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alexleo13's review against another edition
5.0
Wonderful story, and great addition to the series. This story is quite different from the others on many levels, starting from the writing element of including exchanges of online messages among the side characters and the MCs and part of interviews and news creating a great background to the blossoming of the love between Joey and Liam. Even though this story is a standalone, I strongly suggest to read “Boy Toys - Hot off the Ice at Christmas” because this is the story that introduces the family dynamics of the O’Reilly and Luciano and when Joey and Liam’s friendship shifted towards a more intimate relationship.
It is hard to review this book without spoiler. There is laughter, there are tears, there is kink in the bedroom, there are some May/December aspects. It is a choral work, with many interactions among the families, the MCs, the team mates. It was great to read again about the MCs of the previous books.
And A.E. Wasp writing style is as always flawless, engaging, with the right balance between action, pauses, dialogues and intimate reflections.
It is hard to review this book without spoiler. There is laughter, there are tears, there is kink in the bedroom, there are some May/December aspects. It is a choral work, with many interactions among the families, the MCs, the team mates. It was great to read again about the MCs of the previous books.
And A.E. Wasp writing style is as always flawless, engaging, with the right balance between action, pauses, dialogues and intimate reflections.
kiki124's review
4.0
Rounded up.
Sexy, uptight, older coach Liam and sexy, anxious, star player Joey fall in love, come out, and have lots of sex.
Not a great BDSM lite rep, and Joey's mysterious ailment is instantly resolved off-page.
Sexy, uptight, older coach Liam and sexy, anxious, star player Joey fall in love, come out, and have lots of sex.
Not a great BDSM lite rep, and Joey's mysterious ailment is instantly resolved off-page.
cadiva's review
5.0
Finally! I get why we had to wait for this one until both Paul and Robbie, and Alex and Sergei, had their stories told because a lot of the things happening here take place at the same time.
I have been waiting for Liam and Joey to get their Happy since the short and incredibly hot story came out last Christmas.
It didn't disappoint at all. There is so much passion and drama going on in this book, you almost get whiplash! I really loved the little chapter headers, snippets into what was going on in the wider O'Neil/Luciano clans and some of the group chat messages had me howling.
I will say though, that I think the extensive ice hockey glossary should be at the back of the book and perhaps the character list too.
Any good storyteller, and A.E. Wasp is one of those, can convey the message of what is happening on page without needing to highlight all the technical terms first.
I've no idea where this series is going next. Perhaps Patrick and Vicky the Thunder's back up goalie?
This, and Alex/Sergei romance, have been my favourites in what's been a really great series.
#ARC kindly received from the author in return for an honest and unbiased review.
I have been waiting for Liam and Joey to get their Happy since the short and incredibly hot story came out last Christmas.
It didn't disappoint at all. There is so much passion and drama going on in this book, you almost get whiplash! I really loved the little chapter headers, snippets into what was going on in the wider O'Neil/Luciano clans and some of the group chat messages had me howling.
I will say though, that I think the extensive ice hockey glossary should be at the back of the book and perhaps the character list too.
Any good storyteller, and A.E. Wasp is one of those, can convey the message of what is happening on page without needing to highlight all the technical terms first.
I've no idea where this series is going next. Perhaps Patrick and Vicky the Thunder's back up goalie?
This, and Alex/Sergei romance, have been my favourites in what's been a really great series.
#ARC kindly received from the author in return for an honest and unbiased review.
ctsquirrel's review
4.0
Not a huge deal is made of "the secret Joey's keeping," bouts of vertigo and light-headedness that turn out to be pretty serious and possibly career-ending (balance is kinda important in hockey, who knew?) until the very end (like right before the epilogue). In a paragraph he has surgery for a tumor on his auditory nerve and in the second he's cleared to play. Everything's fine again.
There's more angst over a compromising photo of Joey than for his health scare.
There's more angst over a compromising photo of Joey than for his health scare.
anintrovertrambles's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
funny
lighthearted
fast-paced
- 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
4.75
dith_kusu's review against another edition
3.0
2.5 stars. This started out pretty good and promising and turned out so incoherent by the end. Reminds me of the frat boy series by Anne Tennino in that sense where it all just descends into absurdity and desperately needed editing down.
