The Penalty Box (Vancouver Wolves Hockey, #3) by Odette Stone

The Penalty Box (Vancouver Wolves Hockey, #3) Reviews

• 
  Syndi

  When Penalty Box was published,i can not wait to get my hand on this book. I remember i had such good memory of tje first book in the series.
  
  Now i am left disappointed. Dont get me wrong, Penalty Box has many potential to be a good book. What does not click with me is how the plot executed. The first half of the book was great. Then somehow it goes downhill from there. The plot becomes so weak and meak. Unnecessary plot being added and secondary characters make everything confusing.
  
  The romance is slow burn. Its just not burning hot for me though. There are moments i can not feel the connection between the hero and the heroine.
  
  I still do admire the author talent in writting. She really can write. And because of that i settle with 3 stars.
  
  3 stars
• 
  Jessica

  4.5
  
  No one told me this was a hockey romance with a marriage of convenience! From the moment we met Mica and Charlie, I loved how Charlie just could not stand Mica. Mica is a Russian hockey player who has ties to some dangerous people, so he's arrested to get information on them. Because fo this, his reputation is in jeopardy, so he has to get married. Charlie is involved with some not so great people because of her brother, so marrying Mica could help solve her money problems. When they move in together, though, they find it harder to keep their hands off each other. I just loved their banter and how they had an undeniable chemistry with one another. Since this is a hockey romance, I loved when Charlie went to see Mica play and was there for him. This also had some moments of suspense with the dangerous people that Charlie was involved with and I loved how protective Mica became when it came to Charlie. I highly recommend this if you love sports romances and contemporary marriage of conveniences!
• 
  ren ♡

  damn, at the rate I'm blazing through this series, I'm never going to catch up on my reviews 😭
  
  frtc.
• 
  Christy

  3.5 stars
  
  Mica is player for the Vancouver Wolves and he's got himself in a little trouble... he needs to clean up his image and his PR person comes up with the plan to get him married off to make him look like he's settling town. This is where Charlie comes in. She could use the money and has always liked Mica.
  
  I did love the marriage of convince aspect, that is something I always love in books! I could have done without the drama towards the end with Andrew, seemed a little crazy to me and would have loved an epilogue, but overall it was good.
• 
  Rozberry🍓

  Puck Me Secretly - 3.75 stars
  Home Game - 3.75 stars
  The Penalty Box - 2.75 stars(bumping up .25 for the last chapter & epilogue)
  
  To put it simply, this just wasn’t my cuppa. Which is surprising as it has not one, but two of my handful of favorite tropes/sub-genres(fake marriage & sports). Although I did give dnfing some thought a couple of times(tbh I stuck with it because I wanted know if I was right about a side character), I wouldn’t say I’m incensed by anything as much as I just feel very meh as a whole about it. I found it to be riddled with varying levels of problematic issues.
  Such as...
  - heroine is a bit of a doormat
  - hero’s connection to a Russian kingpin felt a little culturally stereotypical
  - flat writing/minimally developed characters
  - no chemistry/connection til the end(& that was barely), resulting in a few uncomfortable love scenes
  - too little too late attempt at adding character depth
  - heroine frequently felt a bit like hero’s possession vs equal
  - heroine’s connection to loan shark was shaky at best
  
  Hopefully the next is better.
• 
  Melanie (mells_view)

  It felt too real, too intense, to be anything but.
  
  The Penalty Box is a slow burn marriage of inconvenience (lol) read. Mica and Charlie are reluctant to get fake married to save Mica’s career on the ice, but once they come together they can’t resist the natural attraction they have toward each other. It’s a slow burn, but once they start burning it is HOTTT. I enjoyed this story, because they truly do fall in love during the story. The attraction is quick, but the feelings take some time. There is a bit of a suspenseful side plot. There’s some angst, but honestly the couple navigates it all well. Such a good read and I can’t wait to see what’s next from this author!!
  
