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3.69 AVERAGE
3.69 AVERAGE
2.5 Stars. I don’t think Cait’s books are for me. This is the second book from her that has just been meh for me and considering she’s only published two books, that’s a 100%. I was excited for this book and loved the setup. A hockey player and a rising country star hookup at a wedding and months later meet up at a party and have a disastrous round two, but instead of being able to go their separate ways, someone snaps a photo and the pair are forced to fake date to keep the press at bay. I was expecting a fun book with a twist on the fake dating trope. What I got was endless miscommunication and whining that was sort of resolved in the last 10 pages but didn’t have any sort of satisfying ending.
This book had a big problem with telling rather than showing. They way the characters described the two main characters was nothing like they acted. Additionally both Sea (pronounced like Shay, which is a stupid abbreviation for Seamus) and Brody were so in their heads the whole time that nothing happened. I was also surprised to find that this book was so focused on Sea’s music career rather than Brody’s hockey, especially given the fact that this was advertised as a hockey romance. Like with the first book, I think about 1/3 of this book could have been trimmed out without losing anything emotionally or plot-wise. This read more like fic than a novel, which would be fine if I was reading a fic, but I picked up a hockey romance and that’s what I expected so I’m disappointed.
Thank you to NetGalley and Carina Press for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.
This book had a big problem with telling rather than showing. They way the characters described the two main characters was nothing like they acted. Additionally both Sea (pronounced like Shay, which is a stupid abbreviation for Seamus) and Brody were so in their heads the whole time that nothing happened. I was also surprised to find that this book was so focused on Sea’s music career rather than Brody’s hockey, especially given the fact that this was advertised as a hockey romance. Like with the first book, I think about 1/3 of this book could have been trimmed out without losing anything emotionally or plot-wise. This read more like fic than a novel, which would be fine if I was reading a fic, but I picked up a hockey romance and that’s what I expected so I’m disappointed.
Thank you to NetGalley and Carina Press for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.
ARC provided by the publisher via NetGalley.
Though Nary's writing is strong in itself, I felt like the balance of this book was a bit off.
The beginning and ending didn't mesh with the middle, making the relationship feel like it took a backseat to the individual character development.
While I greatly appreciate both Sea and Brody as characters, I didn't get enough of them actually together.
The prose was effortless and thought provoking, I have an abundance of highlights for this one but I don't find myself revisiting this book.
Merged review:
ARC provided by the publisher via NetGalley.
Though Nary's writing is strong in itself, I felt like the balance of this book was a bit off.
The beginning and ending didn't mesh with the middle, making the relationship feel like it took a backseat to the individual character development.
While I greatly appreciate both Sea and Brody as characters, I didn't get enough of them actually together.
The prose was effortless and thought provoking, I have an abundance of highlights for this one but I don't find myself revisiting this book.
Though Nary's writing is strong in itself, I felt like the balance of this book was a bit off.
The beginning and ending didn't mesh with the middle, making the relationship feel like it took a backseat to the individual character development.
While I greatly appreciate both Sea and Brody as characters, I didn't get enough of them actually together.
The prose was effortless and thought provoking, I have an abundance of highlights for this one but I don't find myself revisiting this book.
Merged review:
ARC provided by the publisher via NetGalley.
Though Nary's writing is strong in itself, I felt like the balance of this book was a bit off.
The beginning and ending didn't mesh with the middle, making the relationship feel like it took a backseat to the individual character development.
While I greatly appreciate both Sea and Brody as characters, I didn't get enough of them actually together.
The prose was effortless and thought provoking, I have an abundance of highlights for this one but I don't find myself revisiting this book.
I love fake dating so much anyway but this story was just so interesting. The characters have a bit of a falling out before the fake dating starts that made it super compelling. I also felt like the characters went through some satisfying growth that made the conclusion of the book feel really nice. I also personally loved the feeling of Nashville in this book. The city almost became a character in and of itself and as someone who loves that city I really appreciated that. I also loved the little cameo from the characters of book one in this series it was really fun and nice to see them again.
emotional
funny
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Thanks to NetGalley and Carina Press for providing a free digital ARC in exchange for an honest review.
===
I really enjoyed the first book in this series and was really looking forward to this one, but unfortunately, I can't say that I enjoyed it.