I thought the short novella preceding this book of the MCs had promise. I enjoyed the pairing of Liam O'Reilly the coach and Joey Luciano the spiraling hockey phenom, both practically family and have known each other forever. Their extended family was given so much prominence here and they were funny, lovely, unhealthily close and it was cute. Though same as the novella, I was confused at the dynamic of how casually they treated Liam's ex cheating on him and having a baby with Joey's brother, and even the way Liam handled it seemed no biggie, and he blamed himself a lot which makes me angry. There were just too many of them, too much focus on them, and it got confusing.
The main crux of my issue is that at some point, while Liam and Joey's familial bond was well-established, but I didn't feel the crossover to romantic love from their brotherly dynamic, of Liam being the eldest of the "cousins" and feeling a sense of obligation and responsibility towards the rest, and Joey being the youngest and taking off like a rocket in public and being so outwardly charismatic needing someone to be able to be just himself around. The entire time Liam goes on about how he will take care of Joey and help him be better, prevent him from going down the partying and drug life that could potentially ruin his hockey stardom. Where is the romance outside of that, and Joey having always been hero worshipping Liam? Then their sexual dynamic of light D/s but not quite, having scenes where their romance is so tied also to Liam wanting Joey to learn a lesson, was cringy and did not work for me, just didn't feel naturally progressing in their relationship. Another element that got kind of awkward and did not work for me was that they were coach and player in their work life, and Liam is literally vouching for him professionally and they were mixing it all up in the bedroom as well, and that's not great.
Then there's the all over the place tone of the book, it severely needed editing and there were typos EVERYWHERE, seemed like quality slipped here. It was nice and funny to get everyone interacting and laughing here, having cousin and sibling hijinks and bonding, a rowdy group chat, so on. Also having the MCs from the series interact like Paul and Robbie and Alex befriending Joey and sharing TMI bedroom proclivities, domestic scenes with Alex, etc. But at some point, for example a scene where Joey's just telling knock knock jokes, it goes on forever and seems to go nowhere, and it got old after pages and pages and even more absurd. This descent into wackiness was exemplified with the conflict heading towards the end of the book, of Liam's brother Patrick who was on the team taking a joke picture of Joey where he was naked and his butt had property of Liam on it, and he accidentally spread it around and caused a workplace violation sort of problem for them. This was just... so dumb.
Not to mention the many things being juggled here that didn't end up being settled equally well- we had Joey's public antics, Liam's ex issues, their romance in the workplace how that would proceed with transparency to the organization, the state of their careers as they were romancing, their dilemma of should they publicly come out and what the reaction would be, Joey hiding health problems and dealing with anxiety. The public and work aspect especially was not resolved well, and never got the sense of how they would work as a couple long term. How they publicly came out, the proposal and later proper proposal... I thought was dumb.
On the bright side, I did quite like Liam and Joey as characters on their own. Liam the uptight redhead Harvard graduate, competent manager, and Joey the over the top personality, hot Italian stallion who everyone can't help but love, but he's also projecting an image of himself everyday that makes him weary and is getting him in trouble at times. The mentions of him hanging out with Snoop Dogg were funny.
I thought the short novella preceding this book of the MCs had promise. I enjoyed the pairing of Liam O'Reilly the coach and Joey Luciano the spiraling hockey phenom, both practically family and have known each other forever. Their extended family was given so much prominence here and they were funny, lovely, unhealthily close and it was cute. Though same as the novella, I was confused at the dynamic of how casually they treated Liam's ex cheating on him and having a baby with Joey's brother, and even the way Liam handled it seemed no biggie, and he blamed himself a lot which makes me angry. There were just too many of them, too much focus on them, and it got confusing.
