I really enjoyed the story and graphics. I even started following the online comic series. I will be purchasing a finished copy. Thanks First Second Books for an ARC of this title via NetGalley.

A delightfully charming graphic novel. Exciting to see LGBT themes being addressed in this type of story and with such a diverse range of characters. Loved it and will look forward to further volumes!

A warmhearted and engaging comic about finding yourself, playing hockey, and baking pie. Ukazu's popular webcomic translates well to the printed page, and the pacing benefits from the straightforward layout. Hopefully this repackaging of the webcomic will bring this slice of life story, full of vibrant characters and sweetness, to a wider audience.

Ukazu's art improves noticeable as the comic progresses, as is common with web-native comics, but the characters remain identifiable and the storytelling is consistent. The "extras" in the back of the book do a god job of defining story-specific hockey terms, but the visual narrative doesn't require readers to know anything in particular about the sport.

Check Please is such a fun read! A great college hockey story that follows a team throughout their college year. It’s so funny and all of the characters are so well thought out. Even secondary characters are fleshed out and provide such a great ambiance to this story, Bitty is a fantastic way to get introduced to this whole hockey world. He’s so kind and sweet and his journey is a fun one to go on. Would highly recommend to everyone.

Oooo this was so adorable. Loved the cute cartoony art. Loved Bitty and the rest of the hockey team. Definitely makes me want some pie!

I saw Ngozi Ukazu speak recently and found her charming and delightful, and so despite the fact that I have no interest in hockey, I really wanted to read Check, Please! - and I'm glad I did because I thoroughly enjoyed it. The story is told through a nifty framing device: Eric "Bitty" Bittle, former figure skater-turned-hockey-player, has a vlog/diary chronicling his baking and hockey playing and college experience and therefore speaks directly to the viewer/reader. It's a clever way to engage the reader and provides more intimacy than a traditional 3rd-person point of view. I'm still not very interested in hockey, but I'm definitely interested in more of Bitty's story and his developing romance with a teammate.

Check, Please!: #Hockey is the Eric "Bitty" Bittle's vlogging of his first two years at Samwell University, specifically as a member of their hockey team. Bitty quickly becomes "bros" with his teammates, even the semi-mysterious-because-he-doesn't-hang-out-with-the-team-a-whole-lot captain, Jack, the son of a famous hockey player. Despite his short stature, his history as an amateur figure skater, and his fear of getting checked (getting physically hit during the game by an opponent), he fits in well. When he's not playing hockey, he's busy baking for his vlog. (His teammates love all the baked goodies they get.) Oh, and Bitty is gay. But it doesn't matter because everyone on the team is straight (or are they...) and Samwell is highly inclusive and accepting of LGBTQIA+ individuals. Check, Please!: #Hockey is Bitty's progression through freshman and sophomore year as he makes friends with the guys, bakes pies, plays hockey, and-- unbeknownst to him-- catches someone's eye....

I did not think I would like Check, Please!: #Hockey. I'm not a sports person, and I know even less about hockey than I do about most other sports. But, I kept seeing it everywhere in the book world. I knew it featured an LGBTQIA+ character, and I was curious to see how if it lived up to the hype. AND IT TOTALLY DOES! The slow burn of romance is even better because we are led to believe that it's unrequited... All the feels! And the minor characters are a good mix of rounded and flat that supports Bitty's story.

Author Ukazu includes a forward that describes the extensive anthropological study of hockey teams she conducted for her thesis; Check, Please!: #Hockey came from that in that it's the exact opposite of that meticulous and Great Art: it's all about feels and being a cute story.

I’d heard of this series before, quite a following on tumblr and I’d always meant to look into it but it’s easy to push other reading aside for more reading. I’m glad I got a chance to read it now though, it’s a sweet, fun comic about Bitty as he starts college on the hockey team and life from there. The characters are mostly sweet (Jack took a bit to grow on me) and have each other’s backs. Bitty just wants to play hockey, make pie (and other assorted foods) and maybe, possibly find a boyfriend. Not a priority but if it happens...
Definitely reccomend.

