bit long in the tooth to accomplish that goal. Harrison has been sent up from the farm team, the Pasadena Condors, to the NHL team, the California Condors. He’s there to help plug the hole caused by a rash of injuries as the team finishes the regular season and heads into the playoffs.

Harrison’s been with the pro team before, but he never “sticks” (wait, did I just make a hockey pun?) – he always gets sent back down eventually. He believes he has the talent to play in the NHL but he doesn’t quite know why it’s not working out for him. As the book opens, the Condors coach suggests to Harrison that he lacks the drive and desire to be a top tier player. Harrison understandably bristles at the notion, but privately he does doubt himself.

Harrison’s family is hockey royalty – his father is an ex-player and now owns the Condors, while Harrison’s older half-brothers Matthew and Mark (who are estranged from their father) own and coach, respectively, the Condors’ rival, the Long Beach Golden Eagles. Harrison’s brothers, sister, nephews, and for all I know pet guinea pig are all involved in hockey and most work for one of the two teams in some capacity. It’s a little unrealistically incestuous, but it’s good for setting up conflict in the series, I guess.

Arya Ross is also 26; she’s a yoga teacher who has encountered Harrison several times in previous books in the series. He hasn’t made the best impression (he’s a bit goofy and sometimes seems young for his age). Arya has moved to Southern California to restart her life after a traumatic experience back home in North Dakota. Arya is not interested in relationships but is working on rebuilding her self-confidence and enjoying developing her yoga practice and the new friends she’s made.

Harrison is all in on Arya from very early on, though. He tells his teammates that she’s the woman he’s going to marry at the 17% mark. That makes him an unusual romance hero and it was kind of a welcome change for me. I didn’t love Harrison in all dimensions (again, he was a sort of immature and perhaps a wee bit basic), but I really did like this aspect of his personality. He falls in love early, he knows what he wants, and he still manages not to be an alpha jerk while pursuing it. (Though later revelations make him wonder if he did act like one.)

The relationship between Harrison and Arya gets a boost when she’s hired to teach yoga to the Condors. Harrison asks Arya out, and she surprises herself by accepting. Though Harrison isn’t obnoxious in his pursuit of Arya, he is persistent, and he doesn’t always pick up on her discomfort with that. He’s hurt when she doesn’t want him to drive her home from their date, for instance. For someone who is basically falling in love very quickly, Harrison is a bit incurious about the rather obvious signals Arya sends that there’s something holding her back. He figures she’ll tell him when she’s ready, which is appropriate, but I thought it was odd that he didn’t wonder more about it.

Harrison has his own struggles, in the meantime. His father is ill and besides the stress and pain that goes along with his diagnosis, Harrison has to sort through his feelings about his dad and hockey. His father never made Harrison feel “less than”, but still, as the son of the great Bob Wynn, Harrison has always been aware that he doesn’t measure up, at least as a player. He has to come to terms with how that awareness has held him back.

Arya was for me the more likable and relatable character, but I still don’t have a lot to say about her? She’s beautiful, nice, has a hidden secret trauma, and she’s good at yoga. So far the characters in this series have all felt a bit young and callow to me – they have baggage but I never really get the sense that it affects them that much. I mean, I’m *told* that it does, but I don’t feel it. Call it angst-lite. The late-in-book conflict between Harrison and Arya felt particularly thin, as both made assumptions about how the other felt, in fine big mis fashion. This was really more like a little mis, but it still felt like manufactured conflict.

My grade for For the Win is a C+. I will seek out book three at some point; it features another hockey-player hero, but the heroine, Everly Wynn, has been one of the more interesting secondary characters and seems like she might be a little bit difference from the heroines of the series thus far.

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For the Win is a great Sports Romance! It is everything you want out of a great book and so much more! I would definitely recommend it. I am voluntarily leaving my honest review after reading this arc.

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This is a voluntary review of an advanced copy.

This is the first book that I have read in this series and while you see some of the past issues in this book, it is clearly explained and I did not feel like I was "missing" anything from not reading previous books.

Wow, Harrison falls for Arya and it was love at first sight but he had to learn to back off and not bulldoze his way into her life! Little did he know that was the worst approach, and when he backed off, things started working out for him.

Arya was a touch chick to start her life over after events in her past and while she knew she had triggers, she still had to work hard to overcome small things (to most women) that sent her in to a panic.

It was great to see them both working to overcome their issues and try to work on a relationship. I loved the time when Arya "saw" Harrison with another woman and told him off - and it was his twin brother. Being married to a twin, I know things like that can happen - I was warned when we were dating that my boyfriend was cheating on me and that person did NOT know that there were two guys that were identical so it does happen!!

Parts were said as you see Harrison's father getting weaker and losing parts of his memory, others were inspiring as you see the family trying to overcome so pretty deep hurts. I am going to have to go back and start the series at the beginning to see all these couples that were in this book and how they evolved! Loving forward to knowing more about the situation with Jackson that came up at the end of the book - that got my attention!!

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