Reviews

All Hail the Underdogs by E.L. Massey

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fanboyriot's review against another edition

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emotional funny 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

5.0

♡ Found Family

♡ Wholesome Friendships

♡ Queer Hockey Romance

I loved this book since chapter one, the characters and plot were so good! It was so easy to fall in love with the characters and be cheering for them the whole time.

The character development was everything. I can’t get over the friendships and relationships in this book, it was so good. It was so easy to love all the characters—they were all literally so amazing!

The sense of humor in this book was so great as always and while this book was super wholesome and cute it also touched on some topics like: white privilege, racism and discrimination. There are mentions to child neglect and abuse that leads the one main character to get emancipated.

This gives the grumpy x sunshine vibe all the while both characters are a bit broken. The sunshine needing just as much comfort as the grumpy one. Rome dealing with a bad home life growing up with years of abuse from a parent. They both do a good job at comforting the other even if it starts out as a slight enemies to lovers moment. And Damien dealing with abandonment issues that only get worse with misunderstandings with his parents until he finally says something.

This lived up to the hype I had for it! I could talk about this for hours, I adored this so much. Rome and Damien had such a trusting relationship and it had a nice slow burn vibe at the beginning. And can I just say all the hand holding—and the not being allowed to talk about the hand holding was absolutely amazing. The level of vulnerability they let each other see was so good! Being able to see them trust each other, Rome especially.

And don’t get me started on the whole Finley thing, especially in the epilogue. It was so wholesome it nearly took me out.

Safe to say I adored this book.

Spice Level: 🌶️ (1/5)

Angst Level: 💧💧💧 (3/5)

POV: Duel, Third Person

Release Date: 26, August 2023

Rep: Bisexual (Main Character), Gay (Main Character), Transfem (Side Character), LGBTQIA+ (Main and Side Characters), BIPOC (Main and Side Characters)

Content Warnings

prehistoricpotatoes's review

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emotional 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

3.5

Homey and warm like Massey’s other books. Liked the characters and how their family relationships were included, though I do think lots of the themes like race, privilege, money, family and heritage, could’ve been more deeply explored?

beesneysbooks's review

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emotional funny hopeful inspiring reflective fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.5

gay hockey ! gay hockey ! gay hockey !
i love this series with my whole heart and soul. i feel like so many books have conflict that directly relate to the couple miscommunicating/having relationship issues and it’s always so refreshing to see books with other conflict. i love how this book brought back some of my favorite characters at the end, told a new story that fits into the others, and celebrated people from all backgrounds.

delainey_hutch's review

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adventurous challenging emotional funny hopeful inspiring lighthearted fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

fernanda28's review against another edition

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5.0

E. L. Massey is fastly becoming one of my favourite romance writers. I read Like Real People Do last year and was absolutely obsessed with it, and to my surprise, the sequel was just as good. All Hail the Underdogs is another hit, the romance is so well constructed, the characters complex and the balance between the romance part and the character building part is just perfect.
I cannot wait to see what else she comes up with in the fourth book, which I'm almost sure I will love just based on the snippet.