Member Reviews
Unloved by Peyton Corinne is a love letter to every person who has been made to feel like they must put others before themselves. For Freddy, who is handling the grief of losing a parent and all of the after effects that entails along with the truth of his college identity; and for Ro, who has built her life loving others while feeling like she is not having her needs met in return.
Throughout college, they cross paths twice; Ro meeting Freddy at the beginning of freshman year when he doesn't remember, and Freddy at a party senior year where Ro reveals facts about herself that have him immediately drawn to her, a night which she can't recall. But it's in their senior year, when Freddy is in need of a tutor for biology and Ro is in need of a true friend, that they cross paths. Sparks fly, and they both realize that there is more to one another than meets the eye, and they may be exactly what the other needs.
This novel is and will always be special to me for so many reasons, but the main one is that the author made me feel seen. To see where these two began, feeling so lost and alone in the world, and how the characters honed on the importance of loving oneself in spite of their trauma and flaws. Two broken people, seeing one another and being each other's rock in the time of need by showing each other that they are loved fully as themselves, even when delving into moments they are not proud of is truly embracing the reality of the human experience. Feeling like you must be a certain way, even if it goes agains what your intuition is telling you, and realizing the importance of surrounding yourself with people who support your true self, rather than a facade. It was a truly beautiful story about love, grief, friendship and family that went so much deeper than just romance, and I encourage everyone to read this novel as it literally altered my brain chemistry.
Ro and Freddy will stick with me forever, and for two characters who believe they're unlovable, they are truly some of the most loved characters of all.
Did I finish this in one day. Yes! I’ve been anxiously anticipating this release since I read Unsteady in the spring. Omg I’m obsessed with Peyton & this universe (THANK U NetGalley, Atria, and Peyton for this early copy!!) I love Rhys & Sadie but Ro & Freddy are definitely my favorite in the series so far😭. Here are some thoughts while reading:
1) Umm insane playlist??? Like perfect playlist 👏🏼👏🏼 could not have created a better one myself - Mirrorball IS Freddy and Ro.
2) Ro is soo innocent and sweet someone needs to take her to Disney I just feel like she would really love Disney
3) Tyler is absolutely diabolical 👎🏻 (so is carmen but they did NOT ruin this for me🙏)
4) The 😭 tie 😭😭😭😭. Ya I cried.
5) “I’ll take care of him I promise” ?!? Yep also cried.
This book is another hit from Peyton Corinne. Unloved puts you through a bit of emotional turmoil like its predecessor Unsteady, but also has those romantic moments that will make you feel warm inside.
I loved the relationship between Matt and Rosalie and thought it was well developed. I loved seeing them develop a solid friendship before delving into anything romantic because that’s what these characters really needed, especially Matt. I just love Matt’s journey in this book in general and how supportive Rosalie is of him and how she defends him.
Can’t wait to see what’s next!
This book has been on my mind since reading Unsteady. Freddy and Ro seriously complimented each other in every single way. Slow burns like this drive me feral. Freddy is perfect, his overprotectiveness of Ro is extremely endearing. I felt like I knew these characters the entire time I was reading. I literally had to lay down and contemplate life after reading this. A few small spelling errors but this book was absolute perfection. I loved every second. The Peyton did an amazing job in brining these highly anticipated characters to life. I felt angry whenever Ro’s ex was even mentioned and literally blushed every time Freddy thought “you would so easy to love.” All the feels and love.
Thank you Atria Books and NetGalley for this ARC!
I honestly was not expecting to get approved to this ARC but man, I am so glad I did. I can't imagine having to wait till February for this beautiful gem of a book. I could sing its praises all day long (and I will proceed to do just that)
Unloved was a gut punch in ways that I was not expecting. It's a book for everyone who has ever felt like they were too much and who have ever felt unworthy of love. It took many tears, but this book was incredibly healing. The journey was worth it all.
Let me start off by saying how much I adored our fmc, Ro. Her patient, caring nature was awe inspiring and it just made me that much more angry every time it was exploited or made fun of. Yes, she was shy and bashful and though she spent a lot of time acquiescing to others wants/needs, she had a lot quiet strength to her. It was satisfying to see her break the expectations placed upon her by others and grow in to a more confident version of herself. The way she advocated for Matty had me in shambles because I just know that meant the world to him.
Matt "Freddy" Frederic - what a sweet baby angel. It is clear that Peyton Corrine does not shy away from writing vulnerable, sensitive male characters and I love her for that. Matty's backstory and all of his struggles absolutely killed me. It was the way he felt his feelings (and at times, actively avoided them) that had me crying so many times throughout this book. I just wanted to hug the fuck out of him!! I also appreciated the care the author took in writing about Matty's dyslexia/dyscalculia/ADHD - it gave some much needed perspective.
