🔹 Overall feelings:
〰 I had to fight the urge to DNF this on so many occasions. This is a fairly short book, and the synopsis promised me a mix of all of my favorite tropes. Unfortunately however, this really didn’t work for me.
🔹 The plot:
〰 Kind of nonexistent to be honest. Right off the bat, let me tell you that we have an insta-love situation. Obviously they don’t say the three magic words until the very end of the novel but somehow, they become obsessed with each other the second they meet. I personally didn’t know this going into the book, otherwise I might have made the decision not to pick it up.
〰 At the very beginning of the story the main plot is that Sid just got accepted at an internship in Parliament that she’s super excited about. However, she needs a third letter of recommendation from her professors to cement her position. She meets Jax one night and finds out a few days later that they’re in the same class. This class is supposedly one of the absolute hardest classes you could take and we get this big speech by the “professor” about how half the class will be failing. To give them more of an incentive to study however, he promises his top three students a personalized letter of recommendation; something that Sidney desperately needs. The story is then propelled forward by Sid getting a B- on her first quiz in that class and Jax getting an A and promising to help her study. Thus, their relationship begins… only problem is: Sidney has 5 rules and her most important one is that she doesn’t date hockey players.
🔹 The Romance:
〰 Besides the insta love, this did not work for me for many reasons, which is definitely a problem seeing as the ‘relationship development’ was the only thing happening in this book. You’ll learn more about why I wasn’t into this in the following sections.
🔹 Characters:
Jax:
〰 For starters, one thing I absolutely hate is when an average Joe is made out to be this incredibly unattainable guy that somehow all the girls want. Jax is legit made into such a big deal and for absolutely no reason which made me feel like his whole character was cringe at times. Manz acts like a celebrity already even though he’s still in college and not even in the NHL yet… I mean that literally by the way. At the very beginning of the book he’s even described to ‘put on a beanie and grab sunglasses’ to be able to walk around ‘unrecognized’. Bro what💀 Worst part is that every single girl he meets immediately hits on him and wants to get with him and I’m just left wondering why the hell this was necessary? I think it was done to show us that he’s truly uninterested in other women but I hate when authors use the “other women” trope to prove to us how into the heroine the guy really is. Can’t he prove his interest in another way? Anyway, it was an added cringe factor to me to be honest. Moving on…
Sidney:
〰 I actually read a lot of reviews saying that they hated her. Surprisingly, I didn’t mind her all that much. She just fell a bit flat for me and annoyed me a few times but other than that, there’s nothing really worth noting about her.
Both Characters :
〰Frankly, we kind of know nothing about them as individuals. Right off the bat they act as if they know everything about each other but truth is, we don’t really get to see a fleshed out version of this “development”. I genuinely don’t know much about them besides the fact that she wants to work in politics and he wants to be a hockey player. I don’t even know where the hell Jax’s dad is. He’s literally never, not even once, mentioned in the book. What’s going on with him? He mentions seeing his mom *once* and then we completely forget about her. He doesn’t even mention talking to her on the phone. Sigh, I hate absent parents in books. It just doesn’t feel realistic. Finally, maybe I missed it but I would have loved to know what part of Canada they’re in. Maybe it’s my Canadian side showing but we don’t really get many books set in Canada so when we do, I love to get all the deets on that lol. Anyway, let’s talk about the part that bothered me the most about this book…
🔹 The Inconsistencies:
Holy crap, is it me or were there so many things that just didn’t make sense or didn’t add up in here? Here’s a few examples:
〰 Right off the bat, we get this scene with Sid visiting her mom’s grave (something that’s never mentioned again by the way). Anyway, she begins by saying how her mom got into an accident 8 years ago. Two seconds later, she says ”She’d left me five years ago, and there was nothing I could do about it.” Ummm… I’m confused? Is she talking about someone else here or was her mom in a coma for three years or what? Did I miss something? Who knows honestly. She does mention later on however that her mom died in a car accident and that Sid was with her in the car… and that when she woke up in the hospital, her mom was already gone… so I know that the coma thing is out of the question.
