Stealing His Thunder
Toronto Thunder, Book 2
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Stealing His Thunder
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Narrated by:
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Darcy Stark
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By:
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Beth Bolden
Summary
Can rookie Cam’s sunshine steal veteran Dawson’s thunder?
Kicker Dawson Hall is ready to leave his past in the dust. His last season was catastrophically bad, with the distraction of his divorce and discovering that his father-in-law wasn’t managing his money—he was stealing it, instead.
He signs with the Toronto Thunder, poised for his redemption arc, but he’s grumpy and frustrated he has to undertake one at all. He should be better than this. He is better than this.
The new rookie punter’s hero worship might be just another annoyance, but Cameron Green is sweet and kind and more than a little naïve. He’s a country boy suddenly dumped amongst all the skyscrapers, with no idea of how the real world can chew him up and spit him out. It’s practically Dawson’s duty to mentor him and if Dawson soaks up a little of his sunshine, too?
Well, nobody could blame him for that. Not after the year’s he’s just had.
But when Dawson starts craving more and more of Cam, his crush dangerously teetering into passion kind of territory, he’s forced to not just confront his own past, full of disappointment and distrust, but his future, too.
He wants his redemption, and that perfect vision of a season feels just within reach. But it turns out he doesn’t just want Cam for single season—even if it’s everything he believed he wanted—he wants Cam for every season.
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Dawson and Cam bring their whole hearts, even if they are in denial or hiding. Even when being a grumpy so-and-so, you can see it’s his bruised heart speaking, not the real him. And thankfully for Dawson, Cam is patient. He doesn’t push or demand, just quietly and consistently shows up, giving time and space for Dawson to build his own trust and confidence back.
It’s a gorgeous story, but is definitely helped along by the talented Darcy Stark. I always enjoy his performances. One of the things I truly like about him is that I can always tell the difference between characters - changing his voice, cadence, etc., means I never struggle to follow who’s speaking when.
emotional and beautiful journey
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super cute
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Cam is a sunshine and light rookie who's got some baggage of his own.
Together they learn to rely on each other and let love in again.
Darcy Stark did an amazing job narrating and bringing these characters to life.
Great addition to the series
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Sunshine meets thunder
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It’s clear early on that Cam has a crush on Dawson, but he knows it can’t go anywhere, so he concentrates on doing a good job and on trying to help the older man, who is obviously too up in his head, to realise that he’s not playing as poorly as he thinks he is. Dawson is charmed by Cam’s good-natured earnestness and definitely attracted to him, but thinks he’s too much of a mess to be with anyone right now, so he pushes the attraction aside and tries to focus on doing his job. But when he realises that no-one is really looking out for the newbie, showing him around or just making sure he’s doing okay, he feels guilty - and even moreso when he realises that he should have been the one to do those things (they live in the same building after all) and decides to make up for it.
Cam and Dawson fall into an easy kind of domesticity, which is sweet, but ultimately their romance is rather ordinary, with nothing to make it stand out from the hundreds of other similar romances I’ve read/listened to over the years. Cam is a sweetheart and Dawson is a bit of a grump - suffering a crisis of confidence will probably do that to a guy! – and I liked that Cam is the more switched-on to what is happening between them than Dawson is and is the first to realise that what they’re doing left ‘casual’ in the rear-view mirror from pretty much the first time they sleep together. I liked them, but the characterisation is pretty simplistic, and the conflict is all external - frankly, I was more interested in the story around Dawson's f-i-l and the set up for Ramsey's story in the next book. And returning to another complaint I’ve made regularly about some contemporary romances, the book is way too long for the amount of actual plot it contains and it could easily have worked as a novella.
Darcy Stark is one of my favourite narrators, and is the main reason I made it to the end of Stealing His Thunder. But even his performance – which is well-characterised, clearly differentiated and well-paced – couldn’t disguise the essential flimsiness of the story or the blandness of the romance. I normally enjoy Beth Bolden’s sports romances, so I hope this one is just a glitch and that there’ll be a return to form for book three.
Great narration, but the romance is a bit bland :(
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