Runaway Bride and Prejudice by Emma St. Clair is a rom com and part of the Appies (hockey team) series. I'm beginning to love hockey and I've never even watched a full match. Runaway bride, forbidden romance, forced proximity, sports romance tropes all come together in a swoony and spicy book, yet without explicit scene. I love it. Thank you, Netgalley and Create If Writing LLC for giving me the ARC. All opinions expressed are mine.

Heart pounding, belly fluttering, toe curling goodness that is best consumed in one setting. I dare you to find a good pausing point; I tried and failed. Van and Amelia bring you into their whirlwind story from the start and I loved it. Van is so much more than the bad boy image he’s allowed to be his label. He is kind and caring and while he may be mouthy at times, he uses it encourage Amelia to be free and fly. I loved seeing her find the strength to write her own rules and laugh and have fun while doing it. Their initial meet-cute is perfect and loved their journey. Packed with laughter, emotions, and romance, I enjoyed every moment of this story!! Between Coach, the team, the sisters, Morgan, and Parker, I cannot pick a favorite supporting character. They add so much humor and layers to the story. If you’ve read other stories with the Appies you’ll enjoy catching up with some of the characters. If not, you’ll be totally fine and able to appreciate this one as a standalone.
I received a complimentary copy from the publisher via NetGalley and all opinions expressed are solely my own, freely given.

I was expecting some sort of modern retelling of pride and prejudice based on the title, but this book had none of that theme in it, but was still a good read. This is a clean story with no explicit scenes in it, and a guaranteed HEA. The ending was satisfying, and the overall story was good, though it did feel as though it jumped in places with the speed the emotions changed

So good!! Forged proximity romantic comedy at its finest. I seriously devoured this book. The prefect mix of drama, spice, and laughs with you rooting for these two the whole way.

I like the writing style of this book. I like the concept and i really like the little warning page at the beginning.

Did i enjoy this book? Not really but that’s because its not my cup of tea. Not because it isn’t a good book.

The characters are written well and i loved seeing the different points of view for the same moment.

If i had a friend that wanted a YA romance book this is what i would suggest to them.

First of all, I really took my time reading this one because I just didn’t want it to end!! This one has it all. I mean just from the name alone you can tell there is some good content here… a runaway bride? Yes, please! The pun on Pride and Prejudice… absolutely! I also had the opportunity to meet the author Emma St. Clair a few days after release day. It was so fun to get a brand new signed copy of the book and hear from the author herself. It only made me love her writing that much more.

The MMC Van is just so good. I loved his bad boy vibes and his lovable heart. Amelia was such a wonderful FMC, I enjoyed her personality and her journey. Together Van and Amelia were magic!

Check out the tropes below and you will see what I mean. This is part of a series called The Appies and it focuses on a hockey team and the players as they fall in love. It has been such a good and fun series. I now have a new favorite and it is this yellow beautiful book.

💛 Runaway Bride
🏒 Hockey romance
💛 Forced proximity
🏒 Coach’s daughter
💛 Forbidden romance
🏒 Sizzling chemistry
💛 Closed door- no spice

Quotes:
🏒“I'm not quite unhinged-yer-but i'm getting there.”

💛"I want more than the one night I had with you. I want all your days too. I want to come home knowing you’ll be here. I want to look up from the ice and see you there, wearing my jersey. Shouting my name.”

On his coach's daugher's, Amelia, wedding day, Van walks in on her fiancé hooking up with her cousin, and he's not the kind of man who will turn a blind eye. Especially not when it comes to Amelia.
This runaway bride, forbidden, hockey, closed-door romance is book 5 in the Appies series. I've said it before and I'll say it again, it's very hard to take a hockey team name the Appies seriously 😂 Anyway, this was really good! The banter was amazing, the entire cast of characters was great, and Amelia and Van were both awesome. Did the plot make sense? Not much. But I was there for it.
I received an advance review copy of this book for free and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

Runaway Bride and Prejudice

I was excited for this book as I had read all of the other Appies stories by both St. Clair and Proctor. I liked that they focused on Van who seemed to have more depth than anyone gave him credit for, even himself. I think this was my favorite of the bunch, with Just Don’t Fall as the other contender. I truly enjoyed both main characters, Van and Amelia. I was rooting for them as a couple, especially as they both truly saw each other. I loved that Amelia admitted her mistakes and understood that she needed to talk to Van after reacting. I appreciate when adults in romance novels act like adults, and not teenagers. Van was a dreamy book boyfriend. If anything was a little cringey it was his sisters, but it was also cute. Amelia was a layered character, as a therapist I appreciated her wanting to replicate her parents’ love story due to her grief over her mom. This was quite realistic, and also that she didn’t understand consciously that’s what she was doing at the time. Let’s hope there are more stories of these Appies guys to come. I’m here for it. 4.25 stars because these books are easy to love. Thanks to Net Galley and Creative If Writing, LLC for this eARC in exchange for my honest review.

