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nasaje's review against another edition
4.0
Alex and Sergei have been friends for 16 years, and now Sergei realizes that he is feeling more than friendship. I really like that they took their time with their new relationship. They took it slow and didn't just jump into it because they has such deep respect for their friendship to make sure they wanna change the status of that.
I only wish that the baby part would have been given the same treatment. The relationship part takes place over just days whereas there are jumps of weeks and months once the babies come in the picture.
I really liked the baby half as well, but I would have loved a more detailed story of their struggles with being new parents.
The characters are amazing, and Sergei with his broken, russian-induced English was super cute. He has earned himself a spot on my character-favorites list!
I only wish that the baby part would have been given the same treatment. The relationship part takes place over just days whereas there are jumps of weeks and months once the babies come in the picture.
I really liked the baby half as well, but I would have loved a more detailed story of their struggles with being new parents.
The characters are amazing, and Sergei with his broken, russian-induced English was super cute. He has earned himself a spot on my character-favorites list!
alexleo13's review against another edition
5.0
I just loved this book. Sergei and Alex are perfect together! This is a different storyline than the usual MM romance. Alex and Sergei have been best friends forever and it doesn't take many chapters for their relationship to move to lover status - the two weeks from Christmas to New Year were sweet, hot, funny, focused on discovering an aspect of their relationship and of themselves they had kept silent and buried for so long. What I really appreciated of this story is that even though Alex experienced all the typical feelings, doubts a new mother faces, he never behaves like an effeminated man - he is an Olympic Gold medalist, and even though he struggles to see himself this way, he is equal to Sergei. And I loved the fact that Sergei was a one-man lover; Alex was is one and only; he had always been, and he was such an essential part of Sergei's life, that without him Sergei lived an almost asexual life.
cadiva's review
5.0
Another lovely addition to this series
4.5*
This is my favourite one yet in Amy's Hot Off the Ice series. Sergei has been around the Thunder since the beginning of the series and the big Russian goalie has always intrigued me.
Now we get his long time in the coming love story with Alex, the former Olympic ice skater who's been his best friend since they were 16.
I know I've mentioned previously about odd little niggling typos or editing mistakes, and my friend Dani commented on some in this one, but I have to say this time I only spotted a couple where someone had missed a capital letter on a name and a stray comma or two.
I'm mentioning it because, when the narratives are always very well designed and the characters and romance believable, it's great to not be distracted from that with an ebook that still has mistakes.
I loved Sergei, he has a heart as big as Russia. Alex I took a while to warm to but I could completely understand why he was like he was. It must be soul destroying to live your life having to be validated by a judge's score on your professional efforts.
Once I did get into he head though, I wanted to hug him and make him open his eyes to how Sergei saw him. Thankfully he did get there and there's an awesome cast of supporting characters, include a bunch of brilliant women, to help him find his own worth.
The romantic big gesture from Alex once he realises where he is in Sergei's heart was suitably awesome as was the epilogue and I loved it.
4.5*
This is my favourite one yet in Amy's Hot Off the Ice series. Sergei has been around the Thunder since the beginning of the series and the big Russian goalie has always intrigued me.
Now we get his long time in the coming love story with Alex, the former Olympic ice skater who's been his best friend since they were 16.
I know I've mentioned previously about odd little niggling typos or editing mistakes, and my friend Dani commented on some in this one, but I have to say this time I only spotted a couple where someone had missed a capital letter on a name and a stray comma or two.
I'm mentioning it because, when the narratives are always very well designed and the characters and romance believable, it's great to not be distracted from that with an ebook that still has mistakes.
I loved Sergei, he has a heart as big as Russia. Alex I took a while to warm to but I could completely understand why he was like he was. It must be soul destroying to live your life having to be validated by a judge's score on your professional efforts.
Once I did get into he head though, I wanted to hug him and make him open his eyes to how Sergei saw him. Thankfully he did get there and there's an awesome cast of supporting characters, include a bunch of brilliant women, to help him find his own worth.
The romantic big gesture from Alex once he realises where he is in Sergei's heart was suitably awesome as was the epilogue and I loved it.
bookarina's review
2.0
Dissapointed
Man what a bummer, I was really hopping I’d enjoy this novel..