The side characters continue to be another favorite part of this series!! Much like when I read Unsteady, I am foaming at the mouth for the rest of the stories from these characters. Specifically, Bennett's - I just know it's going to be a good one.
Last thing: the spice was so good in this. Not only was it hot as hell, but I loved how it was incredibly intimate and sweet. 10/10, no notes.
Anyway, I was blown away by this and I highly, highly recommend picking this up on release day.
Book Review: "Unloved" by Peyton Corinne
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
"Unloved" by Peyton Corinne is a deeply moving hockey romance that delves into themes of grief and self-doubt. As a reader, I found myself profoundly connected to the protagonist, Ro, whose struggles felt relatable and authentic. Corinne masterfully explores the complexities of love and loss, creating a narrative that resonates on many levels.
One of the standout aspects of this novel is the depth of Freddy/Matty’s character. Corinne crafts him with layers that make his journey compelling and heartfelt. Their relationship is beautifully portrayed, offering both tension and tenderness, which kept me eagerly turning the pages.
I also appreciated how the plot and characters from the first book are intricately woven into this story. It’s a testament to Corinne’s storytelling ability that she can create a seamless connection between the two, enriching the experience for readers familiar with the series while still being accessible to newcomers.
I can't wait to share some of my favorite quotes when the book is published in February 2025. Thank you to Peyton for the opportunity to read "Unloved"! After loving "Unsteady," I can confidently say that "Unloved" has taken first place in my heart.
If you’re a fan of emotional narratives that tackle real-life struggles alongside romance, this book is a must-read!
4.5 ⭐️
Less. Than. A. Day. I finished this book in less than a day. It is so binge-able and I just could not put it down! I was hooked from the first page!
Freddy and Ro are the most perfectly imperfect people and their relationship is everything. This is definitely the kind of romance that will be tugging at your heartstrings all while having you giggle and kick your feet!
Freddy is one of my new favorite book boyfriends, he is so sweet and kind, and I just love him so much. The relationships in this book are so layered and complex. I was LIVING for the Sadie/Rhys cameos! That made me smile so big while reading!
I also loved the end! There was no obnoxious third-act break-up AND I felt like we got a lot more "fluffy" chapters towards the end—which I am always saying I need more of! It felt so rewarding to just see Ro and Freddy happy after all they had gone through!
This is my new favorite book by Peyton Corinne and I am so excited to see what's next for this series!
Thank you to Atria books and NetGalley for this ARC 💚🏒
Ro and Matt have a story of grief and love. Ro has had a crush on Matt “Freddy” since a moment they had freshman year that he can’t remember. Now, it’s senior year and she’s tasked with being his tutor.
Matt is a player that no one takes seriously, except for Ro. But Ro is in a toxic on again/off again situationship with the worst man on the planet, Tyler. I can’t put into words how much I dislike him. He belittles Ro, causes her to question her worth, and is a narcissist. He breaks up with her multiple times to be with other women and then crawl back. I wish he had less time in this book and in Ro’s life.
When Matt is finally able to be with Ro romantically, it is so swoony and of course a bit of spice. He sees her true worth and she sees his. Their genuine friendship gradually transitioned to love. Ro gave him the support he needed. They both have a love language of physical touch and it worked for them!
Overall, Peyton knows how to pull at your heartstrings, especially with Matty’s loss of his mom. These two have a great epilogue and well deserved HEA 💚
Very few typos in this edition, mostly missing a few adverbs.
I didn’t think I could love a female main character more than Sadie and then along came Ro! This book was so tender, sweet, heartbreaking/heartwarming, SPICY, and loving. These two characters were made for one another and their character growth was beautiful. I felt seen reading both of their POVs and that is a marker of strong characters for me! These are technically college romances (I’m out of this age bracket) but like unsteady, you do not feel like it ages them down or you cannot relate. Peyton is now an autobuy author for me and I cannot wait to see the rest of her stories come out.
💚 Friends to Lovers
🤍 Tutor x Athlete
💚 Mental Health Rep
🤍 College Hockey
💚 Healing Together
Heartbreaking, healing and everything in between! This is the emotional depth we love to see in romance; getting such a heavy but relatable look at grief, healing our own broken pieces with healthy relationships and learning to lean into love (especially when we don’t feel we deserve it). I loved watching Ro grow into her own, after a horrible relationship where we was made to feel “too much” and lost her own path.
And sweet Matty 🥹 I wanted to hug him the whole way through; watching him deal with the grief of losing his mom, the way he was made to feel only enough for his body/what he could do for others and seeing him really start to believe he deserves the good. This angel man must be protected!