The main crux of my issue is that at some point, while Liam and Joey's familial bond was well-established, but I didn't feel the crossover to romantic love from their brotherly dynamic, of Liam being the eldest of the "cousins" and feeling a sense of obligation and responsibility towards the rest, and Joey being the youngest and taking off like a rocket in public and being so outwardly charismatic needing someone to be able to be just himself around. The entire time Liam goes on about how he will take care of Joey and help him be better, prevent him from going down the partying and drug life that could potentially ruin his hockey stardom. Where is the romance outside of that, and Joey having always been hero worshipping Liam? Then their sexual dynamic of light D/s but not quite, having scenes where their romance is so tied also to Liam wanting Joey to learn a lesson, was cringy and did not work for me, just didn't feel naturally progressing in their relationship. Another element that got kind of awkward and did not work for me was that they were coach and player in their work life, and Liam is literally vouching for him professionally and they were mixing it all up in the bedroom as well, and that's not great.
Then there's the all over the place tone of the book, it severely needed editing and there were typos EVERYWHERE, seemed like quality slipped here. It was nice and funny to get everyone interacting and laughing here, having cousin and sibling hijinks and bonding, a rowdy group chat, so on. Also having the MCs from the series interact like Paul and Robbie and Alex befriending Joey and sharing TMI bedroom proclivities, domestic scenes with Alex, etc. But at some point, for example a scene where Joey's just telling knock knock jokes, it goes on forever and seems to go nowhere, and it got old after pages and pages and even more absurd. This descent into wackiness was exemplified with the conflict heading towards the end of the book, of Liam's brother Patrick who was on the team taking a joke picture of Joey where he was naked and his butt had property of Liam on it, and he accidentally spread it around and caused a workplace violation sort of problem for them. This was just... so dumb.
Not to mention the many things being juggled here that didn't end up being settled equally well- we had Joey's public antics, Liam's ex issues, their romance in the workplace how that would proceed with transparency to the organization, the state of their careers as they were romancing, their dilemma of should they publicly come out and what the reaction would be, Joey hiding health problems and dealing with anxiety. The public and work aspect especially was not resolved well, and never got the sense of how they would work as a couple long term. How they publicly came out, the proposal and later proper proposal... I thought was dumb.
On the bright side, I did quite like Liam and Joey as characters on their own. Liam the uptight redhead Harvard graduate, competent manager, and Joey the over the top personality, hot Italian stallion who everyone can't help but love, but he's also projecting an image of himself everyday that makes him weary and is getting him in trouble at times. The mentions of him hanging out with Snoop Dogg were funny.
dith_kusu's review
3.0
2.5 stars. This started out pretty good and promising and turned out so incoherent by the end. Reminds me of the frat boy series by Anne Tennino in that sense where it all just descends into absurdity and desperately needed editing down.
I thought the short novella preceding this book of the MCs had promise. I enjoyed the pairing of Liam O'Reilly the coach and Joey Luciano the spiraling hockey phenom, both practically family and have known each other forever. Their extended family was given so much prominence here and they were funny, lovely, unhealthily close and it was cute. Though same as the novella, I was confused at the dynamic of how casually they treated Liam's ex cheating on him and having a baby with Joey's brother, and even the way Liam handled it seemed no biggie, and he blamed himself a lot which makes me angry. There were just too many of them, too much focus on them, and it got confusing.
The main crux of my issue is that at some point, while Liam and Joey's familial bond was well-established, but I didn't feel the crossover to romantic love from their brotherly dynamic, of Liam being the eldest of the "cousins" and feeling a sense of obligation and responsibility towards the rest, and Joey being the youngest and taking off like a rocket in public and being so outwardly charismatic needing someone to be able to be just himself around. The entire time Liam goes on about how he will take care of Joey and help him be better, prevent him from going down the partying and drug life that could potentially ruin his hockey stardom. Where is the romance outside of that, and Joey having always been hero worshipping Liam? Then their sexual dynamic of light D/s but not quite, having scenes where their romance is so tied also to Liam wanting Joey to learn a lesson, was cringy and did not work for me, just didn't feel naturally progressing in their relationship. Another element that got kind of awkward and did not work for me was that they were coach and player in their work life, and Liam is literally vouching for him professionally and they were mixing it all up in the bedroom as well, and that's not great.
