As I have mentioned before, I'm a sucker for romances involving athletes, and I have a particular soft spot for hockey players...I'm going to blame my Canadian nationality on that one, and also a particularly amazing fanfic that I read years ago where Edward Cullen was a hockey player...sigh. Don't laugh...I know you're laughing, it was fantastic! :P Anyway, Taking Shots managed to rekindle the love I have for sports romances...you may have noticed a steady rise in the number that I've been reading lately. :P While, it isn't a short story it's so addictive that you honestly won't want to stop reading...I didn't, and at the time that I read it, I seriously didn't have time to read...but I did anyway because it had me hooked!

I absolutely loved Shea, he was awesome, and I loved the relationship he had with his twin sister, it was so adorable! :D I really liked Elli too, but sometimes she got on my nerves. I understand second-guessing yourself, but Elli took it to an extreme. She'd have her mind made up, doubt herself, decide to do it again, then doubt herself and then doubt herself for doubting herself. It got a bit excessive. That being said, sometimes her fears were well-grounded, she had a rocky past, but I still found that sometimes it was a bit over-the-top. However, Elli's excessive doubts were the only qualms I had with the book, everything else was fantastic. I loved Shea, I loved when he and Elli were together (especially when she was just letting herself enjoy it all ;D), and I just loved this book in general.

One of the awesome things about Taking Shots is that there's actually hockey in it! I don't know about you, but I'm not a fan of reading sports romances when there's no sports in it, I get that the author might want to focus on the romance rather than the sport, but what's the point in making the hero an athlete if there are no sports! Toni Aleo handles the sports aspect superbly! Elli is a mega fan of hockey, she has boxed seats, and she happened to be a big fan of Shea's prior to meeting him...her shrine of Shea was pretty hilarious once she actually met him. :P But, I loved that hockey was an actual focus in Taking Shots, and I loved how Elli was so into the game! :D

Along with hockey and the fabulous characters, I actually enjoyed the drama surrounding Taking Shots. Elli's past was heartbreaking, but it was also empowering to see her doing something that she was passionate about and working her butt of to run her business. :) With the exception of her awesome dad and uncle, her family was pretty terrible, and I liked that Elli's family dynamics actually had a purpose in the story...I won't tell you how, but it leads to some major drama. Finally, I loved how the book ended, it was such a sweet ending, and I was extremely happy with how everything worked out in the end.

I'd recommend Taking Shots to anyone who has a soft spot for athletes, especially buff ones with really pretty eyes, and who likes kids...seriously Shea's pretty much perfect. ;) Also, if you're interested in trying out a sports romance and haven't read one before this would be a good chance to start, it's primarily available on ebook, so it's an inexpensive way to get a great read and try out the genre. :D

It has been 8 years since I requested this title and I still haven't read it. I am still interested in the book and have since purchased a copy for my shelf but I don't know when I will get to this at this point, if ever. I appreciate the approval for this title and if/when I do decide to read I will leave a review on instagram, goodreads, storygraph, and amazon. thanks again for the approval.

Taking Shots by Toni Aleo has been on my TBR for a long time, and I finally made time to read/listen to the book. Unfortunately, this book only gets three stars from me. I’m not a fan of female characters that can be whiney and self-conscious about herself always. It drove me a little batty. It also drove me crazy with how her family (mother) treated her. Grr! They were not helpful with her self-esteem, and I wished that the heroine, Elli Fisher, would’ve stayed away from her mother and sister. Her mother has to be the most cynical person in life due to how she treats her daughter. I wanted to go through the book and deal with her mother myself. Her father though was very supportive and proud of her, especially since she’s a successful photographer.

This is when she meets her favorite hockey player on the Nashville Assassins team, Shea Adler when she’s working as a photographer. They end up hooking up with each other, but of course, Elli has issues throughout the relationship because she knows Shea doesn’t usually go out with her type. She’s not a stick figure with blonde hair. She’s not a size 0-2, which I loved how Toni Aleo wrote Elli. I found her beautiful, and I was tired of her bringing herself down.