Peyton Corinne never fails to write such depth to the characters, speak on heavy but real topics with such grace and weave in so much detail to their relationships that engages you from the beginning. So appreciative of Netgalley, Peyton Corinne and team for the opportunity to read an ARC of Unloved- cannot wait to see what comes next 🤍
I expected this to take place after Sadie and Rhys’s story, but it’s happening during the same time frame. I loved seeing others point of view on their relationship, but I LOVED Ro and Matty together. I found myself smiling like they were my friends falling in love. I can’t wait to read more by this author in the future!
LOVED THIS SO MUCH
im so obsessed with ro and matt and their relationship, it felt so realistic and all their issues were communicated so well. i also really appreciated matt’s pov and how he worked through his issues and even had setbacks which was so real and relatable, same with ro, her development was so important and i loved seeing how their story ended❤️
also loved how rhys and sadie were involved in their story and development and it makes me what to figure out how to tandem read unsteady and unloved🤭
4.5 stars!!
Friends to lovers is one of my favorite tropes because of how they already care for one another and build on their relationship. I loved Freddy and how vulnerable he was throughout the story and how Ro accepted him for who he was. I also LOVED the back story with how they first met it made my heart so happy at how quickly they were able to reconnect after meeting again. Freddy had me giggling and kicking my feet he has such a huge heart and deserves the world.
I would definitely recommend this if you’re looking for friends to lovers, semi-spicey, and protective hockey boyfriend.
I love this book so much! Peyton Corinne has a way with writing such realistic love stories. Ro and Matt's story was so sad, but so raw and heartwarming to see how they connected with each other. I feel like a lot of people will be able to relate to Ro and Matt's struggles and feelings. I liked this book even more than Unsteady, which I really enjoyed a lot. I can't wait to read more in this series!
Unloved is an emotionally rich, beautiful story about two people who have been hurt deeply growing to trust and love each other. I absolutely love it, and both main characters will steal the hearts of readers everywhere.
Thank you to Peyton Corrine, Atria Books, and NetGalley for this eARC in exchange for my review!
Unloved is the sequel to Unsteady by Peyton Corrine. It takes place in tandem with the events of Unsteady, but from the perspectives of two different characters; friends of the MCs in Unsteady. I, personally, hadn’t read any book series where the author decided to have such an approach to storytelling so I thought that it was a really interesting choice to go about the series this way. It’s rather clever and requires a lot of attention to detail and making sure the finer parts of the plot are kept congruent throughout each book.
The relationship between the main characters, Ro and Freddy seemed realistic especially with the personal issues both of them had with intimacy and romance, respectively. I really enjoyed their dynamic and the journey of their love story. Both characters seemed very real and fleshed out. Although, while Freddy’s background was thoroughly explored, it felt like Ro’s was more-so brushed over. Her main struggles in the novel were focused on the current relationship she was in and the issues that went along with it. I feel like the reader could’ve benefited from learning more about Ro’s past to more fully round out her character, since she has her own past familial hardships, like Freddy.
One petty complaint I do have is more of a personal pet peeve, but a downside for me nonetheless: the incessant name dropping of songs throughout the book. The author did the same thing in the first book, but I was less bothered by it since it had relevance to the plot and the characters’ growth. In this book however, it felt completely unnecessary and unless you know every song it doesn’t add anything to the story.
Overall though, I thoroughly enjoyed reading this and loved the characters, their growth, and their relationship. It was a solid follow-up to Unsteady and I believe I enjoyed Unloved even more than its predecessor, I practically binge-read this within less than 24 hours. I was truly hooked!
Thank you to Atria Books and NetGalley for this advanced copy in exchange for my honest review!
To be seen is to be loved and what a gift it is to be seen by the person we love in return.
Freddy and Ro are the perfect examples of seeing people and loving them despite it all. Watching them fall together was heartbreaking and beautiful in the best way possible.
Matthew “Freddy” Frederic of MMC is unapologetic in who he is while also being deeply insecure. Freddy is caring, kind, hardworking and just craving for someone to see him as this and not the reputation he has garnered. Freddys story is heartbreaking and he deserves so much love and kindness which is exactly what Ro gives him. Watching Freddy grow, show his vulnerabilities and open up to Ro was amazing. Seeing him give love to those around him despite everything he’s been through was truly beautiful.
Rosalie or Ro our FMC is kind, smart, driven, and a little insecure. She loves without question and is loyal to a fault. Seeing her grow into herself with the help of Freddy was wonderful. Ro deserved to be loved in a way where she did not have to question if she was enough or if there was something wrong with her which Freddy did. Watching the growth of her character and her realizing that she deserves so much more than she was getting was incredible.
