On His Schedule: A Best Friend’s Brother College Hockey Romance

by Kate Olivia

Genres: Hockey, Sports Romance, Romance, College, Contemporary, Sports, He Falls First

604 pages, Kindle Edition

Published May 17, 2026

About the author

Kate Olivia writes steamy sports romance featuring irresistible bad boys and charming cinnamon rolls who score their way to love.

With sizzling spice and guaranteed happily ever afters, her stories range from humorous to deliciously dark.

Hit that follow button to catch every new release!

Reviews

[Summer Lancaster]

I enjoyed the relationships between the boys but Bensons sister pissed me off. Also it feel so slow for majority and then literally just stopped??? It felt like some parts of the story were over developed and others were under developed. It was fine, but not my favorite tbh

[Violet Patterson]

I gave this author a second chance against my better judgment, and whoa do I regret it. There are SO many inconsistencies and the pacing issues are abhorrent. I do not understand how this book has so many four and five star reviews when it's clear it needs serious editing. The timelines are a mess, characters pop up out of nowhere, and it just ends so abruptly.

1. Benson is the best player slated to go high in the draft but later Stanley is.
2. Lucy and Gianna are seniors, but she's also Benson's little sister, but then Lucy has a few years left, but then she's a senior again, but then she's the same age as Gianna who again is Benson's younger sister....it doesn't work.
3. Characters pop up out of nowhere as if they were friends all along - Mara and Penelope (at the 72% mark).
4. Lucy eats dinner with the guys and asks for fish but then says it's the best chicken she's ever had.
5. The entire relationship between Lucy and her family - she was traumatized by her mom and then they are just all of a sudden okay.
6. The "drama" and "tension" doesn't work, it's not just lame, it's nonsensical at points.
7. The "spicy" scenes are not hot and at times make no sense.
8. The dialogue is stilted and generic.

Most of this book makes no sense at all and anybody reading it should pick up on these things - including the author.

[Lisa Nelson]

Disappointed

This book just didn't work for me. The plot focused almost entirely on the romance, but there was very little character depth. Benson and Lucy never felt fully developed outside of their relationship, and honestly, that problem extended to most of the people.
The conflict was predictable, the hockey aspect felt more like a backdrop than an important part of the story, and several plotlines were glossed over instead of being explored. One example was her mother’s storyline. It felt like there was potential for a deeper emotional arc, but the author seemed to skate right past it without giving it the attention it deserved.
I also struggled to buy into the romance. Benson and Lucy knew each other for what felt like two weeks, and I didn't see much development beyond the physical attraction and intimacy. Their emotional connection never felt strong enough to justify how serious the relationship became. At times, it felt like the relationship was pushed forward more because of Gianna's involvement and reactions than because Benson and Lucy were naturally building something meaningful together.
The ending was rushed and cut short. We spend the entire book building toward Benson's future, only for the story to end before we really get to see it play out or understand how Lucy fits into that next chapter of his life.
Overall, this felt like a surface-level romance that skipped over the character development and emotional depth needed to make me care about the story or its ending.

[Lemon Loser]

Plot: 3/5 • Spice: 1/5 ➡️➡️➡️ A slow burn, contemporary hockey romance. Theres an overbearing sister/roommate. Lucy tutors Benson, who is Gianna’s brother. Benson, captain of the college hockey team.


So slow. No real climax. The peak is between Gianna and Lucy. She didn’t want her to date her brother. Lucy falls in love with Benson. That’s not. No real spice. No real drama. Just kind of flat all around.

[Mary]

Benson has Johnny Kavanaugh vibes ✨

This was a very sweet, cozy hockey college romance story. Benson and Lucy gave me Johnny and Shannon vibes without all the trauma. The big, tough captain who falls head over heels over the shy, super smart tutor. Lucy is also his sister’s bf whom he’s never met because the sister has some major control and jealousy issues.

