I loved Unsteady, the first book in this series. Like, I REALLY loved it — I felt like it filled a gap in the romance genre that had been begging to be occupied for some time. It dealt with men's mental health in a way that felt fresh and new and not tired. You could imagine my excitement when I received an advanced copy of Unloved through NetGalley. I sped through this book at breakneck speed, hoping it would scratch the same itch. I kept waiting for it to hit the same as Unsteady, but I think it fell flat. I was not connected to the characters nearly as much as I was with the first book. I'm not sure if it's because my expectations were so high or if I would have experienced it differently had I not read the first book (it is a standalone). This is not to say it was a terrible book — it was fine — and I would still be interested in reading what else this writer has to offer, but this book did not thrill me.

Unloved is a captivating friends-to-lovers romance that beautifully explores the slow-burn relationship between Ro and Freddy. Ro, stuck in a toxic relationship, finds solace in Freddy, who falls for her first while being patient and supportive. Their growing bond is heartwarming, especially as Freddy helps Ro realize her worth, leading her to stand up for herself. Their sweet moments, such as Freddy’s protective nature and Ro’s words of reassurance, make this a memorable love story.

While some might find the plot a bit predictable, the emotional depth of the characters and their tender connection elevate the story. Ro and Freddy’s journey is filled with personal growth, and their epilogue, set five years later, offers a fulfilling and adorable conclusion. Fans of slow-burn romances and heartfelt character development will adore this book.

5 stars!!! ⭐️

Unloved is a beautiful love story about two people learning to accept the right kind of love both in a relationship and to themselves! I adored Ro and Freddy and their dynamic was filled with tender moments, angsty moments, and FUN moments!!! This book handles grief in a way that I think is realistic for adults in their 20's. We see Ro and Freddie each dealing with a different form of grief and how it impacts their college experiences and relationships. I wanted to hug these characters and tell them that it would be okay pretty much the entire book but lucky for me they just hugged each other and showed each other that everyone deserves an unconditional love, a soulmate if you will!

Quotes that made me pause, blush, relate to, or long for more:

💚"I can be whoever I want to be."

💚"I think you’d be really easy to love."

💚“I’m not brave or cool or anything fun, I’m just . . . I’m careful. I’m good, and it’s still not enough. I want to be more.” “You can be whatever you want to be.”

💚"But I’d lived entire lives, thousands of them, in books. And part of me always imagined what falling in love would feel like."

You will enjoy Unloved if you love realistic love stories where the characters have to fight for their love story, which makes this book a slow burn in my opinion! I rooted for Matty and Ro to believe in themselves and that they deserved to be loved!

Unloved is a triumphant love story about two broken souls healing each other despite all the struggles and obstacles they face along the way.

Peyton Corinne has quickly become an auto buy author for me and I can't wait to dive into more of her love stories! (I'm begging for a Toren Kane and whoever his lily tattoo is for, and a Bennet & Paloma book!)

Thank you Atria books and Peyton Corinne for this eARC!
I will share my full review on Goodreads, Amazon, and Barnes & Noble closer to the pub date!!

I SQUEALED when I got accepted for this ARC! Thank you to NetGalley and Atria Books!

Unsteady is hard to top for me but Unloved was pretty good. And similar in that it's not just a sweet romance.. it deals with some heavy topics. Get ready for a rollercoaster of emotions.

Freddy and Ro were both lonely and hurting for different reasons and they both had unhealthy coping mechanisms. Ro has a narcissistic bf/ex who really just had too much page time in this book (along with his friends who all acted like middle school bullies). And there's another woman who had me FUMING but that's all I can say about her. 🤐 Neither of these toxic people had consequences for their actions by the end of the book, which I had wished to see, but Freddy and Ro moved past the hurt with the help of each other.

The pacing from friends to lovers was gradual and perfect, which they needed after both having their trust broken in another relationship. Their relationship felt so natural and really just perfect. They fought to break down walls to be together and had to realize they could truly trust eachother, and they came together beautifully. There was no third act breakup, and I love love loved the dual POV!

