Scan barcode
A review by realadhdoug
Time to Shine by Rachel Reid
3.75
I’ve come to understand that there’s a whole genre of hockey romance which—as someone who’s only familiar with the sport courtesy of the Mighty Ducks—sort of boggles my mind. Not only was this book my first in the genre, but it’s also one that’s even more niche in that it’s a *queer* hockey romance (and that’s kinda what piqued my interest). So, all that is to say that I don’t really know how to compare it to everything else in the genre.
First, I’ll mention what I didn’t like, and it’s basically only one thing—that there really didn’t appear to be a story of any kind. It was just to dudes who fell in love playing hockey together. Each character had specific personal struggles to work through, but the only major conflict to resolve ended up being how to keep the relationship going when one of them had to go play for another team. And even that seemed a little dramatic to me, like it was made out to be a bigger obstacle than it would’ve been in real life. So, there wasn’t really much satisfaction in the story arc.
Now, what I absolutely adored about this book was the characters and the dialogue. In a lot of ways, it was like one of those sitcoms that isn’t really about anything but you love watching it because of the relationships and interactions among the cast. Although it never labeled anything, Casey gave me serious ADHD vibes and Landon could’ve possibly been on the autism spectrum, so it was nice to see atypical characters represented as the main characters in the story. I also appreciated the book’s very open approach to sexuality—completely normalizing Casey’s experience being bisexual and even hinting at Landon being on the asexual spectrum. There was a lot of discussion about what it means to “have sex” and virginity being a construct and all that. And there were plenty of erotic scenes, but they were focused on Casey and Landon giving each other pleasure in unconventional ways—which I thought was really cool.
Despite all I’ve just mentioned, the book isn’t super heavy or anything. For the most part, the tone is light and fun—with plenty of humor and heart. Definitely worth reading just for the happy feelings it will make you feel. Also, although it’s about hockey, you don’t need to know anything about hockey to understand what’s going on. If you know what a goalie is and you have some basic understanding of Canada’s geography, you should be just fine!
First, I’ll mention what I didn’t like, and it’s basically only one thing—that there really didn’t appear to be a story of any kind. It was just to dudes who fell in love playing hockey together. Each character had specific personal struggles to work through, but the only major conflict to resolve ended up being how to keep the relationship going when one of them had to go play for another team. And even that seemed a little dramatic to me, like it was made out to be a bigger obstacle than it would’ve been in real life. So, there wasn’t really much satisfaction in the story arc.
Now, what I absolutely adored about this book was the characters and the dialogue. In a lot of ways, it was like one of those sitcoms that isn’t really about anything but you love watching it because of the relationships and interactions among the cast. Although it never labeled anything, Casey gave me serious ADHD vibes and Landon could’ve possibly been on the autism spectrum, so it was nice to see atypical characters represented as the main characters in the story. I also appreciated the book’s very open approach to sexuality—completely normalizing Casey’s experience being bisexual and even hinting at Landon being on the asexual spectrum. There was a lot of discussion about what it means to “have sex” and virginity being a construct and all that. And there were plenty of erotic scenes, but they were focused on Casey and Landon giving each other pleasure in unconventional ways—which I thought was really cool.
Despite all I’ve just mentioned, the book isn’t super heavy or anything. For the most part, the tone is light and fun—with plenty of humor and heart. Definitely worth reading just for the happy feelings it will make you feel. Also, although it’s about hockey, you don’t need to know anything about hockey to understand what’s going on. If you know what a goalie is and you have some basic understanding of Canada’s geography, you should be just fine!