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Shoot Your Shot
Don’t miss NHL insider and #BookTok influencer Lexi LaFleur Brown’s steamy and superstitious hockey rom-com debut!
When Jaylen Jones doesn’t secure an NHL contract at the end of training camp, he worries his hockey career is over. But after an anonymous one-night stand on his last night in town, his luck turns around and a last-minute roster spot opens up on the Seattle Rainiers. Connecting his fortune to the girl he spent the night with, superstitious Jaylen is suddenly desperate to keep her around.
Aspiring tattoo artist Lucy isn’t so sure about the proposition to remain Jaylen’s lucky charm—she’s been called a lot of things in her life, but good luck has never been one of them. But stuck in a career slump, Lucy has everything to gain. Hoping for an apprenticeship at a tattoo parlor hasn’t offered her much stability, and Jaylen is willing to pay any price to get Lucy to agree…so maybe sending him a routine text message before each game won’t be too hard.
What starts as an agreement to trade favors—a good luck text for an appearance at a charity event, or well wishes in exchange for prime game tickets—quickly turns into sizzling chemistry that’s too delicious not to give in to. But Lucy’s been in too many situationships to even think about getting attached again, and Jaylen is clearly only with Lucy as long as it’s helping his career…neither of them expecting getting lucky could be so complicated.
When Jaylen Jones doesn’t secure an NHL contract at the end of training camp, he worries his hockey career is over. But after an anonymous one-night stand on his last night in town, his luck turns around and a last-minute roster spot opens up on the Seattle Rainiers. Connecting his fortune to the girl he spent the night with, superstitious Jaylen is suddenly desperate to keep her around.
Aspiring tattoo artist Lucy isn’t so sure about the proposition to remain Jaylen’s lucky charm—she’s been called a lot of things in her life, but good luck has never been one of them. But stuck in a career slump, Lucy has everything to gain. Hoping for an apprenticeship at a tattoo parlor hasn’t offered her much stability, and Jaylen is willing to pay any price to get Lucy to agree…so maybe sending him a routine text message before each game won’t be too hard.
What starts as an agreement to trade favors—a good luck text for an appearance at a charity event, or well wishes in exchange for prime game tickets—quickly turns into sizzling chemistry that’s too delicious not to give in to. But Lucy’s been in too many situationships to even think about getting attached again, and Jaylen is clearly only with Lucy as long as it’s helping his career…neither of them expecting getting lucky could be so complicated.
304 pages, Paperback
First published March 11, 2025
624 people are currently reading
11.1k people want to read
About the author
Lexi LaFleur Brown
1book302followersLexi LaFleur Brown comes from a long line of hockey fans, so it was no surprise when she decided to hit the ice herself. Having grown up in the crease, she has seen it all. From the bottom of a dog pile after a big win, to the long quiet bus ride home after a loss and is better having faced both. Hockey laid the foundation for Lexi’s can-do determination, which transferred nicely to her passion for education. She has an MS in Public Relations and a PhD in Education. When Lexi’s not writing hockey romance, she’s chronically online. With a large social media following, she advocates for more inclusivity in hockey, cracks jokes, and shares a glimpse into her own post-meet cute hockey life.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 702 reviews
March 5, 2025
1.5 stars - This is bad.
I am a hockey fan. I wanted to be a Lexi LaFleur Brown fan too. I really wanted this to be good it’s why I requested an arc. But wow was this a struggle to get through.
The main character was a caricature of what the author considers to be a cool girl. It’s mentioned multiple times how COOL Lucy is. Like okay? Maybe show me instead of telling me how cool and different and quirky she is. It was abundantly clear the author desperately wanted to be this FMC.
Jaylen was the only redeeming factor about this book but only because he was sort of boring. I suppose she stayed realistic to hockey players but it all just ended up trite.
I know this is being marketed as a queer book, and I’m not saying it isn’t. But man it would have been cool if all the queer characters hadn’t been boiled down to overused tropes. The gay best friend was sassy and mean, worked as a barista, and was the FMC’s sex confidant. The lesbian best friend was getting too serious too quickly with a woman who lived in her van. The last bisexual woman Lucy dated actually had a serious boyfriend the entire time and never told Lucy. Lucy (also a bisexual woman) herself is described as promiscuous and flighty in the beginning. It was like a running list of queer tropes with check marks beside each. I wouldn’t have minded one or two, but it truly felt like that was all she could come up with.
I almost don’t want to even get into the dialogue and zeitgeist overload. I get she wanted to be topical and funny but at some point I started to wonder if brands were getting some sort of kickback with the way they were mentioned. Every other paragraph a nod to a current pop culture moment was shoehorned in. It was exhausting. The dialogue was cringey and elementary.
I really expected so much more and was just disappointed.
I am a hockey fan. I wanted to be a Lexi LaFleur Brown fan too. I really wanted this to be good it’s why I requested an arc. But wow was this a struggle to get through.
The main character was a caricature of what the author considers to be a cool girl. It’s mentioned multiple times how COOL Lucy is. Like okay? Maybe show me instead of telling me how cool and different and quirky she is. It was abundantly clear the author desperately wanted to be this FMC.
Jaylen was the only redeeming factor about this book but only because he was sort of boring. I suppose she stayed realistic to hockey players but it all just ended up trite.
I know this is being marketed as a queer book, and I’m not saying it isn’t. But man it would have been cool if all the queer characters hadn’t been boiled down to overused tropes. The gay best friend was sassy and mean, worked as a barista, and was the FMC’s sex confidant. The lesbian best friend was getting too serious too quickly with a woman who lived in her van. The last bisexual woman Lucy dated actually had a serious boyfriend the entire time and never told Lucy. Lucy (also a bisexual woman) herself is described as promiscuous and flighty in the beginning. It was like a running list of queer tropes with check marks beside each. I wouldn’t have minded one or two, but it truly felt like that was all she could come up with.
I almost don’t want to even get into the dialogue and zeitgeist overload. I get she wanted to be topical and funny but at some point I started to wonder if brands were getting some sort of kickback with the way they were mentioned. Every other paragraph a nod to a current pop culture moment was shoehorned in. It was exhausting. The dialogue was cringey and elementary.
I really expected so much more and was just disappointed.
March 12, 2025
proposed the question “does hockey accuracy make a hockey romance better?� and the answer was no 💙
March 8, 2025
3 ˖⁺‧✮
i enjoyed this book since it had everything a romance usually does. tension, black cat female artist and golden hockey player, spice and plot.
however, here are some things that i didn’t enjoy as much. i didn’t find any chemistry between main characters. the story starts with them having a one night stand, so i kind of assumed it would be build later on but i didn’t feel it even at the end. they didn’t have any in depth feelings. (it’s pretty much can be a personal thing🤷♀� other people could definitely see it differently)
the next thing is i don’t believe they stayed together. there is nooooo chance they did. they don’t seem to be fitting together.
there is a bisexual representation which was nice to see, even though, it was mentioned once throughout the book� which is sad because i believe there could be a great moments for the main character
Thank you NetGalley and Harlequin Trade Publishing | Canary Street Press for a copy of the book.
i enjoyed this book since it had everything a romance usually does. tension, black cat female artist and golden hockey player, spice and plot.
however, here are some things that i didn’t enjoy as much. i didn’t find any chemistry between main characters. the story starts with them having a one night stand, so i kind of assumed it would be build later on but i didn’t feel it even at the end. they didn’t have any in depth feelings. (it’s pretty much can be a personal thing🤷♀� other people could definitely see it differently)
the next thing is i don’t believe they stayed together. there is nooooo chance they did. they don’t seem to be fitting together.
there is a bisexual representation which was nice to see, even though, it was mentioned once throughout the book� which is sad because i believe there could be a great moments for the main character
Thank you NetGalley and Harlequin Trade Publishing | Canary Street Press for a copy of the book.
March 13, 2025
1.5 rounded down...
What can I say about this book that hasn't already been said?
To begin - I'd seen Lexi LaFleur Brown on my Tiktok FYP in the past. I've seen her videos talking about hockey romance (which is how she marketed this book, by saying it wasn't like the other hockey romance books, because she knows more about the "actual" hockey side, as her husband was in the NHL). I don't follow her, but I did keep my eye out for this book because of her posts. To be frank, I have not read another hockey romance before, and I usually don't read M/F romance, so I went in with medium/low expectations.
I am not sure who the target audience is for this book. Not me, let's be clear, but beyond that, I don't know. The author overexplains very simple matters and then doesn't elaborate on other aspects. For example, we got a whole paragraph on how hockey nicknames work (with the example of Caldwell to Wells... it felt like rocket science over here!). We also got paragraphs of explanation about panic attacks, because But hockey terminology? I guess we are all supposed to be into hockey and know these terms. I'm a very very casual hockey fan - of the PWHL, to be clear - so there were a few acronyms that went over my head. PTO? PIMs? "Goon" (in hockey)? PK/PP? "Movember Muzzy"? "Healthy scratch"? "Dash three"? None of those were explained. It's fine, I had google for the terms I wasn't familiar with, but it would have been nice to just get a sentence of explanation for them!
