Thank you to Edelweiss and Canary Ink Press/Afterglow Books by Harlequin/Harlequin Trade Publishing for providing me with an egalley of this title to read and give my honest review. The opinions expressed here are my own.
I really should learn to avoid TikTok influencer books. More often than not I am disappointed with them. But the blurb really caught my eye, the reviews seemed positive, and I love me a hockey romance. So I decided to give it a shot (no pun intended). To say I'm disappointed in the execution of this book is an understatement. It really did have great bones but there were so many things wrong with it.
The plot was typical of a hockey romance if a bit cliché. The hockey star takes a downfall and needs to build his career back up. He meets a manic pixie girl and they connect with a hot one night stand never thinking they'll see each other again. Of course their paths cross again and each time the hockey has a great game. So, of course, she's his lucky charm. But she has no intention of letting another relationship get in the way. Of course that pesky little thing called love gets in the way. While the pacing was pretty fast for this one, it was stunted in many places due to awkward dialogue and weird switches in POV.
The romance was ok. I would have liked to see a better development. I just didn't feel the chemistry between the FMC and MMC. They were so very different it was a wonder they connected at all. And, while I know opposites can attract, the author really needed to show this to us and it didn't happen. And the spicy scenes just were not done well. They were super rushed and awkward. I didn't feel any passion between the characters. The scenes made me cringe and were more clinical than emotional.
Speaking of showing, that didn't happen in this book. There was so much telling. And there were weird medical terms used throughout that just took me right out of the story. Can such terms be used in books, of course, but it's how they were use that totally baffled me. They just seemed so random. Who mentions things like UTI, adenoids, apena, vascular, and trypanophobia would be understood by someone in the medical field (such as myself, since I'm a nurse) but the general public will not know what these things are. I also saw this with the hockey terms. I love me some hockey and it was obvious the author had some good knowledge in this area. But I don't know a lot of the terms. And neither did the FMC. A perfect way for the author to have explained some of the words she was using would have been to have the MMC teach the FMC these terms as it would have also helped the reader.
As for the characters, they were relatable for the most part but I feel like if you're putting a POC into the story there's a reason for it. There is racism alluded to, but we never see it or how it may have affected the character. Same with the LBGTQ representation. For the most part this was done well but I did see some stereotypes woven into the story, and not in any type of positive way. And the mental health that was addressed was a super important part of the MMC but it doesn't happen until about half way through the book. These aspects of the characters needed more exploration. I feel like using such designations in a book are usually done for a reason and I need them to be done well so I can understand the importance of them being included in the story. I feel like having this information and showing us why it is important would have helped me connect more with the characters as I really didn't feel this connection. Overall the main characters came across as flat for me.
I had issues with the FMC, Lucy, and her profession. She's an artist. But she wants to tattoo. But she has never tattooed before. She draws and paints, but not tattoos. She does all kinds of other things. There's no real understanding as to why she wants this profession. I feel like there needed to be more included for me to understand. It came across as not much research being done in this area.
While the book wasn't terrible and the bones are there for a great story, the execution was very lacking. I felt like it needs a lot more editing. I'm hoping the final version would be more tight where this is concerned. There were many times I wanted to DNF this book but I pushed in the hopes the story would take a turn for the better. But it never did. The book honestly left me with more questions than answers. The premise was good with a nice cast of diverse characters but the book itself just had too many issues for me to love it.