by Ashlyn Kane and Morgan James
rating:☆☆ 1/2
published: 20th February 2015
spoilers? yes (minor ones only)
Goodreads
Gabe rolled his eyes. “You are the most ridiculous human being I’ve ever met.” He put his hand over Dante’s face and gently shoved him away.
You know those times where you just gotta admit you've fallen into the deep dark pit of hockey and you're not getting out any time soon? This is one of those times.
Probably more like 2.5.
That's not to say I didn't like this, because I did (probably because of the hockey more than anything though). It's definitely not so good as Sarina Bowen and Elle Kennedy's hockey lit (based on the hockey lit I've read so far, they are the standard people should be aiming for), but it's enjoyable and pretty amusing and somehow I managed to stay up until 1am reading this the other night. Not to mention it has a bisexual character (using the word bisexual, too!).
There were (obviously) some issues I had. First off, will authors please please stop writing in Eastern European and Russian "accents" (you know the ones. Based off old Hollywood representations around the Cold War and later when the Eastern Europeans and Russians were all bad guys and missed out auxiliaries and definite articles and that shit). Literally, how does it aid the story? Just don't.
And then, of course, the Russian character turns out to be the homophobe on the team who doesn't pass to the gay player. Amazing. Do you wanna put any more stereotypes in this while we're at it? (He does later apologise, thankfully, but in doing that he mentions something about "Mother Russia". Because apparently that's how Russians refer to their homeland [insert exaggerated eye roll].)
The next point is less to do with the book itself and more to do with me getting pissed off. The team that has the guy who makes the first homophobic comment (because you knew it was coming) is the Philadelphia Flyers. Aka my team. I'm gonna fight someone I swear. (OK, so later on, there's a Preds player who's a lot more of a homophobe but I'm still not happy that it was the Flyers chosen as the first.) (Also, minor side point: the "Dekes" - aka team made-up for the purposes of this book - beat the Flyers in the playoffs but then lost to the Pens. Like hell that would happen, I'm sorry.)
One of the characters, Dante, has a nickname of "Baller", right? (It's never explained what is meant by it though.) So I'll be reading the book and he'll be referred to as Baller for a while, and then I'll turn the page and be reading about Dante. It's not bad writing, per se, but I just found it a little strange, that's all.
At one point, their coach (female - because they're a "revolutionary" NHL team, with a female coach and a female owner) goes into labour in the first period of a game, and manages to stick out the whole of the rest of the game (ie about 2 hours) in labour. Now, I don't know whether that's something that is possible, but I gotta say it sounds a bit... fake? Like, is she not in pain? Having contractions?
Confession time: when Kitty got traded, I cried. If this is how I deal with it for fictional hockey players, how am I supposed to deal when it happens in real life? (@ Flyers, please, never trade anyone ever.)
One last point: this book was so bloody long. I can't believe how much it was dragged out, like my ebook copy had 357 pages. Yikes.
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