Rating: ✩✩✩✩✩
In the interest of full disclosure, this might have been a higher star read had it not been so hyped by BookTok. While I enjoyed to book as a whole, chapter to chapter it was a mixed bag.
In (not-so) short:
- The MFC is just hopelessly bad at humaning. For someone who claims to have done extensive therapy and posts clever affirmations on social media, she is completely unable to communicate with her parents, see the manipulation of her skating partner or notice that the men to which she claims "no strings" are all living very different realities.
- For much of the book, not a lot happens-on the ice or off- and the plot is just bickering, drinking and sloppy hookups. The reader almost gets more information on all the supporting characters while the central character development just sort of oozes along.
- Overall I didn't always relate to the characters, though it has been a while since I read a college-centered romance (and WAY longer since I was in college myself), so that may be a generational thing more than an issue with the writing.
- It is spicy, like the spice is pretty good. If you don't take the rest too seriously, this is a spicy read with a MMC that will make one's romance addled heart swoon. However, I have to add that the self-referential "man written by a woman" is really just the bare minimum dressed up as outstanding behavior. (The usual suspension of disbelief that things we like in books are probably not what we like in real life, and that is OK, applies here for sure.)
Overall the book was a lot of work for plot where not much really happens, all the characters act predictably and the HEA is exactly what you expect. I can't say it was a "bad" book, or tell anyone not to read it, but definitely temper your expectations. BookTok has led me astray more than not, so reader beware and all that.
Published on 7 February 2023 by Atria
Book #95 of 2023
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