Member Reviews
I got an early copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.
I loved this book. College romances are my kryptonite but it’s rare to find one that has depth to its characters and their relationships, without being formulaic in the plot (and no third act breakup!!). I loved Freddy and Ro’s relationship so much - it felt like real people getting to know each other and who were true friends before getting together. Freddy was a confident, protective MMC who hit all the tropes I love without falling into the typical machismo/alpha male stereotype you often find in romance books. I was less fond of Ro in the beginning but came to like her more as the book progressed. Will definitely read any book by Peyton!
I have absolutely loved Peyton Corinne’s last two books. Both Unsteady and Unloved are such enjoyable reads. They are very similar to many other college hockey romance books, but absolutely elevated. The quality, and writing style are unmatched by any others in this niche, save for Bal Khabra.
I absolutely loved Matty and Ro’s story, and even though it dealt with heavy topics, it still felt light and joyful.
I am so excited for what Corinne writes next!
If you were a big fan of Icebreaker, Unloved is another college hockey romance with spice, heart, and finding your place you that will scratch that same itch.
Matt Fedderic is a hockey star with learning disorders that make it difficult for him to stay eligible for the team. Ro is his new tutor. She has a toxic ex who builds himself up by bringing her down, and though he doesn't want to date her, he doesn't want to be rid of her either, since she's an easy punching bag. Matt has a reputation for getting around, fueled by the gaping hole left by his piece of crap father and his mother's passing. As Matt and Ro spend more time together, a friendship forms between them, and maybe even something deeper.
For me, this was an enjoyable read, but there were some problems. The fact that most of their early tension and attraction was caused by two different nights they had together that the other couldn't remember and was formative to the other...that just seemed problematic to me. Especially the prologue - since there is another scene based on that plot device a little later on, I kind of wish it hadn't been included.
There is some pretty dark stuff insinuated in this book. Matt's sexual past is...not great. It mentions some action with a high school teacher at one point. ...um, what? And then his most recent ex is nothing but bad news as well. And Ro's ex had zero redeeming qualities or background to back up his actions toward her.
I don't know. A lot of it was a little too much for me. If there were a volume dial on the drama scale I might have turned it down like two notches.
The relationship between Ro & Matt was sweet though. Having them prioritize friendship between them for so long was absolutely necessary for these two and absolutely refreshing. It was clear they weren't just horny for one another, but that they really cared about the other in much deeper ways. They are both going through some rough stuff, and they show up for each other every time it counts. That's the kind of stuff I love in a romance.
Unloved is really what I'm finding to be a 'typical' college sports romance novel. It's long, there are lots of plotlines, family traumas, lessons to be learned, steamy scenes, and a nice happy ending at the end. For me, it felt like I'd read it before honestly. There wasn't enough there to stand out, but I read A LOT of romance. But this is exactly what you might be looking for if you were a big fan of Icebreaker by Hannah Grace.
Peyton Corinne does it again! I absolutely loved the story of Freddy & Ro. I loved the character growth of Ro and how she embraced becoming uniquely herself and Freddy is the definition of if he wanted to he would! This story was beautifully written and covered tough topics of grief and anxiety so well.
ARC REVIEW!!
INFINITY STARS!!! I have no doubt that I will love each and every book in The Undone series. And what a fitting name for this series, cuz so far both books have absolutely DESTROYED me and have left ME undone. I just know I'm gonna keep on devouring everything Peyton writes so babe keep these delicious books coming cuz I'm a fan FOR LIFE.
Ok, now moving on to my review:
I wish someone had given me a heads up about how much this book was gonna make me CRY. The reason why it took me 5 days to get through this book was because Peyton was literally just calling me out left and right and I needed to put the book down and collect myself. Oh how much I could relate to Ro and Matt. The one thing Peytons gonna do is write characters with SO MUCH DEPTH. This is not just your typical college sports romance story. Yes, you do get all the amazing aspects of a hockey romance that we all love BUT it also focuses so much on the character growth. We watch these characters start off as shells of themselves but then as the book progress, we see their personal journey unravel, watch them fight through emotional and mental barriers and end up in a much better place. My babies Ro and Matt deserve EVERYTHING good in the world. I just wanna give them the biggest hugs ever.