Unfortunately not my favourite, I had read another book from the author that I had really enjoyed. I am a french canadian Quebecer and it felt off, errors in the ways things are used and overuse of curse words in an order that did not feel natural.
I enjoyed parts of it, though it often felt like it was going too fast and the conclusion came out of nowhere in a lot of ways, not where they should’ve been emotionally at that point in time.
2.5 /5⭐️
Bookarina.
Man what a bummer, I was really hopping I’d enjoy this novel..
Unfortunately not my favourite, I had read another book from the author that I had really enjoyed. I am a french canadian Quebecer and it felt off, errors in the ways things are used and overuse of curse words in an order that did not feel natural.
I enjoyed parts of it, though it often felt like it was going too fast and the conclusion came out of nowhere in a lot of ways, not where they should’ve been emotionally at that point in time.
2.5 /5⭐️
Bookarina.
anintrovertrambles's review against another edition
emotional
hopeful
lighthearted
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A
5.0
Such a wholesome story. Alex & Sergei 🥺💖
dith_kusu's review against another edition
3.0
This was my least favorite of the three in this series I'd read so far. It's a sliding scale between 2.5 to 3 stars for me. Even in the first half of the story, while I liked Alex and Sergei's pairing, I wasn't fully feeling it. Then the second half came and I did not enjoy the turn the plot was taking.
Sergei was sweet from his previous depictions, and here he's still this adorable large Russian who speaks English, Quebecois French and Russian with varying degrees of fluency. I theoretically liked that he and Alex had this long standing bond of decades-long friendship at pivotal moments of their lives when Sergei first left Russia and worked abroad and billeted with Alex's family, and continued as best friends even after Alex left home and became a pro figure skater. I liked that aspect, but since we never saw this bond between them, no flashback scenes or further elaborations, it felt like starting a book without reading the previous beginning installment and we missed that bonding element between this friends-turned-lovers dynamic. We're dropped into their lives and personalities without fully knowing them and expecting to go along immediately, Alex with his weird two Sphinx cats and Sergei living alone in this huge house for all this time before Alex moved to Seattle.
And that their romance started so so soon after Alex came out of a rough breakup situation- his being a literal kept man with his sugar daddy/asshole boyfriend hiding a whole wife and being a disgusting emotionally abusive man hurling terrible things at Alex. And right after his moving in with Sergei, their relationship evolved from friends into friends with benefits and so soon after that, full boyfriends. Also, we get brief mentions and asides of their past that didn't feel fully incorporated into the character, like Sergei having left Russia because his young boyfriend was killed, and Alex never knew this after years, and mentions of Alex's past pro figure skating career and medals/accolades.
So there's the not quite connecting of the romance aspect between them, then right after the repeated scenes from previous book through Alex and Sergei's POV (Christmas), the whole babies plotline dropped in that veered the course. Of course when the start of the story mentions that Sergei had sperm donored biological twin children for his good family friend, a famous Russian crossover Hollywood actress, it's a brief mention that will be relevant later. I hated this plot direction, where the babies that Sergei just felt he was okay with being an uncle to before, he suddenly must, had to take in because his friend died suddenly. The way this was written about, made it seem like she was merely a tool for Sergei and Alex to now be parents to these twin boy and girl babies, her death wasn't even lingered on for long and I never really got her connection to Sergei. Wouldn't she have had a will and discussed Sergei's involvement, eventualities for the children beforehand? And through all this sudden upheaval, Alex is immediately like, I can't live without these babies, I love them so much, and so was Sergei? Everything following this I felt the plot was moving way too fast, and this instant family! direction just felt so forced. After the previous book where tumblr/real person fanfiction was mentioned, I'm certain this author probably wrote fanfiction of hockey players before, and this evolved from some fanfic plot.
And I haven't even mentioned the disgusting cheating husband sociopath plot with Alex having been sleeping with this man, whose wife Allie he ends up befriending, teaching their kids figure skating, and him NOT TELLING HER THE TRUTH once he knows the husband was a piece of shit! Then later Alex becomes proper friends with her, she says she ALREADY KNOWS, etc.? This was gross, and felt like this plotline and the babies plotline were smushed together with not attention and resolve given to either of them.
On the plus side, I did like all the side characters introduced here, and seeing the previous books' pairings popping up again. My favorite interaction was of Paul and Alex, them talking and bonding.
