Thank you to Lexi LaFleur Brown, Harlequin books, and NetGalley for this e-ARC.

It took some time to get into this one because they had to gradually build a friendship before moving on to a slowly formed relationship. Because Jaylen and Lucy were such complicated characters, they were realistic in that sense and had a lot of setbacks to overcome before we began to see the beginnings of love between them. At the end of the book, Jaylen truly helped himself recover with Lucy's support, and he reciprocated by healing her. This is why I loved him so much. I liked reading about mental health, and the character development was wonderful. This is a book I highly recommend.

Sorry to say, but I just didn't get into this romance. I only finished it so that I can continue to be approved on NetGalley for finishing and reviewing books. I was bored, but I'm sure it will make a cute Hallmark movie.

When Jaylen Jones doesn’t secure an NHL contract at the end of training camp, he worries his hockey career is over. But after an anonymous one-night stand on his last night in town, his luck turns around and a last-minute roster spot opens up on the Seattle Rainiers. Connecting his fortune to the girl he spent the night with, superstitious Jaylen is suddenly desperate to keep her around.

Aspiring tattoo artist Lucy isn’t so sure about the proposition to remain Jaylen’s lucky charm—she’s been called a lot of things in her life, but good luck has never been one of them. But stuck in a career slump, Lucy has everything to gain. Hoping for an apprenticeship at a tattoo parlor hasn’t offered her much stability, and Jaylen is willing to pay any price to get Lucy to agree…so maybe sending him a routine text message before each game won’t be too hard.

What starts as an agreement to trade favors—a good luck text for an appearance at a charity event, or well wishes in exchange for prime game tickets—quickly turns into sizzling chemistry that’s too delicious not to give in to. But Lucy’s been in too many situationships to even think about getting attached again, and Jaylen is clearly only with Lucy as long as it’s helping his career…neither of them expecting getting lucky could be so complicated.

I love a good hockey romance. Unfortunately, this book fell flat as a pancake for me. From the very beginning of the book, I absolutely hated the FMC. I didn't find her likeable at all; in fact, she was nothing but a whiny complainer about literally everything! I wasn't a huge fan of the MMC either, but he grew on me over the course of the story. I didn't find that the two characters had any chemistry and their one-night stand, random meet-cutes and entire romance were very unbelievable! Sometimes I wasn't sure how they ended up in these romantic situations, and the spicy scenes were so unrealistic and a little bit gross. While I understand that this was an ARC and they are often unedited...I could NOT look past these typos! Every single time the letter f was in any word, it was followed by a space, which I found incredibly distracting to the story and sometimes difficult to follow. I wish this author luck in her future books, but this one wasn't for me.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for this ARC in exchange for my honest review.

This was cute! I do think that some of the exposition and dialogue was a little clumsy and could have used a stronger edit, especially near the beginning, but as I read an advanced copy it's very possible that some of that got cleaned up before the pub date. One thing that I did appreciate was the fact that the bisexual main character had strong ties to the queer community even while being in a straight relationship. Overall, this was a fun and lighthearted sports romance, and I had a good time reading!

This author clearly knows her hockey. The games, practices, and locker room banter were highlights of the book for me and kept things interesting when the romance lagged.

Less impactful was the emotional heft of the story. I felt very little connection between JJ and Lucy. Yes, there was plenty of steam but I struggled to detect the development of any deeper feelings, at least on Lucy's part. Without that, I had a hard time feeling invested in their relationship. I felt more invested in JJ's relationships with his teammates than his relationship with Lucy, even at the end of the book. I love hockey and hockey romance but this couple just didn't do it for me. Other readers may feel differently.

Shoot Your Shot is the author's debut. While I wanted more from the romance and I felt the writing could have been more polished, there were parts of the story I enjoyed and I think she has potential. I'll probably give her one more try.

3.5 stars

ARC received from publisher via NetGalley

I was so excited to read this book as the description sounded like something I would enjoy. I found the main female character to be annoying in all honesty which made the book hard to get through. The female character was often referred to as "cool" and as someone who is an adult this is cringe word to describe someone as, especially since she was described as cool over and over. The biggest thing I noticed was the lack of chemistry between the main characters. Starting with a one night stand and then the connection building is what I was expecting. I feel as if the connection never really built as the story went on, things sort of fell flat in my opinion. I think this author has a great writing style and wonderful potential. I just don't think this book was fully what I was expecting. Would still recommend to people though!

