New Release: Man Down by Kate Meader + Review!

Man Down by Kate Meader is now available!

Blurb:

I’ve been texting the wife I lost, the woman I loved beyond measure ... Now someone else has answered back.

Gunnar Bond is broken.

Three years ago, he lived through the car crash that took his wife and twins away from him—though “lived” barely describes his current state. Giving up professional hockey, going off grid, and drinking himself into oblivion are his coping mechanisms. Another is texting his dead wife about his days without her. Therapeutic? Doubtful. Crazy? Definitely. But those messages into the ether are virtually the only thing stopping him from spiraling to even darker places.

Until someone texts back …

Sadie Yates is losing it.

Suddenly guardian to a little sister she doesn’t know and a misbehaving hound she’d rather not know at all, she’s had to upend her (sort of) glamorous life in LA and move back to Chicago. The nanny has quit, the money’s running out, and her job is on the line. The last thing she needs is her sister’s hockey camp counselor, a judgmental Viking type, telling her she sucks at this parenting lark. Thank the goddess for her sweet, sensitive, and—fingers crossed—sexy text buddy who always knows the right thing to say. In the same city at last, they can finally see if their online chemistry is mirrored in real life. She just needs to set up a meeting …

A ruined man who claims to have used up all his love is surely a bad bet, but Sadie’s never been afraid of a challenge … even one that might shatter her heart into a million pieces. 


Buy Links:

Kindle: https://amzn.to/2QcKtyu
Nook: https://bit.ly/2VsFGvG
Apple Books: https://apple.co/2qlIwVU
Kobo: https://bit.ly/2I3nyRa
Google Play: https://bit.ly/323TrUZ

Review:

3 stars

***

 Man Down is the 3rd book in the Rookie Rebels series. I liked this book in parts, but I didn't completely love it. This book is Gunnar and Sadie's story. Gunnar is a pro hockey player on the Chicago Rebels with a tragic past. His wife and two young children were killed in a car accident. He is now a shell of a man, just trying to make his way through the grief. After his losses, he still regularly texted his dead wife's phone number his daily thoughts and how much he missed her. One day, someone texts back. Sadie gets a new phone number and it is the one that used to belong to Gunnar's wife. She lets him know it is her number now, but she is sympathetic and they start texting back and forth. They can tell each other their thoughts without consequence or judgement and develop a sort of anonymous friendship. But after many months of texting and a few missed chances to meet up, they finally come face to face in a surprising way. When sparks fly between them and feelings get involved, will Gunnar be ready to move on and find new love with Sadie?

This was a good story and I enjoyed the way the couple met. But this trope is very tricky for me. It has to be written very carefully in a way to make me not feel like the new love is lesser than the old love. I just didn't quite feel that way with this one. I held out hope that Gunnar would come to love Sadie as strongly as his dead wife, but I never really felt like he moved on completely. I felt bad for Sadie. But she let him and others walk all over her. She was too patient and understanding. I wanted at least an epilogue that focused just on Sadie and Gunnar and them looking to the future together, but we don't even get that. I wanted Sadie to have someone that loved her as more than just a consolation prize. I liked Gunnar as person, but I never felt like he more than liked Sadie and felt like he was settling for her and taking advantage of her love for him. Sadie's self-esteem issues made it even worse. She deserved someone who worked for her love, but she made it way too easy on Gunnar. The story had potential though. It would have been a good meet cute for a man who was really ready to move on to a new love. But Gunnar was a mess and it took the entire book for him to even be ready to take the first step to moving on. I just didn't feel like he truly loved and appreciated Sadie the way that she did him and the way that she deserved.

Overall, I did enjoy parts of the book. It just never quite got where I wanted it to by the end. Still, I did enjoy the writing and the story, as well as catching up with other characters from the series. I still enjoy this series and look forward to more from Ms. Meader in the future.