That said, this book dragged on. It went so painfully slow that I needed to take breaks because I was just so bored.
The main character was the epitome of being "not like other girls", with our very first introduction to her being her demanding a bartender "turn that hockey crap off" (on the TV). Lucy is, at best, a self-insert version of the author with a manic pixie dream girl attitude, and at worst, just plain insufferable. I texted a friend (who had received an ARC) while in Chapter 1 calling Lucy both a manic pixie dream girl and not like other girls -- and low and behold, Lucy refutes those two phrases about herself later on in the book. Okay, sure.
As a lesbian, I am not qualified to discuss the "spicy" scenes in this book, but I'll do it anyway. They read very very juvenile to me. At a point, I almost would have preferred a fade-to-black. It also felt as though the author went overtime to make sure we knew Jaylen (the fictional version of the author's husband, to be clear) was a good guy and was very focused on Lucy's sexual happiness. Every sex scene started with him pleasuring her first and reinforcing how much he loved to pleasure her -- even during their first one night stand as an anonymous hook up. Again, I'm a lesbian, but I am friends with people who like men (sorry to them) and from their experiences, this is not at all the norm. It really felt too in our faces that Jaylen is not like other men who only care about themselves during sex.
Beyond that, the way the FMC and her gay best friend (his only personality trait) interacted about sex made me feel uncomfortable. I'm not a prude by any means, but maybe I'll have to be...
Another weird interaction was when Lucy brings Jaylen to meet her friends for the first time.
Don't ask me what the obsession is with the word "bust" because I couldn't even begin to tell you, but I hated that word choice.
Beyond that, I didn't care for the relationship. Lucy spends the entire front half of the book explaining over and over again that she doesn't do relationships, just to find herself in a "gray area" of their acquaintances-with-benefits situation. Jaylen calls her his girlfriend and says I love you before this woman even realized they were in a relationship.... and there was no discussion about it? She just accepts that she is now in a relationship? After whining for 150 pages about how she can't do relationships...
Also, I was confused about the timeline -- for anyone curious: the timeline starts with Jaylen going to a preseason practice and they end around the Stanley Cup finals. The obligatory epilogue of they all lived happily ever after takes place two years later. Hockey season, according to Google, starts early October and June is when the Playoffs take place. You could've told me the events of this book took place in a single month and I would have believed you. Lucy, our #notlikeothergirls main character, paints a mural for the arena where the Seattle hockey team plays, and I have zero clue how long it took her to paint that. She starts it and then she finishes it.
Which brings me to my next point - the author's obsession with telling and not showing. We learn facts all the time. Continuously, facts are just provided to us, in black and white, on the page. There is never anything to infer. Nothing to guess. We can't even come up with our own conclusions based on what has been shown to us, because nothing is ever shown to us.
Another obsession the author had? Similes and metaphors. I felt like I was going insane. Every third paragraph we had a new comparison. Sometimes, the comparisons used like or as, but not always. The comparisons were always the most insane comparison possible and you could never guess how the sentence would end. I started keeping track of them, but they just kept coming, so I was forced to give up. I love a good metaphor or a simile here or there! I really do! But these comparisons were so juvenile and so abundant that I had grown weary of them by the time I finished this book. If we had even half of the figurative language used, I think I wouldn't be so annoyed.
Something else annoying was the blatant tropes/stereotypes that the author included. Female main character is a bisexual slut (her words) who slept with everyone in the club. Literally, her and her friends counted. Our female main character's ex (Kit)? Also bisexual, but don't worry because she isn't a slut, she's just a cheater. Cheated on her boyfriend of three years with Lucy, our main character, for 6 months. Lucy's best friends are stereotypes personified - Cooper is a gay man, who owns a Lady Gaga-themed cafe called Brewed this Way. (Side note - we needed so much more information on how it's Lady Gaga themed. Show me the menu. Do you have, like, Bad Ro-macchiatos?) I don't even think I know what Cooper looks like. Maya, Lucy's other best friend, is a Black lesbian. She is a proud man-hating lesbian, blah blah blah, but she gets to U-Haul with a vanlife lesbian. Sure, whatever. Lucy's dad is an absentee, alcoholic dad who ruined her life by being drunk at an important event (and then Lucy ruins her own life further, by leaving the event? Doesn't even stop to introduce herself to anyone there, because she's so embarrassed? Ok.)
I will say, to be completely transparent, at Brewed this Way, there was an open mic show(?) and a band called "Bedrock Butch" played "environmental folk for a bunch of queer people" and I can acknowledge how insane that is to come up with and include for literally no purpose at all, but I'm so obsessed with this. Bedrock Butch if you exist can we be friends ... please text me Bedrock Butch ...
Obviously, as with all romance books nowadays, there was a third act breakup. That's life, I guess. It happened at maybe 85%-90% of the way through the book, so I was getting more and more confident that there wouldn't be a third act breakup! I was so excited! And then my dreams were shattered. The fight was stupid, the breakup was stupid, and guess what? The resolution was stupid. Lucy, instead of texting Jaylen to talk, snuck into the player's area of a hockey arena and was tackled by security. (She made a quippy comment about how she'd experienced worse at Warped Tour, to remind us she's #notlikeothergirls.)
Overall, this book was exhausting. The characters were exhausting. The thinly veiled self-insertness of it all was exhausting. For those who aren't familiar, Lexi LaFleur Brown, the author, is married to JT Brown. He previously played in the NHL and is now a commentator for the Seattle Kraken. Lucy Lee Ross, our main character, was in a relationship with Jaylen Jones -- "JJ", for his friends, who played on the Seattle Rainiers. Like, yes, write what you know! But my god we did not need 300 pages of fanfiction about you and your husband. Which, does bring up the point - Jaylen says that he wets the bed when drunk... Are we to assume this is also true about the person who inspired this character? Because that feels like too much information for me to know about a man I've never met and will never meet.
I wanted to like this book! I think my biggest issue with the author was her marketing - if she didn't parade this around as a "better" alternative to the other hockey books, maybe I wouldn't be this annoyed (to be clear, I don't know if I would have read it then!). The writing is juvenile, the characters are lackluster, and the storytelling is flat. Unfortunately, I will not be reading anything else by this author - if she comes out with any other books.
After writing all of this out, I think I have to round down - rating is still staying at a 1.5, I just don't feel generous enough to give it the extra half of a star.
And with that, I leave you with a collection of similes and metaphors. I hope you enjoy:
"He's hovering closer to me than a Sephora employee making sure I don't steal anything."
"Well, things are over with Kit and much like the era from which that American Girl doll's backstory originated, I too am in a great depression."
"They both look happy as they lean into their potential love interests like magnets drawn together by an invisible force"
"There are hardly any cars and the ones available are surcharged more than the drinks they're selling inside."
"He wobbles around like a Mighty Bean, waiting for my response."
"The words wrap me up like a warm blanket"
"Men are like bears; if you hold eye contact with them for too long, they think it's a challenge they can't back away from."
"This guy wouldn't know a hint if it ditched him at the bar with the tab for six shots."
"He stands there staring at me like a dog waiting for a ball to be thrown."
"He beams like someone placed a medal around his neck." [Please note - all of the above are only from Chapters 1 through 3]
"He offers it to me, and I contemplate it like a chess move."
"Lucy clings to my head like she's reading a crystal ball."
"I picture Lucy out cold, snoring like someone struggling with sleep apnea."
"He gets the loudest applause - most of which comes from Cooper shrieking like a Swiftie who was chosen for the concert ticket presale."
"My answer is as bitter as the black coffee she made this morning."
---
original review (March 12, 2025): it’s like a 1.5 at absolute best, i’m feeling generous right now. might round down when i write a full review tomorrow
What can I say about this book that hasn't already been said?
To begin - I'd seen Lexi LaFleur Brown on my Tiktok FYP in the past. I've seen her videos talking about hockey romance (which is how she marketed this book, by saying it wasn't like the other hockey romance books, because she knows more about the "actual" hockey side, as her husband was in the NHL). I don't follow her, but I did keep my eye out for this book because of her posts. To be frank, I have not read another hockey romance before, and I usually don't read M/F romance, so I went in with medium/low expectations.
I am not sure who the target audience is for this book. Not me, let's be clear, but beyond that, I don't know. The author overexplains very simple matters and then doesn't elaborate on other aspects. For example, we got a whole paragraph on how hockey nicknames work (with the example of Caldwell to Wells... it felt like rocket science over here!). We also got paragraphs of explanation about panic attacks, because But hockey terminology? I guess we are all supposed to be into hockey and know these terms. I'm a very very casual hockey fan - of the PWHL, to be clear - so there were a few acronyms that went over my head. PTO? PIMs? "Goon" (in hockey)? PK/PP? "Movember Muzzy"? "Healthy scratch"? "Dash three"? None of those were explained. It's fine, I had google for the terms I wasn't familiar with, but it would have been nice to just get a sentence of explanation for them!
