Scan barcode
koistyfishy's review against another edition
emotional
funny
hopeful
lighthearted
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
4.5
4.5 Salted Caramel Hot Chocolate Stars ⭐
Spicy Level: 🌶️🌶️🌶️/5
Based on looking at the rest of the reviews for this book, I might be in the minority of this, but I enjoyed this book. It made me giggle and smile! I also think I enjoyed it so much because there were a few similarities between my relationship with my husband and how Chase and Bailey act around each other.
This is a Dual POV following Bailey James and Chase Carter. On the night of her birthday dinner, Bailey's cheating boyfriend breaks up with her to focus on Hockey and not the distraction of a relationship. As a pick-me-up, Bailey's friends take her out to a new club where she gets roaringly drunk and hits it off with Chase Carter after a slew of terrible air traffic control innuendos. But she knows all about Chase Carter as he is a star hockey player on her school's rival team and so should be her enemy. She decides to leave with Carter, ends up puking on his shoes and all gentleman-y he takes her to his house... gives her a t-shirt and some place to sleep it off, and that's it! From then on the two form a friendship that blossoms into more.
So there are two things that my relationship shares with Carter and James. One - on one of the nights early in our relationship, I got pretty plastered and ended up showing up on his shoes. And two... never mind the fact that we have been married for almost eight years and I share his surname, he still calls me Ms Maiden Name as a nickname.
Bailey is very unsure of herself. She is timid and afraid to stand up for herself at the start. As a result, she tends to hide or run away from confrontation or any situation that could put her into something with conflict. But as she becomes closer to Chase and their friendship deepens, she starts to come out of her shell and pushes back for herself and stands up for what she believes. This is seriously needed because her initial "friends" and own brother treat her absolutely AWFULLY because of her friendship with Chase and completely isolate and alienate her - making it a very toxic environment to live in.
I love Chase. He is like an undercover cinnamon roll because he comes off as this cocky, arrogant man on the ice, but off the ice, he is a total and adorable sweetheart who is goofy, can make you laugh and is super protective. HJe is also extremely honourable and generous. He almost seems too perfect in everything that he does but my disillusioned mind didn't mind this too much as I was just enjoying the story and all the cute ways he was interacting with Bailey.
The one thing about this that kept the story from being perfect and it actually a detriment, is that it was too long. You could easily cut out 100 pages and it would still flow perfectly. At times was wondering when is this going to end? This was also split with a weird situation that sometimes it went into too much detail on some situations and not enough details on things I actually WANTED to see. (view spoiler)
However, I liked their dynamic and I like the way that their friendship developed, and I like that the two of them were able to grow together. I also really appreciated that she was able to find a "family" that valued her and appreciated her in Chase's circle. While there is a third-act breakup, it's not as a result of them being stupid. So I didn't hate it too much because I understood the reasoning behind it.
Tropes in this include:
▶Enemies Rivals to Friends to Lovers
▶ Hockey Romance
▶ Ex's Rival
▶ Collage/University Romance
▶ He Falls First
▶ Cinnamon Roll
▶ Forbidden Romance
▶ Slow Burn
▶ Dual Pov
▶ Third Act Breakup
▶ Rich Boy Romance
Microtropes:
▶ "Mine"
▶ Forehead Kisses
▶ Nicknames
▶ Forearm's
▶ Takes care of her
Overall, if you want a sweet little sexy hockey romance, I would recommend picking this up because I really enjoyed Chase and Bailey's story.
Spicy Level: 🌶️🌶️🌶️/5
Based on looking at the rest of the reviews for this book, I might be in the minority of this, but I enjoyed this book. It made me giggle and smile! I also think I enjoyed it so much because there were a few similarities between my relationship with my husband and how Chase and Bailey act around each other.
This is a Dual POV following Bailey James and Chase Carter. On the night of her birthday dinner, Bailey's cheating boyfriend breaks up with her to focus on Hockey and not the distraction of a relationship. As a pick-me-up, Bailey's friends take her out to a new club where she gets roaringly drunk and hits it off with Chase Carter after a slew of terrible air traffic control innuendos. But she knows all about Chase Carter as he is a star hockey player on her school's rival team and so should be her enemy. She decides to leave with Carter, ends up puking on his shoes and all gentleman-y he takes her to his house... gives her a t-shirt and some place to sleep it off, and that's it! From then on the two form a friendship that blossoms into more.