The thing is that both Ro and Matt are the sweetest people ever. Like they both give off golden retriever energy. They have so much love to give but no one that accepts all that love and reciprocates it. Starting off with my girly Ro. She is an absolute sweetheart but her piece of MF SHIT boyfriend Tyler has fucked with her so much and made her think so little of herself. The way he treated her like shit, gaslighted her and belittled her and the entire time Ro just kept on thinking that something was wrong with her. NO BABY YOU ARE PERFECT!!!!!!!! You can see just how much Tylers behavior towards her affects her self esteem. Ro is so thoughtful and seeing her not being appreciated really hit me because while I've never been a relationship, I've been in the same situation Ro has but with past friends. I know how it feels to care so much for someone and always do your best for them only for them to not give a fuck. So yea, this book stirred up a lot of trauma from past friendships LOL. But honestly this book made me face so many of things that I have ignoring for so long, and seeing how Ro overcame fears she had, helped me heal in a lot of ways. So yes while this book made me cry, I'm glad it did because I felt so much lighter once I finished this book.
Also, talking about my sweet boy Matty. He is the kind of man I dream of. Not only does he have a sense of humor, but the way he has the biggest heart ever and is such a thoughtful man omg. My heart broke for him when we found out about his past and the reason behind why he just goes with the whole "ladies man" persona. He deserves to be treated so much better and I am so glad that Ro was the one to show him.
These two healed each other in ways no one else could. They stood up for each other in ways no one else ever did. Them realizing that they could have the love and relationship they've always wanted and watching them fall in love was the most amazing part of this story. This book is going to put you through it FOR SURE but it's all worth it cuz the ending is SO beautiful.
So my parting words for you are: READ THIS BOOK.
Thank you so much Atria Books for providing me with this ARC and making me the happiest girl ever!
Last year "Unsteady" by this author was one of my first hockey romances ever and I LOVED it. It put me on a pretty steady sports romance binge last winter.
Undone, it's sequel, matches all the good stuff from the first and even raises it some extra MMC emotional depth.
Freddy is star left winger for the Waterfell Wolves with a stellar reputation in bed and a potential future in the NHL. But, with her GPA at 2.0 he's teetering on losing it all. What everyone doesn't see is how is ADHD, dyslexia and dyscalculia might prevent him from graduating, and we learn there is MUCH more on the line than just his degree.
Ro, a totally hopeless romantic is our FMC, and she is now added to my top 10 female characters ever. She just feels like a friend. Peyton Corinne wrote her with so much depth and relatability that she feels like a tangible person who might text me later for a pep talk. This girl just wants to be seen- and the way she settles into mediocre relationships reminds me of my early 20s, we can all relate I'm sure.
These two have encountered each other in the past- in fact,... Freddy was her first kiss.... something he seems to have no recollection of....
So, the story goes that Ro will need to tutor Freddy, and the slow burn begins.
I mean slow... but lemme tell you, worth every, damn second.
Scheduled for release in early February of 2025, thank you to NetGalley, Atria Books and the author for a chance to read prior to publication.
Rating: 4/5⭐️
Spice: 🌶️🌶️🌶️
Wow, I really enjoyed the first book in this series but I think I liked this one even more. Peyton does such a great job of pulling you in from the first chapter and making her characters very relatable and easy to like. She also does a really good job of covering hard topics.
This was an emotional rollercoaster! I love when a book can make me feel every emotion. The two main characters felt so real and I loved their chemistry. At some point I wanted to cry and others I was giggling and kicking my feet! This one was definitely a little bit more spicy as well.
Matt Fredderic (Matty) is moving to one of my top book boyfriends. He was always looking out for Ro even when he didn’t think he was capable of being cared for back. They built each other up and helped each other overcome their insecurities.