Then there's the all over the place tone of the book, it severely needed editing and there were typos EVERYWHERE, seemed like quality slipped here. It was nice and funny to get everyone interacting and laughing here, having cousin and sibling hijinks and bonding, a rowdy group chat, so on. Also having the MCs from the series interact like Paul and Robbie and Alex befriending Joey and sharing TMI bedroom proclivities, domestic scenes with Alex, etc. But at some point, for example a scene where Joey's just telling knock knock jokes, it goes on forever and seems to go nowhere, and it got old after pages and pages and even more absurd. This descent into wackiness was exemplified with the conflict heading towards the end of the book, of Liam's brother Patrick who was on the team taking a joke picture of Joey where he was naked and his butt had property of Liam on it, and he accidentally spread it around and caused a workplace violation sort of problem for them. This was just... so dumb.
Not to mention the many things being juggled here that didn't end up being settled equally well- we had Joey's public antics, Liam's ex issues, their romance in the workplace how that would proceed with transparency to the organization, the state of their careers as they were romancing, their dilemma of should they publicly come out and what the reaction would be, Joey hiding health problems and dealing with anxiety. The public and work aspect especially was not resolved well, and never got the sense of how they would work as a couple long term. How they publicly came out, the proposal and later proper proposal... I thought was dumb.
On the bright side, I did quite like Liam and Joey as characters on their own. Liam the uptight redhead Harvard graduate, competent manager, and Joey the over the top personality, hot Italian stallion who everyone can't help but love, but he's also projecting an image of himself everyday that makes him weary and is getting him in trouble at times. The mentions of him hanging out with Snoop Dogg were funny.
I thought the short novella preceding this book of the MCs had promise. I enjoyed the pairing of Liam O'Reilly the coach and Joey Luciano the spiraling hockey phenom, both practically family and have known each other forever. Their extended family was given so much prominence here and they were funny, lovely, unhealthily close and it was cute. Though same as the novella, I was confused at the dynamic of how casually they treated Liam's ex cheating on him and having a baby with Joey's brother, and even the way Liam handled it seemed no biggie, and he blamed himself a lot which makes me angry. There were just too many of them, too much focus on them, and it got confusing.
The main crux of my issue is that at some point, while Liam and Joey's familial bond was well-established, but I didn't feel the crossover to romantic love from their brotherly dynamic, of Liam being the eldest of the "cousins" and feeling a sense of obligation and responsibility towards the rest, and Joey being the youngest and taking off like a rocket in public and being so outwardly charismatic needing someone to be able to be just himself around. The entire time Liam goes on about how he will take care of Joey and help him be better, prevent him from going down the partying and drug life that could potentially ruin his hockey stardom. Where is the romance outside of that, and Joey having always been hero worshipping Liam? Then their sexual dynamic of light D/s but not quite, having scenes where their romance is so tied also to Liam wanting Joey to learn a lesson, was cringy and did not work for me, just didn't feel naturally progressing in their relationship. Another element that got kind of awkward and did not work for me was that they were coach and player in their work life, and Liam is literally vouching for him professionally and they were mixing it all up in the bedroom as well, and that's not great.
Then there's the all over the place tone of the book, it severely needed editing and there were typos EVERYWHERE, seemed like quality slipped here. It was nice and funny to get everyone interacting and laughing here, having cousin and sibling hijinks and bonding, a rowdy group chat, so on. Also having the MCs from the series interact like Paul and Robbie and Alex befriending Joey and sharing TMI bedroom proclivities, domestic scenes with Alex, etc. But at some point, for example a scene where Joey's just telling knock knock jokes, it goes on forever and seems to go nowhere, and it got old after pages and pages and even more absurd. This descent into wackiness was exemplified with the conflict heading towards the end of the book, of Liam's brother Patrick who was on the team taking a joke picture of Joey where he was naked and his butt had property of Liam on it, and he accidentally spread it around and caused a workplace violation sort of problem for them. This was just... so dumb.