Runaway Bride and Prejudice // Emma St Clair
Thank you and for this copy in exchange for my honest review! This book is currently out on KU!!

Well this was just the most delightful, hilarious, and slightly stressful book.

Amelia finds out on her wedding day that her fiancé is cheating on her - with her maid of honor, and cousin. Van, one of her dad’s hockey players (for the AHL team the Appies), is the one to discover them and force the truth. He quickly becomes her getaway driver and ends up on her honeymoon trip with her. While they are practically strangers, they had met a year earlier and hit it off without truly knowing who the other was. Throw in that Van is the Appies bad boy and Amelia is the biggest rule follower, it could be the perfect opposites attract. Except Van isn’t really a bad boy of hockey.

This is the first insta love book I’ve read (that isn’t a fantasy fated mates storyline) and I loved it. With my love of Disney the whole “insta love” idea doesn’t seem far fetched (and don’t worry, Amelia has research to back it up). This book was an absolute wild ride and I was there for it. Between Amelia’s overbearing father, Van’s slightly insane (in a good way) sisters, and the pasts the two of them must work through, I couldn’t get enough of them. There is so much drama but it’s like grab the popcorn and watch it unfold drama - not grind your teeth and get through it.

It’s the best Appies book I’ve read so far (but I’ve liked them all!). I have one more to go.

What do you think - is insta love a thing?

#appieshockey #sweetromcom #instalove #netgalley #bookrec #ku

I requested this book because I enjoyed the previous book in the series, Romancing the Grump, and I like the concept of the Appies as a whole and was interested to read the rest of the series.

While this book wasn't terrible, it wasn't as well-written as Romancing the Grump, which led to some frustration. The way the story jumped between POV was confusing, particularly as it felt like each time was actually trying to be unclear so you'd have a suprise in the next chapter but it was just annoying.
I did enjoy the progression of their romance, though the miscommunication was next level frustrating, I liked that they had a nice connection at the begining and that the story was mostly trying to build back towards that, with Amelia needing to learn that it had been real. I really liked all the interactions with other characters, espcially the Appie's chat thread and Van's sisters. I found Amelia's father to be awful.

I think overall if you're enjoying the series it'd still be worth reading this one but on it's own it's a bit average.

The Appies are one of my favorite fictional hockey teams. I have loved every single players story. The supporting cast, and these books is just fantastic. So when I learned Van, the bad boy of the team was getting his own book I could not be more excited. This definitely didn’t disappoint. so much more than he has on he is the biggest sweetheart, and of course he had to fall for the coaches, daughter. Watching Amelia grow in this book was amazing. She went from coloring inside the lines to flying wild and living her best life. I love these two together so much. I hope Alec gets a book next.

“Amelia hit me like a runaway truck barreling down a mountain road with cut brakes.”

Van forces the groom of his coach's daughter to confess to cheating on her wedding day. He ends up running away with her....

Love Van! He's a terrifc character. And the DRAMA! :) Terrific pace and storytelling. Love the sports romance.

Thanks to the publisher for the arc.

Van has a reputation as the bad boy on his hockey team but it’s mostly for show. At the wedding of his coach’s daughter, he walks in on the groom and a bridesmaid getting it on. He forces them to own up to Amelia, the bride, then acts as her getaway driver as she flees the wedding. Her best friend convinces Amelia to go on her prepaid honeymoon, and Van’s coach asks him to go
What Coach doesn’t know is that Van and Amelia met once before and sparks flew. Now that it’s just them, they pretend to be married and their feelings grow. Unfortunately, Amelia sees a text from her father and leaves, after they took their relationship to completely new level the night before. Can they clear up their miscommunication and get their happily ever after?

Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley, I received a complimentary copy of this book. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own

Runaway Bride and Prejudice, the next installment in the Appies series by Emma St Claire did not disappoint! I love the Appies series and have been looking forward to Van’s story since the first Appies novel I read. I was so excited to receive an ARC of Runaway Bride and Prejudice and it was everything I hoped it would be! I couldn’t not put this books down and devoured Van and Amelia’s whirlwind romance in one sitting! This was a fantastic read and I would definitely recommend it, can be read stand alone but for full effect I would recommend reading the series in order.

This review will be posted on Goodreads and Amazon Australia as soon as possible.

Sports romances are all the rage these days! I just finished the best book. Runaway Bride and Prejudice is a great addition to the genre.

I don’t know much or care about the world of hockey, but this was so fun. Love love LOVE the characters. I may have a book crush on Van. My favorite is how he manhandled Drew 3 times. 2 times to make him confess and the best was when he dragged him to the elevator. The whole elevator part was awesome. Loved the family dynamics, Vans sisters especially. I would love to read more about them. Highly recommend if you want a book to make you smile, swoon a little and laugh out loud.

When the mouthy bad boy of the Appies catches the groom cheating on the coach’s daughter, he can’t just walk away. Not on her wedding day. Maybe his own relationships are casual, but he would never cheat and never treat wedding vows so carelessly. But forcing the groom to come clean sets off a chain reaction Van couldn’t have expected. Ending with a black eye, an unexpected trip to Florida with one runaway bride, and a secret bargain struck with Coach.

Somehow, Van's badboy status just made him all the more appealing. The charm and flirtatious way he carried himself upped the ante on the delicious tension between him and Amelia. Chef's kiss on this one 😋

Also, chapter 17! I didn't think things would take quite the turn after such a short time together but goodness me 😂 Things got crazy especially with Coach and the rest of the team looped in.

Van's reputation had everyone around him questioning whether he was relationship material. I loved how Amelia stood her ground. It was of course partly thanks to Van's pushing her to come out of her shell. I loved to see it. He was definitely good for her.

I loved Van's sisters. How they were all up in his business was entertaining. The Dream Team text thread was also a highlight as always. A treat in book form this was 😄

Thank you to Netgalley and Publisher for an ARC in exchange for an honest review. Can't wait for Alec's story!

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Steam level: 1🌶️ Kissing only

3.5⭐️

I didn’t love this as much as I did the first book. I did love reading about the Appies again because I love the found-family vibes that they've built up throughout the series. It was fun seeing what they were up to as well as the dynamics between them. Unfortunately, I just couldn’t connect with the main characters in this book. The lack of communication was killing me, especially after they made such a big decision on a whim. It just felt too unbelievable. I still enjoyed it for the side characters, though.

Thank you to NetGalley for providing the e-ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This was a strong fifth book in the Appies series, it had everything that I enjoyed from the first four books. It uses the sports element perfectly with the romance element. I was invested in what was going on and glad the characters that that charm that I was looking for. I enjoyed what Emma St. Clair wrote and can’t wait for more.

How does the Appies series get better and better with every book? I'm floored!!

The Appies Hockey series was written by two authors Emma St. Clair and Jenny Proctor. It's a fictional hockey team located in Harvest Hollow North Carolina. The team dynamics and brotherhood made me fall in love with the series. Each book can be read as a stand-alone, but the series so much more fun when you know (and love) the whole family!

Runaway Bride and Prejudice is book 5 in the series and tells Van's story, the cocky playboy of the team. Van walks in on his coach's daughter's fiance who's with another woman just before he's supposed to walk down the aisle to get married. Van forces the groom to tell his bride what he was doing and ends up being the getaway driver in a Runaway Bride situation.

The story grabbed my attention within the first few pages and held it throughout the journey!

It's the type of story you want to go into blind and let all the events unfold for you. I don't want to spoil your experience at all!

I will say that I adore Van, especially after learning more about his home life. Growing up with three sisters he sees things other people may not and has this sensitivity that we get to see on full display. His love language is physical touch!

Van's sisters are loyal, protective, (a little scary), and the exact people you want in your corner. I loved their part of the story!

The team group text is hilarious!

I loved watching Amelia grow through the book and find her voice!

Other fun moments:
Making up your own rules
Eating the opposite of wedding food
Nicknames
Theodore
A jersey moment

This is all I will say! Just read it!