  
  AVAILABLE NOW on Amazon & Kindle Unlimited!
  *ARC provided by BookSprout
• 
  Eden

  4.5⭐️ My word I didn’t expect to like this book as much as I did, IT WAS SO GOOD 😭. I thought it was just a little sports romance but it was SOO MUCH MORE 😩
• 
  Inna

  3.5 stars. Tough book to rate because I liked the story overall but there were some problematic portions that really irritated me.
  
  Let me first say that this story was entertaining and kept my attention. I really was invested in the story and wanted to see where it was going. There are a few twists and turns and it really does stay interesting throughout (even if some of the twists are fairly predictable).
  
  The issues that I had with this story mainly revolved around the hero and how he treated the heroine. He has been around her for several years and never once felt any attraction towards her. They are forced together and he still sees nothing in her to attract him. Until he sees her half naked, then he looks at her and realizes that she’s very attractive. 🤨🧐 I guess I just felt sad knowing that the hero would NEVER have been even tempted by the heroine if not for the situation they found themselves in. Also, the way he treated her for the majority of the story - by keeping her at arm’s length - was majorly off putting to me. I felt like the heroine was always all in with him, and he always had one foot out the door. The hard part to wrap my mind around, is that his past trauma definitely explained his weariness of relationships. BUT I still couldn’t quite forgive him for his behavior and actions towards the heroine. Maybe if she had had more of a backbone with him… but I felt like she let him get away with too much bad behavior.
  
  Safety info: I’d call this one SWE because of all the OM/OW drama and the mentions of the hero’s past. Hero was a major manwhore, heroine not a virgin, OW drama caused by a jealous woman who the hero had been intimate with once many months earlier but was no longer interested in (she tries really hard to break the couple up), OM drama caused by a friend the heroine makes who wants to be with her. No scenes with OM/OW, the hero’s past is mentioned A LOT, no partners during separation, no cheating.
  
  
  
  
• 
  Auntee

  I loved it (loved Mica and Charlie!) except for a few tiny things in logic that took me out of the story...
  
  (When you have a stalker after you, roaming your property, and you’re a millionaire athlete living in an upscale community, wouldn’t you have security cameras all around your property? Even a Ring doorbell camera would do the trick!) But...ok, that would take care of the suspense angle of this story so you’d just be left with the fake marriage that turns into a love story which I thought was pretty hot...
  
  Each story in this series gets a little bit better...although there are still a few little mistakes regarding hockey that a lot of authors seem to make that irk me (if you’re losing 4-2 you’re down by two GOALS, not POINTS. And you’re not jumping over the FENCE, you jump over the BOARDS). But that’s just me. Maybe it would help to have a hockey fan doing the proofreading? Maybe I’m just a nit picker...
  
  Still a nice little story with a couple of likable characters, and yeah, it was plenty hot (gotta love a dirty talker) and there was this crazy suspense angle thrown in and it kept me turning the pages. So, a solid 4 1/2 stars.
• 
  Ainhoa

  So far this one has been my favorite of the Vancouver Wolves Hockey series.
  
  I mean... We already established that it is a Hockey romance series with plenty of drama all around and this book is no different, but if you like drama prone hockey stories, you'll like this one as well.
  
  I think I liked this one because, my oh my, it has my favorite subject ever, a forced marriage! So yes, I was going to like it! Charlie and Mica were so cute together, they communicated well enough throughout the story, (I hate all the drama the lack of communication creates... Just sit down and talk people!) and had their goals very clear from the beginning.
  
  BUUTT... The drama! OMG! This writer likes the tension... it started with the SWAT scene in the first book and she kept on bringing it with the rest of the books! I won't tell, but you will see it coming if you read this book... And despite all, you will enjoy it (Hopefully?)
  
