Book Blurb:
Joining the insomnia thread at PCU was supposed to be harmless, a place to burn through the quiet hours with strangers who'd never know my name. A way to take my mind off the NHL scouts breathing down my neck.
Just honesty at 2 a.m. with a girl I only know as LittleTooMuch.
I didn't plan to fall for her. But somewhere between the late-night confessions and the things I'd never say out loud, I did.
Then Harlow walks into my life—guarded, beautiful, and my team captain’s little sister.
The more time I spend with her, the harder it gets to ignore the feeling that I already know her.
And if I'm right, I'm in a lot of trouble.
Tropes:
*Hambright PR ARC/ALC *Hockey Romance *College Romance *Mental Health rep
*Check your Trigger warnings *Brothers Best friend *Brothers Team Mate *Anonymous Penpals
*He falls first *Slow Burn *spice *Long term Grief *You've got mail vibes *Golden retriever MMC
*Toxic Ex *Found family *friends to lovers *State Challenge California (Repeat)
Thoughts:
To Start with I would like to thank the author and Hambright PR for this ARC/ALC Copy, I'm a big Hockey romance fan and when I saw this pop up in my email I was right on top of submitting my request!
Grayson (MMC) is a hockey star on the college team and even though many might think he has it easy he is battling performance anxiety, high expectations that have been placed on him and long term grief over the loss of his brother which has led to long nights as he struggles with Insomnia, thankfully he has found a kindred spirit online a girl (so they say) on the schools forum for their Insomnia thread that calls themselves "LittleTooMuch" even though he's never met her in person he spends late nights chatting with her and looks forward to the next time they talk.
I appreciated the online friendship portion of this book it was sweet and reminded me of You've got mail where they are falling for eachother's personalities first and even though they've never met they already have a strong bond, they talk about anything and everything late into the night and are building that trust that sometimes takes years to form.
Harlow (FMC) has struggled with mental health over the years after the decline of a high school relationship sent her spiraling since then everyone checks in on her (possibly too much) but she's finally doing ok even though she spent some time taking online classes she feels this is her time to join people her age and get out and start living her life again, while she loves her older brother he is towards the over protective and over bearing side, but she has been getting to know a few of his team mates better including Grayson, and she has an online friend that she really can't live without they talk every night and maybe part of the reason things are so great is because they haven't met in person.
The more time Grayson spends with Harlow the more he sees the similarities between his best friends younger sister... and the online girl he's never met but dreams about... this is possibly too big to be a coincidence but at this point things are going well she's opening up to him as herself in person and what if it's not her? But if it is her will she feel betrayed like he's keeping secrets?
Harlow is relatable to anyone who has gone through school bullying she's a beautiful girl but struggles with self doubt due to things toxic people have said in the past, it was moving to see her pull herself from the darkness and come out on top.
Grayson is the ideal green flag book boyfriend he's patient, kind, caring he knows that Harlow has had these struggles in the past and he is there for her without being an overbearing presence, he's very mature for his age (such a sweetheart, I love him!)
Their relationship didn't feel rushed and the longer they spent time together it felt more inevitable it was meant to be.
If you are a hockey romance fan and enjoy the above tropes add it to your list! This was a sweet story of two college aged kids who were struggling but found safety in each other.
some negatives for me:
There were a few side plots that were picked up occasionally but just got dropped so I don't know if those will pick back up in the next book or not, It might be interesting to check out the next in the series.
I did listen to the ALC for part of this book and the narrators did a great job but I just struggled with the way the book was written at times it was repetitive, I felt like some character in the book asked Harlow if she was "Ok" every other paragraph I found myself getting irritated for the girl everyone is walking on eggshells treating her like she's super fragile it's hard for her to have progress when she's being so sheltered.
Could just be a me thing but her being in a constant state of stress/anxiety was causing me to have stress and anxiety... I'm reading to relax.
The other thing that took me out of the story was sometimes there were so many analogies I was wondering if we would ever move towards more actual plot, it was a lot of filler and led to nothing much happening for many pages/chapters but the same stuff.
There was a big build up to the game against her ex then it happened and ended so quickly we don't even fully know what happened after discipline wise, like what!?
No comments:
Post a Comment