That said, this book dragged on. It went so painfully slow that I needed to take breaks because I was just so bored.
The main character was the epitome of being "not like other girls", with our very first introduction to her being her demanding a bartender "turn that hockey crap off" (on the TV). Lucy is, at best, a self-insert version of the author with a manic pixie dream girl attitude, and at worst, just plain insufferable. I texted a friend (who had received an ARC) while in Chapter 1 calling Lucy both a manic pixie dream girl and not like other girls -- and low and behold, Lucy refutes those two phrases about herself later on in the book. Okay, sure.
As a lesbian, I am not qualified to discuss the "spicy" scenes in this book, but I'll do it anyway. They read very very juvenile to me. At a point, I almost would have preferred a fade-to-black. It also felt as though the author went overtime to make sure we knew Jaylen (the fictional version of the author's husband, to be clear) was a good guy and was very focused on Lucy's sexual happiness. Every sex scene started with him pleasuring her first and reinforcing how much he loved to pleasure her -- even during their first one night stand as an anonymous hook up. Again, I'm a lesbian, but I am friends with people who like men (sorry to them) and from their experiences, this is not at all the norm. It really felt too in our faces that Jaylen is not like other men who only care about themselves during sex.
Beyond that, the way the FMC and her gay best friend (his only personality trait) interacted about sex made me feel uncomfortable. I'm not a prude by any means, but maybe I'll have to be...
Another weird interaction was when Lucy brings Jaylen to meet her friends for the first time.
Don't ask me what the obsession is with the word "bust" because I couldn't even begin to tell you, but I hated that word choice.
Beyond that, I didn't care for the relationship. Lucy spends the entire front half of the book explaining over and over again that she doesn't do relationships, just to find herself in a "gray area" of their acquaintances-with-benefits situation. Jaylen calls her his girlfriend and says I love you before this woman even realized they were in a relationship.... and there was no discussion about it? She just accepts that she is now in a relationship? After whining for 150 pages about how she can't do relationships...
Also, I was confused about the timeline -- for anyone curious: the timeline starts with Jaylen going to a preseason practice and they end around the Stanley Cup finals. The obligatory epilogue of they all lived happily ever after takes place two years later. Hockey season, according to Google, starts early October and June is when the Playoffs take place. You could've told me the events of this book took place in a single month and I would have believed you. Lucy, our #notlikeothergirls main character, paints a mural for the arena where the Seattle hockey team plays, and I have zero clue how long it took her to paint that. She starts it and then she finishes it.
Which brings me to my next point - the author's obsession with telling and not showing. We learn facts all the time. Continuously, facts are just provided to us, in black and white, on the page. There is never anything to infer. Nothing to guess. We can't even come up with our own conclusions based on what has been shown to us, because nothing is ever shown to us.
Another obsession the author had? Similes and metaphors. I felt like I was going insane. Every third paragraph we had a new comparison. Sometimes, the comparisons used like or as, but not always. The comparisons were always the most insane comparison possible and you could never guess how the sentence would end. I started keeping track of them, but they just kept coming, so I was forced to give up. I love a good metaphor or a simile here or there! I really do! But these comparisons were so juvenile and so abundant that I had grown weary of them by the time I finished this book. If we had even half of the figurative language used, I think I wouldn't be so annoyed.
Something else annoying was the blatant tropes/stereotypes that the author included. Female main character is a bisexual slut (her words) who slept with everyone in the club. Literally, her and her friends counted. Our female main character's ex (Kit)? Also bisexual, but don't worry because she isn't a slut, she's just a cheater. Cheated on her boyfriend of three years with Lucy, our main character, for 6 months. Lucy's best friends are stereotypes personified - Cooper is a gay man, who owns a Lady Gaga-themed cafe called Brewed this Way. (Side note - we needed so much more information on how it's Lady Gaga themed. Show me the menu. Do you have, like, Bad Ro-macchiatos?) I don't even think I know what Cooper looks like. Maya, Lucy's other best friend, is a Black lesbian. She is a proud man-hating lesbian, blah blah blah, but she gets to U-Haul with a vanlife lesbian. Sure, whatever. Lucy's dad is an absentee, alcoholic dad who ruined her life by being drunk at an important event (and then Lucy ruins her own life further, by leaving the event? Doesn't even stop to introduce herself to anyone there, because she's so embarrassed? Ok.)
I will say, to be completely transparent, at Brewed this Way, there was an open mic show(?) and a band called "Bedrock Butch" played "environmental folk for a bunch of queer people" and I can acknowledge how insane that is to come up with and include for literally no purpose at all, but I'm so obsessed with this. Bedrock Butch if you exist can we be friends ... please text me Bedrock Butch ...
Obviously, as with all romance books nowadays, there was a third act breakup. That's life, I guess. It happened at maybe 85%-90% of the way through the book, so I was getting more and more confident that there wouldn't be a third act breakup! I was so excited! And then my dreams were shattered. The fight was stupid, the breakup was stupid, and guess what? The resolution was stupid. Lucy, instead of texting Jaylen to talk, snuck into the player's area of a hockey arena and was tackled by security. (She made a quippy comment about how she'd experienced worse at Warped Tour, to remind us she's #notlikeothergirls.)
Overall, this book was exhausting. The characters were exhausting. The thinly veiled self-insertness of it all was exhausting. For those who aren't familiar, Lexi LaFleur Brown, the author, is married to JT Brown. He previously played in the NHL and is now a commentator for the Seattle Kraken. Lucy Lee Ross, our main character, was in a relationship with Jaylen Jones -- "JJ", for his friends, who played on the Seattle Rainiers. Like, yes, write what you know! But my god we did not need 300 pages of fanfiction about you and your husband. Which, does bring up the point - Jaylen says that he wets the bed when drunk... Are we to assume this is also true about the person who inspired this character? Because that feels like too much information for me to know about a man I've never met and will never meet.
I wanted to like this book! I think my biggest issue with the author was her marketing - if she didn't parade this around as a "better" alternative to the other hockey books, maybe I wouldn't be this annoyed (to be clear, I don't know if I would have read it then!). The writing is juvenile, the characters are lackluster, and the storytelling is flat. Unfortunately, I will not be reading anything else by this author - if she comes out with any other books.
After writing all of this out, I think I have to round down - rating is still staying at a 1.5, I just don't feel generous enough to give it the extra half of a star.
And with that, I leave you with a collection of similes and metaphors. I hope you enjoy:
"He's hovering closer to me than a Sephora employee making sure I don't steal anything."
"Well, things are over with Kit and much like the era from which that American Girl doll's backstory originated, I too am in a great depression."
"They both look happy as they lean into their potential love interests like magnets drawn together by an invisible force"
"There are hardly any cars and the ones available are surcharged more than the drinks they're selling inside."
"He wobbles around like a Mighty Bean, waiting for my response."
"The words wrap me up like a warm blanket"
"Men are like bears; if you hold eye contact with them for too long, they think it's a challenge they can't back away from."
"This guy wouldn't know a hint if it ditched him at the bar with the tab for six shots."
"He stands there staring at me like a dog waiting for a ball to be thrown."
"He beams like someone placed a medal around his neck." [Please note - all of the above are only from Chapters 1 through 3]
"He offers it to me, and I contemplate it like a chess move."
"Lucy clings to my head like she's reading a crystal ball."
"I picture Lucy out cold, snoring like someone struggling with sleep apnea."
"He gets the loudest applause - most of which comes from Cooper shrieking like a Swiftie who was chosen for the concert ticket presale."
"My answer is as bitter as the black coffee she made this morning."