Sergei was sweet from his previous depictions, and here he's still this adorable large Russian who speaks English, Quebecois French and Russian with varying degrees of fluency. I theoretically liked that he and Alex had this long standing bond of decades-long friendship at pivotal moments of their lives when Sergei first left Russia and worked abroad and billeted with Alex's family, and continued as best friends even after Alex left home and became a pro figure skater. I liked that aspect, but since we never saw this bond between them, no flashback scenes or further elaborations, it felt like starting a book without reading the previous beginning installment and we missed that bonding element between this friends-turned-lovers dynamic. We're dropped into their lives and personalities without fully knowing them and expecting to go along immediately, Alex with his weird two Sphinx cats and Sergei living alone in this huge house for all this time before Alex moved to Seattle.
And that their romance started so so soon after Alex came out of a rough breakup situation- his being a literal kept man with his sugar daddy/asshole boyfriend hiding a whole wife and being a disgusting emotionally abusive man hurling terrible things at Alex. And right after his moving in with Sergei, their relationship evolved from friends into friends with benefits and so soon after that, full boyfriends. Also, we get brief mentions and asides of their past that didn't feel fully incorporated into the character, like Sergei having left Russia because his young boyfriend was killed, and Alex never knew this after years, and mentions of Alex's past pro figure skating career and medals/accolades.
So there's the not quite connecting of the romance aspect between them, then right after the repeated scenes from previous book through Alex and Sergei's POV (Christmas), the whole babies plotline dropped in that veered the course. Of course when the start of the story mentions that Sergei had sperm donored biological twin children for his good family friend, a famous Russian crossover Hollywood actress, it's a brief mention that will be relevant later. I hated this plot direction, where the babies that Sergei just felt he was okay with being an uncle to before, he suddenly must, had to take in because his friend died suddenly. The way this was written about, made it seem like she was merely a tool for Sergei and Alex to now be parents to these twin boy and girl babies, her death wasn't even lingered on for long and I never really got her connection to Sergei. Wouldn't she have had a will and discussed Sergei's involvement, eventualities for the children beforehand? And through all this sudden upheaval, Alex is immediately like, I can't live without these babies, I love them so much, and so was Sergei? Everything following this I felt the plot was moving way too fast, and this instant family! direction just felt so forced. After the previous book where tumblr/real person fanfiction was mentioned, I'm certain this author probably wrote fanfiction of hockey players before, and this evolved from some fanfic plot.
And I haven't even mentioned the disgusting cheating husband sociopath plot with Alex having been sleeping with this man, whose wife Allie he ends up befriending, teaching their kids figure skating, and him NOT TELLING HER THE TRUTH once he knows the husband was a piece of shit! Then later Alex becomes proper friends with her, she says she ALREADY KNOWS, etc.? This was gross, and felt like this plotline and the babies plotline were smushed together with not attention and resolve given to either of them.
On the plus side, I did like all the side characters introduced here, and seeing the previous books' pairings popping up again. My favorite interaction was of Paul and Alex, them talking and bonding.
dithkusu's review against another edition
3.0
This was my least favorite of the three in this series I'd read so far. It's a sliding scale between 2.5 to 3 stars for me. Even in the first half of the story, while I liked Alex and Sergei's pairing, I wasn't fully feeling it. Then the second half came and I did not enjoy the turn the plot was taking.
Sergei was sweet from his previous depictions, and here he's still this adorable large Russian who speaks English, Quebecois French and Russian with varying degrees of fluency. I theoretically liked that he and Alex had this long standing bond of decades-long friendship at pivotal moments of their lives when Sergei first left Russia and worked abroad and billeted with Alex's family, and continued as best friends even after Alex left home and became a pro figure skater. I liked that aspect, but since we never saw this bond between them, no flashback scenes or further elaborations, it felt like starting a book without reading the previous beginning installment and we missed that bonding element between this friends-turned-lovers dynamic. We're dropped into their lives and personalities without fully knowing them and expecting to go along immediately, Alex with his weird two Sphinx cats and Sergei living alone in this huge house for all this time before Alex moved to Seattle.
