This one is for the REAL hockey fans! Not only is Lexi LaFleur Brown a real life hockey wife, she has experience handling the puck herself, and that makes for an incredibly authentic read. Through a series of mishaps, Jaylen (a down on his luck NHL player and Lucy (a struggling tattoo artist) find themselves in each other’s crosshairs, and it doesn’t take long for the sparks to fly. Both spicy and sweet, Shoot Your Shot reminds the reader that when you allow yourself to love, you can let light into the darkest place. This was a super fun debut and I look forward to more from this author. Thank you to NetGalley and Canary Street Press for my gifted ARC.

I absolutely freaking loved every second of reading this! I struggled putting it down, because I just didn’t want to stop reading it!

I have loved Lexi LaFleur Brown for quite a while now, ever since coming across her on TikTok. The second she announced that she had a hockey romance book coming out, I knew I needed it my life ASAP. Reading this, I could see so much of her humor throughout the entire thing. I laughed out loud twice in the first chapter alone, and knew right then I was going to love every second of reading it!

This book feels different than most hockey books, you can really feel Lexi’s knowledge and love of the sport with each word. It reads as almost a love letter to hockey and Seattle as a whole. I could go on for hours discussing all the representation seen throughout the book. It’s the first time that I have seen myself as a bi woman with diagnosed anxiety and depressed represented in a hockey book in this way.

Thank you to NetGalley, the publisher, and Lexi for the honor to read this book early. I can’t wait to read the next one!

Shoot Your Shot is a delightful, steamy hockey romance. With charming MCs, along with queer rep and witty banter, Lexi LaFleur Brown’s debut romance is lots of fun.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Seattle artist Lucy and hockey player Jaylen meet in a bar the night Jaylen thinks his career is over. Lucy clearly doesn’t know who he is, and throws quips and barbs at him all night. The two hook up, and never expect to see each other again. Only Jaylen gets a reprieve and is signed by the local hockey team the next day; he runs into Lucy at the rink, where she is painting a mural. When he has a great game after Lucy wishes him luck, Jaylen is convinced Lucy is his good luck charm. He negotiates his way to good luck wishes from her before each game. But is there something more to their relationship? Yup, there absolutely is.

Lucy and Jaylen are great together. Clearly they are both relationship adverse, but the circumstances that keep throwing them together feel natural. And their chemistry is strong, whether they are exchanging banter or getting physical.

This book is special and distinct from other hockey romances. You have a writer who actually knows hockey, and it shows in every spot on hockey detail. The writing is light and funny, even when addressing heavier topics. And the queer rep is fantastic, featuring a bi FMC and queer secondary characters.

Lexi LaFleur Brown’s debut hockey romance is a fun read. If you like sassy characters who are quick with a quip, along with hockey players who actually seem to play hockey, Shoot Your Shot is a must read.

I voluntarily read and reviewed an advance copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

Before I get into the review, a quick thank you to both NetGalley and the publishers over at Canary Street Press for allowing me access to this ARC in exchange for an honest review. Shoot Your Shot is a hockey romance written by an NHL insider and hockey fan. We follow Jaylen Jones who has been struggling in the NHL for years and just found out he didn’t secure a spot with the Seattle Rainiers following a Player Try-Out. Lucy Ross is the hit he never saw coming. After their night of passion, it seems like Jaylen’s luck has turned around. He has a one-year league minimum deal in the books. But can he convince Lucy to keep the good luck flowing his way for the season? Shoot Your Shot comes out on March 10th and is available for preorders now.

Let’s start with the things I loved. I can tell that this is a true hockey fan writing this book. I’m sorry other hockey romance writers, but you just don’t got it like Lexi LaFleur Brown got it. Hockey is such a passion for me in my life, in my house, in my travel (I see that hockey trip on the horizon. I see you arenas #13 and #14. We’re coming for you.) that finally reading a book that is so obviously written by someone who knows their stuff makes you want to just give them a 5 star immediately. (The way I took a screenshot of page one of chapter 2??? I had to send it to my husband.) I loved the way that Lucy and her friends were presented in the novel. As someone in the LGBTQIA+ community, I know there’s this weird thing where we all just find each other. And I love how their presence in the novel is never questioned. It was just like “Of course Lucy is bi and her friends are a gay coffee shop owner and a lesbian who organizes charity events.” Of course. Nothing felt shoehorned in or forced in that respect. I also want to highlight the fact that this author who used to be an NHL insider took the time to show love and support to the LGBTQIA+ community in a hockey romance during a time when the NHL is struggling with how to handle Pride events at hockey games. Pride night has been an issue for the NHL for a few years with some players being bigots choosing not to participate. So, I really appreciate the author taking the time to show that this community can and is represented in the NHL. Also, I just love Jaylen. He has struggles and flaws throughout the novel, but he is also a guy with such a willingness to try. It feels like a lot of sports romances have these Alpha males who give up when things get hard. I loved seeing Jaylen being hurt by things that happened, but being willing to work on it as a unit, as a team. That was all so wonderful.