I’m devastated I didn’t love this book the way I expected to. The reasoning for this was because this book was all telling. The author tells you how Lucy and Jaylen are. She tells you how their relationship is. She tells you who their friends. It’s just constant telling that it’s hard to connect to the story. I was let down by not caring about the budding romance between the two. Jaylen is all perfect and sweet all the time. Lucy is just like a manic pixie dream girl. Neither of them are actually people, more like ideas of what a person should be. The romance scenes were also kind of icky, I couldn’t sense the chemistry. It just seems like the plot was being explained overly well, and there was no chance to develop separate thoughts and opinions outside of what was written. I did like the talk about mental health and wellness, the inclusivity of queer and BIPOC people, and the importance of following your own path. I would read more again from this author because I’m sure she will develop and become an even better writer.

Thank you to Lexi LaFleur Brown, Harlequin books, and NetGalley for the review copy. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

This was a good story. If you like hockey romances, then you’ll enjoy it. I do love a good hockey romance, however, I had a hard time rooting for our main characters. They were just ok in my opinion. To me, they were both just a bit too wedged into their personalities. It wasn’t that they were horrible people, but they weren’t entirely likable either.
**Thank you Netgalley**

I’ve seen and enjoy Lexi LaFleur Brown’s tiktoks, wherein she shares her expertise as the wife of a professional hockey player and describes the inaccuracies depicted in many hockey romances.

As a lifelong hockey fan, those were the details I loved the most, particularly how weirdly superstitious hockey players can be; that’s like the whole premise of this book because Jaylen believes Lucy is his good luck charm. Also I LOVED that in a book set in the NHL, we had teammates with European sounding surnames! It takes me out when I’m reading a hockey romance but all the players have American sounding last names?! Where are the French Candadian names, like Fleury and Marchand, or European names, like Barkov and Pastrňák and Bobrovsky, AND the silly nicknames that correspond, ie. Barky and Pasta and Bobby.

Anyway, that was delightfully accruate to read.

But I was kind of bored for most of the book. It wasn’t until the mental health discussions that I started to enjoy the story more, and that aspect isn’t really introduced until the second half.

Honestly, would recommend if you’re looking for a mildly spicy yet extremely accurate hockey romance

So this was a good romance book, that has everything you expect from a rom-com book but t just was hard to keep my attention.
It felt like it just kinda dragged, but again I am a mood reader so don't take my opinion too much to go on all the time. LOL
I mean you should never really go off of anyone's opinion bc we are all different and we have out own interests, likes and opinions. :)

This is a hockey romance with quite a bit of bisexual (and the lgbt+++ community involved in this book). The guy falls first.
This is also a debut novel and its a good start for this author.

I heard this was written by someone with hockey knowledge, so I was interested to see how much it differed from other hockey romances.

The blurb sounded interesting, but I struggled to finish this. I didn’t feel like the characters truly had any chemistry, and there were a lot of cringey moments. The story was also too much — things were over explained and it just didn’t flow.

And Lucy was dubbed a “tough girl” but she was always giggling, which I found an odd word choice.

Thank you to Harlequin Trade Publishing for the ARC. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

I love hockey (my son was a hockey goalie) and I love contemporary romance, but I did not love this book.

The MCs had no real personalities, they just felt like tropes: an edgy "Not Like Other Girls" starving artist who is small, adorable, irresponsible and constantly late and an absolutely perfect gorgeous professional NHL player who deals with mental illness appropriately, is a total gentleman, and is all about volunteering and giving back to his community. The tragedies in their back stories felt like the author was trying to make up something so the reader would feel bad for them, but I couldn't care less.

As for the romance, their relationship did not feel like it grew organically and there was no chemistry or pining or anything. They start with a one-night stand, then work most of the book to NOT be in a relationship, then dude says I love you then all of a sudden they're in a relationship, which neither of them wanted. And there's a lame third act break up that was patched up in a way that tried to be a huge romantic overture but didn't really make any sense. And the epilogue wasn't any better.

The spice was not good. Like it was vague but also not specific enough, it's hard to explain but it was not romantic or hot. Listen, I like spicy books, but I found myself skipping over those scenes in this book, and they were so cringe I would have preferred fade-to-black.

The flow of the writing was choppy and not engaging. We were told a lot of information, rather than allowed to infer meaning and/or shown through action.

The characters were described, but I don't feel like I know them, other than from their stereotypes: the flamboyant gay best friend who owns a coffee shop & the serious lesbian best friend who hates men. And I'm confused about the relationship of the two friends on the team Soko and Lamber: are they supposed to be comic relief? They weren't funny at all and were just weird. There was no depth to anyone and the dialogue was so unrealistic, like no one talks like the way these people did.