And that their romance started so so soon after Alex came out of a rough breakup situation- his being a literal kept man with his sugar daddy/asshole boyfriend hiding a whole wife and being a disgusting emotionally abusive man hurling terrible things at Alex. And right after his moving in with Sergei, their relationship evolved from friends into friends with benefits and so soon after that, full boyfriends. Also, we get brief mentions and asides of their past that didn't feel fully incorporated into the character, like Sergei having left Russia because his young boyfriend was killed, and Alex never knew this after years, and mentions of Alex's past pro figure skating career and medals/accolades.
So there's the not quite connecting of the romance aspect between them, then right after the repeated scenes from previous book through Alex and Sergei's POV (Christmas), the whole babies plotline dropped in that veered the course. Of course when the start of the story mentions that Sergei had sperm donored biological twin children for his good family friend, a famous Russian crossover Hollywood actress, it's a brief mention that will be relevant later. I hated this plot direction, where the babies that Sergei just felt he was okay with being an uncle to before, he suddenly must, had to take in because his friend died suddenly. The way this was written about, made it seem like she was merely a tool for Sergei and Alex to now be parents to these twin boy and girl babies, her death wasn't even lingered on for long and I never really got her connection to Sergei. Wouldn't she have had a will and discussed Sergei's involvement, eventualities for the children beforehand? And through all this sudden upheaval, Alex is immediately like, I can't live without these babies, I love them so much, and so was Sergei? Everything following this I felt the plot was moving way too fast, and this instant family! direction just felt so forced. After the previous book where tumblr/real person fanfiction was mentioned, I'm certain this author probably wrote fanfiction of hockey players before, and this evolved from some fanfic plot.
And I haven't even mentioned the disgusting cheating husband sociopath plot with Alex having been sleeping with this man, whose wife Allie he ends up befriending, teaching their kids figure skating, and him NOT TELLING HER THE TRUTH once he knows the husband was a piece of shit! Then later Alex becomes proper friends with her, she says she ALREADY KNOWS, etc.? This was gross, and felt like this plotline and the babies plotline were smushed together with not attention and resolve given to either of them.
On the plus side, I did like all the side characters introduced here, and seeing the previous books' pairings popping up again. My favorite interaction was of Paul and Alex, them talking and bonding.
Sergei was sweet from his previous depictions, and here he's still this adorable large Russian who speaks English, Quebecois French and Russian with varying degrees of fluency. I theoretically liked that he and Alex had this long standing bond of decades-long friendship at pivotal moments of their lives when Sergei first left Russia and worked abroad and billeted with Alex's family, and continued as best friends even after Alex left home and became a pro figure skater. I liked that aspect, but since we never saw this bond between them, no flashback scenes or further elaborations, it felt like starting a book without reading the previous beginning installment and we missed that bonding element between this friends-turned-lovers dynamic. We're dropped into their lives and personalities without fully knowing them and expecting to go along immediately, Alex with his weird two Sphinx cats and Sergei living alone in this huge house for all this time before Alex moved to Seattle.
And that their romance started so so soon after Alex came out of a rough breakup situation- his being a literal kept man with his sugar daddy/asshole boyfriend hiding a whole wife and being a disgusting emotionally abusive man hurling terrible things at Alex. And right after his moving in with Sergei, their relationship evolved from friends into friends with benefits and so soon after that, full boyfriends. Also, we get brief mentions and asides of their past that didn't feel fully incorporated into the character, like Sergei having left Russia because his young boyfriend was killed, and Alex never knew this after years, and mentions of Alex's past pro figure skating career and medals/accolades.
So there's the not quite connecting of the romance aspect between them, then right after the repeated scenes from previous book through Alex and Sergei's POV (Christmas), the whole babies plotline dropped in that veered the course. Of course when the start of the story mentions that Sergei had sperm donored biological twin children for his good family friend, a famous Russian crossover Hollywood actress, it's a brief mention that will be relevant later. I hated this plot direction, where the babies that Sergei just felt he was okay with being an uncle to before, he suddenly must, had to take in because his friend died suddenly. The way this was written about, made it seem like she was merely a tool for Sergei and Alex to now be parents to these twin boy and girl babies, her death wasn't even lingered on for long and I never really got her connection to Sergei. Wouldn't she have had a will and discussed Sergei's involvement, eventualities for the children beforehand? And through all this sudden upheaval, Alex is immediately like, I can't live without these babies, I love them so much, and so was Sergei? Everything following this I felt the plot was moving way too fast, and this instant family! direction just felt so forced. After the previous book where tumblr/real person fanfiction was mentioned, I'm certain this author probably wrote fanfiction of hockey players before, and this evolved from some fanfic plot.