The writing, technically speaking, was solid, but I just could not get into the characters or relationship here. The entire book is incredibly frustrating, and partially that's because I do think the author does a good job writing both Brody and Sea's various issues and anxieties. They both have difficulty communicating with one another, and Sea in particular, is very self-conscious about his lack of experience, and gives off a lot of mixed messages. Brody is understandable confused, but I was confused, because I felt like the entire narrative kept trying to paint Brody as this amazing, understand, perfect guy, and I actually found his actions to be often pretty inconsiderate, and how I saw him just didn't match with what I kept being told. To be perfectly honest, by the end of the book, I legitimately did not think they should be together--I felt the author did a better job showing why they weren't a good fit than making me believe in them. They spend almost the entire book in a constant state of various miscommunication, and while it might actually be realistic/believable, it just didn't make for an enjoyable reading experience.
It's also relatively low steam--they essentially have sex at the beginning, then there's an entire book of frustrating miscommunication, and then they have sex at the end. It made sense for the story, but since I didn't particularly enjoy the story being told... Personally, I'm not a big fan of music books, either, and despite this being slanted as a sport book, the music focus was far more present IMO, with very little hockey. I don't want detailed hockey play info, but I had gone into this expecting more of a sports romance and I got more of a music romance.
So yeah, this one really didn't work for me, which is a bummer, because I really enjoyed book one! I'll certainly still be keeping my eye out for other books by this author, as I'm hopeful this is just an instance of a particular story really not working for me and not an overall mismatch of vibe.
===
I really enjoyed the first book in this series and was really looking forward to this one, but unfortunately, I can't say that I enjoyed it.
The writing, technically speaking, was solid, but I just could not get into the characters or relationship here. The entire book is incredibly frustrating, and partially that's because I do think the author does a good job writing both Brody and Sea's various issues and anxieties. They both have difficulty communicating with one another, and Sea in particular, is very self-conscious about his lack of experience, and gives off a lot of mixed messages. Brody is understandable confused, but I was confused, because I felt like the entire narrative kept trying to paint Brody as this amazing, understand, perfect guy, and I actually found his actions to be often pretty inconsiderate, and how I saw him just didn't match with what I kept being told. To be perfectly honest, by the end of the book, I legitimately did not think they should be together--I felt the author did a better job showing why they weren't a good fit than making me believe in them. They spend almost the entire book in a constant state of various miscommunication, and while it might actually be realistic/believable, it just didn't make for an enjoyable reading experience.
It's also relatively low steam--they essentially have sex at the beginning, then there's an entire book of frustrating miscommunication, and then they have sex at the end. It made sense for the story, but since I didn't particularly enjoy the story being told... Personally, I'm not a big fan of music books, either, and despite this being slanted as a sport book, the music focus was far more present IMO, with very little hockey. I don't want detailed hockey play info, but I had gone into this expecting more of a sports romance and I got more of a music romance.
So yeah, this one really didn't work for me, which is a bummer, because I really enjoyed book one! I'll certainly still be keeping my eye out for other books by this author, as I'm hopeful this is just an instance of a particular story really not working for me and not an overall mismatch of vibe.
emotional
Cait Nary just keeps writing banger hockey books! This book didn’t quite hit like the last book but that’s only because the plot dragged a bit at the end. I do agree with other reviews that Brody feels like a less formed main character than Seamus but I’m honestly ok with that. Seamus was such a compelling character with a lot of baggage that I think he needed a sweet simple love interest. Cait Nary is definitely joining Rachel Reid and Ari Baran some of my fave hockey romance writers.
emotional
funny
hopeful
lighthearted
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
emotional
lighthearted
medium-paced
While this follow up did not quite have the same emotional gut-punch as Season's Change, I still really enjoyed this overall. Brody and Seamus are such sweet characters and their hook up turned PR relationship scenario is a fun twist on the fake dating trope. In this we get to see these two high profile professionals deal with the fallout of being outed in industries that are not known for queer allyship (Big Four Sports and Country Music).
Despite the high stakes of their situation, I do think there was a surprising lack of drama though. Maybe it's just me but I feel like there were some really underutilized and obvious conflict opportunities (like Brody's ex, hello?) that could have amped up the tension.
As always though, Nary has a wonderful cast of side character's that are so incredibly easy to love. I also adored the Benji/Olly cameos.
Despite the high stakes of their situation, I do think there was a surprising lack of drama though. Maybe it's just me but I feel like there were some really underutilized and obvious conflict opportunities (like Brody's ex, hello?) that could have amped up the tension.
As always though, Nary has a wonderful cast of side character's that are so incredibly easy to love. I also adored the Benji/Olly cameos.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Homophobia, Sexual content, Outing
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes