What do you do when the thing that makes a romance hero scary isn't another woman or some tired miscommunication trope - but literally his father being a serial killer?
I was not ready. I was sitting cross-legged on my living room floor at 2 AM, tweaking a logo for a craft brewery client, and Van Turner just... broke me open. Diego was asleep on my keyboard (helpful as always), and I had to stop working because my hands were shaking. Not from caffeine. From this book.
The Secret That Actually Earns Its Weight
So here's the thing about sports romance - a lot of these books give you a broody hockey player with some vague "dark past" that turns out to be, like, his parents got divorced. Fine. Whatever. Sawyer Bennett went a completely different direction. I ran into the same vague-dark-past problem with Own the Wind, where the brooding hero's wounds felt more like aesthetic choices than something the story had actually earned. Van's father is a convicted serial killer. That's not backstory decoration. That's the engine of everything - why he won't date publicly, why he won't sign with East Coast teams (too close to where his father's crimes happened), why he plays like he's trying to punish the ice itself. The rage on the rink isn't performative alpha nonsense. It's a man terrified he inherited something monstrous.
And when Simone - stubborn, warm, zero-patience-for-your-walls Simone - pushes him on why he goes cold in public after being all fire behind closed doors? The scene where Van finally tells her the truth? I ugly-cried at that moment so hard Frida jumped off the couch and gave me the most disgusted look a cat has ever produced. Because it's not just "here's my secret." It's "here's why I think I'm unlovable on a genetic level." My heart. MY HEART.
Abuela would have loved this one. She lived for the telenovela moment where the man drops to his knees - emotionally, spiritually - and this book delivers that. Van doesn't just open up. He collapses inward first, and watching Simone refuse to let him spiral alone? That's the stuff.
Graham and Cris Are Doing the Lord's Work
Okay, I'll be honest - the research on this narration was pretty thin, so I can't give you a detailed breakdown of every vocal choice. But what I can tell you is this: Graham Halstead narrating Van's POV carries this low, controlled tension that cracks in exactly the right places. There's a restraint to his delivery that matches a man who's spent his whole life performing "tough guy" so nobody looks deeper. When that restraint breaks - and it does - you feel it in your chest.
Cris Dukehart handling Simone is warm without being saccharine. Simone's got two brothers on the Cold Fury team, so she's not some wide-eyed innocent discovering hockey culture. Dukehart plays her with this confident ease that shifts into something softer and more vulnerable when Simone realizes Van's walls aren't about her at all. The dual narration format works here because you genuinely need both perspectives - Van's internal justifications for pushing her away hit different when you've just heard Simone's confusion and hurt from her side.
The narrator's voice is velvet and honey - both of them, honestly. At 1.0x speed, the pacing felt natural. No rushed scenes, no dragging.
Where It Doesn't Quite Stick the Landing
Look. I loved this. But I'm not going to pretend the resolution of Van's trauma doesn't feel a little... quick? For a secret this heavy, the emotional unpacking happens in maybe the last hour, and after spending five-plus hours watching this man white-knuckle his way through every interaction, I wanted more time sitting in the aftermath. More mess. More rebuilding. The book is under seven hours, and I think another hour of processing would've made the ending devastating instead of just really good.
Also - and this is a genre thing, not a Sawyer Bennett thing - the hockey scenes feel functional rather than thrilling. They exist to show Van fighting, to contextualize his rage. If you're coming for detailed sports action, this isn't that book. This is a rainy Sunday book about a broken man and the woman who refuses to let him stay broken. Fangirl Down scratches a similar itch - sports world backdrop, a woman doing the refusing-to-let-him-spiral work - though that one leans warmer and less raw than this.
Who Gets Wrecked by This (And Who Won't)
If you're already deep in the Cold Fury series, you obviously need this. If you're new? You can start here - the brothers provide some connective tissue to other books but nothing that'll leave you lost. If you need your romance heroes to have tidy emotional arcs, the pacing of Van's revelation might frustrate you. But if you're like me - if you want a book that makes you feel something real and raw and a little uncomfortable - this one delivers.
The vibes are immaculate for anyone who loves the "he thinks he's a monster but she sees him clearly" trope. The chemistry is chef's kiss - private Van versus public Van creates this tension that's genuinely painful in the best way.
Pin This to Your Queue and Bring Tissues
Forty-seven books made me cry last year. Van's going on the spreadsheet. Not four sessions - probably two solid ones - but the quality of those tears? Top tier. Sometimes a romance earns its darkness, and this one did.