And I haven't even mentioned the disgusting cheating husband sociopath plot with Alex having been sleeping with this man, whose wife Allie he ends up befriending, teaching their kids figure skating, and him NOT TELLING HER THE TRUTH once he knows the husband was a piece of shit! Then later Alex becomes proper friends with her, she says she ALREADY KNOWS, etc.? This was gross, and felt like this plotline and the babies plotline were smushed together with not attention and resolve given to either of them.
On the plus side, I did like all the side characters introduced here, and seeing the previous books' pairings popping up again. My favorite interaction was of Paul and Alex, them talking and bonding.
steiner's review against another edition
1.0
I got bored and couldn't finish the story. Started ok but went off the rails. Maybe I was skimming but do professional ice hockey players share the rink with children practising
ladydewinter's review against another edition
3.0
Sadly, I'm a little disappointed with this series. I quite liked the first book, but the second was already not as good as it could have been, and this? Was frustrating because it had so much potential that was pretty much wasted.
I loved Alex and Sergei - Alex, a French-Canadian figure skater and Sergei, the big Russian goalie. The two have been best friends for years, but after a bad break up Alex moves in with Sergei who tells him that he wants them to be more than friends. It takes them a while to renegotiate their new relationship, and it gets more complicated when they suddenly have to take care of Sergei's kids.
Alex and Sergei were 1000% lovable. I am all over queer Russian hockey players, and I love friends-to-lovers stories. I also adore stories about queer dads, so by all rights I should have loved it. But this sadly suffered from mediocre writing and awkward pacing.
The biggest problem for me was how fast problems were solved most of the time. Conflict is what makes stories interesting, and while it doesn't need to be dragged out endlessly, it can go a little longer than two pages. Just when I was settling into feeling all angsty about "ooh I wonder how living together will be when they want to be more than friends but Alex isn't ready" that was already over and we move over to the next part. And that happened again and again.
The twins also read more like props than actual kids - they were so quiet on the page it was as if they were dolls.
And while I am not an expert, I felt like Sergei's sexuality wasn't very convincing. I mean, props for trying to include a demisexual character, but it just felt not very... realistic? Serge's backstory also felt too much like a byline for it to have the impact it deserved.
Considering my complaints, the three stars may surprise you. I do think this book could be great with some tighter writing and proper pacing, and I did love the characters - the whole cast - a lot, so if you liked the characters in the earlier novels you may enjoy this one. I will keep reading this series because hockey, but I hope the next book's quality will be closer to the first one's.
I loved Alex and Sergei - Alex, a French-Canadian figure skater and Sergei, the big Russian goalie. The two have been best friends for years, but after a bad break up Alex moves in with Sergei who tells him that he wants them to be more than friends. It takes them a while to renegotiate their new relationship, and it gets more complicated when they suddenly have to take care of Sergei's kids.
Alex and Sergei were 1000% lovable. I am all over queer Russian hockey players, and I love friends-to-lovers stories. I also adore stories about queer dads, so by all rights I should have loved it. But this sadly suffered from mediocre writing and awkward pacing.
The biggest problem for me was how fast problems were solved most of the time. Conflict is what makes stories interesting, and while it doesn't need to be dragged out endlessly, it can go a little longer than two pages. Just when I was settling into feeling all angsty about "ooh I wonder how living together will be when they want to be more than friends but Alex isn't ready" that was already over and we move over to the next part. And that happened again and again.
The twins also read more like props than actual kids - they were so quiet on the page it was as if they were dolls.
And while I am not an expert, I felt like Sergei's sexuality wasn't very convincing. I mean, props for trying to include a demisexual character, but it just felt not very... realistic? Serge's backstory also felt too much like a byline for it to have the impact it deserved.
Considering my complaints, the three stars may surprise you. I do think this book could be great with some tighter writing and proper pacing, and I did love the characters - the whole cast - a lot, so if you liked the characters in the earlier novels you may enjoy this one. I will keep reading this series because hockey, but I hope the next book's quality will be closer to the first one's.