Ro and Sadie had a weird dynamic.. Sadie felt like a different person than in Unsteady. Plus, Ro and Sadie were supposedly bffs, but kept literally everything from each other. The two books follow the same timeline so I do wish Unsteady was a little more fresh in my mind because there were some scenes, usually with Rhys and Sadie, I knew I should know what was happening but didn’t remember.

I also wish we knew more of Kane's story by now, so it's a toss up on whether I want the next book to be his or the mysterious Bennett's.

Overall, I loved all the feelings this book made me feel. All the ups and downs led to them together in a beautiful way, and the epilogue including Archer was the cherry on top!

Final thought, why was the butterfly tattoo never explained??

I looooved looooved book 1 in the series, so I was so excited to be approved for this title. I loved getting to know Ro on a deeper level. I found her to be super relatable. and don't even get me started on how much Matt loved and cared for her. Fingers crossed there is a book 3 coming for Bennett.

This is a sports romance done right! I LOVED this story. The relationship between Freddy and Ro was messy, complicated, emotional, fun, and perfect all at the same time.

“I think you’d be really easy to love.” 😍😍

⭐️ Rating: 5/5
🌶️ Spice: 3/5

🏒 Athlete x Tutor
🏒 Friends to Lovers
🏒 Slow Burn
🏒 Mental Health Rep
🏒 No 3rd Act Break Up
🏒 Hockey Romance

I can’t begin to express how good The Undone series is. And we only have two books?! First, let's get into our characters. We’ve got two pathological people pleasers in the form of a student athlete and a student tutor. We’ve got diversity through so many avenues in this story. Through their upbringings, past experiences, family dynamics, and learning abilities.

What I love most about this story for it’s emotional depth. It’s a bit of a slow burn but it’s perfect in the way it plays out. We really get to see this friends to lovers arch play out through consistency and sweet gestures.

I also want the story of Freddie’s mom and Archer. That seems like the most heartbreaking and sweet story of all time.

📚Unloved by Peyton Corinne
🏒 mf contemporary romance
🏒 new adult college setting
🏒 sports (hockey)
🏒 tutor/athlete
🏒 friends to lovers
🏒 opposites attract
🏒 hurt/comfort
🏒 mental health rep (mmc has adhd, dyslexia, dyscalculia)
🏒 slow burn
🏒 dual pov
🏒 book 2 in an interconnected standalone series

CWs for domestic violence, toxic relationships, emotional abuse, harassment, other man drama, death of a parent, grief/loss, terminal illness

Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️/5

A HUGE thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for this ARC in exchange for an honest review❤️

“I make a vow then to protect her, the pretty girl with butterflies in her messy curls, even if she’ll never really be mine.”

Unsteady by Peyton Corinne was one of my top 10 favorite romances of 2024, so I was soooo excited to get my hands on an ARC of Unloved! I was going to try and pace myself (considering this book doesn't come out until February 2025), but I accidentally ended up devouring it in less than 48 hours. Oops!! I loved absolutely everything about this, and am already looking forward to re-reading this again.

Unloved by Peyton Corinne follows Freddy and Ro, and let's just say these two couldn't be more different. Matt "Freddy" Fedderic is a star college hockey player on track for the NHL, he has loads of friends, and a notorious reputation with the ladies. He's always all smiles...well, on the outside at least. Due to his diagnoses (dyslexia/dyscalculia/ADHD), he's struggling to keep his head above water academically. He was initially going to enter the NHL draft at 18 to avoid any academic speedbumps, but his estranged father threw a wrench in his plans by including a "graduation" clause in order to receive his inheritance. Ro Shariff is a hopeless romantic with a terrible track record. She's in an off/on relationship with an absolute tool who treats her in questionable ways, but Ro desperately wants to feel wanted and cared for. She loves hard and cares deeply, but with her beloved family living so far away she feels incredibly isolated. Freddy and Ro's paths initially crossed several years earlier at a party. It was at that party where Freddy became her first kiss, but things never went any further beyond that night...a night that Freddy appears to have no recollection of. Ro later gets assigned to tutor Freddy. Their academic relationship leads to friendship, late night phone calls, and eventually something more.

