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levilore_'s review
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
The side characters were awesome as well! They were an awesome addition to the plot and the team,
The only issue I had with this book was that it was a bit slow at the beginning
Overall, I really liked the writing, characters, and plot! I just didn't have the obsessive desire to keep reading as with other books, I just liked the characters' personalities so I kept going. Not necessarily a negative, I think I'm just a dramatic bitch.
Graphic: Alcohol, Cursing, Homophobia, Outing, and Sexual content
Moderate: Blood, Death, Grief, Pregnancy, Religious bigotry, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, and Vomit
Minor: Abandonment, Addiction, Alcoholism, Biphobia, Body shaming, Fatphobia, Injury/Injury detail, Panic attacks/disorders, Racism, Sexism, and Toxic relationship
akirokis's review
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
Graphic: Homophobia, Blood, Outing, Injury/Injury detail, and Violence
Moderate: Death and Sexual content
kj468's review
- 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
5.0
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POV: dual 3rd person
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Representation: MLM, Gay MC, Bi MC, Bi awakening, MC POC (Dante)
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Tropes: hockey, sports gays, famous, outing, secret relationship, family included
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ratings: funny: 4 // ease: 5 // spice: 4 // plot: 5 // romance: 4 // overall: 5
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Likes:
- Gabe and Dante have great chemistry; they're so *good* together, both in happy moments and in moments of tension.
- The pacing is great & I really liked how the drama rose and fell a couple of times throughout the book.
- Gabe's journey of growth, particularly regarding his relationship with the public & his desire to maintain privacy, first with his sexuality and then more generally with his life. It was great to watch Gabe blossom and open up with the team, really becoming a leader among people he initially felt closed off from.
- Dante adopting a cat and thrusting said cat on Gabe, and then them co-parenting the cat was one of the recurring highlights of the book (I love cats, give more muscley hockey guys cats please).
- The team PR person (and management in general, tbh) is wonderful! It's so comforting to read a book where a PR person doesn't act like being queer is a PR scandal & is truly on the side of the players.
- The third-act drama is really well done and has a very satisfying resolution -- slow, mature, & not rushed through. It was great to see the MCs being happy together & solving their problems together *on page*, rather than just implying resolution or glossing over drama with a happy epilogue.
- This is petty, but the chapter style is soooo hard to navigate as an ebook. Instead of traditional chapters, it's only broken up into a few sections (like, 1st/2nd/3rd period). While I liked that structure for the book & acknowledge it was a cute way to break the novel into sections & theme it with hockey, it made it SO HARD to try to go back to a previous scene for reference or a reread, because the "chapters" are really long, and scenes get lost in them. I found myself having to bookmark scenes I thought would be important so I had some hope of finding them later. Also, it made it harder to keep track of whose POV I was reading. I think a better solution would have been to break the book into the cutesy sections & have traditional chapters separated with headings and POV switches within the sections.
TW explanations:
Outing:
Homophobia:
Religious Bigotry:
Blood: hockey-typical amounts of blood
Injury detail:
Moderate: Homophobia, Outing, Religious bigotry, Injury/Injury detail, Sexual content, and Blood
fraise's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Outing, Sexual content, Homophobia, and Religious bigotry
Moderate: Biphobia, Alcohol, and Racism
Minor: Abortion
ghost_rider's review
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.0
Graphic: Outing
Moderate: Religious bigotry and Homophobia