Not to mention the many things being juggled here that didn't end up being settled equally well- we had Joey's public antics, Liam's ex issues, their romance in the workplace how that would proceed with transparency to the organization, the state of their careers as they were romancing, their dilemma of should they publicly come out and what the reaction would be, Joey hiding health problems and dealing with anxiety. The public and work aspect especially was not resolved well, and never got the sense of how they would work as a couple long term. How they publicly came out, the proposal and later proper proposal... I thought was dumb.
On the bright side, I did quite like Liam and Joey as characters on their own. Liam the uptight redhead Harvard graduate, competent manager, and Joey the over the top personality, hot Italian stallion who everyone can't help but love, but he's also projecting an image of himself everyday that makes him weary and is getting him in trouble at times. The mentions of him hanging out with Snoop Dogg were funny.
dithkusu's review against another edition
3.0
2.5 stars. This started out pretty good and promising and turned out so incoherent by the end. Reminds me of the frat boy series by Anne Tennino in that sense where it all just descends into absurdity and desperately needed editing down.
I thought the short novella preceding this book of the MCs had promise. I enjoyed the pairing of Liam O'Reilly the coach and Joey Luciano the spiraling hockey phenom, both practically family and have known each other forever. Their extended family was given so much prominence here and they were funny, lovely, unhealthily close and it was cute. Though same as the novella, I was confused at the dynamic of how casually they treated Liam's ex cheating on him and having a baby with Joey's brother, and even the way Liam handled it seemed no biggie, and he blamed himself a lot which makes me angry. There were just too many of them, too much focus on them, and it got confusing.
The main crux of my issue is that at some point, while Liam and Joey's familial bond was well-established, but I didn't feel the crossover to romantic love from their brotherly dynamic, of Liam being the eldest of the "cousins" and feeling a sense of obligation and responsibility towards the rest, and Joey being the youngest and taking off like a rocket in public and being so outwardly charismatic needing someone to be able to be just himself around. The entire time Liam goes on about how he will take care of Joey and help him be better, prevent him from going down the partying and drug life that could potentially ruin his hockey stardom. Where is the romance outside of that, and Joey having always been hero worshipping Liam? Then their sexual dynamic of light D/s but not quite, having scenes where their romance is so tied also to Liam wanting Joey to learn a lesson, was cringy and did not work for me, just didn't feel naturally progressing in their relationship. Another element that got kind of awkward and did not work for me was that they were coach and player in their work life, and Liam is literally vouching for him professionally and they were mixing it all up in the bedroom as well, and that's not great.
Then there's the all over the place tone of the book, it severely needed editing and there were typos EVERYWHERE, seemed like quality slipped here. It was nice and funny to get everyone interacting and laughing here, having cousin and sibling hijinks and bonding, a rowdy group chat, so on. Also having the MCs from the series interact like Paul and Robbie and Alex befriending Joey and sharing TMI bedroom proclivities, domestic scenes with Alex, etc. But at some point, for example a scene where Joey's just telling knock knock jokes, it goes on forever and seems to go nowhere, and it got old after pages and pages and even more absurd. This descent into wackiness was exemplified with the conflict heading towards the end of the book, of Liam's brother Patrick who was on the team taking a joke picture of Joey where he was naked and his butt had property of Liam on it, and he accidentally spread it around and caused a workplace violation sort of problem for them. This was just... so dumb.
Not to mention the many things being juggled here that didn't end up being settled equally well- we had Joey's public antics, Liam's ex issues, their romance in the workplace how that would proceed with transparency to the organization, the state of their careers as they were romancing, their dilemma of should they publicly come out and what the reaction would be, Joey hiding health problems and dealing with anxiety. The public and work aspect especially was not resolved well, and never got the sense of how they would work as a couple long term. How they publicly came out, the proposal and later proper proposal... I thought was dumb.
On the bright side, I did quite like Liam and Joey as characters on their own. Liam the uptight redhead Harvard graduate, competent manager, and Joey the over the top personality, hot Italian stallion who everyone can't help but love, but he's also projecting an image of himself everyday that makes him weary and is getting him in trouble at times. The mentions of him hanging out with Snoop Dogg were funny.