---
original review (March 12, 2025): it’s like a 1.5 at absolute best, i’m feeling generous right now. might round down when i write a full review tomorrow
March 12, 2025
saw a review about how there’s a lesbian moving too fast in this book with another lesbian who lives in her van, and i had to check it out.
so, i read this. to be more exact, i read this and live-tweeted the whole experience, which i never do with books. i prefer to sit quietly with a book, to allow it to take me somewhere. unfortunately, this book made me feel a little bit like i was held hostage.
i have many thoughts, but i will start with what i struggled the most with. it wasn’t the one-dimensional side characters, it wasn’t the nonsensical language, or even the all over the place romance.
it was the lack of storyline & structure. there is no real driving force to this story besides lucy’s tattoo internship, and we never get any real closure with the boss she leaves a huge mural for. the story suffers because it masquerades as what it thinks we want rather than being anything in its own right. i like new adult romcoms, i spent the better part of 2022 reading them almost exclusively, so it sucks to see a book which was marketed as being better than a typical hockey romance fail to actually be better.
i’m actually not a huge fan of show don’t tell. i think it limits storytelling because there are really interesting ways to tell a reader something instead of just showing them. unfortunately, this book made me rethink that stance. we are CONSTANTLY being told what should either be extrapolated from what we’ve seen or shown to us, and it feels like there’s no trust being put in the reader.
and there is a van lesbian. and a lady gaga gay. and a mentioned non-binary barista. i understand that the author is queer but i don’t necessarily think that exempts her from criticism of her very one-note queer characters. just a thought.
so, i read this. to be more exact, i read this and live-tweeted the whole experience, which i never do with books. i prefer to sit quietly with a book, to allow it to take me somewhere. unfortunately, this book made me feel a little bit like i was held hostage.
i have many thoughts, but i will start with what i struggled the most with. it wasn’t the one-dimensional side characters, it wasn’t the nonsensical language, or even the all over the place romance.
it was the lack of storyline & structure. there is no real driving force to this story besides lucy’s tattoo internship, and we never get any real closure with the boss she leaves a huge mural for. the story suffers because it masquerades as what it thinks we want rather than being anything in its own right. i like new adult romcoms, i spent the better part of 2022 reading them almost exclusively, so it sucks to see a book which was marketed as being better than a typical hockey romance fail to actually be better.
i’m actually not a huge fan of show don’t tell. i think it limits storytelling because there are really interesting ways to tell a reader something instead of just showing them. unfortunately, this book made me rethink that stance. we are CONSTANTLY being told what should either be extrapolated from what we’ve seen or shown to us, and it feels like there’s no trust being put in the reader.
and there is a van lesbian. and a lady gaga gay. and a mentioned non-binary barista. i understand that the author is queer but i don’t necessarily think that exempts her from criticism of her very one-note queer characters. just a thought.
February 19, 2025
I’d rather read a hockey romance by an author who doesn’t know everything about hockey than an expert who doesn’t know much about writing.
There’s so much going on here, but none of it lands. It’s overwritten and more telling than showing, which makes the cliches that much more frustrating. Lucy is insufferable. JJ is a doormat. All of it made me crazy.
The hockey is accurate. I guess that was nice. But this is why we shouldn’t give multi-book deals to BookTok influencers whose entire philosophy on writing books is “what, is it hard?�
There’s so much going on here, but none of it lands. It’s overwritten and more telling than showing, which makes the cliches that much more frustrating. Lucy is insufferable. JJ is a doormat. All of it made me crazy.
The hockey is accurate. I guess that was nice. But this is why we shouldn’t give multi-book deals to BookTok influencers whose entire philosophy on writing books is “what, is it hard?�
January 26, 2025
Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for the early edition of this book.
When Lexi Lafleur Brown said that she would use her hockey expertise to finally write an accurate hockey romance, I forgot that knowledge of a specific field is not the only thing it takes for a book to be good. I forgot about style and character development and consistency. It seems Dr. LaFleur Brown forgot about these things as well, because they were not found in this book!
Okay, cattiness aside: this book is bad. And I am a fan of Dr. LaFleur! I'm an NHL fan, a former women's hockey player, and have followed her on socials for years. I was SO excited for this book, and that's why I am so deeply disappointed that it's so bad. I'm tempted to give it 1 star, but it made me laugh a couple of times, so congrats on 2.
Dr. LaFleur knows hockey. All the hockey is super accurate. That has been her main marketing point since she started drafting, and it is obviously the only thing they have to sell. The plot itself is fine, though I think some of it is contrived and a little forced. I don't want to go into spoilers, but some of Lucy's choices were baffling. No sane real person would say or do some of the stuff she says and does, but I guess it needed to be that way for the plot, which is never a good reason.
Jaylen, on the other hand, was perfect. The worst thing Jaylen ever did was be depressed, which obviously is not a moral failing, and that's the problem. I get that romance is a fantasy, but if you take out the mental health, Jaylen is flawless, and that's just boring. Lucy is an insane person; the least we could do is give Jaylen something to apologize for, too.
My biggest gripe about this book, though, is the prose. This book reads like it was written by someone in high school. Every once in a while, there is a nugget of a nice line, but otherwise, it's a massive example of telling and not showing. EVERYTHING that is described is in the most plain, direct language possible. The backstories are told to us as narrative thoughts in the characters' minds. Even their feelings are just written out, leaving no space to interpret or actually feel anything. There was no artistry in any of it, and while some people think that romance isn't art, I think that's a disservice to the genre. There was room in this book for good, creative prose, and it just never arrived. The SMUT was the least sexy, most bland, nothingburger smut I have ever read. "He touched me. I moaned. He touched me again." Not a direct quote, but it might as well be. It was that boring.
There were also a BUNCH of little inconsistencies, like Lucy getting her story wrong or a sentence contradicting the one before it. I don't know if that's the fault of the author or the editor, but with everything else going on, it just added to my annoyance.
In the end, this book was a massive disappointment. Dr. LaFleur is a very intelligent woman, and I wanted this to be good, but holy shit hit up your local community college and take a creative writing class. Regardless of what BookTok might make you think, a book cannot subsist on banter and queer rep alone. If Dr. LaFleur didn't have a big online presence, this book would never have been published by a major house, and that is a big damn shame.
When Lexi Lafleur Brown said that she would use her hockey expertise to finally write an accurate hockey romance, I forgot that knowledge of a specific field is not the only thing it takes for a book to be good. I forgot about style and character development and consistency. It seems Dr. LaFleur Brown forgot about these things as well, because they were not found in this book!
Okay, cattiness aside: this book is bad. And I am a fan of Dr. LaFleur! I'm an NHL fan, a former women's hockey player, and have followed her on socials for years. I was SO excited for this book, and that's why I am so deeply disappointed that it's so bad. I'm tempted to give it 1 star, but it made me laugh a couple of times, so congrats on 2.
Dr. LaFleur knows hockey. All the hockey is super accurate. That has been her main marketing point since she started drafting, and it is obviously the only thing they have to sell. The plot itself is fine, though I think some of it is contrived and a little forced. I don't want to go into spoilers, but some of Lucy's choices were baffling. No sane real person would say or do some of the stuff she says and does, but I guess it needed to be that way for the plot, which is never a good reason.
Jaylen, on the other hand, was perfect. The worst thing Jaylen ever did was be depressed, which obviously is not a moral failing, and that's the problem. I get that romance is a fantasy, but if you take out the mental health, Jaylen is flawless, and that's just boring. Lucy is an insane person; the least we could do is give Jaylen something to apologize for, too.
My biggest gripe about this book, though, is the prose. This book reads like it was written by someone in high school. Every once in a while, there is a nugget of a nice line, but otherwise, it's a massive example of telling and not showing. EVERYTHING that is described is in the most plain, direct language possible. The backstories are told to us as narrative thoughts in the characters' minds. Even their feelings are just written out, leaving no space to interpret or actually feel anything. There was no artistry in any of it, and while some people think that romance isn't art, I think that's a disservice to the genre. There was room in this book for good, creative prose, and it just never arrived. The SMUT was the least sexy, most bland, nothingburger smut I have ever read. "He touched me. I moaned. He touched me again." Not a direct quote, but it might as well be. It was that boring.
There were also a BUNCH of little inconsistencies, like Lucy getting her story wrong or a sentence contradicting the one before it. I don't know if that's the fault of the author or the editor, but with everything else going on, it just added to my annoyance.
In the end, this book was a massive disappointment. Dr. LaFleur is a very intelligent woman, and I wanted this to be good, but holy shit hit up your local community college and take a creative writing class. Regardless of what BookTok might make you think, a book cannot subsist on banter and queer rep alone. If Dr. LaFleur didn't have a big online presence, this book would never have been published by a major house, and that is a big damn shame.
February 8, 2025
lucy is a prickly, tattooed black cat and jaylen is a anxious, sunshiny golden retriever. after a borderline meet disaster, jaylen chases down lucy because he believes she’s his good luck charm going into his new hockey season.
this is lexi’s debut, so I’m leaving some space in my rating for that. this book has its cute moments. jaylen stole the show for me. he was kind and attentive and gave lucy the space she needed to get over her (annoying) commitment phobia. I felt like lucy was kind of insensitive at times and didn’t treat him the best and it made me low key sad for jj???
the mental health rep was really well done. I loved jaylen’s journey and the therapy and panic attacks were written with care.
🎧 thank you to harlequin audio for the audiobook! I was able to read this on one day. both voice actors brought their skills and were quite emotive and engaging.
what to expect
� hockey romance
� black cat x golden retriever
� he falls first
� bi rep
3.5 rounded up
this is lexi’s debut, so I’m leaving some space in my rating for that. this book has its cute moments. jaylen stole the show for me. he was kind and attentive and gave lucy the space she needed to get over her (annoying) commitment phobia. I felt like lucy was kind of insensitive at times and didn’t treat him the best and it made me low key sad for jj???
the mental health rep was really well done. I loved jaylen’s journey and the therapy and panic attacks were written with care.
🎧 thank you to harlequin audio for the audiobook! I was able to read this on one day. both voice actors brought their skills and were quite emotive and engaging.
what to expect
� hockey romance
� black cat x golden retriever
� he falls first
� bi rep
3.5 rounded up
November 4, 2024
3.5 rounded up to 4 because it was cute.
