Coast to Coast by RJ Scott & V.L. Locey Blog Tour

When opposites attract, it’s not just the team that’s in for a shake-up.

When a stipulation in his father’s will throws Mark back into a family that disowned him, he has only two things on his mind; buying his way out of contractual obligations and running in the opposite direction as fast as he can. When neither option pans out, he finds he is now a one-third owner of the struggling Arizona Raptors hockey team, and that is just about the worst thing he could have happened to him. Not only does he hate hockey, but the Raptors are a bottom-of-the-league team, rife with jealousies and anger in a locker room that only knows self-pity. How is he supposed to help turn things around when the only way to start fixing things is to form an alliance with the estranged siblings he’d run from fifteen years earlier?

Then there’s Rowen Carmichael, a stubborn, opinionated, irritating man with superiority issues and questionable taste in music. Butting heads with Rowen, who he’d never even wanted to hire in the first place, is one thing, but there is no way in hell that he will allow the growing attraction to the new coach become anything more. Until with everything on the line, he has to make decisions that will change his life forever.

After years of collegiate coaching, Rowen is given an offer that he simply can’t refuse, although perhaps he should. When he’s presented with the chance to take one of the worst teams in the league and mold them into a future cup contender, the challenge is just too alluring to pass up. He leaves his beloved Ontario behind and moves west to the arid city of Tucson where he is faced with a broken team, shoddy management, and players overflowing with resentment and bigotry.

Never in his twenty years of hockey has he ever seen such a raging dumpster fire of an organization. Yet there’s something about this team and this city that compels him to roll up his sleeves and start dismantling. He has his eye on a new associate coach that’s bound to make waves and several key players who should be sent packing. Now all he has to do is convince the new owners of the team that his choices are for the best. If only Mark Westman-Reid, one of three siblings who now own the Raptors,  wasn’t so damned rock-headed, so damned snooty, and so damned appealing his job might be a bit easier.

Book 1
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Reviews by the Wicked Reads Review Team

Sarah – ☆☆☆☆
This is the story of two men charged with turning around the NHL’s nastiest and least successful franchise. For coach Rowen, it’s a chance to prove himself in professional hockey. For owner Mark, it’s a headache and a responsibility he really doesn’t need or want. The working relationship between these two starts out tense and cold but neither can deny the sexual attraction that simmers between them. If they’re going to turn a toxic team around, they’ll need to learn to work together.

With the Railers happy, successful, and mostly coupled up, it’s time for RJ Scott and V.L. Locey to introduce readers to another team. This series was hinted at when Ryker was drafted to the Raptors. We also know the Raptors from Ten’s horrific attack.

I have to admit that this book didn’t draw me in as quickly as the previous two series did. Mark and his family aren’t particularly likeable at the start and while Rowen is more engaging, he’s nearly as arrogant as Mark. And while I enjoyed the complicated relationship between Mark and Rowen, I really missed the players’ perspectives in the two previous series. This feels like a darker, more serious read than previous books as Mark re-draws his relationship with the family who threw him out and allowed him to live on the streets as a teen and Rowen is given a harsh reality check.

This is a fun read with good hockey action and a behind the scenes look at money and management in a way that previous books have missed. But while I know this is light entertainment, I found odd things jarring in the story. The whole arc around Mark’s fashion business isn’t at all believable and while I like that difficult themes of privilege and entitlement are touched on in this story, I don’t like that Mark uses his family’s rejection to claim disadvantage. Of course he benefited from his family’s wealth – his trajectory from street kid to wealthy business owner would have been much more difficult without the education and confidence his upbringing gave him. I feel like this story would have worked better if it stayed a hockey romance and didn’t attempt a superficial exploration of more complex themes.

This book is the start of a new series but readers do need to know that it is a spinoff from two previous series – the Harrisburg Railers books and the subsequent Owatonna U stories – I would guess that readers unfamiliar with the other two series would be quickly lost amid frequent references to previous characters and stories. Having read the two previous series, I loved the scenes where the Raptors play the Railers and I love that we get to follow Ryker Madsen through the first year of his professional career.


