Hockey With Benefits by Tijan Release and Review

This is the story of Mara Daniels and Cruz Styles. They are both in college and living their best life. This for her however is her escape. She does not do relationships. She doesn’t have close friends either. She is a girl who likes to keep everyone on a surface level as a way of protecting herself from getting hurt. When she meets Cruz he quickly becomes her no strings attached, not even a friendship relationship. If you could even call it that. However they have agreed that as long as they are having a intimate relationship they would only be with each other. I have to say that I really thought a time or two about how sad it was that Mara wouldn’t let anyone get close to her. I got the reasons but I still thought to myself what a sad and lonely life that has to be for her. I just had to get that off my chest. She is a girl who has dealt with her mother’s mental illness for so long and now that she was off and having her escape she sure didn’t want her mom to know where she was. This girl has certainly been through so much and not matter how closed off she is you really cannot help but to like her a lot. She wants not one soul to know about her mother and she sure doesn’t want anyone to talk about it at all ever even if you were from her town and knew the entire story. No one was allowed to speak of it ever with her. Cruz was raised by a single mother and has disabled younger sister who he is protective of and really loves so much. He however gets Mara and while they say no strings attached, no friendship it is not long until she finds herself relying on him and deep down really knows that they have more between them than they ever thought they would. This is such a great book filled with so many moments that will have you hooked. There are a lot of characters in this book and while I love when books have a lot of characters it is a lot to keep up with. It didn’t bother me at all. I just would have to go back and figure out if this was the same person who was called by their name one time and their last name at other times. In true Tijan style I fell so in love with these characters and the story they had to tell. You do not want to miss it.