Once again, this is situation where I don't have too much to say either way about this book. It's not bad, but it's not some masterpiece I'm going to stay obsessed with. If you're looking for a cute, low-stakes fake dating romance, then this will do the job quite reliably. I thought Maddy and Damon were cute, and I did enjoy this better than some other sports romances I've read.

This is not a bad book. It's... fine. I have nothing truly bad to say about it, but it was kind of boring, and the story ends off on a cliffhanger (be warned, it's definitely a HFN situation, not a HEA). It felt like the book should have been longer, like we're missing the part where we get to actually see them together. Blake, one part of the main couple,

never tells Elliot that he loves him

. We definitely should have seen that at least.  

I also feel like the "three is the luckiest number" thing

(in which Elliot kisses Blake three times for good luck)

is surprisingly insignificant to the story. It happens maybe twice that I can remember, and Elliot doesn't really care about the number 3 outside of it. It's not that big of a deal, but it is strange because that's what the book is literally named after.

I don't think this book is bad by any stretch of the imagination, but I also think there's much better second chance/gay hockey romances out there, even by this author.

This was a really charming story. I really loved the focus on the friendships in this book, which is not something you always get in romance books. I honestly don't have that much else to say about it, though—the book is cute, the romance is adorable, the friendships are wholesome. But, contrary to the title, I wasn't caught off guard at any point during my read. It was predictable, but that's not always a bad thing. I, for one, thoroughly enjoyed my time with this book.

If any of that sounds like something you'd enjoy, especially with hockey on top of it, then you should read it. It's worth it.

If you're like me, love Heated Rivalry, and are always looking for something to fill the Shane/Ilya void in your heart, this will do a fantastic job. Rivals-to-lovers is one of my favorite tropes and it doesn't disappoint here. Grady and Max have amazing chemistry. The sex scenes are also the best in the series, they are scorching hot. 

The only reason I can't give this book 5 stars is that I feel like the conflict between them got resolved too quickly and cleanly to be realistic. They hash it out over a single phone call when I believe it was something that needed to be done in person, and some of the conflict was never truly explained or resolved. Max just kind of... gives up on being angry. And the ending, while fine, felt a little abrupt.

I wish we got to see the conclusion of the Cup finals, at the very least. but I would have loved a little more time with them, happy and in love, chilling on a beach somewhere.

I highly recommend this for all my other gay hockey romance lovers out there.

Nico and Ryan are my favorite couple of the series so far. They are adorable. You'd think that I'd want to rate this book higher than the last one, but in the case, I feel like I have more problems with this book than the last one, which evens out of the scores for me.

My biggest problem is how it feels like some parts of the book are missing. For example,

when Ryan is apologizing to Nico for how he handled things, Ryan talks about how he knew that Rees and Coach V were in cahoots or whatever, but we're never actually shown Ryan figuring out this information or what he does with it.

As readers, I feel like we really needed that scene–and that's not the only instance of something like that "missing" from the book either. It was a little frustrating for me.

Other than that, I really enjoyed this story. The glimpses we got of Gabe and Dante were really sweet, and I loved that Yorkie and Kitty were present in this book again. And then we have Nico and Ryan, who like I said, are my favorite couple of the series so far. I loved them together and I'm actually glad they didn't get back together right away after their huge blow up. It was sweet.

This series has really surprised me. I haven't liked a lot of other hockey romances besides the Game Changers series by Rachel Reid, so if you're like me and wanting more books to give you similar feelings, pick this one up.

I thought this novella was really fun until I got about 80% of the way through. Once the whole pregnancy thing happened, I got pissed off and couldn't enjoy the story anymore. Still, the first 80% is worthy of 3 stars, so I won't rate it any lower. Now for my rant (spoiler warning):

First of all, yes, "Rob" was a shitty boyfriend, but just because he got you pregnant doesn't mean he lied about having a vasectomy. Vasectomies are not a 100% guarantee (you don't shoot blanks immediately after having them) and they can be done incorrectly or even reversed (sometimes the body can just reverse them naturally). Second of all, Michelle wants to have the baby, not because she is Catholic or even wants the child, but because her mom is Catholic and she doesn't want her mom to think she's going to hell. If that's the case, why are you having a baby out of wedlock and then giving that baby to a gay couple. THOSE THINGS WOULD MAKE YOU GO TO HELL TOO? SO WHAT THE FUCK?