  So yes, overall a good entertaining story, with steam and dirty talk, laughable scenes and cute characters.
• 
  Travelogged Blogs

  "Snark seemed to be her middle name, and whenever she bothered to look my way, her glances were often filled with disdain."
  
  This is a marriage of convenience romance which is meant to solve both Mica & Charlie's problems but lines start to blur and now they're left questioning their own decisions. Deep down they both know that the marriage feels a whole lot real than it is meant to be but problem is- Mica doesn't believe in marriage and Charlie isn't ready to get her feelings hurt. What will they do? Charlie was pretty cute! I loved her ability to handle Mica and his hot and cold behaviour. She wasn't irrational instead she was mature, patient and understanding. More than that, I loved how Mica was so protective when it came to her!
  
  “If you’re wearing my ring, you’re mine. Not to be touched by anyone.”
  
  Mica & Charlie were amazing together and gosh the steam was on a whole another level especially when Mica started his dirty talk! 🤣🤣 🔥🔥🔥 I enjoyed reading Mica's character development and the progress of his relationship with Charlie was so smooth and natural, despite them being basically strangers in the beginning. My only complaint was the amount of drama that took place in the last few chapters, because of that the story felt long and it was too much to process when the book was coming to it's end. Regardless, I adored Charlie & Mica's chemistry and the side characters were amazing too especially Sniper and Sasha. I couldn't resist all the cuteness! If you haven't read this series.... go read it now because you don't want to miss on this marriage of convenience romance with a dirty talker Russian hockey player and the snarky assistant of his PR manager who hates his guts!
• 
  Ash

  This book was an absolute train wreck!
  Bad writing, lots of telling instead of showing and an incomprehensible amount of subplots.
  
  The love scenes also made me cringe so badly that I knocked an entire star off the rating.
• 
  Grecia Robles

  Sport Romance
  Married of convenience
  YASS GURL!!!
  I WANT IT!!
  
  Los matrimonios por conveniencia/ fake dating se están covirtiendo en mi trope favorito ( lo siento Friends to Lovers).
  Y éste libro ha cumplido con todo lo que me gusta de éste cliché.
  
  Mica Petrov es el defensa salvaje de los Wolves de Vancouver y se ha metido en un aprieto que le puede costar su estadía en el equipo y para poder encarrilar su reputación su agente decide que lo mejor es contraer matrimonio con una persona que lo pueda ayudar en eso y recurren a Charlie la asistente de su agente Krista.
  Ella tiene un enamoramiento por él y para disimularlo, se comporta hosca con él y finge no soportarlo.
  
  Y es que éste libro también me encantó, tenemos un protagonista ruso sexy as hell que es reacio al matrimonio pero que ya casado es posesivo y no la trata como su esposa falsa.
  Hay demasiada tensión sexual y las hot scenes son ufff FUEGO.
  
  Esta serie me tiene encantada de mis mejores descubrimientos de los que va de este año. Altamente recomedada.
  
  Mi único pero con estos dos últimos libros es que no sale el protagonista del primer libro tanto que me gustó también y ni el del libro chiquito o sea ni lo mencionan.
• 
  Karen

  I really loved this story!! It's not so original or unique but just done so well.
  
  I loved the characters...you got some real depth and development. It seemed realistic.
  Charlie crushed on him and he didn't take any (sexual) interest in her for two years when she was assistant to his sports agent. Mica was a NHL player who had plenty of easy conquests.
  
  The need to marry was a bit contrived but we went along with it. Charlie needed a bit of help and Mica could help.
  
  I think the hockey parts were brief but set a realistic tone on those long road trips.
  
  I loved the secondary characters so much.
  The twists in the story were many. Hang on.
  I had to review some just to keep it all straight.
  