Elli though has a health condition in the book that is explained after a while, but she’s a beautiful and successful woman who should love herself. Shea on the otherhand wants a change. He doesn’t want to type his typical type. He finds Elli fascinating and immediately falls for her. He’s not the same guy that Elli thinks throughout this book. Although, towards the end of the book, there is some drama.

Elli and Shea are perfect if they didn’t go hang out with Elli’s family that much. Shea realizes where Shea gets her insecurities, and he tries everything to bring up her self-esteem in this book. I loved Shea more than Elli because he was trying to prove himself and also prove he’s in love with Elli.

Will, I read another book in this series? Yes. I want to try another book from the series. Toni Aleo is a new-to-me-author, so I want to try other books too from the author. I did enjoy the storyline in this book, but between Elli and her family, it drove me crazy. There was also the issue that I listened to this book. I’m very picky with my narrators, so I should’ve read the book instead of listened to it. I may try another book from the narrator, but contemporary romance audiobooks tend to make me not like listening to them.

If you are a fan of hockey romance that this book could be for you.

Story Rating: 3 stars
Steaminess Rating: 3.5 stars
Standalone or part of series: Part of series, but can be read as a standalone.
Do I recommend this book? Yes to hockey romance fans.
Will I read other books from the author? Yes. I’ll also continue the series when I have time to squeeze it in between other books.
Tropes/Elements: Hockey (Sports) Romance
Hero: Hockey Player; Player (Has been known to hook up with skinny blonde women)
Heroine: Photographer; Self-Conscious; Low Self-Esteem; Whiney at times

Taking Shots was an intricate tale. At around 30% or so I was ready to give up on this book. Mainly because I am sick unto death of whiney heroines obsessed with their weight. However, this series was recommended to me by several people so I decided to stick with it and I am glad I did. The story did get a lot better and I even started to like the heroine. I was starting to get worried for her and the heroes HEA though when by 98% percent there was still so much conflict! But the story wrapped up wonderfully and in the end I really enjoyed it.

Eleanor Fisher is a well known photographer in the Nashville area. She’s taking team pictures for the Nashville Assassins when Shea Adler sees her for the first time. He’s almost smitten from the first and can’t stop thinking about the woman. He goes so far as to have his sister, who is a party planner and planning a party for the team, call her up and book her as a photographer for his party. From there he asks her out constantly and can’t get enough of being with her.

Elli is a huge fan of the Assassins and of number 6 – Shea Adler – in particular. She just about dies when he asks her out and even though they start dating on a regular basis she still can’t believe that he’s interested in her. She has serious insecurity issues that were brought on by her evil family and ex-fiance and those are so stuck in her head she can’t seem to like herself much less believe that anyone else might.

The pair continue seeing each other but when something happens that makes Elli believe that Shea isn’t true to her she flips and breaks off their relationship making both parties miserable.

I found this book in a kind of roundabout way. I was sent info on book 4 in the series and that intrigued me enough to look back at the series thinking that I wanted to start with book 1. This was a good book but I definitely had a few issues with it.

The story in general is a good one. I really liked the whole premise with the hockey team, the romance and even the big mis. Although I have my own insecurities (as I think we all do) I thought that Elli’s were drawn out a little too much. She basically had had the world at her feet at one time. She was a size 2, an up and coming Broadway star but then she started gaining weight because of hypothyroidism. She lost her job, her fiancé was more than verbally cruel and her mother and sister were horrible to her about her weight. She had at one point gotten pretty big but had lost weight and from what I could tell she was now a size 10 or 12 so not that big at all – she was just incredibly self-conscious. She loved being a photographer now but besides being proud of her pictures she wasn’t proud of anything else she was and that got a little old for me.

