I really wanted to love this more than I did. All the components are there: athletic super store guy, bookish girl, friends sibling/teammate, study buddy forced proximity. Everything works, and the characters were well defined and likeable. What kept this from being a 5 star read for me were the details. There were constant little errors in the details of the situation compared to reality that I found it distracting. Other people may hav been able to look past these but when they kept coming up it pulled me out of the story constantly.
What Im talking about: Tyler is a 30 year old professional hockey player who decides to take a summer university class because he's nervous about what he will do for work when he retires.
How would an English class even get close to helping him get a job that would be close to providing the lifestyle he's accustomed to? A degree that is notorious for not having jobs in the field.
Murray's brother is the captain of the team but he's on an entry level contract?
The class scenes read like its highschool
Your prof is not a tutor
Murray should be taking this seriously as her first teaching job, but she invites a student to her house within the first couple weeks
Tyler asks for help "reading". Not understanding, not comprehension, just straight reading. Just what?
Murray is a TA, now has a job as a prof, but she's keeping her job at a coffee shop?
What are the chances Murray's brother gets to play for his home town team?
There absolutely nothing wrong with Murray and Tyler as characters or the general plot of the story, but the little details were constant and ruined the flow for me.

I love this book so much - the interiority, the found family, the messy people who are trying their best. Add in the importance of community, the necessity of communication, and the power of living your truth and it's a great book. And with two characters who grow to love each other for who they are, not who they present themselves as? That's a great romance.

Tyler is 34 and starting to wonder about life after hockey. He knows that one bad injury could end his career so he signs up for a short, noncredit course at the local community college to see if he can still hack it in the classroom.

His teacher is Murray, a Ph.D. candidate in English who has a lot on her plate. She's starting work on her dissertation, preparing to TA several classes, taking shifts at the Friendly Bean to make ends meet, and helping her mom, who recently went into remission from breast cancer. She has no time for herself, never mind a relationship... but there's her hockey crush at the back of the classroom, handsome and carefree, staring out the window as she's calling roll.


The good, romance edition:

- This book has the interiority that I've been craving recently. These characters think about their feelings, talk about their feelings, and do their best while recognizing they're not perfect. If you like the romantic relationship in Alexis Hall's The Lady and the Duke, or the character dynamic in Kris Ripper's Scientific Method series, you will be all over this.

- The story doesn't exactly follow the usual plot beats, to its advantage.

- Instead of being the best friend's sister Murray is the team captain's sister, which is a neat way to both use the trope and change/up the stakes.

- Tyler is a cinnamon roll. He's not good at everything, but making sure Murray eats dinner and finds her way into a bed at the end of the night? He rocks at that.

- I pumped a fist in the air when it's made clear that family is not an obligation - yes!


The good, queer af edition:

- Tyler is bi and in the closet for Reasons, which brings up all kinds of discussions about queerness. First of which being, not everyone likes to use the word "queer", and that's okay!

- Both forced outing and voluntary coming out are key parts of the storyline, and it's made clear that telling the world you're bi (or what have you) isn't a requirement. You can be selective and calculated with how you come out, remaining a private person while still living your inner truth.

- As in the first book bi-erasure is a thing. In the past those who saw Tyler with a guy assumed he's gay, unable to comprehend that people can be attracted to more than one gender ~face palm~

- The found family is thick and strong, with talk about how important community is for everyone, but especially queer folx.

- The first time Tyler and Murray have sex it's oral, and the first penetrative sex happens off page. I love this queering of the narrative - in heteronormative m/f romance penetrative sex is usually a Big Deal that cements the relationship, and it's as if James is emphasizing that one sexual act does not an HEA make.


The good, hockey edition:

- I'm delighted to come back to the Firebirds, with characters from book one playing not-quite-minor roles here. It feels like coming home.

- A new-to-us teammate went from 'hello' to 'hi-you-need-to-get-your-own-HEA-nao' in one conversation flat. That's a skill.

- In the first book some of the hockey details were off, but here everything lines up as far as I can tell.


The not-so-good:

- There's a third act breakup. I'm not overly mad at it, it makes sense... but at the same time I saw a way for the conflict to be outside of the relationship, so I was sad it didn't go in that direction.

- Murray is the daughter of at least one immigrant and presumably Latinx, but awfulness in the academic setting is attributed solely to her being a woman in that environment. Maybe she passes as white, it's unclear, but I was surprised that trouble boils down to her gender, with no mention of race.


All in all Too Hot to Touch is just the romance I need right now, with a chosen family I love and the interiority and communication I crave. I am beyond excited to see what James does next.

Content notes: discussion of past caregiving, cancer (side character, in remission), homophobia, bi-erasure, forced outing, misogyny, sports-related injury, forgetting to eat, brief mention of past panic attack

Thanks to Netgalley and Carina for giving me this ARC.
I had previously read To Much Man and at that time, wasn't sure if I would pick up another Firebirds book.
To be honest, I'm still pretty meh about it.
Since this was an ARC, I always expect some minor issues --like the typo where the author (or an editor) overlooked inserting the type of roses her father grows (It literally says "Species Roses"...what? That's why you add TK to those notes, you know. So you can search for them in post.

Anyway.

Over all, I wanted to like these two so much. Murray (Summer) relatable to me to an extent. But the whole "she thinks she's plain because she's a scholar while he thinks she's burning hot" is...old. It's so boring. And there really isn't anything exceptional about her described beauty either...like, why should I care that she's pretty?

It's been a few days since I finished and nothing in particular is sticking with me --which is a sure sign that this was pretty blah. Like, I can't even think of anything else specific to complain about. A lot of unnecessary drama for sake of a routine formulaic plot.
Meh.

A PhD student who falls in love with a NHL player. Murray is overworked and stressed. Tyler is going through a lot at work because he is bisexual. Together they fall in love and become stronger.

Love this book. Both characters are terrific and I love how they help each other. Their pasy and issues are not easy to solve and it's great how they face them together at the end. I am also grateful to see bisexual representation in the book. Not just as a side character but as a main hero..... Representation is important!

Thanks to the publisher for the arc.

Tyler and Murray (her real name is Summer) are - on the surface - a classic pairing of rogue and wallflower. But - like all things in life - when you dig below the surface, they are so much more. Murray is a very hardworking graduate student. She's working multiple jobs and spends her limited free time caring for her family and close network of friends. She does not have time for one more ball to juggle - let alone a relationship with a very hot hockey player who is also a student in her community college literature class. Tyler is taking a summer class at the community college as part of an effort to explore post-hockey career life. He's had a very difficult time the last few years - after a relationship with another player ended in a tidal wave of homophobia and heartbreak. He's trying to get his feet under him with the team in Philadelphia and doesn't want to rock the boat - which means keeping his bisexuality a secret and NOT messing around with the captain's sister (aka Murray).

My heart broke throughout this book for both Tyler and Murray. For Tyler - I was so proud of him for doing the hard work and effort he put into his relationship with Murray after he committed to it. And for working hard to be more open with his team - and push to find his own community and acceptance. The scene in the book where Murray's landlord and friend Fern talks with Tyler about finding and building a community was so wonderful. The ideas she put out there will resonate with so many - especially those with strained family relationships. For Murray - I just wanted to hug her and give her support. So many women - not just grad students - carry so much of the load for their families and others. And asking for help - or even just accepting it when it is given becomes almost as hard as carrying the burdens.

This book definitely challenges you as a romance reader - I wanted so much for Murray to make some different choices and I wanted Tyler to do the same. But the journey is very much worth it. I also want to give major credit to Katy James for also portraying healthy, supportive female relationships and the wonderful queer representation in the book.

I received this via NetGalley as an ARC, but these opinions are all my own.

Thank you, Carina Press, for allowing me to read Too Hot to Touch early!

I knew of this novel before it got added to NetGalley, but I'm quite irked by whoever is in charge of adding the books to their categories because this story has a fantastic bisexual protagonist in a relationship with a woman and that doesn't mean that the story is not queer, so it should have been added under LGBTQIA as well as Romance. That aside, the book was fabulous. I loved the "forbidden" aspect of the relationship the most.

Murray (a woman despite the name) is a PhD student with way too many balls up in the air but she’s hot for Tyler. Tyler is the NHL player who’s bi in a homophobic profession and who’s really hot for Murray.

This is such a sweet romance. Murray is so recognizable, overworked but still taking on responsibilities but won’t share the burden. She really feels she has to do everything. She is also so drawn to Tyler but can’t free herself up to give their relationship priority and time. And Tyler, through his love for Murray, is just learning to be vulnerable. He doesn’t want to be a burden but he really needs her to be present in the relationship.

And oh yeah, as they’re really hot for each other the saucy parts are quite enjoyable.

I received this ARC from the publisher and NetGalley in exchange for this honest review.