  So well done, Odette. A nice Canadian story!
• 
  Bibi

  Too cheesy. If I wanted to read a Harlequin Presents then I’d read one. DNF @ 20%. No rating.
• 
  RJ

  DNF @ 17%
  
  not my cuppa. manwhore hero with doormat heroine
  
  hero and heroine have been in each others lives for 2 years in a professional space. she's secretly lusted after him for 2 years while he's barely noticed her and has been dating other women. and of course she's been celibate the whole time!! personally, not a safe read.
  
  i want my heros all in and chasing after the heroine once they meet, and if they were to be in each others lives beforehand then i'd rather both of them didn't care for each other or both secretly wanted each other and didn't sleep with others.
  
  reading some other reviews i see the lack of connection between MCs doesn't get better until the end so DNF-ing
• 
  Sabrina

  Get it here:
  
  Amazon US *
  Amazon UK
  
  
• 
  Kelly

  4.5⭐️ best one in the series by far!! LOVE!! give me marriage of convenience any damn day. I basically listened to this audiobook in one sitting, I couldn’t stop.
• 
  Carmen Rae

  So Mica was all that I had hoped. But OMG did he make me cry. That poor guy had been through so much I just wanted to wrap him up and keep him safe. But he spent all of his time trying to protect and help everyone around him.
  
  And although it was all about Mica for me when I first picked this up I fell in love with Charlie pretty quickly. She was so sweet and even though she was trying to protect herself from being hurt she didn't hide it or play games. She admitted to her feelings and didn't expect anything from Mica he wasn't prepared or able to give her.
  
  I really loved the series and I read the little teaser for the next book before racing to Amazon and discovering it's not out yet and I can't find it anywhere so now I am having a tantrum because I was super excited to dive into Krista's book.
  
  I hate waiting !!!!!
• 
  No

  lmao this was so bad it was hilarious.
  Here are some favorite quotes:
  
  
  “Come have a shower with me.”
  “I just showered.”
  Defiantly feisty. I liked it.
  LMAO "defiantly feisty" does the author even know what that means? 😂😂😂
  
  She cried out as I slowly pushed my finger into her tight little rosebud hole.
  
  
  
  
  She tasted fantastic. Like hot sex, love, and my home.
  I can't even fathom what that tastes like
  
  
  
  anyway, I think I laughed at the writing in this book more than I enjoyed anything else about it
• 
  delilah

  This book started out fine but two chapters in and I was annoyed. I hate dnf-ing so I pushed through, and I really could have gone without reading this.
  
  Spoiler-less review: The writing style was underdeveloped and there were even a few typos. Everything read so choppily and pre-teen esque, like a 13-year old writing their first wattpad story. Didn't feel any chemistry between the H and h. They start out meaning to have a banter-ish relationship where the h is cold and sarcastic to the H and the H is a flirty player, but that dynamic didn't make sense for them! She barely spoke to him in the 2 years she worked for his agent, and when he was around, he was charming and nice and wasn't a rude jerk, so why was she cold? Her reasoning was that she got that way when she had a crush on someone, but then every time the two of them were together, she was meek and shy and barely spoke? She talked a lot of game and then didn't follow through on being this resilient fmc.
  
  Not to mention everything moved so damn quickly. I read this without reading the first 2, so maybe that's my issue, but still. We were thrown into the story with no background -- there weren't even character descriptions so I only had a vague idea of what everyone looked like -- even the characters that only exist in this story!
  
  Then there were a million plotlines that felt jammed in to make the book thicker but they didn't make sense? And there were plot holes? And it was so damn predictable? I would read a sentence and make a note about where the plot was going to go from there and I was right every single time. No suspense to the drama, and the fmc was just so freaking annoying. she would claim she hated the guy and then when faced with having to help find him a fake wife, she would judge every woman and hate them. so then when faced with the opportunity to marry the guy, she hates that all the more? pick a struggle homegirl.
  