So, why doesn’t this novel get a 5 star rating from me? I found the sex scenes to be…not up my alley, we’ll say. This definitely felt like the first time the author is publishing sex scenes. Is that harsh? I don’t mean it to be. The scenes felt a little rushed and involved some stuff that I straight up don’t like. There was a moment when Jaylen tells Lucy what to do in the bedroom and adds on something like, “if you want to.” Which made me laugh. I just don’t know if that was the point. It also felt like there wasn’t enough substance to the third act breakup. Obviously, if they go in separate directions, it most likely means a breakup is on the horizon. But the scenes at the restaurant with the other girlfriends felt unnecessary. Also, the Hannah from the restaurant and from the end of the novel just felt like two separate people to me.

Overall, this is a great hockey romance for people who are fans of any romance. I am keeping my eye on this author to see what she comes out with next. I have no doubts it’s going to be amazing.

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

Shoot your shot is a debut novel from Lexi LaFleur Brown and what a great debut it is. It is a story about professional hockey player Jaylen Jones who is in a slump and about to be let go of his contract and Lucy a struggling tattoo artist. After one fun night together Jaylen's lucky changes and he attributes it to his time with Lucy. She agrees to be his good luck charm and their relationship begins to grow.

Read this if you like-
🌷Black Cat/Golden Retriever
🌷Interesting hockey insight
🌷 Supportive secondary characters
🌷Bi FMC representation
🌷 Supportive relationship
🌷Mental health representation
🌷He falls first
Wishes it was better-
🥀 would love a bit more chemistry
🥀as his luck increase she became more unlucky

Overall it is a great debut novel. I look forward to reading more of what Lexi writes!
4.5 rounded up to 5

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

Shoot your shot is a debut novel from Lexi LaFleur Brown and what a great debut it is. It is a story about professional hockey player Jaylen Jones who is in a slump and about to be let go of his contract and Lucy a struggling tattoo artist. After one fun night together Jaylen's lucky changes and he attributes it to his time with Lucy. She agrees to be his good luck charm and their relationship begins to grow.

Read this if you like-
🌷Black Cat/Golden Retriever
🌷Interesting hockey insight
🌷 Supportive secondary characters
🌷Bi FMC representation
🌷 Supportive relationship
🌷Mental health representation
🌷He falls first
Wishes it was better-
🥀 would love a bit more chemistry
🥀as his luck increase she became more unlucky

Overall it is a great debut novel. I look forward to reading more of what Lexi writes!
4.5 rounded up to 5

I was super excited for this book! I love a hockey romance, and as an avid hockey fan myself, I was happy to read one by someone who really understands the ins and outs of the game. Hockey romances also often don’t have a lot of representation, so I was excited for the queer main character, the struggling mental heath theme, and the Black hockey character.

Unfortunately, this book fell a little flat to me. At times, it felt like the plot was jumping around, and it was hard to follow. There also were a few inconsistencies. It made it hard to really connect with either character. That being said, I loved the MMC (which is rare for me!). He felt really well flushed out, he was level headed, everything he said/did made sense, and he was really dynamic without having a lot of red flags.

Even though I didn’t love the book and felt it moved a little slow, I still would pick up a future book by this author. I enjoyed it enough, and loved all the hockey details, to give it another try!

I enjoyed the connection, plot and characters in this book Shoot Your Shot. This was also my first hocky romance and I enjoyed and loved it !

I’ve been WAITING for this one. I’ve been a follower of lexi forever and couldn’t wait to get my hands on this one. and it didn’t disappoint! i loved them and i loved the way the hockey was accurate (obviously) but especially jaylen’s thoughts as the game are happening we’re not like over explaining what he was doing, they are what id imagine the thoughts and recounting of a hockey game would be like from a professional hockey player. and i loved lucy, felt for her so deeply. they’re so sweet.

3.5 stars

This was a classic Black cat FMC with a golden retriever MMC rom com, but mixed in with a hockey romance. Lucy and Jaylen are both likable characters who have a good connection and bring out the best in each other.

If you like:
--Artist FMC
--Hockey players MMC
--Both charters work through trauma
--He falls first
Then this book is for you!

This is a fun, cute, slightly unconventional hockey romance! Jaylen and Lucy are both down on their luck and struggling with their careers in their own way. He's a professional hockey player, and she's an aspiring tattoo artist. They have a one night stand, which ends up turning the tides for Jaylen, and he convinces her to be his good luck charm. She begrudgingly agrees, and their relationship grows from there.

I appreciate that this book has so much representation. Mental health awareness, LGBTQIA+, environmental quality. So many things came together to create these characters and build their community. It was definitely written with care.

I love that even though Jaylen and Lucy are completely opposites looking at them from the outside, they're really very similar when you peel away the physical. And that's what's most important. She may not fit the stereotype of a WAG, and he may seem like the guy who has it all. But what's inside is what matters.

Bonus for the hockey knowledge! The author clearly knows the sport and incorporates it so well. It's not just a romance with hockey mentioned; it's integral to the story!

Thank you Lexi Lafleur Brown and Netgalley for the advanced reader copy!

Release day 3.11.25!

