Trigger Warning: sexual assault, bullying

Long Rant Incoming: (Don't say I didn't warn you.)

I picked up this book a few months ago after reading through the first two in the 'series' and almost immediately set it down. I didn't have a real reason for doing so. I just wasn't really in the mood for the book at the time.

I wish I had just left well enough alone and left this book DNF'd.

My biggest problem with this book was that there were so many technical inaccuracies. I'm not referring to the grammar and punctuation, but rather the complete lack of research the author did before writing this book.

First of all, her characters use words and phrases that no 20-something American's use. At one point, Emerson talks about putting an 'advert' in the newspaper to hire an employee. Then she talks about an employee's 'pay packet', which I'm assuming is a paycheck? In a flashback, her father screams at a reporter to 'bugger the hell off', which again, is not a phrase we use in the U.S.

I went and googled the author and, sure enough, she was born and raised in London. So why did she set her story in Seattle, Washington (technically Bainbridge, but close enough)? Not that she isn't allowed to set her story wherever she wants, but she should use words and terminology that those characters would actually use...just saying.

And to be honest, whoever edited this book should feel ashamed. Those kind of things never should've made it past edits.

That may seem nitpicky to some, but it was totally taking me out of the story. But that wasn't the biggest offender for me.

The male protagonist in this story is a college hockey player with his eye on the NHL. It was obvious in reading this book that the author had absolutely no clue when it came to anything related to the NHL, NCAA, or the rule of law in the U.S.

The male protagonist has endorsement deals, which aren't allowed in the NCAA. Most of the time athletes aren't even allowed to have jobs unless it's approved by the NCAA, and definitely not during the season.

There were points in the book where he said he had a contract with a team, then later said he was a first draft pick, then talked about the draft as if it hadn't happened yet. None of this makes any sense.

Later in the book,

Jake gets in trouble when he fails a drug test for smoking weed one night when he was at a party.

This happened in Massachusetts. So in the book, they have the local chief of police haul him in for questioning about it. This is not how this would work. Not even a little bit. First of all, a local cop wouldn't care about that in the state of Washington. It wouldn't be treated as a criminal offense. Second of all, there is a little thing called jurisdiction, and a cop in Washington would have no jurisdiction on something that happened across the country.

Then there is Jake's second run in with the police, after

he gets into a bar fight.

His lawyer tells him it's a crime that could come with a life in prison sentence. This is simply untrue, which the author would have known if she'd bothered to do two minutes of research into the matter. At the most, it's a ten year sentence, with up to $50,000 in fines.

Also, the characters keep talking about how they go to Washington State University so they can stay close to home...WASHINGTON STATE IS NOT NEAR SEATTLE. It's an almost 250-mile drive. I'm assuming the author meant the University of Washington, but that wasn't ever what she said. And trust me, there's a huge difference.

Other wtf moments:
1. She refers to the NHL as 'the hockey leagues' or just 'the leagues'
2. Jake is playing his first game of the season, but while Emerson is watching the game on television it is referred to as a playoff game...typically those happen at the END of a season, not the beginning...just saying.
3. Jake says that another hockey player swore under his breath in the middle of a game. How on Earth would he know? Hockey games are freaking loud.
4.

When Jake is hurt playing, the game is stopped and postponed because of his injury. This would not happen. Also, afterward there is talk that the person who hurt him in the game could face criminal charges. This is also highly unlikely.

I understand that this may seem like petty nitpicking to some. And perhaps if a reader isn't familiar with this area of the country or the way professional sports or the criminal justice system work it wouldn't bother them at all. But it took me out of the story every time. I honestly don't know how an editor allowed this to be published in its current form.

Aside from all of the gross inaccuracies, I didn't really think the story was engaging. I'm a sucker for the first-loves-reunite trope, but this just felt rushed. Also, pretty much every plot device and trope you can think of is thrown into this mess: contrived misunderstandings as a result of a lack of communication; experienced boy and virginal girl (technically she isn't a virgin, but she's only been with one guy before who had never given her an orgasm, so it's pretty much portrayed as if it didn't count or something. It was obnoxious); every guy in the book is infatuated with the main female protagonist, with the exception of the gay best friend; traumatic past is alluded to but not explained for far longer than it needs to be; true loves cures all wounds, physical and emotional.

The last one is probably the most disturbing. At the center of this book is a story about a girl who suffered a traumatic experience when she was younger that has caused her no end of grief from that point forward. There are moments that indicate that Emerson suffers from PTSD, but it isn't fully explored. Something will trigger her, but it is almost immediately pushed under the rug in order to feed the romantic narrative. She's spent her entire life creating barriers. She talks about sex with her ex-boyfriend as something she would go through the motions with and she would completely shut down during the act. But then she gets with Jake and is immediately able to relax and have a fulfilling sex life and everything between them is fantastic. True love doesn't heal psychological and emotional trauma. That's not how it works.
The author had an opportunity to really explore the story of a young girl being assaulted and having no one believe her. It's powerful, and it's never been more relevant than it is right now. But for me she definitely dropped the ball.

One last gripe. This book is marketed as being the third book in a series. This has absolutely nothing to do with the first two books. It takes place in a completely different part of the country, and there are no characters who crossover from the first two books into this one. There is no connection whatsoever. It felt like this book was linked to the first two simply to ensure people who liked those books would purchase this as well, and that is shady.

I don't see myself reading anything by this author in the future. I thought the first two books were moderately interesting, but the utter lack of research done for this book has really turned me off of picking up anything by her again.