  [Spoilers below]
  
  More in-depth: okay so they marry for convenience but the fmc is already lusting after the mmc so she knows that she's in over her head with this. she marries him anyway because she's in debt to some gang (with the stupidest mob boss name "Yazimoto") and needs the money. there's no mention of her getting paid after the marriage. also she was in debt because of something her brother did, which they never explicitly mentioned what he did, and he was also in jail throughout the whole story so we never got to see him fully fleshed out. i literally forgot she had a brother until they would name drop him to progress the gang plot.
  
  the fmc is annoying. talks a big game about being cold and rude to the mmc but then whenever they're together, she's shy and meek and 'in the background'. Um? Also he didn't do anything to warrant her rude behaviour, which is annoying because she (basically) works for him and that's just unprofessional on her part. They marry and then it feels like two pages before he stumbles in on her in lingerie and that immediately makes him lust after her for the rest of the book. It made me feel like if he never saw her in lingerie, he never would have pursued her at all.
  
  the gang plot was dumb. mmc has a gang friend who also doesn't seem fully fleshed out, and even though he apparently has his own book, i believe books should be able to stand on their own. then there was the serial killer neighbour who, from the get go, I knew was a stalker and would be more than just a jealousy-inducing character. his reasoning for eventually kidnapping fmc was that she reminds him of his dead wife and that he believes his dead wife sent the fmc to him so he could move on. okay, fair, but then one chapter later and it's revealed he was never married? that he had two other bodies buried in his backyard? but then if he was never married, his motive for going after the fmc disappears???? um??? also, he had 2 golden retriever dogs that loved him but then the fmc's dog hates him. when asked why, the trainer says dogs sense bad people, but then his own golden retrievers didn't sense anything and they LIVED in the house where he kept some other girl hostage.
  
  about that -- they mention 90% into the story (when the mmc has a stalker ex who goes missing to frame him or whatever) that there's some nurse who went missing and hasn't been found. already i knew that name dropping the nurse meant that she was a victim to the neighbour. further, why not flesh that out from the beginning? there was nothing on any other criminal activity going on and yet suddenly this nurse comes into the picture? sure
  
  ALSO UGH. mmc is against having kids from day one. then proceeds to have unprotected sex with the fmc. he assures her he'll pull out, then he doesn't and he isn't apologetic about it. then they fck three more times, no protection. then he asks her to take plan B and she says no because of the side effects??? then he asks her to go on the pill and she does like three weeks later, and during those three weeks that she isn't yet on the pill, they fck a whole bunch without protection? and then wonder why she's pregnant? also, VASECTOMY????? like hello???? then he moves out for two weeks to think about things, doesn't call or text her when she tries for the two weeks to call and text him. then she gives up, but then we get his pov and he's wishing she would call and text him? last i checked, the phone worked both ways. also, i get his reasoning for not wanting to get married and have kids (his parents fought and refused to divorce, and then he watched his manny die while she was giving birth, and the nanny's baby died) but that still seemed a bit... idk irrational? like i get he's traumatized, but he never goes in to depth about HOW those events translated into his fears.
  
  i feel like I'm rambling now. the mmc has a stalker ex who tries framing him for her disappearance but then she shows back up to confess she lied about it all and that's it?? wtf?
  
  Also, the fmc had one friend who wasn't already friends with the mmc, and he was only mentioned through their text exchanges and then randomly drops into the book bc of his boy troubles and we don't even really know this character.
  
  anyways. this wasn't worth it. i picked this up because someone mentioned there being a cute scene where the mmc tells the fmc (after they've married) that they have to go to a party and he's an affectionate guy so he'll be all over her, and then later in the night, the fmc is told that the mmc acly hates pda. that was cute, but also the only cute thing i found, and even the writing didn't make me love the scene as much as i wanted to.
  
  i also don't understand how someone can be arrested for gang association, and the one thing to clean up that pr mess is a marriage? huh? 2 stars because of the one cute scene and because at least this book was only a few hours of my life.
• 
  Tori - Novel Life

