A review by lozs_shelf
Odd Man Rush by Kristen Granata

3.5

Odd Man Rush is a FFM romance. It’s a polygamous romance, about a triad Kourtney, Celeste and Jason. (I hope I used all that terminology correctly).

This was my first Kristen Granata book and I did enjoy it. It’s super fast paced and quick read. Odd Man Rush is the second of an interconnected standalone Hockey romance series.

The book centred mostly around Kourtney’s and Celeste’s character development, Jason didn’t have any but honestly he didn’t really need any, he is honestly the perfect man. You’re telling me that he can emotionally and physically keep two women satisfied at the same time. And not because he uses the same cookie cutter approach with both of them but because he knows both of them so well that he caters his approach to suit their needs. As I said Jason was perfect, I have no notes.

In the book you don’t get a look into the development of the relationship between any of the characters except Celeste and Jason. However, I could and would argue that their relationship was already plenty developed, Celeste just needed to have a mindset shift about how she saw Jason. When the story starts the characters are in high school and Jason and Kourtney are together and Celeste is their best friends. We then take a few jumps into the future to see particularly how their relationships between each other break, come to be and fall apart again. Although, I feel this part is mostly told and not shown. We just see the scenes where the characters suddenly get together or break up, not the lead up to any of this. Which, quite surprisingly, didn’t make me feel disconnected from the characters or the story. Granata is a master of crafting distinct and loveable characters, so much so that you root for them from the beginning, even if the relationship part isn’t fully fleshed out.

I honestly didn’t understand the business that Kourtney and Celeste created. I just couldn’t grasp how the porn aspect was necessary. I don’t know if this is just a me thing, or something that was poorly explained in the book.

Odd Man Rush has a decent amount of diversity relating to sex and sexuality. For example, Erika is trans, Kourtney and Celeste are both bi and obvious there is a non-monogamy, there is also sex work.

My rating: 3.5/5

Tropes:
  • Ice Hockey Romance
  • Polyamory
  • Second chance romance (Kourtney & Celeste, Kourtney & Jason)
  • High school sweet hearts (Kourtney & Jason)
  • Friends to lovers (Celeste & Jason, Celeste & Kourtney)
  • Queer love