I loved the two mc’s and devoured this book right up. It was too long and strangely written. Like step for step everything they did. I don’t know…it was almost robotic but didn’t bother me enough to stop reading just made it too long. Also the sister, Giana, and hockey teammate, Stanley, are the worst and very big busy bodies. I have a feeling they will get paired up even though she says she’s not at all interested. But they are so annoying I can’t read their stories. Maybe they’ll get better 🤷🏼‍♀️

🩵Cozy romance
🏒Boy obsessed
🩵BF’s brother
🏒No 3rd act breakup
🩵Dual POV

[Sahana Kumar]

ehhh, he was too much of a simp me thinks

[ELB]

so many unimportant details clouding the story

I could t get through it. As cliche as this story was, it might have actually been a good one if there weren’t so many unnecessary details taking up real estate. I don’t need to know every single thing each character does throughout their entire day if it doesn’t relate to the story. And easily 50% of this book was that exact thing. I got so lost in the overwhelming details it made me board with the book. After skipping over so much of it, I finally gave up about 40% in.

[Allison Russell]

I wanted to love this book SO bad. I just couldn’t do it. First of all, I felt like the characters had so much potential but I was not executed well. Initially I felt connected to Lucy because her struggle was real but I don’t think her character developed enough for me. Additionally, Gianna was not likable and had absolutely zero redeeming qualities. Gianna actually made me want to crash out from rage. She is so selfish and her reason for not wanting Lucy and Benson to be together is so stupid. She is immature and honestly her relationship with Benson from her view seems almost Freudian. Also, the mention of pop culture references started out okay but then they mentioned Love Island and I immediately got annoyed. I think there’s a fine line with using realistic references. Brands are fine, like for a vehicle or a restaurant, but when we start mentioning social media and shows on television, it feels like it cheapens the story. It’s just my opinion but I’m not a fan of them. Overall, I think the idea was there but it was not executed as well as it could have been.

[Lisa]

I had to add this to my DNF pile about a third of the way through. Mainly because there just wasn’t any chemistry between these characters. Maybe I missed the chemistry amidst all the tiny unnecessary details the author included in every scene. For example, a breakfast scene with the hockey guys included descriptions of everything they ordered. We don’t need to know what the breakfast platter included and that wasted a lot of space and was totally irrelevant. There were detailed descriptions of everything from the apron her mom wore to the pencils she picked out that had absolutely nothing to do with the story and bored the crap out of me.

[Kristy Roebuck]

4.5⭐️
Spice Level: 🌶️🌶️
Tropes: sports romance, new adult/college, hockey, best friend’s older brother, slow burn, hero falls first HARD, possessive hero, sibling jealousy, “off-limits” relationship, found family, depictions of depression (parents) and heroine tutors hero.

Notes: Hero’s sister was a 🐕. I couldn’t stand her. This girl claimed to be the heroine’s best friend but treated her so badly. She even kicked her out of her own home. Hero was so mature and the chemistry between the couple was palpable.

[Shamaka]

Blunted and Boring 😴

I DNFed it.

I tried. I really did. But somewhere around 100 pages in, I realized I was forcing myself to keep reading a book that just wasn't pulling me in.

The biggest problem for me is that this doesn't read like a story being told. It reads like a list of things happening in real time.

Benson's POV is basically an itinerary of his day.

Practice at 6. I skated here. Friends skated there. 7:00—practice is over. Check phone. Freak out about sister's roommate situation. Go to class…etc.

And that's pretty much the problem.

There's so much this happened, then this happened, then I did this that I never felt like I was actually experiencing anything with him. There are too many short, blunt sentences and not enough meaningful writing connecting everything together.

It made Benson's character feel incredibly dull. 😴

I don't need every minute of a character's day accounted for. I need to understand who he is, what he's feeling, what drives him, and why I should care about what happens to him.

Lucy isn't much different.

Her POV has a little more flow to it, but she still comes across more like someone analyzing a mathematical equation than a character I'm supposed to be getting to know.

Yes.

We get it. She's smart.