I thought the short novella preceding this book of the MCs had promise. I enjoyed the pairing of Liam O'Reilly the coach and Joey Luciano the spiraling hockey phenom, both practically family and have known each other forever. Their extended family was given so much prominence here and they were funny, lovely, unhealthily close and it was cute. Though same as the novella, I was confused at the dynamic of how casually they treated Liam's ex cheating on him and having a baby with Joey's brother, and even the way Liam handled it seemed no biggie, and he blamed himself a lot which makes me angry. There were just too many of them, too much focus on them, and it got confusing.
The main crux of my issue is that at some point, while Liam and Joey's familial bond was well-established, but I didn't feel the crossover to romantic love from their brotherly dynamic, of Liam being the eldest of the "cousins" and feeling a sense of obligation and responsibility towards the rest, and Joey being the youngest and taking off like a rocket in public and being so outwardly charismatic needing someone to be able to be just himself around. The entire time Liam goes on about how he will take care of Joey and help him be better, prevent him from going down the partying and drug life that could potentially ruin his hockey stardom. Where is the romance outside of that, and Joey having always been hero worshipping Liam? Then their sexual dynamic of light D/s but not quite, having scenes where their romance is so tied also to Liam wanting Joey to learn a lesson, was cringy and did not work for me, just didn't feel naturally progressing in their relationship. Another element that got kind of awkward and did not work for me was that they were coach and player in their work life, and Liam is literally vouching for him professionally and they were mixing it all up in the bedroom as well, and that's not great.
Then there's the all over the place tone of the book, it severely needed editing and there were typos EVERYWHERE, seemed like quality slipped here. It was nice and funny to get everyone interacting and laughing here, having cousin and sibling hijinks and bonding, a rowdy group chat, so on. Also having the MCs from the series interact like Paul and Robbie and Alex befriending Joey and sharing TMI bedroom proclivities, domestic scenes with Alex, etc. But at some point, for example a scene where Joey's just telling knock knock jokes, it goes on forever and seems to go nowhere, and it got old after pages and pages and even more absurd. This descent into wackiness was exemplified with the conflict heading towards the end of the book, of Liam's brother Patrick who was on the team taking a joke picture of Joey where he was naked and his butt had property of Liam on it, and he accidentally spread it around and caused a workplace violation sort of problem for them. This was just... so dumb.
Not to mention the many things being juggled here that didn't end up being settled equally well- we had Joey's public antics, Liam's ex issues, their romance in the workplace how that would proceed with transparency to the organization, the state of their careers as they were romancing, their dilemma of should they publicly come out and what the reaction would be, Joey hiding health problems and dealing with anxiety. The public and work aspect especially was not resolved well, and never got the sense of how they would work as a couple long term. How they publicly came out, the proposal and later proper proposal... I thought was dumb.
On the bright side, I did quite like Liam and Joey as characters on their own. Liam the uptight redhead Harvard graduate, competent manager, and Joey the over the top personality, hot Italian stallion who everyone can't help but love, but he's also projecting an image of himself everyday that makes him weary and is getting him in trouble at times. The mentions of him hanging out with Snoop Dogg were funny.
haletostilinski1's review against another edition
4.0
I had been waiting to read Joey and Liam's story ever since the short story that came out at Christmas, because what little we got of these two together was hot, there was chemistry, and I wanted to see where their story went.
For the most part, this didn't disappoint. Joey and Liam still had sizzling hot chemistry, and I loved their interactions and seeing them fall in love. They had a ways to go before their happy ending, but overall it was a fun journey getting there.
A few things bothered me though - like how Michelle's cheating was mostly waved away. She admitted how wrong she was and how she could have left, which was good, but when she and Liam finally had one on one talk, it felt like it turned into a "everything Liam did wrong" show, and not much on her faults, which was cheating - even if she loves Nico - instead of talking to Liam about anything. But sure, Liam was a shitty boyfriend so...it's mostly his fault? Nah.