So there are two things that my relationship shares with Carter and James. One - on one of the nights early in our relationship, I got pretty plastered and ended up showing up on his shoes. And two... never mind the fact that we have been married for almost eight years and I share his surname, he still calls me Ms Maiden Name as a nickname.
Bailey is very unsure of herself. She is timid and afraid to stand up for herself at the start. As a result, she tends to hide or run away from confrontation or any situation that could put her into something with conflict. But as she becomes closer to Chase and their friendship deepens, she starts to come out of her shell and pushes back for herself and stands up for what she believes. This is seriously needed because her initial "friends" and own brother treat her absolutely AWFULLY because of her friendship with Chase and completely isolate and alienate her - making it a very toxic environment to live in.
I love Chase. He is like an undercover cinnamon roll because he comes off as this cocky, arrogant man on the ice, but off the ice, he is a total and adorable sweetheart who is goofy, can make you laugh and is super protective. HJe is also extremely honourable and generous. He almost seems too perfect in everything that he does but my disillusioned mind didn't mind this too much as I was just enjoying the story and all the cute ways he was interacting with Bailey.
The one thing about this that kept the story from being perfect and it actually a detriment, is that it was too long. You could easily cut out 100 pages and it would still flow perfectly. At times was wondering when is this going to end? This was also split with a weird situation that sometimes it went into too much detail on some situations and not enough details on things I actually WANTED to see. (view spoiler)
However, I liked their dynamic and I like the way that their friendship developed, and I like that the two of them were able to grow together. I also really appreciated that she was able to find a "family" that valued her and appreciated her in Chase's circle. While there is a third-act breakup, it's not as a result of them being stupid. So I didn't hate it too much because I understood the reasoning behind it.
Tropes in this include:
▶
▶ Hockey Romance
▶ Ex's Rival
▶ Collage/University Romance
▶ He Falls First
▶ Cinnamon Roll
▶ Forbidden Romance
▶ Slow Burn
▶ Dual Pov
▶ Third Act Breakup
▶ Rich Boy Romance
Microtropes:
▶ "Mine"
▶ Forehead Kisses
▶ Nicknames
▶ Forearm's
▶ Takes care of her
Overall, if you want a sweet little sexy hockey romance, I would recommend picking this up because I really enjoyed Chase and Bailey's story.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexual content, Toxic friendship, and Toxic relationship
Moderate: Death of parent and Stalking
Minor: Car accident, Pregnancy, Violence, and Drug use
abidavisf's review
funny
hopeful
slow-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? No
3.75
An enjoyable and funny romance with characters you like straightaway. Chase is an angel, and I want to wrap Bailey in cotton wool and treat her like the queen she is.
The book is probably a little long for what it is. The plus of that is that you get a good amount of actual hockey time. This isn’t just a romance where one of the love interests happens to play hockey; you actually get the ins and outs of the games and what happens in each period which is what I live for.
There were elements of the story that I think we could have explored further, including Chase’s father and the way he processeshis death . Because of the length of the book and the time between finding out about his dad and then determining the day of the party, it took me longer than it should have to realise why the party happened in the first place. Had the book been shorter or we been reminded more of his dad, the significance of that night would have made sense much sooner.
There were also several sub-plots that were fairly brief and therefore now feel unnecessary as they didn’t add a great deal to the plot or at least set us up for a sequel, e.g.Derek’s relationship with Jill. It just ended and that was that. No repercussions? Did she break up with Eddie? Who knows?!
Another thing that, now that I’ve finished, feels like it was unnecessary if it wasn’t going to be explored more isSophie’s pregnancy . We never heard about it again after that one scene so it feels like it didn’t need to happen. Either that or we should have gotten at least one other scene explaining what the outcome was. (In general, I’d actually very much like to hear the confirmed outcome for all of that group: Luke, Kristen, Amelia, Jill and Paul. I hope Eddie got out.)
I’d also like to know thatNikki is okay. Luke blew up her life and potentially her relationship. We never got to hear about any of her involvement (if any) so, from the information we were given, it is clear that she was as much a victim as Luke.