While I loved the first book in the series, I just connected with Freddy and Ro on an intrinsic level. They were both so flawed and relatable in a way that makes them so incredibly human. They make poor decisions, they struggle with effective communication, they question their worthiness for unconditional love, and they both wear their hearts on their sleeves. I was really touched by the way Freddy and Ro were both yearning for unconditional love in their own ways, but both had their own barriers that prevented them from seeing it for themselves. At every stage of their relationship, Freddy and Ro fit together so well.

“No one, since my mother, has defended me so fiercely. I think I’m in love with her—not even romantically, but on some soul level. I feel devoted to her.”

This book deals with a lot of heavy themes, but I felt like the author handled everything in a sensitive and effective way. While Unloved can technically be read as a standalone, I really think you should read Unsteady first as it will give a little additional context behind some of the background events and secondary characters.

“Freddy is warmth and sunlight, shining and shimmering across ocean-blue water. The kind you want to bask in. His gaze is like heat on my skin. And he’s always reaching out to touch some part of me—physically affectionate in a way that has nothing to do with attraction.”

I can't wait to pick up a physical copy to annotate on release day!

“I think you’d be really easy to love.”

Peyton Corinne writes vulnerability in a way that makes your heart bleed for Ro and Matty. I wanted to reach into these pages and give them both a hug as they struggle to believe that they are worthy and deserving of love. By forging a relationship from friendship, they help each other heal and realize that with the right person love is easy.

Both have toxic relationships that leave scars in their psyche. For Matty, his relationship with his father and former paramour leave him with deep-rooted insecurities that he is only good for what his body can do (whether that be hockey or sex). For Ro, she is in an emotionally abusive relationship with Tyler. Tyler is the epitome of every awful boyfriend you and your friends have ever had. You will hate him from the first moment he is on page, deservedly so. I think we have all been Ro in the past; letting ourselves be treated poorly in the mistaken belief that it must be because of something we are doing. I loved seeing them come out the other side of these situations.

I also have to say that Matty’s grief for his mother left me raw.

I cheered these characters on. I cried for them. I think this book is masterful and I’m so happy to have started 2025 off with this book.

this book means… so much to me.😭 i feel so many emotions right now, but i feel so mushy most of all.

I loved this even more than i loved Unsteady. Freddy & Ro are nestled into my heart from this point forward. I identified with so many part of this book and it is so timely that i’m reading this because I really feel is aided in my healing 🥹❤️‍🩹 I wanted to cry and laugh so many times while reading this. Nevermind the fact that it’s a major slow burn, i couldn’t even tell! yes, alert the masses 🚨

I also must mention… the placement of the songs in the chapters. the intentionality was only one of my most favorite parts of the book. Like queen of taste!😭 the songs were perfect

I really have to hand it to Peyton, she is easily becoming an auto-read author for me. Like i’m shook, I think this may be one of the best books i read this year? Yeah… yeah… you know what? Hell yeah!

I did not like Matt at the beginning of this book. His flirting style was so strange. But I warmed up to him by the end and he became the brute of a knight in shimmering armor! Ro also irked me, why stay with someone who treated you so horribly!!! This book just felt like so much happened but not a lot really happened. We just danced around this first night they met as they both let bullies run their emotions. This just felt too long and I checked out after the first half.
I have enjoyed this author in the past but this was not the one for me.

Thank you NetGallery and Simon and Schuster for the opportunity to read this eARC.

