Overall Grade: 4.5 ⭐️
Tropes: marriage of convenience; cinnamon roll male character; hockey romance; sports romance
By my estimation, there are several ways to entice one’s readers. For me, formulate a romance with a cinnamon roll main male character to fall for an untrusting, somewhat neurotic main female character using the mechanism of a fake marriage or some type of forced proximity. If you add some sports romance to it, more power to the author. This is precisely the genius of Rebecca Jenshak’s Wild Ever After. For me, Jenshak’s newest story in her Wildcat Hockey series is my favorite thus far because Declan is a dream, an unassuming thoughtful hero who adores his heroine, Jade, beyond a measure she can understand. From their chemistry to the struggles of their marriage of convenience to the community of friends to which they belong, Wild Ever After entices its reader.
Highlights:
Declan’s growing adoration for Jade inspires her to begin to trust a significant other. Honestly, Declan doesn’t have to do much to build this trust other than see Jade and care for her in ways that her mother wasn’t always good at doing. When he makes his home her home, it’s a pure swoon fest.
Declan’s background should have made him “hard”; instead, it allows him to grow an EQ that makes him the perfect cinnamon roll hero.
Jade’s journey from needing status to realizing her favorite “space” is with Declan. Jade begins the story chasing “clout,” a common societal goal; yet, as she researches how people love and she is loved by Declan, she recognizes her true happiness. She moves from cold to hot with Declan as she struggles with finding this truth. In the end, Jenshak places her exactly where she should be, making for a story that makes you sigh with happiness.
The community of Wildcat hockey friends continues to entertain in this book. For one, Jenshak gives us updates, but she also hints at future stories. By the end of Wild Ever After, you know the next book’s main characters. Even more, the support of this community adds layers to Jade and Declan’s romance.
From start to finish, Rebecca Jenshak’s Wild Ever After reminds her readers of the difficulty of love. Both Declan and Jade must learn to trust and become vulnerable with each other after pasts filled with reasons to avoid these. In the end, these two are fated, and their happy ending is exactly what we expect of romancelandia.
In love and romance,
Professor A
Professor Romance 