I follow the author on tiktok and have seen all her videos on her husband and when i saw that she had a book coming out I ran to NetGalley to apply for the arc and I was so happy I got it!
Sports romances can be iffy for me, but I was in the mood for something cute and low angst and this hit the spot.
Jaylen and Lucy were great! I LOVED Lucy’s take no shit attitude. She was a bitch in the best way and honestly a great heroine. She was snarky and slutty and mean and she was the perfect opposite of Jaylen’s sweetness.
I loved their meet cute and how he was obsessed with her from first sight and she wanted nothing to do with him and she made him work for the right to call her his lucky charm 😂
Safety wise�.1000% safe.
Lucy had just gotten out of a 6 month relationship because she found out her girlfriend had a boyfriend and it was mentioned in the beginning (before she met Jaylen) that she basically hooked up with every male and female at the club they were at 😂 and i love that for her.
Jaylen has been in a downward spiral with his career and has been focusing on nothing but hockey for two years so while its never explicitly stated that it’s been two years for him, it’s been longer for him than for Lucy. He said that picking up women wasn’t a foreign concept to him, but not something he made a habit.
The one thing that I didn’t love was the writing. It wasn’t bad! but i felt like a lot was explained but nothing made sense to me. I found myself skipping paragraphs to get to the dialogue. I also wish there was an explanation for what happened with her boss�..unless there was and i missed it 😅
I follow the author on tiktok and have seen all her videos on her husband and when i saw that she had a book coming out I ran to NetGalley to apply for the arc and I was so happy I got it!
Sports romances can be iffy for me, but I was in the mood for something cute and low angst and this hit the spot.
Jaylen and Lucy were great! I LOVED Lucy’s take no shit attitude. She was a bitch in the best way and honestly a great heroine. She was snarky and slutty and mean and she was the perfect opposite of Jaylen’s sweetness.
I loved their meet cute and how he was obsessed with her from first sight and she wanted nothing to do with him and she made him work for the right to call her his lucky charm 😂
Safety wise�.1000% safe.
Lucy had just gotten out of a 6 month relationship because she found out her girlfriend had a boyfriend and it was mentioned in the beginning (before she met Jaylen) that she basically hooked up with every male and female at the club they were at 😂 and i love that for her.
Jaylen has been in a downward spiral with his career and has been focusing on nothing but hockey for two years so while its never explicitly stated that it’s been two years for him, it’s been longer for him than for Lucy. He said that picking up women wasn’t a foreign concept to him, but not something he made a habit.
The one thing that I didn’t love was the writing. It wasn’t bad! but i felt like a lot was explained but nothing made sense to me. I found myself skipping paragraphs to get to the dialogue. I also wish there was an explanation for what happened with her boss�..unless there was and i missed it 😅
February 27, 2025
My first and hopefully my last 1 star read of the year.
I really hate when books that have all the markings of being a book you SHOULD love falls so unbelievably low.
I really wanted to love this book. A queer hockey romance with a bi FMC should have been right up my alley, but unfortunately, Shoot Your Shot just didn’t work for me.
The biggest issue was the writing style—it relied too much on telling instead of showing, making the story feel flat. The writing didn’t flow smoothly, and the characters felt more like a checklist of traits rather than fully developed people. The romance, which should have been the heart of the book, lacked the chemistry I was hoping for, and the intimacy scenes were awkward enough that I found myself skipping ahead.
I struggled to get through the ebook and ended up switching to the audiobook, which, thanks to the dual narration, was the best part of the experience. The narrators did their best to bring the story to life, and I credit them with getting me to the finish line.
Overall, while I appreciate what this book was trying to do, it just didn’t deliver for me. If you’re a die-hard fan of queer hockey romances, you might still want to give it a shot—but don’t be surprised if it misses the net.
**I reviewed this one netgalley first before I came to GR and am so glad that I seem to not be the only one that feels this way about this book! I have no clue who this author is but I doubt I will be picking a book up by here again.
I really hate when books that have all the markings of being a book you SHOULD love falls so unbelievably low.
I really wanted to love this book. A queer hockey romance with a bi FMC should have been right up my alley, but unfortunately, Shoot Your Shot just didn’t work for me.
The biggest issue was the writing style—it relied too much on telling instead of showing, making the story feel flat. The writing didn’t flow smoothly, and the characters felt more like a checklist of traits rather than fully developed people. The romance, which should have been the heart of the book, lacked the chemistry I was hoping for, and the intimacy scenes were awkward enough that I found myself skipping ahead.
I struggled to get through the ebook and ended up switching to the audiobook, which, thanks to the dual narration, was the best part of the experience. The narrators did their best to bring the story to life, and I credit them with getting me to the finish line.
Overall, while I appreciate what this book was trying to do, it just didn’t deliver for me. If you’re a die-hard fan of queer hockey romances, you might still want to give it a shot—but don’t be surprised if it misses the net.
**I reviewed this one netgalley first before I came to GR and am so glad that I seem to not be the only one that feels this way about this book! I have no clue who this author is but I doubt I will be picking a book up by here again.
November 4, 2024
3.5 rounded up!!
i was very intrigued by this book as soon as i found out Lexi was writing it, i figured that you couldnt go wrong with a literal nhl wag and ex hockey player herself. i knew she had a lot of controversial opinions to some about booktok and hockey romances so i was excited to be able to get my hands on this early!!
i think that lexi did a phenomenal job with writing any of the hockey aspects (not that i had any doubt it wouldnt be anything but as accurate as possible), the mental health representation was handled with utmost care and the lgbtqia+ representation was SO good!!! i absolutely adored jaylens excitement during one of the scenes, he was so cute 😂
the literal only reason i am giving this a 3.5 is because i would have loved more out of quite a few different aspects of the book, for example - more details, more background, just a bit more depth in general for certain things. this was a really good debut & i honestly cant wait to see what lexi does next
i was very intrigued by this book as soon as i found out Lexi was writing it, i figured that you couldnt go wrong with a literal nhl wag and ex hockey player herself. i knew she had a lot of controversial opinions to some about booktok and hockey romances so i was excited to be able to get my hands on this early!!
i think that lexi did a phenomenal job with writing any of the hockey aspects (not that i had any doubt it wouldnt be anything but as accurate as possible), the mental health representation was handled with utmost care and the lgbtqia+ representation was SO good!!! i absolutely adored jaylens excitement during one of the scenes, he was so cute 😂
the literal only reason i am giving this a 3.5 is because i would have loved more out of quite a few different aspects of the book, for example - more details, more background, just a bit more depth in general for certain things. this was a really good debut & i honestly cant wait to see what lexi does next
November 19, 2024
3.5/5
If you like hockey romance books then you should read this book. This book follows the fmc who is an artist and also trying to get in the tattoo artist space where she is interning. The mmc is a black hockey player who has been doing poorly in his hockey games and starts an agreement with the fmc for her to be a good luck charm for him since he plays better with her around. As they spend time together they are get more attracted to each other and try not to date. I liked the good luck plot and the tattoo artist plot and i enjoyed the mmc. The mmc fell first and was obsessed with the fmc, both characters have trauma and issues they are working through. The romance was adorable and i thought it was also pretty real when it came to arguments and real life issues. This had multiple spicy scenes for smut lovers. I thought some parts of the book were slow, but this was a cute sports romance overall. Thanks to HTP for this arc!
Read if you like:
- Sports romance
- Bisexual fmc
- He falls first
- Black cat fmc and golden retriever
If you like hockey romance books then you should read this book. This book follows the fmc who is an artist and also trying to get in the tattoo artist space where she is interning. The mmc is a black hockey player who has been doing poorly in his hockey games and starts an agreement with the fmc for her to be a good luck charm for him since he plays better with her around. As they spend time together they are get more attracted to each other and try not to date. I liked the good luck plot and the tattoo artist plot and i enjoyed the mmc. The mmc fell first and was obsessed with the fmc, both characters have trauma and issues they are working through. The romance was adorable and i thought it was also pretty real when it came to arguments and real life issues. This had multiple spicy scenes for smut lovers. I thought some parts of the book were slow, but this was a cute sports romance overall. Thanks to HTP for this arc!
Read if you like:
- Sports romance
- Bisexual fmc
- He falls first
- Black cat fmc and golden retriever
March 8, 2025
This book was cute! It was a fun take on a hockey romance and I loved how sassy the FMC was. Her being a good luck charm was so cute!
I loved seeing the character development, but something about their relationship seemed a bit surface level and I wish we got to see more of them together.
Cute hockey romance!
I loved seeing the character development, but something about their relationship seemed a bit surface level and I wish we got to see more of them together.
Cute hockey romance!
March 5, 2025
Thank you to Harlequin books and NetGalley for this e-arc!
Grumpy, black cat wanna-be tattoo apprentice Lucy and naive NHL player Jaylen make a good luck bargain with each other. She serves as his good luck charm and he helps her with her tattoo portfolio.
