This was a book I took with me to Denver on a work trip with no expectations of reading it. I thought for sure between Jess, Chunk, and the Road Trip to Infinity, all the work I had to do and the scarf I’m currently knitting I wouldn’t get to it. However, what I wasn’t planning for was a 4+ hour delay on the way home. After knitting for an hour I decided to read this and let’s say I finished it within an hour of being on the plane and still had time to knit for two more hours 😀
I’m pretty sure I picked this up on the trip to Denver when Tim joined me and we went and checked out the Spicy Librarian (store website), a romance bookstore in RiNo. I remember liking the cover because it had a BIPOC character and a service dog, so it wasn’t going to be one of the typical MM romances I read. What I didn’t realize at the time is that it was originally a fan-fiction novel of Check, Please!‘s Kent Parson (Jack’s earlier love interest).
I adored both Eli and Alex, even if it took a while for both to grow on me. There are two types of college romance novels, those where the characters are too mature (like full ass grown adults) or too immature and these are closer to the latter. On one hand you’ve got Alex, the youngest NFL captain in history who’s been forced to grow up very quickly, and Eli, who had a horrible accident and was left with a disability and a service dog, but has a whole lot of sass.
The story itself is cute and I love how much Alex changes, or tries to change, when he realizes just how much of a dick he’s been, most of which comes from his immaturity. Eli holds him accountable and keeps him in check, which makes the story that much more readable.
For the most part, the best part of the novels were the small moments. Alex’s teammates supporting him as he slowly starts coming out to them (Jeff, the team mom is hilarious), the asshat teammate who turns to Eli when some of the kids at a charity skate want to learn to figure skate, Cody and Eli’s friendship, the cooking blog (oh hey, #hockey). The other thing that stood out for me was the intensity of the relationship, I mean that happens in most MM Romances, but this one seemed to amp it up even more.
If there’s one complaint about the book I have, it’s the copy editing. I don’t think this was self-published, but it was definitely a small press and there were a significant number of grammar and spelling as well as formatting errors. 1-2 I get, I see that in major publishing house works, but these kept adding up.
Recommendation: I enjoyed this significantly more than I thought I would and think it was worth the read. I’m interested to read the follow up novel, Like You’ve Nothing Left to Prove, to see where the story goes. Eli and Alex are great characters and I enjoyed how both of them had to grow/change in such a short time. The added pressures of Eli’s disability and Alex’s celebrity made the intensity of the relationship and the speed of their connection appear incredibly dramatic, but it probably wasn’t actually.
Opening Line: “There are admittedly worse things in the world than having to walk two blocks on a Wednesday morning in July.”
Closing Line: “‘Yes. I know who Cody is,’ Alex says dryly, and from the strangled sounds Eli is making he’s either trying not to sob or badly stifling hysterical laughter.” (Whited out to avoid spoilers, highlight to read.)