This book was seriously good. I love Matty with my whole heart and my sweet baby sunshine Ro.
If you like reading:
-tortured boy/anxious girl
-no third act break up
-hes obssesed with her
-hes so emotionally intelligent and reassuring
-her standing up for him

Then I suggest you get ON THIS BOOK.

Thank you to NetGalley, Peyton and the publishers for a copy of this eARC in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you to NetGalley for sending me an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

I was very excited to read this book after enjoying the first one very much!

This story takes place parallel to Unsteady, so we see some moments that we already saw in that book from those main character's point of view. Because of the fact that we're supposed to already know them, they're explained very briefly and we rush through them, but I felt like it would have been better to explain them properly as if we didn't know what happened yet, both for the readers who might not remember much from book one (or might not have read book one, since readers tend to skip books in interconnected stand-alone series), and because I thought it would also be interesting to see those moments from the point of view of this book's MCs.

Anyway, apart from that I still very much loved this story.

I'm hoping Kane gets his own book because I'm way too intrigued by him.

HOLD ON, let me wipe my tears after finishing this amazing and adorable book. Peyton, what are you doing to me girl?! Alllllll the feels.

BUT first things first, I LOVED and DEVOURED this book, like in TWO days. This book had so much emotional challenges like the first one which just broke my heart and mended it again.

This is the second book of Peyton's Undone series that I have read. I gotta say, this one hit home for me. We follow Ro and Matty through their side of the timeline that was occurring in Unsteady which definitely gave us (for what I feel) more background to their lives and what was happening through their year at college. I honestly haven't read a book that occurred on the same timeline so that was new for me. I adored Unsteady but I LOVED Unloved.

What I love the most about this book (and Unsteady) was that they depicted real life events (like losing a loved one) and dived deep into what it was like to either have a learning disability or mental health challenges. Personally for me, I definitely felt seen in more ways than one because I have struggled with Grief like Matty has with losing a parent. Grief hits you at such different times and I felt like I resonated and shed some tears with him through those moments. Ro and Matty definitely were made for each other in more ways than one. She battled her own insecurities with a douchebag of a guy she thought she loved and was everything (we have all been there before). Matty trying to overcome grief by distracting himself with things that created a reputation he didn't intend on having (but went along with anyways), also, dealing with his dad that just wanted to control his hockey career but never treated him right, while ALSO struggling with learning disabilities (dyslexia and dyscalculia) that impacted his college career.

The relationship Ro and Matty had started off professional but then they slowly started to become friends with one another and created a bond and foundation that later progressed into the most precious relationship. Even though, they did meet freshman year but that's another story. When I tell you it's a slow burn, it is but in the most SATISIFYING way. This was well executed in a way that gave our characters times where they came together to discuss their actual feelings for real life situations rather than miscommunicating.

Overall, I believe everyone should read this book especially if you love a good slow burn, emotional/rewarding storyline and cute hockey boys. But for real, it was such a great time even when you feel like your heart is breaking, it comes back together more solid than ever. I definitely can't wait to see what else Peyton writes in this series with some of the side characters that we also get to see build their stories too in the background.

Thank you soooo much NetGalley and Peyton for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

This was the first book by Peyton Corinne that I've read and it was pretty good. I liked that both of the main characters had issues they needed to work through and got stronger together. It was cute, I enjoyed reading it, and it was pretty quick to read through because it was entertaining. Tyler and Carmen are the absolute worst, both taking advantage of people who just want to be loved and appreciated.

However, I didn't love it as much as I have loved some of the other hockey romances I've read. It felt almost too much like "The Dare" by Elle Kennedy with the tutoring and the Hockey House. But it also felt a little too much like Icebreaker by Hannah Grace with the figure skating/hockey player duo. I also wished that I didn't feel like I was missing pieces of the story that were probably in The Undone #1. I enjoy reading interconnected romances, like the Briar U or Maple Hills series, but in those, if you haven't read one, it doesn't feel like pieces are missing. It jumped around a bit for me in that aspect, for instance, when Sadie's brothers end up in the hospital.