I’m sorry, but immediately no - letting this author debut after talking poorly again and again on the exact romance book niche she’s attempting to write in is awful. I don’t have anything good to say about this book besides LaFleur attempted to have a diverse cast (which unfortunately felt very stereotypical). I cringe to think about how closely the characters resemble the author’s real life - down to their names.
This is the kind of book that results from allowing a woman with some influence to land a deal without any skill in writing. The whole book was telling not showing, the pacing was off, the inner and regular dialogue was cringey, and the FMC was just unlikable.
I cannot in good will recommend this book. And I do wish she hadn’t dragged Rachel Reid (the queen of hockey romance) into any of her campaign.
Grumpy, black cat wanna-be tattoo apprentice Lucy and naive NHL player Jaylen make a good luck bargain with each other. She serves as his good luck charm and he helps her with her tattoo portfolio.
I’m sorry, but immediately no - letting this author debut after talking poorly again and again on the exact romance book niche she’s attempting to write in is awful. I don’t have anything good to say about this book besides LaFleur attempted to have a diverse cast (which unfortunately felt very stereotypical). I cringe to think about how closely the characters resemble the author’s real life - down to their names.
This is the kind of book that results from allowing a woman with some influence to land a deal without any skill in writing. The whole book was telling not showing, the pacing was off, the inner and regular dialogue was cringey, and the FMC was just unlikable.
I cannot in good will recommend this book. And I do wish she hadn’t dragged Rachel Reid (the queen of hockey romance) into any of her campaign.
November 7, 2024
When I heard that Dr. Lexi LaFleur Brown was writing a Hockey Romance novel I remember saying "this isn't just going to be a hockey romance, it's going to be THE Hockey Romance!"
I'm so happy to say that I was completely correct, but it is also so much more.
This book has incredibly well developed characters that break the mold for typical hockey romance personalities. Lucy's black cat energy mixed so well with Jaylen's sweet golden retriever energy. The two were a perfect definition of opposites attract and their chemistry and tension felt real and not forced. The issues each character faced outside of their relationship felt very true to life and helped me live in the moment even more so than normal. The mental health representation was done with so much thought and intention that I really appreciated.
As a long time lover of real life hockey, I was most excited to see how the wife of a former NHL player approached the topic, and it's safe to say that this is EASILY the most accurate hockey depicted in a sports romance book that I have ever read. Nothing takes me out of reading a book faster than when something incredibly unrealistic to a hockey season/game/practice/mindset. That never happened in this book and I am so eternally grateful because that meant I got to sit within the world more completely.
All that being said, you definitely don't need to be a "fan" of hockey to enjoy this book! The main character Lucy doesn't know anything about hockey at the start of the book so you can feel comfortable jumping in regardless of your knowledge level with the sport.
Thank you so much to NetGalley and Harlequin Trade Publishing for a copy of the ARC! I greatly enjoyed it!
I'm so happy to say that I was completely correct, but it is also so much more.
This book has incredibly well developed characters that break the mold for typical hockey romance personalities. Lucy's black cat energy mixed so well with Jaylen's sweet golden retriever energy. The two were a perfect definition of opposites attract and their chemistry and tension felt real and not forced. The issues each character faced outside of their relationship felt very true to life and helped me live in the moment even more so than normal. The mental health representation was done with so much thought and intention that I really appreciated.
As a long time lover of real life hockey, I was most excited to see how the wife of a former NHL player approached the topic, and it's safe to say that this is EASILY the most accurate hockey depicted in a sports romance book that I have ever read. Nothing takes me out of reading a book faster than when something incredibly unrealistic to a hockey season/game/practice/mindset. That never happened in this book and I am so eternally grateful because that meant I got to sit within the world more completely.
All that being said, you definitely don't need to be a "fan" of hockey to enjoy this book! The main character Lucy doesn't know anything about hockey at the start of the book so you can feel comfortable jumping in regardless of your knowledge level with the sport.
Thank you so much to NetGalley and Harlequin Trade Publishing for a copy of the ARC! I greatly enjoyed it!
April 9, 2025
2.5 stars rounded up
I was expecting WAY worse based on everything but besides absolutely failing to live up to the gift to hockey romance Lexi claimed this book would be it was short and readable enough. Girl loves her similes though this book had at least 500 of them. And the hockey was accurate I suppose but who cares plenty of books get the hockey accurate enough for a romance! there needs to be more than accurate hockey and jokes told in similes to be a compelling story. And when you critique hockey romance books on your tiktok then declare you will do it better like lexi did you gotta actually deliver the goods like lexi did not
I was expecting WAY worse based on everything but besides absolutely failing to live up to the gift to hockey romance Lexi claimed this book would be it was short and readable enough. Girl loves her similes though this book had at least 500 of them. And the hockey was accurate I suppose but who cares plenty of books get the hockey accurate enough for a romance! there needs to be more than accurate hockey and jokes told in similes to be a compelling story. And when you critique hockey romance books on your tiktok then declare you will do it better like lexi did you gotta actually deliver the goods like lexi did not
March 1, 2025
well, its a book!
didn't enjoy this, but I didn't hate it. I just failed to captivate me. I didn't find there was a foundation for their relationship, the characters had a backstory but lacked depth. i didn't like any of the characters, they were just kinda there. the fmc was kinda giving pick me, the mmc didn't make me swoon. i still don't get how they got together, like they were just both there at the bar and he thought she was hot. great foundation for a hook up but not for the pining that he had for her??
thanks to netgalley for an arc in exchange for an honest review.
didn't enjoy this, but I didn't hate it. I just failed to captivate me. I didn't find there was a foundation for their relationship, the characters had a backstory but lacked depth. i didn't like any of the characters, they were just kinda there. the fmc was kinda giving pick me, the mmc didn't make me swoon. i still don't get how they got together, like they were just both there at the bar and he thought she was hot. great foundation for a hook up but not for the pining that he had for her??
thanks to netgalley for an arc in exchange for an honest review.
January 28, 2025
This was a big flop for me!!!!! Obviously Lexi is very knowledgeable on hockey and that is shown in the book but that was the only positive for me. The writing style was my biggest problem in this book. It did not work for me at all. There would be one ore two sentences of dialogue and then paragraphs and paragraphs of narrative that by the time you get back to the dialogue you forgot what they were talking about. And it is like this the whole book. I also wasn’t a big fan of either of the main characters. She didn’t come of edgy, she came off rude and unlikable.
Want to read
June 5, 2024REAL SPORTS ROMANCE INCOMING!!!!!
April 14, 2025
Shoot Your Shot follows Lucy and Jaylen after a one night stand. They quickly gravitate towards each other with Lucy serving as Jaylen’s good luck charm as he attempts to proves himself to be the NHL star he was drafted to be.
The beginning of the novel was fun with a hint of the chemistry between Lucy and Jaylen. Unfortunately, after their one night stand any chemistry they had disappeared as Lexi LaFleur Brown started telling rather than showing their relationship develop. Even with Brown telling readers about the relationship, their sexual development felt like it came out of left field. All of a sudden they had a casual relationship.
Lucy is a manic pixie dream girl character. She’s not like other girls with her stompy boots and bad girl attitude/vibe. By the end of the novel, I was annoyed with her.
Jaylen is a doormat. While I did enjoy the inclusion of mental health in the professional sports setting, there wasn’t much else to Jaylen as a character.
Spice level: 🌶�
Overall, I really wanted to enjoy Shoot Your Shot, but its mediocre writing and forgettable characters left much to be desired.
*** I received an arc from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.
The beginning of the novel was fun with a hint of the chemistry between Lucy and Jaylen. Unfortunately, after their one night stand any chemistry they had disappeared as Lexi LaFleur Brown started telling rather than showing their relationship develop. Even with Brown telling readers about the relationship, their sexual development felt like it came out of left field. All of a sudden they had a casual relationship.
Lucy is a manic pixie dream girl character. She’s not like other girls with her stompy boots and bad girl attitude/vibe. By the end of the novel, I was annoyed with her.
Jaylen is a doormat. While I did enjoy the inclusion of mental health in the professional sports setting, there wasn’t much else to Jaylen as a character.
Spice level: 🌶�
Overall, I really wanted to enjoy Shoot Your Shot, but its mediocre writing and forgettable characters left much to be desired.
*** I received an arc from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.
March 7, 2025
New Life Goal: Become an NHL Player’s Lucky Charm
I love one (1) man, and his name is Jaylen Jones.
This book??? Perfection. Lexi LeFleur Brown really said, “Here, have a hockey romance that’s actually funny and not just, like, three decent banter moments stretched over 350 pages.� And for that, I am eternally grateful.
Some highlights of my emotional journey:
� Jaylen being so convinced his mystery one-night stand is the key to his NHL career?? Sir, be serious. But also, I support your delusions.
� Lucy being a struggling tattoo artist with big “I don’t believe in luck, but sure, I’ll humor you� energy. Love that for her.
� The fact that their entire relationship starts because Jaylen is desperate for a pre-game good luck text. Imagine the power.