Check, Please! Is a great comic! I love Bitty. He is a wonderful main character. Jack was kind of unlikable at first, but you get to like him the more he opens up. The art progress is amazing too. You can see where the artist has improved over time.

All of my knowledge of this webcomic comes from random posts on Tumblr that I never understood, so when I saw a collection was coming out, I thought it was the right time to read it.

I totally understand why this has such a huge following. While I have no knowledge of, or really any interest in, hockey (outside of my love for Fredrik Backman’s Beartown series) this was so much fun to read. The storyline was a bit hard to follow until I embraced the episodic nature of it and really started to just care about the characters and less about a developed plot.

Bitty is such an easy character to like. I could honestly hear a little Southern drawl narrating the story as I followed along with the pictures. While the other characters weren’t as developed, a lot of the, were interesting, and I’m hoping that more material focusing on them will be released (like the additions in the end of this volume)

My only complaints are that a)I waited so long to fall into this fictional hockey world and b) that this story ends on such a major cliffhanger. I am definitely going to check out the webcomic until this book is released!

Thank you to Netgalley for an eARC in exchange for my honest opinions.

Sooooo happy to see this book getting a proper publishing from First Second. I've enjoyed the web series tremendously and I think Ngozi really puts her heart into her work. There's a slew of extra bits in the back of the book and an introduction that made me appreciate the book all the more.

This is a lovely and funny web series. It is really great and charming slice of life story with lots of pies, and hockey, and friendships. Everyone should read this, even if you just want to chuckle a bit. I am so glad the adventures of Eric Bittle at Samwell are going to be published. It also has a very honest, open, gay character and a team of hockey players that support him - even those who support him unknowingly.

Adorable! The episodic nature doesn't convert easily into a "book" format, but this comic is as charming as I'd always been told!

Okay, let me just get this out. Bear with me for this review will mostly be centered on my love for Eric Bittle and his story. The first time I've heard of this graphic novel was on Twitter, when loads of my other online friends kept tweeting about their love for the Check, Please! webcomic and that it was going to be published under First Second Books! I found the cover interesting and so I went ahead and checked Goodreads for a rundown on the synopsis and the author. Again, I found it so alluring, I emailed my friends from First Second and immediately requested for a review copy. And thank god they approved an e-ARC for me over on NetGalley. I read it last May, and I fell so deeply in love with the story, the art, and the characters. Read on for a more detailed summary of my thoughts.

Modern LGBTQIA+ Representation
Nowadays, more members of the LGBTQIA+ community are sharing their coming out stories through more public ways such as via Youtube videos, Facebook posts, and Twitter threads. In Check, Please!, we get to know Eric Bittle through a series of vlogs that he posts online for his viewers to watch. Personally, I love the idea of vlogging and just documenting everyday life so as to make and keep treasured memories, and so to see so much of one's sexuality, personality, and overall identity through this medium feels so uniquely personal to me. I appreciated Bittle's way and pacing of telling his story, and he is one of the many reasons as to why I am OBSESSED with this graphic novel.

Amazingly Colorful Roster of Characters
The Samwell Men's Hockey Team, (or the Bros, as they like to call themselves. Feel free to use whatever term you'd prefer.) was such a fun, intriguing, and entertaining group to get to know! I really, really enjoyed reading this because of how much I laughed out loud at all their jokes, and their soft masculinity was so, undeniably addicting! (Even though everyone, except Bitty, did try their best to be so manly...) I've only read this once and I actually sped through the pages and so I can't name everyone, but rest assured that I'll be re-reading this for months without end, trying my best to memorize all the names of the characters. I obviously cannot get enough of their story and so I seriously hope that the next book's already in the process of being published as well.

