Michaela Grey

I've been on the lookout for decent MM hockey books since I found CU Hockey by Eden Finley and Saxon James. The first two books in that series were epic and I've been trying to find something as good, unfortunately I'm not having much luck. While on the surface this seems to hit all the boxes it was just too over the top. It was just all very cardboard cutout. And I can't get behind so much stupidity in getting together. The miscommunication was just ridiculous. I never really felt like I got to know either character all that well, Rory just seemed to exist for Dima and Dima had no idea who he was for the last six years. It was just bland. If you ignore that, the romance was sweet enough. The sex scenes were alright. Overall 2 stars.… (more)

A book that sounds good in summary but not as an actual novel. At least, not written by this author.

I didn't hate the book, it was way too bland for hate, but aside from the premise and some of the characters (Kasha, and maybe Felix a little bit), I also didn't like much anything.

The plot was extremely unoriginal and predictable. The bad guys were overly one dimensional and basically there without any internal motivation, just existing to make trouble for the main characters. The main characters themselves were very much not believable.

I appreciate the author's attempt to take a detour from the typical toxic masculinity, but this is a hockey romance. In no universe will I believe that men who have grown up surrounded by hockey culture will behave like this. You can have characters that aren't toxic without making them completely over the top, emotionally woke messes.

And while any romance book needs some form of conflict, I personally hate the kind of conflict present here, where one of the main characters blows hot and cold and has such internal turmoil that there's no rhyme or reason in what they decide to do. The conflicts were also resolved way too easily for any proper build up or emotion investment.

I don't expect romance books to be literary master pieces, but I do expect them to have some time and effort (and preferably some skill) to be put into them. This author seems to be more about quantity than quality, though.

I've honestly read literal fanfiction that's wolrds better than this was.… (more)

OK - the end of this book is just .... so .... syrupy .... sweet. Bleh.

To improve this book further, the author needs to spend some serious time on the relationship - all the getting to know you, etc., rather than having Malachi already three steps ahead of Bran. They don't really spend much time becoming friends, much less something more, before jumping in bed with each other.

The explanation of what Bran is feeling when he more than willingly gets Malachi off almost right after they meet needs to come much sooner in the story. (It's called secondary desire as opposed to primary desire - aces do not experience primary desire nor do they really desire partnered sex. We don't find this out until half way through the book and I wish it came a lot sooner than it did as it would have made my reading of the situation less "Nah-uh, that's not the way it works" and more "I get that. It makes sense.")

I like that these two characters get on so well, but by the end of the book it does not feel like a love affair but a relationship of mutual codependency.… (more)