� The banter??? Top tier. The chemistry??? Sizzling. I was literally cackling and grinning like an idiot.
� Situationships?? Misunderstandings?? Forced proximity disguised as casual deals?? I’m foaming at the mouth.
This book was so much fun, and I am obsessed with Lexi LeFleur Brown’s humor. The writing is fast-paced, the characters are lovable, and the romance is just chef’s kiss. If you like hockey romances that actually make you laugh, this is the book.
5 stars and a pre-game good luck text from me.
Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the e-arc!
I love one (1) man, and his name is Jaylen Jones.
This book??? Perfection. Lexi LeFleur Brown really said, “Here, have a hockey romance that’s actually funny and not just, like, three decent banter moments stretched over 350 pages.� And for that, I am eternally grateful.
Some highlights of my emotional journey:
� Jaylen being so convinced his mystery one-night stand is the key to his NHL career?? Sir, be serious. But also, I support your delusions.
� Lucy being a struggling tattoo artist with big “I don’t believe in luck, but sure, I’ll humor you� energy. Love that for her.
� The fact that their entire relationship starts because Jaylen is desperate for a pre-game good luck text. Imagine the power.
� The banter??? Top tier. The chemistry??? Sizzling. I was literally cackling and grinning like an idiot.
� Situationships?? Misunderstandings?? Forced proximity disguised as casual deals?? I’m foaming at the mouth.
This book was so much fun, and I am obsessed with Lexi LeFleur Brown’s humor. The writing is fast-paced, the characters are lovable, and the romance is just chef’s kiss. If you like hockey romances that actually make you laugh, this is the book.
5 stars and a pre-game good luck text from me.
Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the e-arc!
March 13, 2025
� ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Shoot Your Shot
Author: Lexi Lafleur Brown
Thank you so much Harlequin Audio for this ALC! Hockey romance fans unite! I want to start with saying I loved that our FMC was a bad ass tattoo apprentice. Also a bit rough around the edges, Lucy is everything we want in an FMC. When she meets professional hockey player Jaylen at a bar one night, she has no idea it’s the start or a relationship she did not know she was looking for. Jaylen was having a bout of bad luck and thought his career was over, but after his one night with Lucy he received an offer from a team he could not refuse. They end up making a deal where she is his good luck charm, and he lets her tattoo on him to build her portfolio. The audio was great, and it was done in duet narration bouncing between Jaylen and Lucy. It was pretty hilarious, special emphasis on the cat chapters 😂. I really enjoyed this read and I think sports romance fans will love adding this one to their shelves. This just released 3/11!
Shoot Your Shot
Author: Lexi Lafleur Brown
Thank you so much Harlequin Audio for this ALC! Hockey romance fans unite! I want to start with saying I loved that our FMC was a bad ass tattoo apprentice. Also a bit rough around the edges, Lucy is everything we want in an FMC. When she meets professional hockey player Jaylen at a bar one night, she has no idea it’s the start or a relationship she did not know she was looking for. Jaylen was having a bout of bad luck and thought his career was over, but after his one night with Lucy he received an offer from a team he could not refuse. They end up making a deal where she is his good luck charm, and he lets her tattoo on him to build her portfolio. The audio was great, and it was done in duet narration bouncing between Jaylen and Lucy. It was pretty hilarious, special emphasis on the cat chapters 😂. I really enjoyed this read and I think sports romance fans will love adding this one to their shelves. This just released 3/11!
March 27, 2025
This was basically all tell and no show. Them falling in love was very unbelievable since there was no chemistry. I really struggled to get through this one.
April 7, 2025
a lot of showing, not a lot of telling
January 12, 2025
Thank you to Edelweiss and Canary Ink Press/Afterglow Books by Harlequin for providing me with an egalley of this title to read and give my honest review. The opinions expressed here are my own.
I really should learn to avoid TikTok influencer books. More often than not I am disappointed with them. But the blurb really caught my eye, the reviews seemed positive, and I love me a hockey romance. So I decided to give it a shot (no pun intended). To say I'm disappointed in the execution of this book is an understatement. It really did have great bones but there were so many things wrong with it.
The plot was typical of a hockey romance if a bit cliché. The hockey star takes a downfall and needs to build his career back up. He meets a manic pixie girl and they connect with a hot one night stand never thinking they'll see each other again. Of course their paths cross again and each time the hockey has a great game. So, of course, she's his lucky charm. But she has no intention of letting another relationship get in the way. Of course that pesky little thing called love gets in the way. While the pacing was pretty fast for this one, it was stunted in many places due to awkward dialogue and weird switches in POV.
The romance was ok. I would have liked to see a better development. I just didn't feel the chemistry between the FMC and MMC. They were so very different it was a wonder they connected at all. And, while I know opposites can attract, the author really needed to show this to us and it didn't happen. And the spicy scenes just were not done well. They were super rushed and awkward. I didn't feel any passion between the characters. The scenes made me cringe and were more clinical than emotional.
Speaking of showing, that didn't happen in this book. There was so much telling. And there were weird medical terms used throughout that just took me right out of the story. Can such terms be used in books, of course, but it's how they were use that totally baffled me. They just seemed so random. Who mentions things like UTI, adenoids, apena, vascular, and trypanophobia would be understood by someone in the medical field (such as myself, since I'm a nurse) but the general public will not know what these things are. I also saw this with the hockey terms. I love me some hockey and it was obvious the author had some good knowledge in this area. But I don't know a lot of the terms. And neither did the FMC. A perfect way for the author to have explained some of the words she was using would have been to have the MMC teach the FMC these terms as it would have also helped the reader.
As for the characters, they were relatable for the most part but I feel like if you're putting a POC into the story there's a reason for it. There is racism alluded to, but we never see it or how it may have affected the character. Same with the LBGTQ representation. For the most part this was done well but I did see some stereotypes woven into the story, and not in any type of positive way. And the mental health that was addressed was a super important part of the MMC but it doesn't happen until about half way through the book. These aspects of the characters needed more exploration. I feel like using such designations in a book are usually done for a reason and I need them to be done well so I can understand the importance of them being included in the story. I feel like having this information and showing us why it is important would have helped me connect more with the characters as I really didn't feel this connection. Overall the main characters came across as flat for me.
I had issues with the FMC, Lucy, and her profession. She's an artist. But she wants to tattoo. But she has never tattooed before. She draws and paints, but not tattoos. She does all kinds of other things. There's no real understanding as to why she wants this profession. I feel like there needed to be more included for me to understand. It came across as not much research being done in this area.
While the book wasn't terrible and the bones are there for a great story, the execution was very lacking. I felt like it needs a lot more editing. I'm hoping the final version would be more tight where this is concerned. There were many times I wanted to DNF this book but I pushed in the hopes the story would take a turn for the better. But it never did. The book honestly left me with more questions than answers. The premise was good with a nice cast of diverse characters but the book itself just had too many issues for me to love it.
I really should learn to avoid TikTok influencer books. More often than not I am disappointed with them. But the blurb really caught my eye, the reviews seemed positive, and I love me a hockey romance. So I decided to give it a shot (no pun intended). To say I'm disappointed in the execution of this book is an understatement. It really did have great bones but there were so many things wrong with it.
The plot was typical of a hockey romance if a bit cliché. The hockey star takes a downfall and needs to build his career back up. He meets a manic pixie girl and they connect with a hot one night stand never thinking they'll see each other again. Of course their paths cross again and each time the hockey has a great game. So, of course, she's his lucky charm. But she has no intention of letting another relationship get in the way. Of course that pesky little thing called love gets in the way. While the pacing was pretty fast for this one, it was stunted in many places due to awkward dialogue and weird switches in POV.
The romance was ok. I would have liked to see a better development. I just didn't feel the chemistry between the FMC and MMC. They were so very different it was a wonder they connected at all. And, while I know opposites can attract, the author really needed to show this to us and it didn't happen. And the spicy scenes just were not done well. They were super rushed and awkward. I didn't feel any passion between the characters. The scenes made me cringe and were more clinical than emotional.
Speaking of showing, that didn't happen in this book. There was so much telling. And there were weird medical terms used throughout that just took me right out of the story. Can such terms be used in books, of course, but it's how they were use that totally baffled me. They just seemed so random. Who mentions things like UTI, adenoids, apena, vascular, and trypanophobia would be understood by someone in the medical field (such as myself, since I'm a nurse) but the general public will not know what these things are. I also saw this with the hockey terms. I love me some hockey and it was obvious the author had some good knowledge in this area. But I don't know a lot of the terms. And neither did the FMC. A perfect way for the author to have explained some of the words she was using would have been to have the MMC teach the FMC these terms as it would have also helped the reader.
