“People make mistakes, and some deserve forgiveness. Others don’t. That’s up to you to decide.”
gray brannon
All the feels with this one! The Arizona Vengeance series is one of my top favourites and I wait with bated breath for each new book to come out! Rafe did not disappoint, except for the fact that it was a novella – so it was just too short!
Rafe Simmons plays for the Arizona Vengeance until he gets a call that his dad is dying from cancer. He is able to arrange a trade to the Carolina Cold Fury (another fave series) so he can be home with his dad during his last days. Calliope Ramirez is his first love, and he broke her heart when he left to start his hockey career 8 years ago. But she is close with his parents, so there is no avoiding her – not that he wants to avoid her. Just seeing her makes him realize that he’s been carrying a torch for her for 8 long years.
She harbours some very hard feelings for Rafe, but her love for his family means she wants to help ease all their pain. So she encourages Rafe to lean on her for support. And she realizes that underneath her anger at Rafe, there are still strong feelings.
This book’s central theme is forgiveness. Calliope has to forgive Rafe for the way he hurt her, and Rafe needs to forgive his dad for being sort of absent while he was growing up because he worked so much.
I cried my eyes out with this book, but it really was so so good. Rafe learns to not waste one single moment with the people he loves, and Calliope learns to forgive and allows herself to love again.
SO SO Good. Just too short!! But Rafe really whet my appetite for Wylde – the next Arizona Vengeance – releasing in May!
Purchase at Amazon: Rafe: An Arizona Vengeance Novella
SYNOPSIS
“I was living my dream until one phone call changed everything.”
– rafe simmons
As the second line center for the Arizona Vengeance, my mind has been on one thing—helping my team bring home a championship. But that all changed when I found out my dad had cancer and only months to live. In that moment, nothing mattered more than getting home to North Carolina to be by his side. That meant asking for the unthinkable—a trade to the Carolina Cold Fury.
Now I’m home and when I’m not on the ice with my new team, I’m helping care for my dad. And in the midst of my grief, I find comfort from the one person I never expected.
Calliope Ramirez stole my heart at a very young age. The beautiful, smart, headstrong girl next door, she was my first… everything. She has never forgiven me for leaving her, believing that I chose hockey over a future together. What she doesn’t understand is that every decision I made was for her, and I’ve never given up hope that one day we’d be together again.
Watching my dad slip away is a harsh reminder of how short life can be, and having Callie by my side makes me realize I was a damn fool before. That changes starting right now. Calliope Ramirez is mine and I’m not going to waste the second chance that I’ve been given.