The book is probably a little long for what it is. The plus of that is that you get a good amount of actual hockey time. This isn’t just a romance where one of the love interests happens to play hockey; you actually get the ins and outs of the games and what happens in each period which is what I live for.
There were elements of the story that I think we could have explored further, including Chase’s father and the way he processes
There were also several sub-plots that were fairly brief and therefore now feel unnecessary as they didn’t add a great deal to the plot or at least set us up for a sequel, e.g.
Another thing that, now that I’ve finished, feels like it was unnecessary if it wasn’t going to be explored more is
I’d also like to know that
Content Warnings
Moderate: Violence, Gaslighting, Alcohol, Infidelity, Bullying, Sexual harassment, Toxic friendship, Misogyny, and Toxic relationship
Minor: Car accident, Classism, Death of parent, Grief, Medical content, Drug use, Injury/Injury detail, Pregnancy, Sexual assault, and Vomit
dreezy's review against another edition
emotional
funny
lighthearted
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
3.75
Content Warnings
Graphic: Misogyny, Sexual content, Sexual harassment, Stalking, Cursing, Medical content, Violence, Pregnancy, Alcohol, Bullying, and Sexism
Moderate: Toxic friendship, Classism, Toxic relationship, Gaslighting, Emotional abuse, and Blood
Minor: Drug use, Infidelity, Car accident, and Death of parent
sarahsbooklife's review against another edition
emotional
funny
relaxing
fast-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
4.75
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexual content and Alcohol
Moderate: Violence, Death of parent, Toxic friendship, and Toxic relationship
Minor: Stalking, Vomit, Injury/Injury detail, and Medical content
virgoabb's review
lighthearted
fast-paced
4.0
a palette cleanser
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexual content
Moderate: Violence
Minor: Sexual assault and Drug use
underscoresyd's review
emotional
funny
lighthearted
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.5
too much filler, could have been about 200 pages shorter & it gave me the ick whenever chase would touch bailey and instantly think of sex. like we get it. she’s hot. the spice wasn’t really well written either which is a disappointment since the book is so long & there’s so much of it.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Toxic friendship, Stalking, Sexual harassment, Gaslighting, Toxic relationship, Violence, and Sexual content
Moderate: Emotional abuse and Death of parent
Minor: Pregnancy, Car accident, Drug use, Rape, and Abortion
wander_read_love's review against another edition
medium-paced
- Strong character development? Yes
3.75
Content Warnings
Graphic: Gaslighting, Emotional abuse, Sexual content, Cursing, Death of parent, Misogyny, Toxic friendship, and Toxic relationship
Moderate: Violence and Stalking
Minor: Drug use
chloewilson_13's review
challenging
emotional
hopeful
lighthearted
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death of parent, Sexual assault, Sexual content, and Violence
Moderate: Injury/Injury detail and Stalking
Minor: Domestic abuse
zias's review against another edition
lighthearted
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Diverse cast of characters? No
3.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexual content and Toxic relationship
Moderate: Violence and Stalking
ladylaurenexplorer's review against another edition
lighthearted
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.75
I love me some thick books, especially when it comes to the Romance side.
Tell me the build up to this tension to this romance was very much needed in the span of the book. I loved how they started out, their unique friendship that turned into something more.
I found it very crazy that even your own blood can just not care about your own feelings when it comes to their teammates.
I also like how it showed gaining friendship and the end of a toxic friendship.
This was very good to me. I definitely would reread it. I do wish there was more graphic spice, but the storyline and their banter together made up for how not graphic everything was.
I’m also glad that all of the bonus material was included because it made everything a little bit better in the end.
Tell me the build up to this tension to this romance was very much needed in the span of the book. I loved how they started out, their unique friendship that turned into something more.
I found it very crazy that even your own blood can just not care about your own feelings when it comes to their teammates.
I also like how it showed gaining friendship and the end of a toxic friendship.
This was very good to me. I definitely would reread it. I do wish there was more graphic spice, but the storyline and their banter together made up for how not graphic everything was.
I’m also glad that all of the bonus material was included because it made everything a little bit better in the end.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Violence and Sexual content