I want to say thank you to NetGalley, Atria Books ,and Peyton for this eARC in exchange for my honest review! 💚
"'To be loved is to be seen...'" ~ Unloved by @peytoncorinneauthor🎀💚🏒
ARC RATING:
🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟
This series has such a big piece of my heart.🫶🏼 The first book is one of my all time favorite books but I have to say Unloved probably is my favorite out of the two now!!🥰💚
I've never read a book where I felt so seen & understood with BOTH of the main characters.🥹 As someone that is a people pleaser, has struggled with making friends & being alone, who also has learning disabilities... this book is everything & had me sobbing.😭
Rosalie Shariff is a hopeless romantic, loves reading romance books, & has a heart of gold.🩷 Ro finds herself in a really bad relationship who makes her think really terribly about herself... this goes without saying... she deserves better.😭 She's a tutor in her cohort and finds herself tutoring Freddy, who is struggling in math and biology.🎀
Matthew "Freddy" Fredderic plays on the hockey team and also lives with Rhys from the first book!!🩵💚 Freddy struggles with dyslexia, dyscalculia, & ADHD. He is known on campus for being somewhat of a playboy & hates being alone because of his past.🏒
Emojis that best describe this book:
🏒🎀📖🔬🍕📚🐱⭐️🤠🏊🏽❤️🩹🐢👯♀️
You'll love this book if:
* Athlete x Tutor🏒📚
* Learning Disability Rep💚
* Slow burn🔥
* Friends to lovers👩🏽🤝👨🏼
* Protective MMC😍
* They learn to be loved together❤️🩹
* Hopeless Romantic FMC🩷
* Spicy Bucket List🌶️
Ro & Freddy's relationship is so unique & fills you up with love.🥰They fall slowly but when they do, they both fall hard.💚 Freddy is determined to protect Ro from his reputation & prove to her how worthy she is of love. While Ro wants to show Freddy that despite what others have said about him, he's worth so much more.🥹
Unloved by Peyton Corinne comes out February 4th, 2025!! It healed a part of myself that I didn't even know needed healing.🥹 Make sure to add this book to your TBR and thank me later!!😉 You definitely won't regret it.💚
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#hockeyromance #igreads #arcreview #arc #bookreview #honestreview #romance #learningdisabilities #learning #adhd #dyscalculia #dyslexia #booksta #bookstagram #bookish #bookstagrammer #unloved
Freddy and Ro only show the world so much. Freddy leans into his reputation and Ro pretends to be happy. But deep down, they are both hurting and both desperate for love. When Ro begins to tutor Freddy, the two become unlikely friends; growing closer and closer as the semester goes on.
Read if you like:
-Slow Burn
-Angst
-Opposites Attract
-Moving on from a toxic ex
-Working through your issues
-Friends to Lovers
All. The. Stars.
I thought it was going to be impossible to follow up Unsteady, but then Peyton Corinne goes and writes Unloved. This book was everything. Freddy was everything. Ro was everything. I cried so much, but it the best way. This book will grab hold of your heart and squeeze.
A few months ago I fell in love with the story of Rhys and Sadie in Peyton Corinne's debut novel Unsteady. While reading, I found myself drawn to the brief glimpses of Ro and Freddy's story so I was so excited to read this book.
Unloved, at its core, is a book about grief and love. Both characters go on a journey of self-acceptance and find each other along the way (even though there are a few bumps in the road). There are heavy moments in this book but they never felt out of place. These characters deal with a multitude of outside forces that profoundly affect them both but they find comfort and support with each other. It was a beautiful thing to read about.
If you are interested in reading a story about growth, acceptance, grief, and love, then this story is for you. I hope you fall in love with the characters like I did.
I want to say thank you to Netgalley and Atria Books for the e-ARC copy. It was a pleasure to read about this adorable relationship.
Yeah absolutely loved this one. Thanks to Peyton Corinne and NetGalley, I got to read this as an ARC.
Peyton Corinne just knows how to write emotion. She has a way of picking such specific feelings and placing them in a character so perfectly. Everyone but specifically me needs a love like Ro and Matt have.
It started a little slow for me, so give it a chance, but once I got into it I loved it. It flows quick and fun, and I like that Corinne adds a little extra fluff for the sake of the story in there, even if it makes it longer. Overall big fan of this one and will continue to read Peyton Corinne forever and ever
Just finished reading this and I really enjoyed it! So many emotions reading this but the slow burn was worth it and needed. Ro was so sweet and kind. Matt was patient and caring, I loved. My favorite part was definitely the epilogue because we got to see more of them together in the future!
4.5 ⭐️
This book was so cute and beautifully written. It explores self-doubt, healing, grief, and learning disabilities in such a heartfelt way. I LOVED IT SO MUCH!
Matty "Freddy," the so-called lover boy and flirt, is so much more than the mask he wears. On the ice, he's a star player, but off it, he struggles with ADHD, dyslexia, and dyscalculia, barely making it through his classes. Ro, his assigned tutor, is sweet, intelligent, and caring while dealing with her own emotionally abusive relationship.
