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A review by celestial_ink
Ice Bet by S.J. Sylvis
4.0
Coming off an almost year break from reading one of S.J. Sylvis’s books didn’t dampen the excitement I had to return to the Bexley U Universe. Weak Side was one of the first hockey romances that got me hooked on the niche genre, and I was bursting with energy to see the characters again in a new perspective and get to know others.
Though Weak Side was a 5 star read for me, Ice Bet settled into my average 4 stars. Which kinda disappointed me in the end. What I loved about Theo and Claire felt copy and pasted into Aasher and Riley’s story. Aasher even states multiple times through the book that he’s a lot like Theo. And Riley was also an athlete in a women’s dominated sport, just like Claire. And while not sharing the same room in Ice Bet, they are across the hall neighbors instead.
The story by itself is wonderful. It had its own unique moments that stood out, but I could not shake the feeling that these characters were stripped down versions of the main protagonists in Weak Side.
Other than that, the book was well written, carried a decent plot and took on some of the standard tropes available in the genre, hopefully helping round out the series in the long run. I still enjoyed reading it overall. If Ice Bet had been maybe book three or four in the lineup, maybe I wouldn’t have felt the way I did about the story. But as a direct follow up to Weak Side, it suffers from too similar situations and tropes Weak Side was good for and made it feel lesser than.
Though Weak Side was a 5 star read for me, Ice Bet settled into my average 4 stars. Which kinda disappointed me in the end. What I loved about Theo and Claire felt copy and pasted into Aasher and Riley’s story. Aasher even states multiple times through the book that he’s a lot like Theo. And Riley was also an athlete in a women’s dominated sport, just like Claire. And while not sharing the same room in Ice Bet, they are across the hall neighbors instead.
The story by itself is wonderful. It had its own unique moments that stood out, but I could not shake the feeling that these characters were stripped down versions of the main protagonists in Weak Side.
Other than that, the book was well written, carried a decent plot and took on some of the standard tropes available in the genre, hopefully helping round out the series in the long run. I still enjoyed reading it overall. If Ice Bet had been maybe book three or four in the lineup, maybe I wouldn’t have felt the way I did about the story. But as a direct follow up to Weak Side, it suffers from too similar situations and tropes Weak Side was good for and made it feel lesser than.