The hockey part was accurate, but even then the in-depth descriptions of the plays in the game didn't really add to the story and honestly could have just been omitted.

Overall, this was tough to get through because I didn't care for or about any of the characters, the writing didn't flow, there wasn't really a plot, and the romance was not romantic. Ugh.

A fun hockey romance to add to the list of other hockey romances out there. It's tough competition but this one is one I would recommend as a palette cleanser. I think Lexi was a breath of fresh air in her style of writing and her characters were something totally new to me. I enjoyed her pacing a lot.

This book was a struggle for me to start and get into. While I appreciate actual hockey knowledge, it wasn’t necessary in this book. It was extremely slow and I couldn’t really connect with Lucy. I also felt like the characters were very “stereotypical”, including the gay best friend with a Lady Gaga themed cafe? Idk just felt weird to me.

Honestly, I needed to re-read this just to be sure before leaving my review. I generally really liked Lexi's writing and I knew I didn't have to worry about the hockey representation in this book given her history. The romance was cute but I struggle to say that it was something special, in that sometimes it felt a little too one note and I wanted a little bit more from it, BUT this is also her first book, so I am hopeful that things will be fleshed out more as she works on her second book. There is some queer representation which is fantastic, but I do agree with other reviewers that at times, it felt a bit too stereotypical.

I rcvd an ARC of this book from Netgalley, all thoughts are my own.

I wanted to love this book. After all, the author is legit in the hockey business as her husband is a former player. This is one of the most technically correct hockey romance I've ever read. She really knows the game. But that's where it kind of ended for me. I wasn't convinced of the chemistry between the MCs, and I never felt like they clicked.

I went into this book with pretty high expectations, knowing who Lexi LaFleur Brown is. I hoped her knowledge of the hockey world would elevate a subgenre of romance I already loved. Instead, the added realism of the sport, and the behind the scenes action, also felt like info dumping, like the author was trying to prove she knew more than other hockey romance authors.

The main female character's humour was funny, but it got old fast. It felt like we couldn't go two sentences without something being a joke.

I also felt like the connection between the couple wasn't as strong as I had hoped it would be.

Overall, it was an okay read and I would rate it 2.5 stars out of 5.

I enjoyed the plot and the supporting cast of a characters but unfortunately I really struggled with both Lucy’s and Jaylen’s personalities. It made it difficult to root for them.

NHL insider Lexi LaFleur Brown delivered a steamy, superstitious hockey rom-com where luck and lust collide. After a one-night stand, struggling hockey player Jaylen Jones believes aspiring tattoo artist Lucy is his good luck charm, leading to a deal: texts for wins, favors for fame. What started as transactional sizzled into spicy tension, but their chemistry felt underdeveloped; their connection lacked depth, making their ending hard to believe. While I loved the "black cat x golden retriever" dynamic, Jaylen's bi rep was barely explored, and Lucy's career struggles deserved more focus. The slow-burn flirtation and obsessive MMC tropes worked, but pacing dragged. Still, smut lovers would enjoy the heat, and hockey romance fans would adore the superstition-fueled plot. 3.5/5 stars for a fun but flawed debut. Perfect for fans of sports romances, grumpy/sunshine, and spicy situationships.

This had all the ingredients for a fun hockey rom-com—superstitions, steamy tension, and a quirky opposites-attract dynamic—but it didn’t quite score a hat trick for me. The premise is cute: JJ, a superstitious hockey player, believes Lucy is his good-luck charm after a one-night stand, and she agrees to keep texting him for luck in exchange for tattoo practice. There’s definitely chemistry between them, and some of their banter is fun, but I found myself wishing for more depth in their connection. Lucy’s "not like other girls" vibe got a little tiresome, and JJ’s golden-retriever energy was sweet but sometimes felt one-note.

The hockey details were well-researched (no surprise, given the author’s background), and I appreciated the bi rep and mental health themes. That said, some of the side characters leaned into stereotypes, and the pacing dragged in spots—especially when the miscommunication trope kicked in hard toward the end.

It’s a decent debut with some charming moments, but I wanted more emotional weight and less reliance on rom-com clichés. If you’re a die-hard hockey romance fan, it might be worth a shot, but it didn’t fully win me over.

Thank you to the publishers and NetGalley for the opportunity to review a temporary digital ARC in exchange for an unbiased review.