I mean I'm glad his faults weren't waved away either, and that he apologized for how he treated her. But it felt like what Michelle did didn't matter as much, and all was a-okay. What she did was not okay. (Not that she deservers her family being horrible to her either.) I just wish just as much weight had been given to what Michelle did as Liam. It felt like Liam not only outright forgave her, but put the majority of the blame on himself. Being inattentive and not as caring as you should - not good, yeah, but not deserving of being cheated on. There's a thing called breaking up with someone.
Also, something happens later in the book - - and I hate how Patrick barely faced any consequences. He seemed to feel guilty for two seconds, apologized a few times (not a million, Patrick, you asshole) and then got on Liam's case for being embarrassed/not wanting his and Joey's relationship to go public, and for letting Joey seem to kind, maybe, break up with him? (even though he didn't).
And Liam once again goes "he's right, I'm wrong" when NO. Patrick not only violated their privacy, but he didn't when Liam told him to and sent it to others (when we all know that that shit gets out SO fucking easily) and almost/kinda did out Joey to not only the team, but the world. That is gross and disgusting and Patrick should not have gotten away with it.
I don't care if it was an accident, he shouldn't have taken the picture in the first place, or sent it. He should have known better. That is on him, even if the sharing of the photo isn't, it happened because of him. It pissed me off, and while he was reprimanded, he wasn't reprimanded NEARLY as much as he should have been. I really dislike Patrick after this. Fuck him.
Also, the ending was a tad abrupt and rushed. I know the book was getting long, but there was threads of the story I would have liked to have seen played out in more detail.
So yeah, a few things bothered me, but overall this was a good story and overall I'm happy that I got to read Joey and Liam's story and read about them falling in love and getting their HEA.
For the most part, this didn't disappoint. Joey and Liam still had sizzling hot chemistry, and I loved their interactions and seeing them fall in love. They had a ways to go before their happy ending, but overall it was a fun journey getting there.
A few things bothered me though - like how Michelle's cheating was mostly waved away. She admitted how wrong she was and how she could have left, which was good, but when she and Liam finally had one on one talk, it felt like it turned into a "everything Liam did wrong" show, and not much on her faults, which was cheating - even if she loves Nico - instead of talking to Liam about anything. But sure, Liam was a shitty boyfriend so...it's mostly his fault? Nah.
I mean I'm glad his faults weren't waved away either, and that he apologized for how he treated her. But it felt like what Michelle did didn't matter as much, and all was a-okay. What she did was not okay. (Not that she deservers her family being horrible to her either.) I just wish just as much weight had been given to what Michelle did as Liam. It felt like Liam not only outright forgave her, but put the majority of the blame on himself. Being inattentive and not as caring as you should - not good, yeah, but not deserving of being cheated on. There's a thing called breaking up with someone.
Also, something happens later in the book -
Spoiler
After Joey and Liam have sex - and spanking happens - Liam writes something on Joey's ass, which Patrick, Liam's youngest brother, takes a picture of and then sends to the wrong people, and it gets out to a few of the team, and almost the world, if hadn't been quickly containedAnd Liam once again goes "he's right, I'm wrong" when NO. Patrick not only violated their privacy, but he didn't
Spoiler
delete the photoI don't care if it was an accident, he shouldn't have taken the picture in the first place, or sent it. He should have known better. That is on him, even if the sharing of the photo isn't, it happened because of him. It pissed me off, and while he was reprimanded, he wasn't reprimanded NEARLY as much as he should have been. I really dislike Patrick after this. Fuck him.
Also, the ending was a tad abrupt and rushed. I know the book was getting long, but there was threads of the story I would have liked to have seen played out in more detail.
So yeah, a few things bothered me, but overall this was a good story and overall I'm happy that I got to read Joey and Liam's story and read about them falling in love and getting their HEA.
helljay's review against another edition
I am enjoying this series but oh my! the silly editing mistakes are really starting to annoy me. Especially with the character names. Robbie Rhodes/Rhoades, Alex Stanton/Staunton, Hank Semerad/Hal Simard, Nico/Nino,. All stupid little errors that a beta reader, much less an editor should have picked up!