Review: Delayed Penalty by Sophie Henry

If you like Toni Aleo’s Assassin series or Sawyer Bennet’s Off series, then you will enjoy Delayed Penalty too. Ms. Henry has her own unique voice and writing style, so her debut work won’t be confused for anyone else’s, but she definitely fits in with the hot hockey players!

The focus of Delayed Penalty is Auden, a college junior, and Aleksandr, a minor league hockey player from Russia. Even though Aleksandr is a main character in the book, we see the story from Auden’s point of view and this is really her story.

Both characters are right around 20 when they meet, so this falls firmly into the young adult category, but there are times when both Auden and Aleksandr, especially Aleksandr, come across as older. I don’t know if it relates to some of the struggles that they have both lived through, but there are times when their behaviors don’t always fit their ages.

One of the things I enjoyed about this book is that Auden is unique from a lot of female main characters. She’s athletic, but not a stand out. She’s smart, she gives back to the community, and she easily stands toe to toe with a difficult man. She’s also beautiful and doesn’t have a clue. The way she and Aleksandr meet is also fun; she is hired to be his translator while she is home for the Christmas break.

The romance part of the relationship between these two is sweet and has the expected ups and downs. Aleksandr is a truly good guy and even when he’s being a jerk, you root for him to figure it out.

Overall, this is a great debut work and I look forward to seeing what is in store in future installments of the series.