Mike Sato is a small and scrappy enforcer trying to prove his worth and keep his spot on his team. He starts a rivalry with an older and bigger enforcer  on their rival team, Danny Garcia. Mike loves to antagonize Danny, and after a chance meeting in the off season starts to find new ways to get under his skin. Their fighting turns into something a bit more, straddling the line of love and hate. 

I actually liked Danny and Mike's relationship once Mike started maturing a bit. At the beginning he was a little over the top with his aggression, but once he started to accept his feelings for Danny he was actually kind of a sweetheart. Danny was so patient with him and even though Danny was dealing with a lot, he cared deeply about Mike. They did have their cute moments where they really tried, even though Danny's downward spiral and Mike's asshole attitude made it a little frustrating sometimes. 

When I started this book I was a little wary because I realized I didn't love the writing style. It's very colloquial, with lots of likes and sentence breaks and it just was hard for me to read at some points. I kept going for the story, and I was kind of into it and looking forward to how it all ended but then it just fell flat. I really wish there was more with the ending. There's a lot of lead up with Danny and what he's going through, and then there really isn't any closure, it all kind of culminates in the last 10%. I would say it's a "happy for now" rather than a happily ever after because I still have tons of questions. 

They also miss a whole series of the playoffs at the end - like it starts as the third series against one team, and then it changes to the finals against a different team between two games. I had to knock it down a little for that because it was such a huge jump between one series and the next being the finals, and it wasn't intentional. I didn't even realize it was the legit Finals at the end because I thought they had a whole other series to go so I felt disconnected from the story. 

I'm keeping it in the 3 range because in the middle there I was invested in these characters and wanted to see their outcome, I just wasn't a fan of the execution. I'm curious about the next book and how this style works with a completely different character dynamic. And I already bought the book so I'll give it a shot. 

Read if you like: 
• rivals to lovers  
• age gap 
• hockey          

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