Romance

Review: Break in Play by Ruth Stilling

November 14, 2026

Synopsis:

Ninety Days.

That’s all the time I have to prove to the only woman I’ll ever love that our divorce was a mistake.

Eloise is from a wealthy French family and about to marry the man her parents always wanted for their eldest daughter. I’m a working class boy from Ohio and a key defenceman for the Seattle Rogues Hockey Team.

On paper, our love shouldn’t work, and in reality, fate dealt our marriage a difficult hand.

With zero contact from her for years, I all but gave up on winning Eloise back until, one day, I find out that she’s remarrying, and the next day, I’m boarding a plane to France.

All I have from her sister is a zip code and the time when I’ll lose my girl forever. But I have to try. I know she still loves me, and even if we can never have children, living our lives apart will be the worst kind of loneliness.

From the day we met during our freshman year of college, I’ve been her American bad boy with a dirty mouth in bed and dimples that make her knees go weak.

All I need is to stop the wedding, bring her back to Seattle, and hope she’ll give me a second chance after we lost our way the first time around.

And I’ll do anything to make that happen.

Review:

Eloise and Mason never stopped loving each other. They got together at a young age, and falling in love was the easy part. Dealing with what life threw at them was the hard part.
When Eloise is close to marrying someone else years later, Mason asks for one last chance to prove to her that he has changed and will do everything possible to show her that he is the one and only man for her.

These two were so in love that it pained me to see how far they had drifted apart in the past. Not everyone deals with things the same way, and sometimes, you need to walk away from a situation to allow yourself the growth needed to close a chapter. Him asking her for one final shot was something I was looking forward to. Eloise is such a loveable character, and her going against her parents’ wishes and standing up for herself by taking a chance on the man she never got over was something I was fully on board with.
And Mason showed up. Seeing him make sure that actions speak louder than words made me respect him even more.

This is the type of second-chance romance I’m here for.
Listening to this as an audiobook, I can say that both narrators did an amazing job. Some parts (where he was voicing her and vice versa during some of the more physical scenes) felt a bit uncomfortable, but that could come down to personal preference.
If you like your romance on the spicy side, this will be perfect for you!

🌙 Recension: Break in Play (The Rules of the Rink #3) by Ruth Stilling
📚 Genre: Romance
📅 Release Date: November 12, 2026
📖 Publisher: Tantor Media
👤 Narrator: Raven Hawkins, Tristan Josiah
📗 available in various formats – included in Kindle+
📱 Read as: Audiobook
💸 I received a free copy of this book and am voluntarily leaving a review.
🗣️ Language: English
📆 Pages / Listening Length: 8h 46min
⭐️ 4/5