😂

I don't need constant reminders through work problems and mathematical analysis to understand that.

If I wanted to read a book about math, I would've picked up a book about math.

I picked up a romance hockey book. 🙄

Give me the romance. Give me the chemistry. Give me the characters. Give me something that makes me want to know these people beyond what they did between breakfast and class.

And then there's Gianna.

I didn't like her from the beginning.

She's way too controlling and, frankly, rude. She came across as needy in that “I want to be picked” kind of way, and I found it incredibly annoying.

I understand she has history with her friends and her brother. I understand there are complicated feelings there.

But she was pushing it way too hard for me.

Instead of making me curious about the relationships and their history, it made me frustrated with her.

And unfortunately, once I got around 100 pages in, I realized I still wasn't invested enough to care where the story was going.

The writing style made the story feel flat, the characters weren't pulling me in, and I found myself waiting for something to happen instead of actually enjoying what was happening.

So I decided to stop forcing it.

DNF.

This one just wasn't for me.

[ReadingMomma]

⭐️⭐️⭐️.75 | 🌶️

Benson is the captain of the Camden U hockey team, lives in Hawthorne House with some of his teammates, and is expected to go first round in the NHL draft. Basically, hockey is his entire future and he just needs to make sure his grades don't get in the way. Enter Lucy—math whiz, tutor, and his sister Gianna's best friend and roommate. Because obviously this can only go well. 😂

Lucy has seen pictures of Benson but has never actually met him because Gianna is determined to keep her friends away from her brother. But once Lucy starts tutoring Benson, that plan goes right out the window. I really liked Benson and Lucy together. Their relationship develops pretty naturally from tutoring sessions into something neither of them really planned on, and they were cute together.

Lucy definitely has more going on than you expect at first. Her mother has never really been a mother to her, and Lucy basically raised her younger brother. Even after moving out, she's still bringing groceries to the house, cleaning, and taking care of things that shouldn't be her responsibility. There were some moments with her mom that were **bad bad**, and then it felt like things went right back to being okay a little too quickly for me. I wish that part had been explored just a little more.

And then there's Gianna. 😅 Listen, I understand not wanting your brother and your best friend together. I get it. But GIRL. She was almost too much for me. The way she reacted and handled everything nearly ruined her relationships with both Benson and Lucy, and it felt like way too much over two adults liking each other.

Overall, this was a good read! I liked Benson and Lucy, loved the hockey/tutor setup, and Hawthorne House gives us plenty of teammates hanging around to keep things fun. There were just a few things that kept me from fully loving it, but I still had a good time reading it.

[Veronica]

Sweet

What happens when you're the best and only math tutor who suddenly needs to tutor your best friend's off limits brother? You do what you're told. After rooming with your bestie for the last two years, seeing his face all over the apartment, and having never met him, you prepare yourself with the armor of professionalism.

It takes Benson less than five minutes to fall, and fall hard. He's smitten. Due to one mishap six years prior, his sister refuses to allow the two to meet.

At a party, A game goes awry, Lucy flees, and Benson gives chase. He walks her home, kisses her, and goes back home.

Due to the overstep, Gi gets furious. When they go further, her fury is unmatched. Lucy has to chooses Gi or Benson, resulting in Gi kicking Lucy from the apartment.

Lucy is a shy, sweet girl. Benson a hot athlete. This love story is quick, sweet, and easy to traverse. Love at first sight, or close enough.

Another great story by Kate Olivia.

[Trish]

At first I thought I liked the FMC? I thought her inner monologue was kind of reminiscent of someone struggling with anxiety and racing thoughts, but then I got to the uno game and it solidified that it was just poor writing.

Several typos and changes that end up being distracting. Little things like “do you want the chicken or fish?” The character chooses fish, and then later says “this was the best chicken I ever had”

The side characters are frankly boring or annoying. There are no other options. The sister is a horrifically horrible, selfish person.

I also felt like the “drama” was very over the top and forced and then fizzled out immediately. I was confused a lot. I just wasn’t grasping the conflict at all?

