Audiobook Review for Break in Play by Ruth Stilling

 

The Rules of the Rink #3

Break in Play by Ruth Stilling

Published:  November 12, 2026

Genre:  Sports Romance, Second Chance, Hockey Romance

Taken from Goodreads:  Ninety days.

That’s all the time I have to prove to the only woman I’ll ever love that our divorce was a mistake.

Eloise is from a wealthy French family and about to marry the man her parents have always wanted for their eldest daughter. I’m a working-class boy from Ohio and a key defenseman for the Seattle Rogues hockey team.

On paper, our love shouldn’t work, and in reality, fate dealt our marriage a difficult hand.

With zero contact from her for years, I all but gave up on winning Eloise back until, one day, I find out that she’s remarrying, and the next day, I’m boarding a plane to France.

All I have from her sister is a zip code and the time when I’ll lose my girl forever. But I have to try. I know she still loves me, and even if we can never have children, living our lives apart will be the worst kind of loneliness.

From the day we met during our freshman year of college, I’ve been her American bad boy with a dirty mouth in bed and dimples that make her knees go weak.

All I need to do is stop the wedding, bring her back to Seattle, and hope that she’ll give me a second chance after we lost our way the first time around.

And I’ll do anything to make that happen.

This is Mason and Eloise's story! Tropes divorced soulmates, second chance romance, the one who got away, stop the wedding, college sweethearts, hockey romance, opposites attract, wealthy heiress x working class hero, and he never stopped loving her.

 

My Thoughts:  A second chance hockey romance, the perfect audiobook for me.   A Break in Play is a heart wrenching story of soul mates falling apart but then working hard to get back to each other.  Mason and Eloise were the couple of hockey until life threw them an off-sides twist and put their relationship in trouble.

I liked that Mason is the one that chased Eloise.  He knew they were supposed to be together forever and was willing to bid his time to prove it to her.   He respected her choices but knew just how much to push her so she would see how perfect they were for each other.  

A Break in Play is an emotional story.  The story deals with some sensitive subjects but the author did an amazing job of giving them the respect they deserve.

Thank you Hambright PR for a copy of the book in exchange for my honest review.

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