As for the characters, they were relatable for the most part but I feel like if you're putting a POC into the story there's a reason for it. There is racism alluded to, but we never see it or how it may have affected the character. Same with the LBGTQ representation. For the most part this was done well but I did see some stereotypes woven into the story, and not in any type of positive way. And the mental health that was addressed was a super important part of the MMC but it doesn't happen until about half way through the book. These aspects of the characters needed more exploration. I feel like using such designations in a book are usually done for a reason and I need them to be done well so I can understand the importance of them being included in the story. I feel like having this information and showing us why it is important would have helped me connect more with the characters as I really didn't feel this connection. Overall the main characters came across as flat for me.
I had issues with the FMC, Lucy, and her profession. She's an artist. But she wants to tattoo. But she has never tattooed before. She draws and paints, but not tattoos. She does all kinds of other things. There's no real understanding as to why she wants this profession. I feel like there needed to be more included for me to understand. It came across as not much research being done in this area.
While the book wasn't terrible and the bones are there for a great story, the execution was very lacking. I felt like it needs a lot more editing. I'm hoping the final version would be more tight where this is concerned. There were many times I wanted to DNF this book but I pushed in the hopes the story would take a turn for the better. But it never did. The book honestly left me with more questions than answers. The premise was good with a nice cast of diverse characters but the book itself just had too many issues for me to love it.
March 6, 2025
This was way more fun than I expected.
I really enjoyed Lucy and JJ's relationship. The superstition of a good luck charm leading to dating and relationships.
Lucy was a bit of a breath of fresh air for hockey romance heroines which I always love. She's proudly queer and not the stereotype.
I really enjoyed Lucy and JJ's relationship. The superstition of a good luck charm leading to dating and relationships.
Lucy was a bit of a breath of fresh air for hockey romance heroines which I always love. She's proudly queer and not the stereotype.
February 19, 2025
This was cute! I'd say it's a fairly solid debut, but I didn't love it like I wanted to. This largely could've been a me problem!! I am not in a hockey romance mindset. But it was also a mix of the writing style and character/relationship development.
Individually, I ended up loving Jaylen and Lucy. Lucy took some time to grow on me but I loved Jaylen from the beginning. He was just so sweet! I didn't love the way Lucy treated him. They both did a lot of growing and I was so proud of both of them in the end. Even if the third act conflict really tested my patience with both of them.
As a couple, they were cute! I like them together but their relationship, on page, was very surface level. I don't feel like we got to see their relationship develop as much as we did with their individual stories. That was kind of a bummer.
Overall, it didn't totally work for me but I would still say to give it a shot. Especially if you love hockey romance. There were a few funny one liners that had me laughing out loud and while it dealt with some heavier topics, the book did not feel heavy.
Individually, I ended up loving Jaylen and Lucy. Lucy took some time to grow on me but I loved Jaylen from the beginning. He was just so sweet! I didn't love the way Lucy treated him. They both did a lot of growing and I was so proud of both of them in the end. Even if the third act conflict really tested my patience with both of them.
As a couple, they were cute! I like them together but their relationship, on page, was very surface level. I don't feel like we got to see their relationship develop as much as we did with their individual stories. That was kind of a bummer.
Overall, it didn't totally work for me but I would still say to give it a shot. Especially if you love hockey romance. There were a few funny one liners that had me laughing out loud and while it dealt with some heavier topics, the book did not feel heavy.
March 3, 2025
3.5 stars rounded up to 4
It’s no secret that I like hockey and reading hockey romance books, so when I saw that Lexi was publishing a book, I ran to Netgalley to apply for an ARC.
This was cute! I liked that hockey wasn’t an afterthought, and that it’s actually important to the plot. Things like positions, Stanley Cup playoffs, travel schedules, the wags� if it’s hockey-related, it’s probably in this book. I enjoyed Jaylen’s povs the most for that reason!
Lucy and Jaylen were sweet together, and there’s a lot of work done to carve out their backstories within the plot, but the narrative style made their relationship feel a little surface-level to me. Full transparency when I say that I’m not sure what could’ve been done differently to rectify that, but the prose just wasn’t my favorite.
Overall, a cute read!
Thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for the ARC.
It’s no secret that I like hockey and reading hockey romance books, so when I saw that Lexi was publishing a book, I ran to Netgalley to apply for an ARC.
This was cute! I liked that hockey wasn’t an afterthought, and that it’s actually important to the plot. Things like positions, Stanley Cup playoffs, travel schedules, the wags� if it’s hockey-related, it’s probably in this book. I enjoyed Jaylen’s povs the most for that reason!
Lucy and Jaylen were sweet together, and there’s a lot of work done to carve out their backstories within the plot, but the narrative style made their relationship feel a little surface-level to me. Full transparency when I say that I’m not sure what could’ve been done differently to rectify that, but the prose just wasn’t my favorite.
Overall, a cute read!
Thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for the ARC.
April 3, 2025
Shoot Your Shot
By Lexi LaFleur Brown
3 stars
Man, I love a hockey romance and especially a duet audiobook! Thank you Harlequin Audio for this opportunity!
What worked:
-Jaylen’s humor
-Jaylen seeking therapy and having anxiety/depression representation
-Jaylen being a total sweetheart
-Lucy representing the bisexuals of the world
-Lucy being a black cat energy girlie
-Lucy’s BFF’s
-listening to this as an audio was the best!
What didn’t work:
-The queer characters being boiled down to overused tropes- gay bff was sassy/mean/barista & being gay is his only personality trait & lesbian friend was too serious too fast with a girl living out of her van
-Lucy, a bisexual woman, describing herself as promiscuous and flighty from the start
-most characters were lacking depth and felt very one dimensional
-the language at times felt off or really unrealistic
-Lucy being so obsessed with getting the tattoo internship that she’s rude to Jaylen/not wanting anything with him/putting all her focus into it despite Jaylen being a really great guy to her
-Over explaining of simple things but not elaborating on more complex aspects ( like what happened when Lucy quit her job?!?!)
-Not explaining any of the hockey terminology that’s sprinkled throughout the book? I like the romance of it all, I know nothing about the sport- help?
-Lucy explaining over and over again how she doesn’t do relationships
-Jaylen telling Lucy he loves her & calling her his girlfriend when she doesnt even think they’re in a relationship and just accepts it after telling us she doesnt do relationships
-Constantly being told and now shown in the book.
-The smut scenes were bland and poorly written. We get it, Jaylen is black and has a huge dick that “won’t fit�
Grateful I listened to this one because I’m not sure an eyeball read would have worked for me at all.
By Lexi LaFleur Brown
3 stars
Man, I love a hockey romance and especially a duet audiobook! Thank you Harlequin Audio for this opportunity!
What worked:
-Jaylen’s humor
-Jaylen seeking therapy and having anxiety/depression representation
-Jaylen being a total sweetheart
-Lucy representing the bisexuals of the world
-Lucy being a black cat energy girlie
-Lucy’s BFF’s
-listening to this as an audio was the best!
What didn’t work:
-The queer characters being boiled down to overused tropes- gay bff was sassy/mean/barista & being gay is his only personality trait & lesbian friend was too serious too fast with a girl living out of her van
-Lucy, a bisexual woman, describing herself as promiscuous and flighty from the start
-most characters were lacking depth and felt very one dimensional
-the language at times felt off or really unrealistic
-Lucy being so obsessed with getting the tattoo internship that she’s rude to Jaylen/not wanting anything with him/putting all her focus into it despite Jaylen being a really great guy to her
-Over explaining of simple things but not elaborating on more complex aspects ( like what happened when Lucy quit her job?!?!)
-Not explaining any of the hockey terminology that’s sprinkled throughout the book? I like the romance of it all, I know nothing about the sport- help?
-Lucy explaining over and over again how she doesn’t do relationships
-Jaylen telling Lucy he loves her & calling her his girlfriend when she doesnt even think they’re in a relationship and just accepts it after telling us she doesnt do relationships
-Constantly being told and now shown in the book.
-The smut scenes were bland and poorly written. We get it, Jaylen is black and has a huge dick that “won’t fit�
Grateful I listened to this one because I’m not sure an eyeball read would have worked for me at all.
February 14, 2025
3.5 stars rounded up to 4. ❤️
If I am one thing, it’s a hockey romance girl. Add in my love for tattoos and daddy issues� this book hit a lot of personal points for me! 😂
Jalen and Lucy are two very flawed and traumatized people who through therapy and actual communication find love and growth together. And we LOVE that for them.
This book was a lot of fun, and I can definitely recommend any hockey romance lover to pick this book up once it releases!
Thank you to NetGalley, for providing me with an ARC in exchange for a fair and honest review. All thoughts are my own and are in no way influenced by early access to this title.
If I am one thing, it’s a hockey romance girl. Add in my love for tattoos and daddy issues� this book hit a lot of personal points for me! 😂
Jalen and Lucy are two very flawed and traumatized people who through therapy and actual communication find love and growth together. And we LOVE that for them.
This book was a lot of fun, and I can definitely recommend any hockey romance lover to pick this book up once it releases!
Thank you to NetGalley, for providing me with an ARC in exchange for a fair and honest review. All thoughts are my own and are in no way influenced by early access to this title.
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