I am struggling to rate this book because I'm not sure I should be. I feel like this is a good book... but not for me. I've come to the conclusion that DDLB is just not my cup of tea. However, if you do like DDLB, I think this will be a great book for you! The kink is represented well and the characters are syrupy sweet with each other.

However, if you are a sports fan—especially a hockey fan—I would advise staying away from this one, even if you like DDLB. That's because almost every aspect of hockey is portrayed incorrectly in this book. The players barely seem to travel, and when they do, they play series of games back-to-back to the same team. That ain't how hockey works, folks. Back-to-backs are rare, and teams never play the same team twice in a row unless they are in the Cup finals. The terminology is off, and almost no focus is put on the games.

I mean, the team supposedly wins the Stanley freaking Cup and we don't even see that happen!

And the way the team forms is flat-out wrong. Even if you're mega-rich, you can't just "create" a sports team in a closed league like the NHL. You have to wait for an expansion to happen. You can't just offer other players contracts, you need to wait for an expansion draft. Expansions usually happen in cities that already have a hockey fanbase—it's a prerequisite to have an AHL team that's reasonably popular. And expansions don't happen to really small cities like Bellport seems to be (I know it's not a real place, but honestly, why not just use New Orleans?).

I also think the friendships evolve in a weird way. Pretty much every time a character meets another one and they become friends, it happens instantly, or even off-page. For example, Atlas had a good portion of the hockey team at his graduation cheering for him—which is great, don't get me wrong—but the book never actually shows him getting to know any of the other players on the team besides Bishop, the other male lead. We just have to accept they are friends in the end, somehow.

If you don't know anything about sports, that's fine... just don't write about them. Don't make one of your main characters a sports star. It's okay. You can think of something else. The overall writing is not bad though. If you don't care about inaccurate portrayals of sports, and you like DDLB, you should give this book a shot. I really think you will like it. 

I really liked this book, although I wish it was longer. More time needed to be spent building up their relationship. I feel like the characters went from one or two encounters to an agreement of exclusivity really fast and in a weird way.

For example, Jasper never touched Mortimer, not once. How can they possibly claim to have feelings for each other if this is the case? I also felt like Jasper never really dealt with his "gay awakening" in any meaningful way, which I would have liked to see.

I also felt like the language was really dense. I appreciate that it was trying to emulate regency-era books, but some of the vocabulary was so outdated and long-winded that a bit modernization would have gone a long way. Not to mention that some of the clothing the characters wore or the slang that was used come from completely different eras than when this is set. For example,

one of the romantic leads frequents a brothel with his party of friends, and

one of the girls there wears a "chemise". This would be fine... if the book was set in the 1920s, when those were popular. But it's not. It's clear the author just thought that was an older word for nightgown, when it's not—it's a specific type of sleepwear.

However, I am definitely intrigued to read more by this author. If you are looking for a sweet regency-era romance that is gay, I recommend you give this one a shot.

When Miss Tavia Lark says short story, she means it! I loved this, although I wish it was longer, maybe novella length. I don't feel like we got to know the characters all that well. I needed more. I'm giving it three stars on the premise alone, which I felt was really strong.

I also liked that it ended with them getting ready to "court" each other.

This isn't the worst book I've ever read, but it needs a lot of work, in my opinion. The book should have honestly been another 100–200 pages long to flesh out the relationships between the characters. And I mean all the relationships, not just the one between Alexi and Warren (although that could definitely use some more fleshing out as well). We literally meet the best friend of one of the romantic leads in the last chapter. That's unacceptable to me. And Alexi and Benny barely get any time to showcase their friendship/break-up/make-up. Like, it's a whole mess. 

Warren is also kind of controlling, and not in a good way.

He pretty much bans Alexi from seeing his one (1) friend in person because he (Warren) has a history with him. He also never discusses safe words with Alexi—literally, at one point, Warren says, "Good boys don't say no, do they?" and Alexi just... agrees with him?? Not cool.

