kj468's reviews
380 reviews

idk I’m just not vibing. I’ve loved both of the authors other books (the charm offensive might be my all time favorite) but I’m not invested and my library loan is running out. Might circle back in the future 

I’m boredddddddddddd. Just not vibing 

This wasn’t horrible but also I didn’t love it. To be fair, I have mixed feelings about romance novellas in general because I feel like the relationships can be really rushed and the connections feel contrived, which rang true here. Overall it felt pretty surface level. The way the emotions were written was  more melodramatic than I prefer. 

The diversity was great and both main characters were likable, though they weren’t particularly robust characters. In general, I found it to be a bit choppy, both in writing style and storytelling. 
There’s a lot of POV switching, even abrupt switches in the middle of scenes which tended to jolt me out of the story. 

Rep: Black MC, Korean MC, mm romance, bi for bi, no bi awakenings (bi the whole time),  sapphic side characters, aromantic side character, queer side characters, child of immigrants

Tw: a smidge of biphobia from one MC’s ex wife 

Gorgeous and stunning just like every other cat Sebastian book I’ve read. Not much happens, and I mean that in the best way possible. Two sweet men taking care of each other and choosing each other and deciding to make a quiet home together 

I did not like this; it did not make me feel good. I probs should have known better than to read a story about an ex cop (who JUST stopped being a cop), especially during a time when homosexual acts were illegal. Police brutality is graphic and discussed too much for my comfort. I didn’t love any of the characters. The method of murder was interesting, but that was the most interesting part of the mystery. The whodunit part was lackluster.

It’s a mystery, so obviously I wasn’t expecting the vibes of a romance novel, but they were still darker than I prefer. Other people with different tastes will probably like this better; good on them.

Also — I found it really boring and only finished to see the resolution of the murder plot, skimming the last 40% of the book. I genuinely wish I had dnf’d at lie 10% — or better yet, page two when he’s having suicidal thoughts. I stuck it out mainly because 1) I bought the book and 2) I read and loved another book by the author (Camp) so I had some misguided trust in the author.

Cw for graphic violence, police brutality, pervasive homophobia throughout the whole book, injury (due to police violence), and suicidal thoughts. 

It didn’t wow me but I read it in a few days and enjoyed it enough. I liked that the hockey mc was sure about his sexuality from the beginning and that his hesitation is (publicly) pursuing the other mc was due to a past relationship (not internalized homophobia or something like that). 

I don’t think the summary of the book really aligned with the story. I expected it to be centered around Kolby tutoring Adam about improv. I didn’t find that to be a major part of the plot and not a lot of page time was dedicated to that. Adam helps Kolby learn to skate and that’s a bigger focus. The biggest focus is each of them dealing with the impact of their background on their current lives and new relationship (

Adam was accused of sexual assault by his bff/bf when they were caught kissing because the bf didn’t want people to know about this sexuality; Kolby was raised really Mormon and is estranged from his family except secretly talks to his sister, and she wants to leave the church too

),  which I actually liked better than the pitched premise. 

The relationship drama was a bit annoying. It felt like Adam was often making mountains out of molehills and reacting immaturely. He always comes to his senses but he huffs and puffs at Kolby, without listening to his explanations,  a couple of times which was kind of annoying. Like, just listen to your man!! In general Adam sometimes annoyed me; he sort of oozed privilege. 

For a hockey romance in a non hockey series, hockey was decently prevalent. There wasn’t on page sports, but the team was heavily featured and Adam lives in the hockey house. He thinks and talks about his future nhl career and that has direct implications on how he navigates being public with his sexuality. 

I didn’t love that this book (unintentionally) offers credence to the belief that sexual assault victims make up their assaults. Not believing victims isn’t the message the author was trying to send, but the fact that the central drama is based on an mc dealing with the repercussions of being accused of sexual assault (which he didn’t commit) might inadvertently bolster the narrative that people who make sa allegations are making it up. It’s handled well by the team and previous school where the event happened, including an investigation that found the mc innocent, but this might be triggering to anyone who has experienced sa and not had it taken seriously and/or an abuser wasn’t charged. 