Shea loved her exactly how she was and when she showed him pictures of her at size 2 he didn’t like them because she was too skin and bones. Shea was wonderful! He was thoughtful and kind; loving and loyal and went out of his way to constantly tell her how beautiful she was – at first not even knowing about her issues. Their romance was sweet, however, and I really loved getting to know them as a couple.

The book itself, imho, needed to be shorter. At times I thought we were almost getting too much information as every little detail was shared and we got to see them on every date, etc. There were a couple of times when time jumped forward but a bit of it was repetitive and I think those parts could have been pared down because it made the book a slower read. It didn’t drag exactly but pretty close at times. That being said it was a fun story overall though it does have its share of angst. I’m looking forward to the next book to see what it has to offer.

Rating: 3.75 out of 5

I didn't read this book or series when it first came out. Maybe if I would have, I would have liked the book better. I just found myself comparing it to another hockey romance I've read and loved.

I am definitely not a fan of the length of the book. I found myself just skimming some of the pages.

I love romance novels with heroines of every shape and size, but I have a real soft spot for heroes that fall for the bigger girls. This book was an instant hit with me because Shea fell for a big girl and thought she was perfect.

I really enjoyed this book and the friendships that the characters had. With that said, there were some things that I didn’t enjoy or annoyed me. One was Ellie’s mom…she was just horrible! Don’t get me wrong, most of Ellie’s family was bad (The big exceptions were her dad and uncle), but the mom was probably the meanest character I’ve seen in a long time…outside of serial killers. The author did a good job writing her because I definitely hated Olivia. A second thing was Shea falling into the schemes of Ellie’s mom and sister. As soon as it was suggested that Victoria help Shea pick out an engagement ring for Ellie you knew Victoria would do something horrible…and she did.At that point in the story it was going well and it was almost a case of waiting for the other shoe to drop. After that I was ready to yell at both Shea and Ellie to stop feeling sorry for themselves and to just kiss and makeup.

Something was just a minor annoyance was Shea’s twin sister Grace. Throughout the majority of the book I really loved Grace and her scenes with her family and in particular with Shea. However, there were some scenes where I felt her jealousy was misplaced and (hide spoiler)] it just felt weird. One was after Shea was injured and when he came to in the hospital he asked for Ellie. That’s perfectly normal to me, but what was weird was Grace being upset that Shea didn’t ask for her. Another time the scene felt weird was after Grace invited Shea and Ellie to a family outing and Shea declined because he wanted to spend the day with Ellie before leaving for a road trip. There were just a few times that the scenes felt weird to me, and the characters addressed it later in the book but the explanation given rang a little false to me.

Overall, this was a really good book by a new to me author. There were times I was laughing out loud at the antics of the characters, and at other times I could feel their pain. I would be interesting in reading more from Toni Aleo.

*Review is based on audio version*

Elleanor Fisher is a huge fan of the Nashville Assassins hockey team. She, also, has a huge crush on their main star, the hot Shea Adler. Her home is decorated with his memorabilia and she even named her dog after him. As a photographer she is hired to take promotional photos of the team which leads to her comimg face to face with Shea. They are taken with each other immediately. Their relationship takes off in a way she never thought possible, especially with her low self-esteem issues. Not to mention she doesn’t want to appear like a stalker fan to Shea.

Shea Adler wants more than to be a superstar hockey player. He wants a real relationship with a woman. When he meets Elleanor, he knows he has finally met the woman he is meant to spend the rest of his life with. Now, he just needs to convince her.

This book starts out fun, but there were times Elleanor drove me nuts. I could understand and sympathize with her insecurities and low self-esteem, but sometimes she was over-the-top about it. She also had a tendency to keep quite a few secrets from Shea and not talk things through.

Still, maybe it’s my love of sports romance stories, but it’s a good story and I ended up enjoying it. I listened to this on audio and the narrator did very well with it. She brought the characters to life. This is the first book in the series and I do want to listen to the rest of it.