Read until 84% and skimmed the rest.

[JayTheChaotic]

excuse me what?!

Don’t get me wrong. This one was sweet, but there was no big climax no defining moment no conflict. There was so many different storylines. She could’ve dug into like even with the mom and the author just really chose not to the only reason that this book is getting three stars is because of the spicy scenes, but the description stated that we would get a library scene and we didn’t so just be warned, there’s no real conflict in this entire story the author could have definitely dived into the Mother more or why the little brother never says I love you back or even go into Lucy and how she’s struggling with school or even some closure on how Benson decides to go for with his future and she just chose not to

[Ashley Ward]

I do not rate this a one lightly.
Why? Bc I also write stories, I know how hard it is to write a great compelling story and put it out there for public consumption. It’s SO hard.

But this book needs a lot of work.
The timelines are inconsistent. The spacing and pace is less than tolerable. And the structure made me cringe. I tried so hard to push through on this book. So fricken hard.

But the way it just read point by point?
The way it was line a timeline of events rather than a moving, flowing frame of events full of emotion? I hurt me to even keep reading it.

Which honestly sucks bc I think the premise is okay. Maybe not thought out enough? But the execution was really bad.

Like death by 1000 cuts.
So incredibly painful.

[Tara Plowman]

Thank god this is over.

I just want everyone to know that this sentence was an actual sentence written in this book: “My heart slams against my chest when I look at his really good body.”

WHAT?! Really good body?? I cannot.

The writing was so stilted and abrupt. The character interactions were cheesy. And honestly, I don’t much about either of the main characters, couldn’t tell you what they liked about each other, because they’re so one-dimensional and flat. This was the longest book about nothing.

I truly did Gods work here by finishing this book so that I could tell you not to read it.

[Delta A Marie]

This felt like it took me FOREVER to finish. I don’t know if I’m at the beginning of a slump or what but it really dragged for me. There were sooo many unnecessary details in this book especially at the beginning. The Vietnamese place was mentioned 100 times. Then details of every one of the players food choices AND kept mentioning that Percy was reading books in French like how is this relevant to the story. And I don’t know if it’s just me but boobs just feels childish reading in a spicy scene. I know that’s a list of my dislikes but I did enjoy the story for the most part. It just fell a little short in my opinion.

[Courtney Adkins]

This took me forever to read. I have to agree with so many other reviewers about how bad this was. The unnecessary details on every little thing. The inconsistency of the authors choices. The infuriating repetition. I felt like I was reading a teenaged attempt at writing. I skimmed over so much unnecessary paragraphs. One thing that got me rolling my eyes was at one point was from Bensons pov, he looks at someone walking in with a half empty can of white claw. It just makes no sense. How does he know it’s half empty from looking? Why does it matter? It’s all these little things that added up for me and I will definitely not be reading anything else from this line or author.

[Shannon Pennockl]

I skipped a lot

The book wasn't bad. It was pretty interesting and I enjoyed the characters of Benson and Lucy and their friends. However, there were parts that detailed some of the most mundane things that I got bored and skipped ahead. It would be describing every single thing Lucy did in between her tutoring with Benson. The situation with her mom was kind of weird. Her mom was nicer, then later she was snarky towards her, then all of a sudden Lucy is happy to see her. I doubt I will read the next book. But it wasn't bad, just a little too detailed for me.

[Kristie Sutherland]

Where's the ending

How can I both live and dislike a book at once. this story was great a young love, shy girl and Hockey Captain. You get to join them on their journey to find love. The story was just starting to take off then it got cut off. I felt like they were right in the middle of the story and then bam finished. I mean there was a huge turning point happening and then just nothing. I guess it a complement that the story was so good I wanted to keep reading. However I do honestly feel like there was not a true ending to this story.

