STAY is the second book in the WAGS series (Waves And Girlfriends, in this case as relates to professional hockey players) by co-authors Sarina Bowen & Elle Kennedy.  This is a contemporary sports romance with two delightful characters.  This book was first published in 2017, and I read it when it first came out.  I’m happy to say it held up to the test of time, and I enjoyed it just as much the second time around.  I didn’t realize when I requested STAY for review that it was an old book, and Googling indicates this is a “new edition global release.”  It’s a spin-off of their wildly successful Him and Us books.

Matt Eriksson is the divorced father of adorable four-year-old twin girls. He’s a veteran player on the Toronto hockey team that this series focuses on, and I enjoy how much hockey there is in this book. He believes (thanks to his awful and duplicitous ex-wife) that the large demands of his professional sports career are what caused their marriage to fail.  Imagine that- a pro athlete needs to commit a huge amount of time and effort into being pro-level!  This viewpoint has left him gun-shy about trying to commit to another relationship.  But he’s attracted despite himself to the woman he interacts with at the company that takes care of a lot of his daily tasks while he’s busy with his career.  I love what a stand-up guy Matt is, and how he always tries to do the right thing.

Hailey Taylor Emery is an amazing and energetic 27-year-old entrepreneur. She and her previous husband started a concierge business together, called Fetch. They’ve been best friends since childhood, and while their marriage didn’t last, the friendship and the co-running of the business have.  Hailey has only ever been with one man- her ex-husband- and although she’s got a huge flirtation going on with a client that she thinks may be a hockey player, she would never act on it.  Until the client, Matt pushes her out of her comfort zone and convinces her to start dating him.  Hailey and Matt are so cute together, it makes me so happy.

I really liked that the big misunderstanding that brings the couple to crisis near the end of the book was not that big.  They spoke frankly and candidly about it quickly after the misunderstanding, and there was no persistent drama.  Adults acting like adults is always refreshing, and sometimes in short supply in order to manufacture angst in a romance.  Their chemistry is fabulous, and the secondary characters make this book a lot of fun to read.  Bowen & Kennedy’s STAY is a fun and easy read with engaging characters and a swoony romance with some steam too.