  4 Stars
  
  I loved that this was a hockey romance with a little bit of mafia aspects. Our main characters agreed to a marriage of connivence but slowly start to fall for each other. The only thing about this book is that it’s surprise baby and I hateddd it!!!
• 
  Clau

  The Penalty Box is not really original. When Mica Petrov's reputation is destroyed, there is only one way to prevent him from getting traded to another team. He has to get married to a nice girl, and change his crazy ways. And there is only one girl who won't get attached and won't try to make the marriage real: Charlie, his sports agent's assistant.
  Charlie hates hockey and Mica, or at least that's what she tells herself. But she needs money, so she ends up agreeing to this fake marriage. Pretty soon the lines and boundaries she tried so hard to set start to blur, and this marriage starts feeling anything but fake.
  I really liked the characters and their story (even though I am certain that I won't remember what this was about in a couple of months). It kept me reading - so much so that it only took 1 day for me to finish this one!
• 
  Rochelle

  This is the first book that I have read from Odette Stone. I love a good sports romance book and this one didn’t disappoint. Charlie and Mica were a great couple. The storyline was great. It grabbed you and didn’t let go until it was finished. The suspense, the heat and the drama of this book was breathtaking. I can’t wait to read more from this author.
• 
  Sarah

  Love a marriage of convenience.
  
  The narrators' attempted Russian accents were so bad! But, in general, this was just a very cozy, light-hearted series, and I liked it a lot. Would absolutely read more by Odette Stone.
• 
  SWEETY

  This was by far my favourite in the entire series.
  Gosh it was so cute and adorable. Now I’m sad because it’s over.
• 
  Rose

  "I stared up at her, wondering for the thousandth time how I hadn’t fallen in love with her the first time I met her. She was, in my mind, the most beautiful woman I’d ever seen. And she was mine. All mine."❤️
  
  Mica and Charlie, and their marriage of convenience won me. I loved this book and series so much. I also enjoyed Odette stone's writing style and characters. This was my first book by her, but wouldn’t be my last.
  
  Mica is a hockey player with a lot of bad publicity. In order to clean his image, he is ordered to marry Charlie, his assistant. I love this trope so much because we get to see the growth and flourish of a friendship, which turns to love eventually. I think this would've been a perfect 10, except that I felt it had a couple of crazy plots going on, which made it more dramatic and less real. But all in all, I
  Would read this book again.
  
  Rating 4.5 stars 🌟
• 
  Jennifer D.

  I have recently developed a thing for hockey romances and this one did not disappoint! It sucked me in from the start and I couldn't put it down. This is the first book by Odette Stone that I have read and I will be back for more.
  
  Holy smokes is Mica hot! He needs to get married to a "good girl" in order to save his career with the team he loves. Charlie is his Agent's PA and has had a crush on Mica for two years. Talk about the perfect set up for a great romance. :) They have crazy chemistry that they both try to fight but in the end, it's just too powerful to ignore. This book has it all - fake marriage that turns real, sexy chemistry, suspense, heartbreak and happily ever after.
  
  An ARC was provided by the author in exchange for my honest opinion.
• 
  Jenny Jo Weir

  I don't know why I return time and time again to books about hockey players, seeing as I've never watched a game and am not a fan of the sport, but there's something about them that keep me coming back for more.
  
  This Russian enforcer is to die for. I loved his personality in the previous book and am glad he got a story of his own. I really loved the subplot and the mystery kept me intrigued the entire time. I kept wondering who was doing everything and suspected multiple characters. The extra little shocker at the end was completely unexpected. I really liked this book.
  
• 
  literaryelise

  okay i’m calling it 😭 DNF @ 40%. this was too cringe and felt like a bunch of popular tropes strung together. the writing was less than stellar and there was a weird fixation on “feminine” and “masculine” energy/attributes that i found off putting. like we get it he’s a “hulking gigantic ox buff man” and she’s a “soft dainty broken young woman” and he wants to protect her. enough!! enough!! 😭