I related to Ro so much. Her love for bows, cute clips, princess vibes, romance books, and even Taylor Swift! She felt so real, and i adored how she genuinely supported Matty and stood up for him. And Matty? He's the ultimate golden retriever. cocky, sweet, sensitive, protective, and a total cinnamon roll. Also, he calls her Princess 😩. I'm such a sucker for nicknames, and this was freaking cuteeee 💗
Their story was adorable and such a sloooooow burn. I was giggling and smiling through so many scenes. Freddy's love for Ro didn't just come from attraction. They grew from her words and actions.I loved how they became each other's safe space and built such a strong friendship first. As their bond grew, so did the tension between them, and they were both afraid of risking the friendship they'd built. Watching them grow and heal together was so beautiful.
A few of my favorite moments were late night phone calls, taking her to a bookstore, watching her favorite movie, and listening to her favorite book 🫠. I also loved how the timelines of the 1st book and this one were so well integrated.
This story was sweet, emotional, and incredibly relatable.
Tropes:
Slow Burn
Hockey Romance
Friends to Lovers
Secret pining
Mental Health Rep
Sunshine x Sunshine
Thank you to NetGalley, Atria books, and Peyton Corinne for the eARC.
Such a lovely continuation of this series. I loved getting back with these characters and getting to continue in their story.
I enjoyed this even more than Unsteady! I really enjoyed the story and found the characters well developed. Highly recommend for sports romance fans.
Worth the read. 4.5 /5 stars rounded up (it's Christmas).
Overall, I liked the book. Both characters were searching for love and had made some bad choices. I like that it was not instalust and one night stand at their first meeting like so many sports romances in the market. There was attraction for sure but there was focus on character development and emotional healing. They both wanted to be seen and loved and accepted for who they are.
- Dual POV, no cheating
- HEA, no cliffhangers; nice epilogue
- - Very few editing errors found – a missing word and using the wrong word for a homonym
Spoilers ahead:
I found Ro annoying in the beginning. While it has been a while since I was a freshman in college, she exhibited very risky behavior – drinking alcohol and making out with a stranger without even knowing his name. Has she never heard of date rape drugs? Then when she was a senior, she was clearly in an abusive relationship, but she acted like a doormat for the first quarter of the book. A good thing she developed a backbone later.
I liked Matt. I thought his reactions and issues were more understandable.
There were a couple of items that they left explained that was important to the plot as far as I am concerned. How come Archer and Elsie never got married? Who was Matt with at the restaurant when Tyler stood up Ro?
Interesting role reversal; Hockey players shown to be more decent than the nerd/ academic types i.e. tutors. Disappointed at the all or nothing treatment i.e. all the tutors mentioned in the book were misogynistic and arrogant – not one decent in the lot
NOTE: This copy was provided to me free of charge as a digital review copy by NetGalley. The opinions stated in this review are mine and mine alone, I was not paid or requested to give this book a certain rating, suggestion, or approval.
I loved unsteady so I was so excited when I got approved for this on NetGalley! Unloved is a super sweet romance about two hurting and lonely people finding each other but also finding themselves. There is tons of self discovery and character growth in this book. Our FMC was so sweet and very relatable, which was refreshing to read. The MMC was also soooo adorable and I loved reading his story (he has the biggest heart!!)
i’m so grateful that i was chosen for this arc, thank you net galley & peyton corinne 💚✨🏒📚
The pining, the friends-to-lovers trope, the soft place to land relationship between Ro and Freddy was such a delight to experience. Peyton has a great ability of balancing tough life circumstances with the magic of romance and friendship. It was also fun to see scenarios from Unsteady revisited through Ro and/or Freddy's perspective. As far as hockey romances go, this was easily one of my favorites.
The story about two people with broken souls that find comfort, friendship and love within each other.
This book is simply one of my favorites of all time as of now. The emotion mixed with the hilarious banter was so refreshing and beautifully written. Ro is one of those main characters that you get once in a lifetime. Seeing the love and selflessness within her makes me question my relationships with everyone around me. Matt is not just a book boyfriend, he is the Pacey Witter of all book boyfriends. He is just so full of love but disguises it with banter. He feels so deeply for his friends and even his enemies. Two of the best characters I’ve ever had the privilege to read about.
This book also gave me two of my most hated book characters in the world.
Actual Rating 4.5 stars
It is a well-written emotional punch of a book. The smut is unnecessary and skippable in my opinion. I really like how both characters are portrayed, They do feel like realistic people who deal with real problems. I love how everything was wrapped up, love both of the ML and FL. Just adorable and emotional.