Dax by Sawyer Bennett

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Title: Dax
Author: Sawyer Bennett
Series: Arizona Vengeance #4
Published by: Indie
Release Date: July 9, 2019
Format: Audiobook
Narrator: Aiden Snow, Virginia Rose
Length: 7 hours and 29 minutes
Genres: Contemporary, Romance, Sports Romance
Source: Chirp
Reading Challenges: Lenoreo's 2023 Audiobook Challenge, Lenoreo's 2023 Backlist Reader Challenge, Lenoreo's 2023 COYER Chapter 3, Lenoreo's 2023 Diversity Reading Challenge
Find it: Goodreads ? Amazon ? B&N ? Google ? Kobo ? iTunes ? Libro.FM ? Chirp
My rating:

Blurb:

The Arizona Vengeance is killing it on the ice. But one player can’t seem to keep his eye on the puck—all thanks to the woman he just married to save her life.

My name is Dax Monahan and hockey is my passion. And if you want to succeed in this sport you have to bust your ass 24/7. I’ve never had a hard time focusing on my career, but when my past comes knocking, no amount of training can prepare me for what lies on the other side of the door.

Regan Miles was always like a sister to me. When a shared tragedy brings us face to face after several years, I’m shocked to see just how much she’s changed. Gone is the shy, awkward little girl that always used to chase me and her brother around. Instead, I’m faced with a gorgeous woman who makes it damn hard to concentrate on anything but her.

Turns out, she’s in trouble, and the only way out is to get married.

I surprise myself when I tell her to marry me. Order her, actually. And most shocking of all, she doesn’t even hesitate before saying yes.

So it’s settled. We’re getting hitched and she’s moving to Arizona with me. All platonic, of course.

The catch?

I never knew I’d fall so hard for my best friend’s little sister.

My Review:

3 stars — Well huh.  This one was only okay for me.  I think there were multiple things that went into it for me, but all in all it gave me a feeling of meh.

This was my first listen by Virginia Rose, and while there isn’t anything necessarily wrong with her narration, it definitely wasn’t for me.  She had good pacing and voices, but there was a quality to her voice when she would be conveying emotional moments that just didn’t work for me personally.  So that definitely didn’t help.  Mr. Snow was enjoyable as always.

I also ended up spreading out my listen of this book, with a week break in the middle, so that probably didn’t help keep me into it.

But I think in the end I had come to expect a certain level of plot from these stories, and this one was fairly mundane.  I thought perhaps there would be a major health crisis for Regan, or something would come up with her brother’s death…I don’t know.  And it’s not as though things didn’t happen, but I guess there was no tension, and no investment from me.

We get Dax, our typical player hockey player, who just suddenly changes his tune.  *shrugs*  Which is fine, but it can get a bit boring and rote.  I appreciated that he really cared for his best friend’s little sister, and I enjoyed him seeing her in a new light, but it was all very fast and without connection from me as a reader.

I really hate to say this, but Regan was a bit boring.  She would have moments of standing up to Dax, but then she would have moments of kind of letting herself be railroaded.  So she was likeable, but not remarkable.

As for them together?  It was very lusty and physical, and they had the family friend chemistry, but I feel like I didn’t get quite as much in the middle.

I expected more grieving from them both.  I expected a bit more from the health front.  I expected…SOMETHING.  At least something more than what we got.  I expected a mountain for the climax, and I got a speed bump.

On a total side note of nitpickiness, I really wasn’t a fan of him pointing out how she was chubby and nerdy when she was younger, and now she was grown up, slim and hot, so of course he noticed her.  *sigh*  The younger, yes totally.  The slim down and get hot to be worthy of attention?  Overdone.  I couldn’t believe he actually said it to her face too.  But I guess that’s the world we’re forced to live in, it’s just not one I want to inhabit anymore.

I’m definitely interested in continuing the series, because you never know which ones will hit and which ones won’t.  And all in all, they are fun and easy.