ARC Review: Slow Dances Under An Orange Moon by V. L. Locey

From The Blurb:

Can the love they once shared be saved or has the pain of the past eclipsed it? 

It’s been twenty years since Kye McLeod left the quaint little mountain town of Spruce Lake, Maine to play professional hockey. He’s had his share of ups and downs, but his choice to hit the big city and not look back has paid off handsomely. The future hall-of-famer is now ready to retire and come out of that dark closet he’s been sequestered in since his first secretive kiss with Davy Aguirre in high school. Now that he’s heading home to keep an eye on his feisty grandfather, there might be the chance to rekindle the flame between him and Davy. 

Kye quickly learns that the boy he left behind isn’t the man he’s now knocking heads with. He always imagined grown-up Davy—who now insists on being called David—would be beyond the pain that Kye’s youthful blunder caused him, but now he’s not so sure. When the wildlife conservation officer squares off with the ex-hockey captain their connection is incendiary, and there are more than just fireworks. However, winning back the man he walked away from may not be as easy as he thought…

Karen's rating:

"Slow Dances Under an Orange Moon" is without a doubt my favorite book in this series so far. I've enjoyed all of the stories in V. L. Locey's 'Colors of Love' series but this one...well for me this one just ended up being all that and a whole lot more.

Kye McLeod is returning home after a successful 20 year career in professional hockey and he's got a two objectives for his return. The first one is to take care of Dunny, his grandfather. He's going to get Dunny's home repaired and believe me it's much needed repairs with a list that just keeps growing and growing. Objective number 2 is to get back the love of his life a certain sexy Wildlife Conservation Officer..."call me Dave or David not Davy Aguirre".

There was so much that I loved about this story first there was Kye McLeod. I loved Kye both his comments and his inner monologues. Then there was Dunny. Kye's grandfather he was so freakin' adorable and just totally blunt in the things he said...Gee! I wonder where Kye got it from.

Next there's Davy call me Dave/David. I really liked him. I loved that he didn't fall all over himself when Kye said he wanted to fix things between them but he also didn't say 'no'. He made Kye prove himself by planting roots to show that he wasn't going to run off again and as Kye went about planting his roots hijinx ensued.


Along with all this there's Davy's parents and their elderly neighbor, there's the town folks of Spruce Lake, there's a goose and it's goslings, there's hockey coaching for the wee one's and I do mean wee ones we're talking 4 -6 year olds so not a lot of hockey going on here more like some fun on ice...again it's adorable and of course there's small town homophobia and poachers. It sounds like a lot but really it's just a lot of fun.

I know it seems like there's a lot going on in this story but really there's not. For the most part things that happened were there to add to the story and give it depth and believability and for me that's what it did. It all added to the story without taking the focus away from Kye's wooing of Davy.

While there were a few serious moments in the story none of them were enough to change the tone of the story. I think I started smiling somewhere on page one and basically the only thing that changed from page to page was whether I was smiling or laughing. It's been a while since I've read a book late at night that I've enjoyed so much that i had to worry about waking my husband up when I started laughing.

For me the heart of the story remained that love is worth fighting for and that it can and should make a person happy. This one's definitely recommended for anyone looking to read a story that's sweet and light and will help them to remember that 'love should make a person happy'.

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An ARC of 'Slow Dances Under an Orange Moon' was graciously provided by the author in exchange for an honest review.

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