There's also a lot of grammatical errors that need to be fixed, as well as some truly indecipherable sentences. For example, in the first chapter, there is this paragraph:

What does that even mean. The worst part is, the "he" in this sentence isn't even supposed to be speaking. It's the POV character who is speaking, so it should be "I"! This truly feels like a rough draft. If this book had more work, and a bit of a character overhaul for Warren, it could be really good. 

Surprisingly, this book is a step above most of the others in this series. I have only liked Egotisitical Puckboy more. I really love how Aleks and Gabe come together and the sacrifices they make for each other. I think their relationship progresses in a very organic way; it's not rushed. Also, Gabe's dirty talk is the best in any of the books by this author duo, hooooly shirtballs.

One thing I didn't like was the big "I love you" seen in the fire station. <spoile>Aleks just blurts out all his feelings about kids and marriage and stuff in front of everyone. It frelt very out of character. Why wouldn't he drag Gabe to the alley right away? Or at least a quiet room in the firehouse? I also felt like Gabe's character was really inconsistent.

In the beginning, Gabe isn't really looking for commitment and is totally down to be the guy Aleks experiments with, but near the end, he says he's ready to settle down and move on to the "next stage" of his life. So which is it?

I don't know, I just found it really weird how he switched up like that for no reason. And I do mean no reason. Not a single character growth moment was found.

Overall though, I'm really surprised to have enjoyed this book as much as I did. I'm hoping the final book in the series can bring me back around to fully loving this series. 

I honestly don't have much to say about this book. I liked Oskar and Lane, but I didn't really love them. The timeline of their relationship was weird to me—they spent so much time being sexually frustrated that it seems like they sped through to the falling in love part. I also didn't really feel like their feelings for each other matched what they were saying (I can't explain; it was just a vibe I got).

Oskar is also incredibly similar to Ezra from Egotistical Puckboy, which is maybe a bit much for two main characters in the same series. If you love the other books in the series, I see no reason why you wouldn't love this one too. I'm more ambivalent on the series as a whole, so I wasn't able to overcome the flaws. 

I'm really sad I didn't enjoy this book as much as I wanted to. Friends-to-lovers is a new trope for this author duo (at least, for the books I've read), so I was excited to see what they'd do with it. Not going to lie, I was disappointed. All at once, this book felt incredibly slow-paced, too short, like everything was happening at once, but astonishingly boring. It felt like nothing happened, but it was over in less than 300 pages. If I had to describe this book in one word, it would be "nothing-burger". 

I've read much better "gay awakening" books, too. Even by this same author duo. I'm only giving it two stars because I really liked Tripp as a character and he doesn't deserve just one. To be honest, person who may or may not be reading this, I'd skip this one.

I'm surprised to see that a lot of people didn't enjoy this book compared to the last series. Having read Puck Drills & Quick Thrills, I'm so glad Ezra got his own book. Note: This can be read as a standalone, but it does spoil some events from the previous series.

Personally, I liked this one more than any of the CU Hockey ones. For me, the flaws of this book are relatively small. I think it's a little too short (I would have liked some more time for Ezra and Anton to be more introspective about their feelings) and some parts of it made me cringe a little

(like the karaoke scene)

. Overall though, I really liked this book and I loved the characters. If you're like me and love rivals-to-lovers sports romances, give this one a shot.

Really not sure what to give this. Maybe I'm just not as big of an omegaverse enjoyer as I thought I was (I've enjoyed it in the past). I don't think the book is bad by any means, and the romance is pretty sweet, if a little fast for my taste. I found the anatomy of how things worked

(like the womb doubling as a g-spot, which is so not the case in real life)

to be a bit off-putting as well. 

I enjoyed this more than I thought I would considering it's an age gap romance, which is not a favorite trope of mine. However, I feel like I'm starting to enjoy them when the youngest person is 25+ (as is the case here). I love West and Jasper's dynamic. They're definitely one of my favorite couples in the series. That being said, this book didn't blow my socks off or anything, but it was a fun time.

This book is harder to read as a standalone than the others, since it concurrently follows the plot of Line Mates & Study Dates, but it could be read as one if you really wanted to. If you like age gap/teacher romances then you should give this one a shot.