Also, I understand that we are supposed to see how sheltered and naive the FMC (Ro) is, but at times it felt like she was too childlike and it ruined a few of the moments for me. I had to keep reminding myself that they were seniors in college (so like 21) and not kids, due to the way a lot of the dialogue was written. There were some of the more spicier scenes that I skipped through because the writing made it feel like they were younger than they were.

Overall, it wasn't bad and I think I would like to read more of her stories as it was really entertaining and I liked watching her characters evolve.

I have stared at the blinking cursor for far too long trying to sum up my thoughts on Unloved. My Kindle is left open on the acknowledgements, where the whole book just hits harder. I savored every second of this book, taking far too long to finish it out just because I didn’t want it to be over.

Since I cannot accurately type my thoughts on this book out, I’d thought I would just state facts. Before I was halfway done with Unloved, it was preordered and added to my most anticipated releases for 2025. I cannot wait to annotate, annotate, and annotate some more in my physical copy.

Peyton Corinne has truly wrote a masterpiece of grief, love, healing, mental health, learning differences, and self growth with Unloved.

This book is simply easy to love. ❤️

Thank you NetGalley and Atria Books for an advanced copy of Unloved in exchange for my honest review.

I received a copy of this for my honest review

This story will break you heart, but put it back together in the best way.

Our FMC and MMC technically meet.thwir freshman year of college. It's at a party - he becomes her first kiss, but disappears and doesn't remember the night. Years later they are at another party and she admits she's had a crush on him, but she's drunk and doesn't remember the next morning. Our FMC is working as a tutor and our MMC needs to pass in order to graduate, and remain eligible to play hockey. He already has an NHL contact post graduation, but he won't take the easy way. He's struggled with learning disabilities and she is the first person to try and actually help him. They build a friendship - both wanting more but unwilling to risk what they have. Both a little broken from their past finding it hard to step out as someone new. It's a beautiful story of grief, and working on self love to be able to be with someone who truly cares, not uses them.

Thank you so much to Atria Books and NetGalley for the opportunity to read this ARC of Unloved. I absolutely loved and devoured Unsteady so I was over the moon to be approved for the sequel. I have read a lot of sports romance and there’s something about the way Peyton Corinne combines writes her characters that makes them 3 dimensional, complex, and relatable. I really liked finding out a lot more about Freddie and what drives him and Ro and the depth of her character. The glimpses we got of both characters in Unsteady had me in expecting one thing but I was pleasantly surprised to learn that there was more than met the eye to both main characters. Ro is sensitive and even though she is smart as hell and driven she struggles with low self-esteem and self doubt. Meanwhile Matt/Freddie comes off as unserious and a playboy which he is but it’s because he’s trying so hard to make up for feeling inferior especially in academics. I loved how both characters where what each other needed and the way their relationship developed. I cannot wait to read more in this series.

4.75/5⭐️

“I think you are one of the best people I’ve ever known. And I think it would be almost too easy to fall in love with you.”

this story follows matt fedderic, who is known for being the star left winger for the waterfell wolves and being great in bed. however, he’s doing really bad in classes, struggling with dyslexia, dyscalculia, and ADHD. he desperately needs a tutor to pass his biology class, which is a requirement to graduate, and here enters ro shariff, the hopeless romantic who has had bad luck with relationships, and has had a crush of freddy since freshman year, and now is stuck being his tutor…

wow, i read unsteady a couple months ago, and immediately fell in love with the characters, the story, and the authors writing, and this book did not disappoint. i really didn’t know what to expect with this book, but these two characters related to me on a entirely different level. i really loved reading two characters, who really wanted to be loved, find love within each other, it was so incredible to read. both ro and matty had gone through so much, and it was so enticing to read them both grow throughout the book and get their happily ever after. these two both suited each other’s needs so perfectly, with matty being a great acts of service man, and ro always giving him words of reassurance and affirmation, i highly recommend you read it.