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A review by thebooknerdscorner
Penalized Love by Emery Paige
3.0
A second chance college romance featuring a star hockey player and the coach's daughter.
Isla Johnson's college career isn't going exactly as planned. After a health scare cutting her semester abroad short, Isla is back at her hometown university so she can be close to her family as she figures out her diagnosis. Luckily, Isla still has photography no matter where she is. However, she didn't expect that her photography skills would lead her back to her ex-boyfriend, Asher, who is on her dad's hockey team. But that's exactly what happens when she is given an opportunity to work as the team's photographer. Forced to reconcile with their messy past, Isla and Asher may just have one final chance at love.
I really enjoyed the first seventy-ish percent of this book. Isla and Asher both deal with plenty of realistic, complicated issues that made both of their lives interesting to follow. Isla is diagnosed with Polycystic Ovary Syndrome (PCOS), which sounds incredibly uncomfortable and inconvenient. The fact that the author also has this syndrome made this feel super personal and gives me comfort that Isla is an authentic representation of this condition. Asher loves hockey more than anything else, but he also feels the burden of supporting his family financially. These two have known each other for many years prior to the main bones of the story, which made their relationship seem pretty intense from the very beginning of the book.
I found many aspects of Isla's character to be relatable. She's quite anxious about many different things, she doesn't thrive in social scenes, and she cherishes the arts. Also, she likes "The Princess Bride" and I always give characters kudos for that. Her passion for photography is also cool to follow. This is the third romance I've read in the last couple of months in which one of them is a photographer, and I think it's such a fun hobby/career.
I always love the close bonds that the team has when it comes to hockey romances. This holds up at Crestwood University. I really like Asher and Levi's relationship (I'm not surprised to learn that Levi was the male love interest in the first novel) and the complexity that Knox added to the group was much appreciated. Asher's coach and Isla's dad only has the team's best interest at heart, and I always love seeing strong familial relationships across sports teams in books.
However, this book took a turn and went into a very sexual place. I wasn't exactly surprised by this, but several of the scenes took it a bit too far for me to say that I enjoyed reading this entire book (especially the scene with the whipped cream *shudder*). I appreciate that Isla's and Asher's relationship didn't feel like it was moving too fast due to the fact that this was their second time dating each other. I think this is a really smart way to approach steamy scenes without them feeling too rushed. It still too much for me to comfortably palate though, and I was slightly bummed that the last forty percent of the book was so sexually charged.
I did appreciate that the conflict happened earlier in the book rather than at the very end. However, the ending seemed too easy and perfect. There was little tension despite all of the events that could have held a bit more suspense. The epilogue also didn't add much to the story, which was a bummer, because I often love the future glimpse we get of couples in epilogues. Alas, it just didn't do much for me in this one.
Overall, I enjoyed seeing Isla and Asher work through their complicated second chance romance in "Penalized Love." Learning about PCOS was intriguing due to the fact that I've never heard about this condition before. If the last forty percent of the book would have been utilized for more than smut I would have liked this one more. I'm interested to see how the romances are going to play out for some of the other side characters, but I don't think I'm going to read the rest of the series due to the level of steam these books include. This series may not be for me, but I would definitely point romance readers towards this series if they are fans of steamy college/sport romances!
Isla Johnson's college career isn't going exactly as planned. After a health scare cutting her semester abroad short, Isla is back at her hometown university so she can be close to her family as she figures out her diagnosis. Luckily, Isla still has photography no matter where she is. However, she didn't expect that her photography skills would lead her back to her ex-boyfriend, Asher, who is on her dad's hockey team. But that's exactly what happens when she is given an opportunity to work as the team's photographer. Forced to reconcile with their messy past, Isla and Asher may just have one final chance at love.
I really enjoyed the first seventy-ish percent of this book. Isla and Asher both deal with plenty of realistic, complicated issues that made both of their lives interesting to follow. Isla is diagnosed with Polycystic Ovary Syndrome (PCOS), which sounds incredibly uncomfortable and inconvenient. The fact that the author also has this syndrome made this feel super personal and gives me comfort that Isla is an authentic representation of this condition. Asher loves hockey more than anything else, but he also feels the burden of supporting his family financially. These two have known each other for many years prior to the main bones of the story, which made their relationship seem pretty intense from the very beginning of the book.
I found many aspects of Isla's character to be relatable. She's quite anxious about many different things, she doesn't thrive in social scenes, and she cherishes the arts. Also, she likes "The Princess Bride" and I always give characters kudos for that. Her passion for photography is also cool to follow. This is the third romance I've read in the last couple of months in which one of them is a photographer, and I think it's such a fun hobby/career.
I always love the close bonds that the team has when it comes to hockey romances. This holds up at Crestwood University. I really like Asher and Levi's relationship (I'm not surprised to learn that Levi was the male love interest in the first novel) and the complexity that Knox added to the group was much appreciated. Asher's coach and Isla's dad only has the team's best interest at heart, and I always love seeing strong familial relationships across sports teams in books.
However, this book took a turn and went into a very sexual place. I wasn't exactly surprised by this, but several of the scenes took it a bit too far for me to say that I enjoyed reading this entire book (especially the scene with the whipped cream *shudder*). I appreciate that Isla's and Asher's relationship didn't feel like it was moving too fast due to the fact that this was their second time dating each other. I think this is a really smart way to approach steamy scenes without them feeling too rushed. It still too much for me to comfortably palate though, and I was slightly bummed that the last forty percent of the book was so sexually charged.
I did appreciate that the conflict happened earlier in the book rather than at the very end. However, the ending seemed too easy and perfect. There was little tension despite all of the events that could have held a bit more suspense. The epilogue also didn't add much to the story, which was a bummer, because I often love the future glimpse we get of couples in epilogues. Alas, it just didn't do much for me in this one.
Overall, I enjoyed seeing Isla and Asher work through their complicated second chance romance in "Penalized Love." Learning about PCOS was intriguing due to the fact that I've never heard about this condition before. If the last forty percent of the book would have been utilized for more than smut I would have liked this one more. I'm interested to see how the romances are going to play out for some of the other side characters, but I don't think I'm going to read the rest of the series due to the level of steam these books include. This series may not be for me, but I would definitely point romance readers towards this series if they are fans of steamy college/sport romances!