〰 Another inconsistency: Jax’s dad. At the beginning of the book, Jax mentions once that ”It’s just [him] and [his] parents. [His parents] have been together for almost thirty years now.” This is all fine and dandy except, the only time Jax mentions his parents again he says that he “was leaving to spend spring break with [his] mom. He later on mentions to Sidney how his mom is excited to meet her and that she will be seeing her at graduation. Again, maybe I just missed something but is it me or did the dad completely disappear? Wasn’t he supposedly a happily married guy of thirty years?🥲
〰 If you think we’re done with the inconsistencies, think again and hold on because this one is my personal favorite. A while after Sidney and Jax start growing closer, they’re at this dinner thing with friends when Jax says that he knows everything that there is to know about Sid. The latter obviously says that that couldn’t possibly be true so he dares her to pick three questions and he’ll answer them all correctly. I was expecting some deep or hard-ass questions that will show that they’ve known each other for like two seconds and that will ensure she wins the game. The first question however was—brace yourselves— “What’s my favorite color”… and again, no I’m not joking. Anyway, this is fine but then we get to the second question he’s not supposed to get and homegirl hits us with the “what’s my favorite food”. And jax says this:
“She’ll eat pretty much anything, but her favorite is chocolate croissants.” It was a guess, but it was right.”
Now, this might have been a cute coincidence to show that he’s been paying attention but let me tell you one thing; it sure as hell was not a “guess”. Wanna know why? Because she literally flat out told him that at the beginning of the book.
This was the exact quote (they’re talking about their favorite foods, Jax says his fav is his hometown pizza and Sid says “For me, it’s warmed-up chocolate croissants.”
So please tell me, was I supposed to be impressed that he got the answer right? Because the only thing I’m impressed by is the fact that both main characters managed to forget this entire conversation even happened lmao. And to think that Sid and all their friends were impressed that he got the answers right 💀 I can’t y’all, I really can’t.
🔹 Other Small Things I Didn’t Like:
〰 How the MCs were supposedly getting to know each other for months and yet Carter never knew that her dad is a hocky coach.
〰 How Sidney never actually communicated with Carter about her relationship with her dad or why she even has her “no dating hockey players” rule.
〰 The incredibly stupid in-person interview at parliament where the literal only question Sidney gets asked before getting the job is “what makes you want to get into politics?”. Again, I’m not joking. If only I have such good luck landing great internship positions like her… Funny thing is, I’m literally in Ottawa too and let me tell you: it is absolutely not this easy to land such a position here🥲
〰 The supposedly super hard class that’s made into a huge deal at the beginning of the book but that we somehow completely forget about halfway through the book.
〰 The supposedly incredibly important letter of reference that she needs from her professor that we once again, completely forget about until the very end where she mentions that she’s “99% sure” that she’s top of her class and that she got the letter in the bag.
〰 The fact that this girl is somehow able to balance this super hard class, her other classes and a job all the while spending all her time with her boo. Seriously, I admire her because I, myself, am a college student and 99% of my time I feel like I can barely keep up (and please keep in mind that I still don’t have a job at the moment).
〰 The fact that we don’t know how she ended up dealing with her dad.
〰 The fact that Jax was somehow able to switch teams like that. Seriously, what? In what world is that something that would actually happen (especially after he got filmed punching his coach in the face). He’s literally a rookie too…
🔹 Final thoughts:
〰 This is literally such a long review for no reason oh my God. I definitely wasn’t planning on writing such an in-depth review but I guess I was more bored than I originally thought (even though I have an exam later today and should be studying). Oh well, guess I learned something from our girl Sidney here. Anyway, I know this might seem like such an incredibly mean review but I swear I don’t mean for it to seem like that. Actually, I really do think that the author is talented. Her writing style is good. However, I think she would benefit a lot from getting beta-readers and editors. Even still, I honestly think that many people might still love this book which is why I won’t tell you not to read it. I’m just a nit-picky reader and I tend to really notice small inconsistencies, especially since they annoy the crap out of me😅 Anyway, happy reading you guys💕
🔹 Tropes:
❣️Hockey romance
❣️jealousy
❣️College Romance (NA)
❣️Insta-love (in my opinion at least)