Reviews with content warning for Drug use - Tough Guy

never before could i have imagined giving this book the high rating that it really does deserve, but i just absolutely adored ryan & fabian’s povs…so much. the exploration of mental health, sex, and the burdening issues playing as intense of a sport as hockey is was very heavy, but it portrayed these two characters in a way that made me love them both; fabian in all his queerness and creativity in music, and ryan, who’s always been pushed to only use his fists on the ice in order to be deemed useful, but who’s so incredibly gentle and doesn’t care for any of the violence in hockey, who shows how much fun it could really be without that violence as we see him help some kids in this book who love just getting to play with each other.

i admit this high rating didn’t come into play until after a relatively sobering reveal that occurs regarding a certain NHL player, but i just appreciated so much how much depth there was that the author was exploring here about the sport. i loved that as distant as it felt to both ryan & fabian (who has some prejudices towards hockey due to a lot of the bad experiences he’s associated with it growing up), it was in a way where it didn’t show the camaraderie it brings among fans & teammates as we usually see in some hockey stories, but mainly the isolation it can bring to those pushed to the side or branded as some pariah.

this book was just really well-written, and again, i really loved ryan & fabian, and all of fabian’s friends, and ryan’s friend, wyatt—there were some really good people in this book, and we even got to see ilya!! maybe he & ryan could have the friendship that i desired for ilya in the last book, but we’ll see :’) this was a good reading experience, that’s all for now.

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antonique_reads's review against another edition

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3.0

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marysbookinit'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

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anil's review against another edition

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dark emotional slow-paced

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

3.0

By far my favourite part of this book: the love of my life Ilya Rozanov. I love that we get to know him from so many different perspectives and see how differently he is with different people while still being distinctly the same character. That is of course only a small part of this book but it is a part and I adore him.
Also great! Hockey romance about an enforcer! I've never read that before and I loved to see some of the complicated feelings that come with that role explored.

It did drag on a little to me and the relationship dynamic wasn't really my thing so not 4 stars but still fun!

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