Review of Delay of Game by Tracey Richardson, Audiobook narrated by Anastasia Watley
I’ve had this book on my TBR list for a long time and now that it has been released on audiobook I decided to give it a try. Anastasia Watley is one of my favourite narrators but unfortunately, she doesn’t perform much lesfic so it’s always a treat to listen to one of her audiobooks.
To say that Niki Hartling and Eva Caruso have a history together is an understatement. Not only they competed against each other in an ice hockey Olympic final but they were also girlfriends. The pressure of competition tore them apart and now, 12 years later, they meet as opponents again, Nicky as Head coach of Canada and Eva as a player for the US. But despite the time that has passed and the old antagonism, their mutual attraction is as strong as those years ago.
Delay of Game is an entertaining sports romance featuring ice hockey at Olympic level. I admit I know nothing about ice hockey but the author makes it easy for readers to follow the sports scenes. It helps that the novel is more focused on the romance and on a mystery surrounding spying the opponents’ tactics than on the sport itself. There are a few scenes describing different matches but it’s not heavy on tactics or extremely detailed. It worked fine for me as I was more interested in the rest.
I have read a few of Ms. Richardson’s novels, my favourite is still Thursday Afternoons which surprised me for the level of chemistry and the heat of the sex scenes. Delay of Game is a close second in my preferences with also great chemistry between the main characters and very hot intimate scenes. This is the strength of this book, followed by the sport descriptions. There is a side of mystery too, related to some spying between rivals but personally, I thought that was the weakest part of the plot. I had to suspend disbelief around these issues as some parts like the handling of coaching by the hockey associations didn’t sound realistic to me. However, I’m hardly an expert so I didn’t mind it much.
As I said above, the audiobook was narrated by Anastasia Watley who is a fantastic performer. I particularly loved her narration of The X Ingredient by Roslyn Sinclair. Her southern drawl for Laurel is absolutely brilliant. Unfortunately, there are no southern accents in this one but her voices are distinct and her performance of the different characters is very good. Her overall narration, especially of the romance parts, is fantastic.
I recommend this to all sports fans. 4.5 stars.
Length: 8 hours, 46 minutes