Matt and Ro are two characters who are insanely relatable and human. Getting to see them grow together and stumble through the hard stuff in such a vulnerable and healthy way was everything.
These two will hold a special place in my heart. They made me laugh and cry and feel so many things.
AMAZING hockey romance! I loved Unsteady and was so excited to receive an ARC of Unloved. It was everything I was hoping for and more! Ro and Freddy were so perfect for one another. They complemented each other and their weaknesses and vulnerabilities were accepted unconditionally by each other. I thought it was incredibly moving to see Freddy's past revealed as he worked though his past. Ro's crush on Freddy as a freshman that developed into so much more senior year was so endearing. I loved their friendship as Ro tutors Freddy and spend time together outside of those tutoring sessions. The way they see one another despite the walls they've built around themselves was so sweet. I loved Freddy and Ro's story. Their romance made me cry and made me love them so much!
*insert gif of janice from friends screaming OH MY GAAAWDD here*
rip ro shariff you wouldve loved ttpd in general but more specifically smallest man, i hate it here, the prophecy and my boy only breaks his favorite toys (tyler if i ever catch your ass 👊🏻) 🙃
yall 😭 this book was a rollercoaster of emotions from the very beginning to the very end, i have never felt more in love with two characters/a couple the way i feel with ro & matty 🥹
i read unsteady about a year ago to which it had immediately became an all time favorite, i was so insanely impressed with how that was peyton’s debut book, i was just blown away by the feelings it gave me and have been so excited about this book from all the glimpses we saw of them in book 1. as excited as i was i did not go into reading this thinking they would knock sadie and rhys off the perfect couple pedestal i had them on, but holy fuck !!!! the most perfect strangers to friends to bestfriends to lovers if i have anything to say about it 😭💚
alexa play so high school on repeat and let me swoon for another 20 years just thinking of these two, they complimented each other in every sense of the word 🥹
“Signed Matty—not Freddy. He’s mine, in that way.”
mr. lover boy who never gets chosen first and miss lover girl fighting to feel seen, safe and loved will tear your heart out time after time while simultaneously putting it back together anytime you get these two alone or they are celebrating each others small or big victories, these two built the most perfect foundation of friendship to help one another move past some really big life altering events, its most definitely a slow burn but in the sweetest (and hottest 🫣) ways.
“I spend most of it convincing myself not to follow her inside. She doesn’t need someone like me.”
to prepare yourself for reading this book i would advise you have plenty of tissues, mostly for matty’s pov and something you can throw across the room without breaking anything for ro’s. this book is one big “you never know what someone else is going through” especially the always happy, always helpful people.
matty is honest to god the most emotionally intelligent man i have ever read about before especially once he realizes Ro sees him and he lets her into his practically impenetrable fortress, literally everyone but Ro and Archer owe this man the biggest of apologies, his POV and internal monologues absolutely wrecked me, i was angry for Ro but absolutely devastated for freddy over and over again 🥲
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now some of my favorite quotes of the two of them just being the cutest people ever and loving each other so much:
“There’s a hitch in his breath, and if I didn’t know him better—the fact that I’m sure everyone has complimented him enough to last a lifetime—I’d say he’s yearning to hear the words. They wash over him like water on a sunflower.”
“Accusing you of not applying yourself? God—I’m insulted for you. To fight me back on that? They don’t know anything about you.”
“She waited after every step for me to get bored, but I could listen to her talk about the scientific process of paint drying without batting an eye. Everything she says is enthralling to me.“
“Hey,” Matt snaps, pulling out of the hug he’d just granted his friend. “Not cool—either of you. No foreign language shit, that’s cheating.” He points toward Bennett. “And you? No cooking in front of my girlfriend—that’s . . . that’s even worse, I think.”
ANYWAYYYYYYS I DONT WANNA SPOIL ANYTHING SO IM SHUTTING UP NOW BUT MATTY AND RO ARE FOREVER MY FAVS, THIS IS MY NEW FAV BOOK PERIOD, INFINITE STARS, PEYTON CORINNE YOU WILL BE HEARING FROM MY LAWYERS AND MY THERAPIST 💚
This is my first book by Peyton Corinne and I thoroughly enjoyed it. The development between Ro and Matt was so genuine and slow but in a good way. Both have issues they need to work through so I felt the timeline was very realistic for them to get together. I felt so much for Ro, as she is just trying to do her best but getting cut down and gaslit by her boyfriend at every turn. I loved how Ro and Matt supported and advocated for one another even before they got together. It made for a great foundation for their relationship. There are some darker themes in this novel so be sure to read trigger warnings.