Reviews - Offside | The StoryGraph

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3.42k reviews for:

Offside

Avery Keelan

3.72 AVERAGE

emmaloureads3's review against another edition

4.25

emotional funny hopeful lighthearted medium-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: Yes

julianabooks's review against another edition

2.75

lighthearted fast-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: No

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

I was told this was one of the best books in the hockey/romance genre, but this was pretty boring. The plot was okay at first but then it got pretty repetitive. It didn’t go anywhere. And then when the actual plot started there was just like 100 pages left , and it didn’t even got really solved.
I’m disappointed, this had potential.
Also why 600 pages?

stephs_shelf_indulgence's review against another edition

3.75

emotional funny tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Complicated

Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

macole22's review against another edition

4.0

emotional lighthearted medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

slhvail's review against another edition

2.0

dark hopeful lighthearted slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Plot

Strong character development: No

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: No

thewordslinger's review against another edition

3.0

emotional slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: No

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: No

This book is 540 pages long. 540. For a COLLEGE HOCKEY ROMANCE.

If books were water, this would be like stepping into Elle Kennedy's filthy, lukewarm bathtub.

Okay, that was mean. This story wasn't that bad.

But it wasn't GOOD either. It was just... fine. Because it's so long, the plot languishes and drags. It's boring. Monotonous and repetitive. The plot in this book doesn't require 500 pages to properly play out, in fact the "plot" doesn't even show up until about 80% of the way through.

The rest of this is just... okay. It's not overly funny. It's not gripping. There's no real tension, no enemies/rivals to lovers, no longing or banter or anything that makes the relationship fun to follow.

The spice was tame and unoriginal. A lot of telling each other pseudo dirty things, and then not doing them when they get naked.

Kinda read like an IKEA manual.

Ja, insert Tap A into Slot B. Ja.

If I'd had access to an Allen wrench I might have accidentally built a bookshelf.

The drama was <i>fine</i> but ultimately unsatisfying in the end. I was hoping Luke would get a real humiliating beat down for the bullshit he pulls with Bailey, but the author kind of shied away from it every time.

There's other elements, too, that get glossed over when they could have been really interesting.

Chase drops $15,000 on Bailey's parents so they can keep their house. And do we even MEET the parents? No.
Not only that, Bailey's feeling terrible (for about 4 pages) because she thinks them having to sell is HER fault because she had some medical problems when she was younger. That all sounded horribly ominous, but turns out, she was just in a bad car wreck - and we have to wait until 97% of the story is done before we even learn that fact. So it ultimately goes nowhere.
There's generally no communication between Chase and Bailey about all the most important things in the story. It's like pulling teeth to get Bailey to tell Chase ANYTHING about the harassment she's enduring at the hands of Luke - and she doesn't tell him everything the man's doing at any point in the story.
She also doesn't tell her BROTHER what the man did. How Luke's got a group chat thread with everyone except her brother where he's spreading terrible lies about her. You'd think that would GO somewhere. But it doesn't.
And because her relationship with her brother is GROSSLY under-developed, their little makeup later in the story doesn't feel satisfying at all. This dude blatantly allowed Luke to treat his BABY SISTER like hot garbage for YEARS and Bailey just lets him waltz back into her life after he confronts Luke over something he said to Chase on the ice? Something that, let's face it, in the grand scheme of things, wasn't NEARLY the worst thing he'd ever said or done to the woman (Luke calls Bailey his sloppy seconds. Chase loses his shit and hits him and gets kicked from the game. Compared to the stalking, calling her a whore, spreading rumors that he's still sleeping with her after they're broken up....that's TAME). Nope. Sorry. You don't get to ignore your best friend's heinous treatment of your sister and then just get to kiss and make up with her without some groveling.

There are other things I could say about this book - but what my issue really boils down to is that this book is about 200 pages too long. If we'd cut out a lot of pointless garbage (like Luke's OW's pregnancy jump scare that goes nowhere and adds nothing to the story), I think the story's plot and the character arcs would be WAY better. This book just needs a haircut.