Veronica – ☆☆☆☆
At 26, Mark returns home to Arizona after his father dies and leaves the Raptors hockey team to him and his siblings on the provision that they have to manage the team for one year. Mark is a success in the world of modelling but he knows nothing about hockey. I found his presumption that he knew what was best for the team both annoying and amusing. It took me a while to warm up to Mark even though I empathised him over how his family treated him when he was younger. By the end though, I loved him.

Rowen was hired by Mark’s dad to be the Raptors’ new coach. The Raptors are one of the worst teams in the league and this is Rowen’s first job coaching at this level. Rowen is a straight-talking, no-nonsense guy and is just what the team needs. That combined with his confidence in himself made him so appealing to me and perfect for Mark.

Mark and Rowen butt heads from their very first meeting. But sparks are flying all over the place and it was entertaining as hell watching the two of them disagree over the Raptors while trying to keep their hands off each other. Thankfully they aren’t too successful at staying away from each other and it isn’t too long before they hit the sheets.

I love the combination of sexy romance, sports, and family drama that plays out in this story. Rowen and Mark are magic together and I felt that after everything Mark had been through in his life, he deserved a great guy like Rowen.

I was totally blissed out reading Coast to Coast. It is the beginning of a new series and the third series by the authors set in the same universe. By now I’d usually have lost interest in a series of books after so long, but when Coast to Coast was over, I just wanted more. Four very happy stars from me.


Ruthie – ☆☆☆☆
This is the first in a new hockey series from the talented duo of Scott and Locey. Having thoroughly enjoyed their Harrisburg Railers and Owatonna U Hockey series, which have links to this one, I could not wait to dive in – and am looking forward to book two already! I would say that you can definitely start right here, but if you do, you will still be able to go back and get the background to some of the people you meet here.

We meet a very angry, frustrated, and alone Mark, who has just discovered that his father who disowned him in life, did not disinherit him. I have to admit I am at a loss as to why, just as much as Mark was, but it gives the start to a good story of a disjointed family running a failing hockey team.

New coach Rowen, was employed by the now deceased father and has a cast iron contract, much to Mark's ire. Sadly, so does the nastiest player in the NHL, who has the dubious pleasure of also playing for the Raptors. As the season plays out, all these elements are bound to cause all manner of trouble – and then there is the matter of the chemistry between Rowen and Mark!

So that is the set up and I am going to say no more about the story, because it develops in such a clever and entertaining way, that you should read all the goodness yourself. The world building has ensured that we have plenty of potential future stories, and I for one, cannot wait!

USA Today bestselling author RJ Scott writes stories with a heart of romance, a troubled road to reach happiness, and most importantly, a happily ever after.

RJ Scott is the author of over one hundred romance books, writing emotional stories of complicated characters, cowboys, millionaire, princes, and the men who get mixed up in their lives. RJ is known for writing books that always end with a happy ever after. She lives just outside London and spends every waking minute she isn’t with family either reading or writing.

The last time she had a week’s break from writing she didn’t like it one little bit, and she has yet to meet a bottle of wine she couldn’t defeat.

She’s always thrilled to hear from readers, bloggers and other writers.

Connect with RJ

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USA Today bestselling author V.L. Locey – Penning LGBT hockey romance that skates into sinful pleasures.

V.L. Locey loves worn jeans, yoga, belly laughs, walking, reading and writing lusty tales, Greek mythology, Torchwood and Doctor Who, the New York Rangers, comic books, and coffee. (Not necessarily in that order.) She shares her life with her husband, her daughter, one dog, two cats, a pair of geese, far too many chickens, and two steers.

When not writing spicy romances, she enjoys spending her day with her menagerie in the rolling hills of Pennsylvania with a cup of fresh java in one hand and a steamy romance novel in the other.

Connect with V.L.

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Vicki’s VixensFacebook Group

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Reviewers on the Wicked Reads Review Team were provided a free copy of Coast to Coast (Arizona Raptors #1) by RJ Scott & V.L. Locey to read and review for this tour.