The. Undeniable. Chemistry.
So this is the part where I'll probably have a breakdown. While reading several scenes about Bitty and his... love interest (I won't name this LI here to maintain a spoiler-free review), I literally squealed countless times, and whenever I read this at work, my co-workers would instantly approach me and ask if I'm feeling okay. I kept smiling, and making such high-pitched noises while reading this and so I think it's an understatement to say that the romance and chemistry between Bittle and his LI is pretty well received. And please do take note of this: not all scenes were all filled with swoon and heart-eyes. Some scenes were also about the importance of one's identity and the role that acceptance and love played in this was vital and so well-written. The romance that one can find in this book is, memorable, heartwarming, and one that I'm sure lots of readers, wherever they may be from, whatever their gender, will enjoy. *cries in bro-speak*

"Check, Please!: #Hockey is an amazingly engaging graphic novel. It tells a heartwarming, coming of age story, about a wonderful cast of characters. It made me laugh, it made me swoon, and it most certainly melted my heart in ways I didn't know possible. My only regret about reading this was that it took me so long to discover Eric Bittle and his Samwell Hockey Team. With this, Ngozi Ukazu just gained a new, obsessed fan."

(This review is scheduled to go live on September 2018)

Absolutely delightful. I love how it was adapted from the web comic and stayed true to itself. I am so excited this will be published into a book form.

This graphic novel is so wholesome and sweet and funny. As Bitty becomes part of the Samwell hockey team and discovers that beneath their bro-y exteriors lie the best friends he could ever want, the reader gets to experience the absolute joy that is this team's bond.

There's Shitty Knight, who's all for the realization of artistic visions and the support of the whole team; the stoic captain Jack Zimmerman, Bitty's crush, who is struggling with anxiety and his future but slowly reveals himself to be an absolute pile of mush; Ransom and Holster, best friends who aren't afraid to let anyone know it; Lardo, the team manager who can bestow the belch of honor; a theoretically also a goalie named Johnson. Plus some adorable younger players. Basically, it's full of characters who are layered and delightful and you can't know just how much you'll love them until it's over, because they're so good.

As far as the adaptation from webcomic to graphic novel goes — it's really great, but I think Ransom and Holster's little slide shows about hockey terms should have been kept slotted between chapters rather than bundled together at the end. After all, the original point of them was to explain hockey terminology as the reader goes along so people who aren't familiar with any of this can read without any confusion. Pushing them to the end kinda defeats the point. However, I do think enough is understandable as context that it's not an actual problem.

Join Bitty as he vlogs through his first two years at Samwell College. He may be the smallest hockey player the team has seen, but man, can he bake a pie! Through crushing checks (and crushed hearts), Bitty's candid commentary will make you squee!

I got through most of this as a webcomic before seeing the ARC; I like how the absence of the side stories (like Ransom and Holster's hockey sense) makes the story flow better, but I also didn't really like them all crammed together at the end, sort of as an afterthought. Also, the final section (Bitty's Tweets) didn't come through on the galley; hopefully this will be fixed in the printed final version. The story, however, is great and is hugely accurate to the rabid fandom of the hockey world. The highest praise I have for this comic is that it has caused MULTIPLE friends of mine to become hockey fans (I have been a rabid hockey fan my entire life, and I couldn't convince them!). Thank you, Ngozi!

Do you like any of the following things: nice people, good characters, pies, DAT HOCKEY BUTT, Beyonce, nicknames, alluring storylines, webcomics, French Canadians with crazy blue eyes and no obvious emotions, small Southerners who can do jumps and anxiety bake, girls who hold their own against the bros, bros being bros, bros being brothers, and hockey? Scratch that, you don't have to like any of those things to read this book but once you do, you will LOVE them. Honestly, Ngozi's work changed my life. I will recommend this book to all of my friends. It was an honor to be able to write a review.

A delightful comic, this served as my first real introduction to the world of ice hockey. I had watched the game before, but never really understood any of the rules. The characters quickly engaged my interest, particularly Bitty, and I found myself really routing for him to succeed. The ending was everything I could have hoped for, and I’m eager to see where this story goes next.

I adored this. I always appreciate having LGBT+ books to recommend and the characterization and flow of this was charming and creative.