Book 838: Keeping Hope – Alexandria Redding

We all know I loved Ngozi’s Check, Please! series and am a sucker for MM Sports Romances. So, this one had a lot to live up to and even though I had some concerns about the cover art (seems slapped together and so meh) I gave Redding the benefit of the doubt and decided to give it a go when it appeared in my inbox.*

Overall, the book was just meh (sort of like the cover). There was a lot of potential and Redding clearly has a lot of ideas, but she could use an editor (or a stronger one). So much of the book was bogged down in social issues, which I am here for every day of the week—bullying, racial inequity/police profiling, homelessness, and mental health awareness absolutely need more representation—but not at the expense of the story. In reading this one so soon after Legendborn and seeing how well Deonn wrote about injustice and had the characters learn/grow from it, I was let down.

Keeping Hope is the story of Jensen, an out Latinx goalie who is brought in to play for the Littleford Fowls and struggles to afford the experience, and Law, your standard hockey player jock who happens to be bisexual and socially conscious. I won’t spend a lot of time belaboring the plot, the things I mentioned came up over and over and over again and got tiring because there wasn’t a lot of growth in how the characters looked at or dealt with them.

The sex scenes in the body of the book were well written and enjoyable. They weren’t rushed or drawn out and they left the reader wanting more. I did, however, have a problem with the extra scene Redding tacked on after the Epilogue and I’m still mad at myself for reading it. I had noted that the main work didn’t stray from oral sex or frotting and when I noted it, I realized it actually worked really well. Well, apparently Redding (or someone else) felt differently and so she tacked on a scene afterward that could’ve worked if it was set a few months later on their college campus or even years in the future, but nope it was an indeterminate, but I’m assuming an incredibly short time period later and it just left me mad.

Honestly, with some small tweaks from a good copy editor and guidance from a story editor Redding could be a much better author. There were super cute moments like the Greek restaurant and the bowling alley and as we got to know more and more characters (my bet is on an Aaron and Cal sequel), there were other moments of coming out that Redding wrote really well

Cal gave a small laugh. ‘It wasn’t you that gave it away. I was pretty sure Jensen wasn’t straight from the get-go. Keeping his nose stuck in his stall, refusing to shower with the others . . . either he was so far in the closet he was in homophobic territory or he was gay and trying not to piss anyone off. He didn’t strike me as being a bigot, so . . . one choice left. Then you two started pestering each other like a couple of grade-school kids trying to pretend they didn’t want to kiss on the playground. Plus, I caught him watching you a bunch of times. So seeing you guys in the parking lot was sort of like, ah, there it is, instead of some huge revelation.’ (Chapter 10)

All of the crises of the novel were underwhelming, with the exception of Cal’s crises but when a minor-character’s crisis makes you feel more for them than either of the protagonists’ you know something is wrong. I did cheer when the team banded together against the bigoted ass hat, but it was a lackluster cheer at best.

Recommendation: I wanted to enjoy this so much more than I did. Redding had a lot of good ideas (too many if you ask me) and really could’ve used an editor to tighten up a lot of them and streamline the story significantly. Also, if I have one piece of advice, don’t read the passage after the Epilogue, for some reason it just ruined the novel for me and felt so much like an afterthought. I’ll probably give Redding another chance, especially if book two is who I think it’s going to be, but if she doesn’t get a better editor soon she’ll flounder in obscurity.

*I received a copy of Keeping Hope via Gay Romance Reviews in return for my honest opinion. No goods or money were exchanged.

Opening Line: “Jensen stood across the hall from Coach Cameron Holt’s office, hands stuffed in the pockets of his plain black suit pants.”

Closing Line: “Having this guy beside him when they left for college was going to be an amazing start to the rest of his life.” (Whited out to avoid spoilers, highlight to read.)

Additional Quotes from Keeping Hope
“‘I’m gay.’ It came out just how it always had, unapologetic and right to the point, if a little stiff. This was the part where Jensen waited for Coach to tell him they wouldn’t sign an openly gay player to their team, to tell him hockey wasn’t ready for this or him or his desire to lie with a man instead of a woman. Or it was the part where he got lucky and found the only damn team willing to move past shit that should have been completely irrelevant to the game and signed him anyway.” (Chapter 1)

“I’m bi. So . . . I guess you’re supporting the community just by having me around.” (Chapter 3)

“‘What you did tonight . . . thank you.’ It wasn’t enough. Nothing would ever be enough for someone who owned the privilege of being a young white male to speak up for the injustice of the situation. The way Law had handled it had been so very adult, and it left so many feelings deep inside Jensen’s heart. The whole thing touched places inside him that he was terrified to explore, given how he’d been hurt in the past, and he tried to shut himself off from the feeling of it.” (Chapter 5)

“Her remembered the NHL guy who’d taken the Stanly Cup to Pride to support one of his friends, and how little backlash that had created. It was a shining beacon of hope even five years ago. Their generation could bring even more hope with them, and if it didn’t . . . then fuck it.” (Chapter 11)

“Jensen’s eyes lit up and Law felt himself grinning even harder. When Jensen kissed him, it was everything. It was passion and excitement and promise. They’d do this, and they’d do it together, everything that mattered to them right ther ein the palm of their hands.” (Epilogue)