Minor, but I think this book needed an epilogue, a few years later when Kolby is acting in New York and Adam is playing for the Brooklyn team, especially since the third act breakup was resolved so late in the book. 

I really enjoyed this book, overall. The narrator did an excellent job. There were a couple of things I'm not normally a fan of here -- primarily unhealthy substance use and miscommunication (or rather, complete lack thereof). But the angst was well set off by sweetness, the hockey was good, and there was a good journey re: substance use.  I loved the friends to lovers; they were close as friends and the pace of the relationship turning into romance was on point. Some of the background characters were especially great.

Rep: Good mental health (particularly anxiety) rep. Nate gave off some demi vibes, though I don't think his sexuality was ever explicitly stated. I don't think Zach's sexuality was explicitly stated, but it seems to be somewhere under the bi umbrella.

Tropes: queer awakening, friends to lovers, friends with benefits, in love the whole time

Love! Love love love love love. It was so great to read a hockey romance featuring grown ass adults. Definitely one I will listen to multiple times. Great character growth with both MCs. The second half of the book was especially great. 

Sometimes I had a hard time remembering whose pov I was in — could also be that it’s just one narrator on the audiobook, or that I was multi tasking. I also didn’t feel a lot of chemistry before they started sleeping together. 

Audiobook narrator was excellent! Cooper North is always great, and he did both a Boston and a French Canadian accent in this book and did them well!! 

Eh, this wasn't really for me. Maybe I need to stop listening to this series, even though they are included with Audible premium (they're some of the only queer romances on Audible premium and that's 100% why I keep listening to this series). They tend to be more dramatic and contain more sensitive material than I'm ever prepared for. To be fair, I never go out of my way to check content warnings (though I clearly should for these books, because wow), though it would be nice if the audiobooks had them listed at the beginning. Not sure if the physical/ebooks have cw listed inside.

Trauma: Both characters have a lot of trauma, both from near-death experiences that happen off-page before the book begins, but in the case of one character, are discussed pretty heavily on-page (

the character's past suicidal behavior was discussed in detail

). The other character had a previous abusive (I think? or at the very least, incredibly not positive) relationship

Healing: Both characters have significant healing journeys spurred on and facilitated by their relationship with the other. It gets close to "he cured me" without quite getting all the way there; if this were Icarus, his wax wings would work well enough that he didn't crash, but it'd be a really rocky flight, ya feel?

TW Injury: one of the characters has a significant, on-page, near-fatal accident. Some details are behind the spoiler, if anyone would like to know before reading:

Tanner, who has past trauma from working as a wilderness rescuer, goes on a poor-weather hike to look for Jax, who is late coming back from his hike, and is caught in a rock slide. He is crushed by rocks and a branch impales his arm, hitting an artery. He's saved by Jax, who stabilizes the injury long enough for the rescuers to arrive, and then is touch-and-go in the hospital for a while.n

Things I did like: two bi characters who are bi the whole time (no bi awakening, no 'gay for you' trope), strong emphasis on healing/therapy, supportive friends and family to facilitate the healing journey, no third-act breakup. I was pretty sure I knew what the third-act drama would be, but I was pleasantly surprised that, while my guess was in the general ballpark, I didn't completely guess what would happen. 

TW: suicidality, suicidal thoughts, discussions of past suicidal behavior, graphic injury with blood

I liked the premise a lot here. Both characters were likable and I was rooting for them and their relationship. I appreciated the emphasis on therapy and healing, and overall the relationship here is pretty healthy (there is one major lack of communication but they handled it well I thought). That said, it's my 5th book by this author, and while some of her other books are among my all-time favorites, I was only so-so about this one.

I found the beginning of their relationship to lack a bit of chemistry, and the middle third to be a bit slow, though the last 25% was much better. In terms of on-page pace, it's not the fastest burn -- however, when you look at in world time, it's an INCREDIBLY fast burn (

they get engaged about a month after getting together??

). That didn't really bother me until I got to the epilogue, where it was made clear how quickly their relationship moved, and I was kind of shook lol. 

themes: healing from divorce, learning to let yourself be loved, mending broken relationships with family