AGAIN, Michelle is willing to put her body through a pregnancy she doesn't want, for a baby she won't keep because it would "always remind her" of her shitty ex-boyfriend, all because she doesn't want her mom to believe she might go to hell. WELL YOU'RE GOING TO DO THAT ANYWAY IF WE'RE GOING BY THE CATHOLIC PLAYBOOK. It makes no damn sense to me.

It's obviously a plot point so that Gabe and Dante can adopt a child, but like... there's so many other ways the authors could have done that. The choice to have that be the way they got their baby was baffling and felt oddly moralizing for a book series about gay hockey players.

This was such a cute book and one of my favorite gay hockey romances that I've read so far. I think Gabe and Dante are so adorable, and even though the book was short, their romance didn't feel rushed. It was paced very well, which is something I always look for in my romance books. The characters were also really fun. I enjoyed reading about them, which is not something you can always say. 

I do have to say, the liberal use of ellipses was a bit hard to get used to, but that was the only "quirk" I really disliked while reading the book, and it was easy enough to get used to. 

If you're looking for a quick, charming hockey romance read, give this one a go.

The only reason I finished Light Up the Lamp is because I'm currently in the middle of a gay hockey romance kick and I'm trying to find the best ones. This is not one of those best books. The only things I liked about this book were when Gil (finally) stood up to his dad and the sex scenes. Literally nothing else had merit for me.

Gil was a likeable main character, but he was also dumb as fuck. A real himbo, which I appreciate.

However, he was also emotionally abused by his father, a former NHL star turned coach that had his fingers all over Gil's hockey career, even in the pros. His father treated Gil like he wasn't worthy of affection if he wasn't good at hockey. Obviously he is obsessed with hockey and trying to please his dad.

The fact that no other character, especially Sebastian, seemed to understand that was incredibly frustrating.

But not as frustrating as Sebastian himself. I kept wondering what Gil actually saw in him, because I saw nothing.

Sebastian practically gaslights Gil about their previous relationship. He literally ghosted Gil without even communicating with him about how he was feeling or what was wrong, moved on with a mutual friend of theirs, adopted a child (!!!) with said mutual friend, hid that for ten whole years, and somehow blamed Gil for all of it. Excuse me, but what the fuck? Where do you get off, sir? They are supposedly childhood friends, so it's not like how Gil behaved would have been a surprise to him. And Sebastian refused to communicate with Gil about literally anything. He did it in the past, and he did it in the present too. Everything is on Gil to fix.

Sebastian takes no blame for what he did, which is crazy. Had me rooting against the relationship. I wanted Gil to stand up for himself against Sebastian so badly, but it never happened! I also feel like the book didn't really do anything with the "forbidden romance" aspect of a coach/player relationship. We barely see any of that because the book takes place over the course of one week, before the season even starts.

Also, the way the team was run is so unbelievable that I almost quit the book because of it. The Sea Lions are touted as the worst team in the NHL,

but even the worst team would have more than, like, five staff members. The NHL would never allow a team not to have trainers or equipment staff. The NHL would never allow a professional team to have a rink that's as run-down and unsafe as the one in the book. The rink would not be shared with the public for things like freeskates and pick-up games. The locker room would never be left unlocked, or have moldy showers, or be without a laundry basket. And, most ridiculous of all, the rookie players would never be doing the team's laundry.

The NHL would literally force the ownership to sell or dissolve the team. You cannot run a sports organization like that.

I honestly don't know if I can recommend this book to anyone. There are better hockey romances out there (coughHeatedRivalrycough). Trust me.

This novella was a nice little treat for those who followed Jamie and Wes through their journey. I'm not going to lie and say it's something special, but if you liked the other books, then you'll like this. The boys are cute, the story is wholesome, and the vibe stays good all the way through.

This was a fun continuation of the last book. I didn't like it as much as the first because the main conflict is

communication issues

, which I'm not a fan of. I also thought how they were outed was completely crazy and not in a good way.

There's no way that someone taking a picture in the quarantine wing of a hospital wouldn't be found almost immediately. It's frustrating to me that they never "found" who did it and seemingly no disciplinary action was taken.

 

I still enjoyed the read overall. I did like getting to read about the evolution of Jamie and Wes's relationship. It was really sweet and why I gave the book a 3 star rating. For all my complaints, I do think they are just plain cute together.