dermkat's Reviews (2.11k)

I enjoyed this one! Eric is the goalie on Scott's team and he's bi, but was in a long term relationship with a woman-and he's a hockey player-so he'd never let himself fully acknowledge his attraction to men. Now that he's been divorced for a year he's curious about what's out there for him, and his attention settles on Kyle, server at the gay pub he goes to with Scott and Kip. Kyle is about 15 years younger but often has a thing for older men who end up being wrong for him, but he and Eric end up kissing after Eric comes out to him and then Kyle becomes his practice guy (or so they label it). Both eventually develop feelings but believe it's not meant to be even though their chemistry is incredible and they have fun together all the time. Eric is a little too focused on his age since he also knows (but also hasn't told anyone) that this will be his last season. This one felt fun and sweet, and it set up the next one a little bit, so I'm looking forward to that. 

I really enjoyed the author's baseball series set at the same university, so I was hopeful I'd enjoy this one too. It was fine, certainly good enough to read to the end and some really good aspects to it (the stuff with both MCs' families was the best part, and I liked the conversations the leads had together when they got real and the banter when they didn't) but overall I felt a little meh once I was done. The main issue was the focus on her virginity and how that was written. I have zero problems with there being a good girl/bad boy trope, even though it felt a little fast for him to totally change his ways. I also have no problem with there being one inexperienced MC who learns from the other, and I thought the descriptions of her first experiences felt right, but the way her virginity was talked about bothered me. The entire concept of virginity and it being something to be given away to someone else, or that someone takes it, or that he pushed/tore through her virginity (you mean her hymen, just say it) feels archaic and patriarchal. In this book especially it felt like using that kind of language went against the whole point of Lennon becoming her own person and going against what her family and father and high society expected of her, of the little value they placed on her. Also, I feel like the author has written a similar trope before and it didn't hit me like this so I found it distracting as I read. I think if I gave star ratings it would be still be around a 3 or 3.5 because I didn't dislike it overall and I'm still willing to try more books by this author, but maybe would bump to a 4 if this while thing had been framed differently. 
Thank you Valentine PR for the ARC in exchange for an honest review. The book is out now!

This was stay up way too late to read in one sitting level of good and I loved it! I'd been excited for Alexei and Georgia's story ever since we first got a glimpse of their delicious mix of mutual disdain and sexual tension earlier in the series. Then we found out as a teaser that they got married but clearly were faking liking each other and I was thrilled because I knew it would mean incredible amounts of banter and even more of that tension, and I was right! To me, this is an enemies to lovers lite because they fully believed their hatred was real but there was always an underlying amount of denial at how attracted they were to the other. It's certainly a marriage of convenience slash fake marriage. Alexei's citizenship (and his parents') still hasn't gone through even though the family immigrated to Canada when he was a child. Now he's 36 and only has 3 years left on his contract with the Vancouver Storm, but knows that with the way hockey is, and his chronic pain from past injuries, he's always one bad hit away from a forced retirement, so he needs the immigration stuff finished ASAP. Coach Ward (who we learn more about and got more hints for his book next!) off handedly says it would be easier if he were married to a Canadian; so, when Jordan, the bar owner/tender at the team's favorite pub and friends with both Alexei and Georgia lets him know that Georgia also needs someone to marry, the two fight it at first but ultimately (reluctantly) agree to help one another out. Georgia needs to get married to receive her hefty inheritance from her awful grandfather, because her sports medicine research program lost its funding and she doesn't want to quit or let her current and future injured athletes down. As the two live together while waiting for both issues to go through, they fight the sexual tension until they can't anymore. He also slowly learns that she maybe isn't the spoiled rich girl he's always thought, she learns that he isn't the grumpy jerk she thought, and it turns out things might not be as fake as they thought. 
The way their experiences together swing so drastically from hurtful and sometimes caustic, to giddy and loving is beautiful and very entertaining. I was so thrilled to get an ARC for this one (thank you!), and well done on another great book, Stephanie!
Out June 17/25.

This book was so sweet and lovely. We met Ryan, enforcer for Ilya's team in Boston and then traded twice until he ended up now in Toronto, where he runs into Fabian, the son of his high school hockey billits. They both don't know that the other had a crush on them back then, but they start to hang out and flirt and grow closer now. Fabian is a musician, and is very femme as far as his style, and Ryan finds his confidence to be so opposite of what society expects of men very attractive. Ryan deals with anxiety and panic around flying, socializing, fighting, all things he had to do for his job, so he's in therapy and on medication to deal with that and his general self worth issues, but is still having a rough go at times and that and the meds have affected his sex drive. Fabian is patient and approaches things differently to help him be comfortable, while hating that his huge, softy boyfriend has to fight and play injured at times (this becomes a big conflict for them). The way these two care for each other is great, there's more talk about mental illness (SPOILER: including death of a player from another team due to suicide), and we get to see many of the side characters we loved already.

I'm so glad we got this extension of Shane and Ilya's story. It was heartbreaking for a good amount of it while they're on their seperate teams and still keeping their secret. I felt for Ilya especially, as he dealt with his depression (therapy on page!) while being more isolated in the secret and wondering whether Shane would ever actually be ready to come out together. Heads up that they are outed, and that one of their teams and friends takes it well but the other doesn't, and neither does the league commissioner. Overall, despite the emotional rollercoaster, it was lovely to spend more time with these two as they bantered, got spicy, and loved each other so incredibly much. I'm excited to get to the rest of the series books I skipped since I now know all the characters and it's clear that some of the books overlap timelines. 