[Emilie Frank]

I made it 81% of the way and it should’ve just stopped. Honestly they were in love with each other after speaking three times.
Everyone in this book is super obnoxious especially Gianna and whoever the roommate is that is always telling them not to fall in love.
I skimmed some of the book to even make it to 81%.
Why was there 3 pages on my kindle describing their uno game. Literally just saying what color and number cards they were playing.
The deadbeat mom plot was done poorly.
I just really did not like this.

[Megan Sefin]

Sooo I liked the plot of the book, I’ve seen the reviews and I agree that some things are either overdeveloped or underdeveloped with certain story lines. The sister really was CRAZY & for more than half the book was just annoying. I loved Benson, he was my favorite character in the book. The FMC i liked but she needed to stand up for herself more. She let her mom and Gianna step all over her and she never defended herself. I gave it a 3/5 because it dragged in the beginning and then was rushed at the end. It almost didnt feel complete either. But overall it was cute.

[Samantha Smith]

Late review on this one because I forgot I read this while I was abroad. This book was conflicting for me because it was best friends brother and the storyline was honestly great, but I can’t lie the best friend/sister was such a drama queen and mean. I don’t like to tear women down, but this girl was downright mean and had way too large a role in a plot line that had nothing to do with her. Not really sure how to feel after that book, so 3 stars it is! Back to rereading Briar U series!!! Love ya byeee✌️

[Aia]

only 2 stars but it has NOTHING to do with the main character.

- Benson's sister was CRAZY. I didnt like her, i still dont like her.
- Lucy's mom was crazy.
- Stanley was annoying and usually these characters the funny outspoken were usually annoying but he really irked me.

Benson and Lucy were cute i'll give them that. the story felt flat. the hockey boys were annoying? i am interested in Blue and Melly's story which is book 2 so ill see from there if any of these characters get a redemption arc.

[Kat ⋆˙⟡]

This was very mid for me. There were parts that were so cute I was SO excited! But the editing issues were SO bad! The mistakes were jumping off the page. And I don’t mean typo’s or minor things (that doesn’t bother me) these were apparent errors that easily could have been fixed with proper editing.

Also the writing style was not it for me. The “he said this. Then she did that. He told her this.” Very elementary style writing for me. I’m bummed. I felt like this had SO much potential.

[Tracey]

This author is not for me

While I could see the connection with the two MC, I think Benson's feelings were too strong too quick that made some things not quite believable.
The story was told at a good pace but then it just ended way too abruptly. There was still some story that needed to be told.
Personally, I did not enjoy this author's writing style. It read more like bullet points and didn't flow.

[Kayla Meredith]

I absolutely love this book. There really is nothing sweeter than a jock who can get whomever they want but literally chase the shy timid girl who has never given him the time of day. The flirting was on point and the banter was bantering! 10/10 recommend and I will be reading the rest of this series. Benson is the captain of the hockey team who cares about nothing but hockey, parties, and never having a girlfriend. He's a senior who is about to be drafted into the NHL and has all going for him. His coach makes him get a tutor when his grade start slipping to hid dismay. His tutor ends up being his sisters best friend and roommate. Benson's sister, Gianna, has one rule. Do not mess with my friends. Lucy is a sky timid, mathematician. She works for the campus's tutoring department and gets matched with Benson and the sparks start immediately flying. I could not put this book down!

[Rae C]

Did a child write this?

This book was absolutely horrible. From the grammatical errors, plot holes, lack of character development, overall writing style, dialogue - everything.

I’d never heard of this author before seeing something on Instagram, and now I’m sorry I even bothered.

It was a hard DNF for me. There is no way an adult could’ve written this. Did anyone even edit it before it was put out into the world?

Kate Olivia is one “writer” I will avoid at all costs.

[Peach]

cute

This one had some positives and negatives for me. Loved the main characters they were very cute. Plot was alright, pretty standard but I loved that it didn’t fall into a third act breakup. Will say that some plot points seemed unnecessary and didn’t really lead to anything, kinda just loose ends in a way that wasn’t very satisfying. Overall though, it was an easy read with a HEA and it broke my dnf streak.