Scan barcode
A review by aepompu
Collide by Bal Khabra
funny
lighthearted
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.0
In general I liked it, but I had a few major complaints.
Firstly, I feel like I’ve already read this book. A few times. It’s pretty formulaic, there’s nothing that differentiates it from other college sports romances. I was looking forward to a BIPOC FMC but her ethnicity felt kind of glazed over. I appreciated that it wasn’t her whole personality, however it would have been nice to have a few more touches. For example, the FMC and MMC talked about oiling her hair, and then it never happened. I think that could have been a really nice intimate scene in the book.
The pacing was all over the place. It felt really disjointed. Also, there were just too many plot points. I think the book would have been better if there was one focus, whether it be the FMC’s relationship with her father, the grad school application, or hockey. It could have been simplified. Everything felt rushed to get to a conclusion because there was too much happening. This book could have been so much shorter. I was kind of skimming through the last 10% because I was ready for it to be over.
I didn’t really believe the love story. I don’t love it when the entire relationship is based off of sexual attraction. It’s difficult to believe that the characters fall in love when all the reader sees on the page is their sexual tension.
Finally, I really did not enjoy Summer. She’s described as a black cat, but I felt like that was just an excuse for her to be mean. She’s quite mean and at times kind of toxic to the MMC, and honestly I just felt bad for him. I was waiting for him to tell her to start treating him better and for her to smarten up, but that never happened unfortunately.
The saving grace for this book was the MMC and his group of friends/teammates. I love a good band of brothers, and this delivered that.
Overall, I didn’t hate it. It just had the potential to be so much better than it was.
🌶️🌶️🌶️/5
Firstly, I feel like I’ve already read this book. A few times. It’s pretty formulaic, there’s nothing that differentiates it from other college sports romances. I was looking forward to a BIPOC FMC but her ethnicity felt kind of glazed over. I appreciated that it wasn’t her whole personality, however it would have been nice to have a few more touches. For example, the FMC and MMC talked about oiling her hair, and then it never happened. I think that could have been a really nice intimate scene in the book.
The pacing was all over the place. It felt really disjointed. Also, there were just too many plot points. I think the book would have been better if there was one focus, whether it be the FMC’s relationship with her father, the grad school application, or hockey. It could have been simplified. Everything felt rushed to get to a conclusion because there was too much happening. This book could have been so much shorter. I was kind of skimming through the last 10% because I was ready for it to be over.
I didn’t really believe the love story. I don’t love it when the entire relationship is based off of sexual attraction. It’s difficult to believe that the characters fall in love when all the reader sees on the page is their sexual tension.
Finally, I really did not enjoy Summer. She’s described as a black cat, but I felt like that was just an excuse for her to be mean. She’s quite mean and at times kind of toxic to the MMC, and honestly I just felt bad for him. I was waiting for him to tell her to start treating him better and for her to smarten up, but that never happened unfortunately.
The saving grace for this book was the MMC and his group of friends/teammates. I love a good band of brothers, and this delivered that.
Overall, I didn’t hate it. It just had the potential to be so much better than it was.
🌶️🌶️🌶️/5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexual content
Minor: Death of parent