I LOVED THIS! I was told it was excellent, and I believed people, plus it's popular enough to get a tv series, so I'm not really surprised I loved it but I'm still relieved it lived up to the hype. This is a queer romance where the characters are professional hockey players on rival teams, signed the same year at 18 and having secret hookups over almost 10 years while eventually becoming more and falling in love. The tension and eventual pining between Shane and Ilya were intense, and I felt stressed (in a good way) and giddy, all the way through. Though I could relate and feel for them as far as the being in the closet aspect, this was a whole other layer because I wasn't with someone or in love and keeping that person an additional secret. The way these men figured things out and gave each other shit but also supported one another, was fun and beautiful. When I found out there is a sequel to this book at the end of the series it made me nervous, but thankfully someone let me know that this one ends as it was meant to and the second one was written later because the fans loved them so much and wanted more. I get it, as I had planned to read the series in order but I need more of their story immediately and will be reading that next even if it spoils the other ones (they're about other people and it's all romance so you know the MCs end up together, so I won't be mad at it). I'm also excited that the show is getting developed for Crave, so I'll be able to watch it eventually! Another excellent Rachel Reid book, and definitely now my favorite of hers so far. 

This is book one in a series I've had on my TBR for a while now, and I've finally started because it was announced that book two and it's sequel are getting a tv series. This one was cute and emotional, about Kip, a 25 year old gay man with a history degree but no job in his field yet, working at a smoothie shop when Scott, closeted NHL player comes in. They eventually end up together and in a secret relationship since Scott doesn't think he can come out and not have it affect his career and relationship with his teammates. They're good at first but Kip eventually struggles at essentially having been pushed back in the closet in order to be with the man he loves so they have to figure out what they're going to do. Rachel Reid always writes great MM spicy hockey romances; I've only read a couple but really liked them and can tell I'm going to devour this whole series. 

As I expected, I really enjoyed this one, significantly more than the previous one and that one wasn't even bad! This one caught my interest even though I'm not really a fan of this author and just read her on occasion, because it's kind of second chance, which is my current fave trope (they didn't date but feelings were involved and then they were apart). It's also brother's best friend (with an age gap, which I'm always intrigued to see whether it finds the balance where it makes sense and isn't creepy or a power issue), and takes place in Italy in the present day scenes. We met Maya and Hark (Conor) in book 1, as Eli's sister and best friend slash business partner, and there was a vibe, at least on her end. Hark is 15 years older and we find out through tense current moments while they're on Eli and Rue's destination wedding trip with a small group of people and through flashbacks from the past 3+ years that they did have something going on behind the scenes. He was adamant that nothing was happening beyond friendship and couldn't happen; they mostly talked on the phone until he cut off contact about ten months before the wedding. She fell in love with him, he was overly concerned about how problematic it would be because of the age gap and potential power dynamics (no spoilers, but the stuff he is concerned with feels like excuses all the way along. They absolutely should be considered and in some situation could be an issue, but I was on her side). The wedding itself seems to be cursed, with issue after issue cropping up, and over the week leading up to it the two are forced to spend time together and deal with their stuff. Some people may not agree, but it felt like a massive slow burn to me, but I was here for it for the most part. I liked Maya as a character, and the way she would tease and joke with him (and others), and her specific style of humor appealed to me as it made their banter top notch. I also liked seeing other characters we'd met before. I usually prefer dual POV but after it being done strangely in the last book, I was relieved to find it was just her POV, especially as it kept going and it was clear that the reader benefited from not knowing Conor's thoughts and feelings until later. Overall, this is definitely my fave book by this author and has made it way more likely that I'll consider her books again in the future. 

This author has never been a fave of mine but not for any concrete reason. I read her first two books and really enjoyed them in the moment but then never felt drawn to continuing as she released more. Then I did want to read her newest one, which is book two after this one, so when I started it I realized I wanted to read this first after all. And I'm glad I did, because I think you can likely read them as standalones but I will appreciate having all this background info. Rue is a scientist and meets a man from a hookup app one night but circumstances lead them to not have sex. Then the next day her boss/friend surprises the entire company with the founders of the equity company that's bought out their loan, and Eli from last night is one of them. They go back and forth with him wanting her and expressing that, and her fighting it because she feels like it would be a betrayal of her friend, but eventually giving in. It's spicy but not super spicy, though they do talk about other stuff that doesn't occur on page. I think my fave part of this book is that Rue is so autistic coded, and that she finds her person she can feel comfortable unmasking around (I thought it was well portrayed based on what I know). It's been too long to say whether I liked this more or less than the others I read, but I have a feeling I'll like the next one more (TBD). One big issue with this book that kept it firmly in "I enjoyed this well enough" vs "I really liked this!", and that I will now pay attention to see if it happens in the next one: Rue's POV is in first person but Eli's is in third person, so it switches every time and I found that a little jarring all the way through. 

I am always here for an Omegaverse, and I have become a big fan of Hannah Cowan's books, so I was definitely intrigued when she announced she was writing this one. I enjoyed it! There are aspects that all Omegaverse stories have, but each author also has their universe's unique ones, and that was true here too. Briar is an Omega and a doula, who owns a birthing clinic with her omega doctor friend Clover. Briar has a run in with an alpha she thinks is her scent match but he runs from her. Then she meets Ronan (alpha) and Dash (beta) and they're also scent matches, so she agrees to meet the rest of their pack. Jasper (alpha) is also a match, but she doesn't meet the pack alpha Landon because he doesn't want their pack for have an omega. All four men play on the local NHL team, and when she finally meets Landon they discover he's the one from the restaurant. It takes a while, and there's drama inside and outside the pack, but they do get it together eventually. I liked their dynamic and liked the side characters I assume will have stories moving forward.