Tags:
-hockey romance
-opposites attract
-black cat×golden retriever
-he falls first
-queer representation
-mental health awareness

Spice: 2/5

First person
Dual POV

This was a really lovely hockey romance. Really well executed. I thought the representation was well done and the author created some fantastic characters.

*ARC Review* I LOVED this book! This is one of the few books where the entire book felt real and realistic. It was nice reading this knowing that Lexi knows her stuff in terms of Hockey/ the NHL. But more importantly, Lucy and Jaylen just felt so real to me. There weren’t these random plot points that felt entirely unrealistic or off base. They fell in love in a real way and it was such a comforting read. Hope to read more from Lexi soon!!!

After abandoning her dreams of becoming a painter, Lucy works tirelessly at a tattoo shop hoping to score an apprenticeship. She meets strait-laced Jaylen in a bar and they hook up, believing he is leaving town the next day. But he is offered a spot a local hockey team and he is certain that he owes his change in luck to Lucy. Meanwhile, Lucy’s latest assignment from her boss puts her in close proximity to Jaylen.

The overall humor and Lucy’s wacky personality drew me into the story. I adored Anna, a sassy secondary character who works for the hockey team. She needs a spin off book. Lucy’s two best friends provide support and Jaylen’s hockey teammates are entertaining. Both Lucy and Jaylen’s character arcs are well developed and the epilogue makes for a fun read, especially due to the presence of various secondary characters.

I found multiple things around the way tattooing was portrayed in the book to be wrong or misleading from the way Lucy refers to the tattoo machine as a gun to the process of preparing the area and client for the tattoo and how a fresh tattoo is protected. This lack of knowledge did not make sense for a character who has multiple tattoos and works in a tattoo studio. Jaylen’s shameful secret, while being difficult to bear for his character, didn’t seem like something that would really hurt his reputation as a hockey player. Lucy’s painting phobia seemed to resolve quickly and her ability to make significant changes to a large mural in a short time frame didn’t seem realistic. Lucy’s act of revenge and something illegal that Jayden and Lucy do together have zero consequences. Certain things are recalled multiple times implying that the author lacks confidence in the reader to remember. For example, the event that caused Lucy to stop painting is frequently recalled without adding any new information. Despite these issues, I enjoyed the journey to Lucy and Jaylen’s happy-ever-after.

I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

Thanks to Canary Street Press, an imprint of Harlequin Enterprises ULC, for providing an Advance Reader Copy via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

As a woman who loves hockey, I absolutely devoured this book. I appreciated the LGTBQ representation, the mental health representation and the love story as a whole

1.75 stars - This is bad.

I am a hockey fan and love reading hockey romance. I wanted love and enjoy reading Lexi LaFleur Brown’s romance too. I really wanted this to be good it’s why I requested an arc. But wow was this a struggle to get through.

The main character was a caricature of what the author considers to be a cool girl. It’s mentioned multiple times how COOL Lucy is. Like okay? Maybe show me instead of telling me how cool and different and quirky she is. It was abundantly clear the author desperately wanted to be this FMC.

Jaylen was the only redeeming factor about this book but only because he was sort of boring. I suppose she stayed realistic to hockey players but it all just ended up trite.

I know this is being marketed as a queer book, and I’m not saying it isn’t. But man it would have been cool if all the queer characters hadn’t been boiled down to overused tropes. The gay best friend was sassy and mean, worked as a barista, and was the FMC’s sex confidant. The lesbian best friend was getting too serious too quickly with a woman who lived in her van. The last bisexual woman Lucy dated actually had a serious boyfriend the entire time and never told Lucy. Lucy (also a bisexual woman) herself is described as promiscuous and flighty in the beginning. It was like a running list of queer tropes with check marks beside each. I wouldn’t have minded one or two, but it truly felt like that was all she could come up with.

I’d also like to say, as a queer woman, a few stereotype jokes I can enjoy and get in on the joke. But every single remark about a queer person was a stereotype joke and it ended up feeling unwelcoming and harmful.

I almost don’t want to even get into the dialogue and zeitgeist overload. I get she wanted to be topical and funny but at some point I started to wonder if brands were getting some sort of kickback with the way they were mentioned. Every other paragraph a nod to a current pop culture moment was shoehorned in. It was exhausting. The dialogue was cringey and elementary.

I really expected so much more and was just disappointed.

🖌 Dual POVs
🏒 Painter & Hockey Player
🖌 LGBTQIA+ Rep
🏒 Mental Health Rep
🖌 Tattooed FMC
🏒 Sports Romance
🖌 One Night Stand
🏒 Diversity
🖌 Third Act Breakup

🩵 Mention of Panic Attacks
🩵 Mention of Grief

Lucy and Jaylen shared one night together. They thought it was the last time they would see each other. Well, the universe had other plans for them.

Lucy has not touched a paint brush for several years. She had to paint a mural in order to good terms for a tattoo apprenticeship. Guess who she saw at the same ice rink she was working at. Yes! Jaylen! He thought he was returning home that night until circumstances changed.

Jaylen noticed good things happened around Lucy. He deemed her as his good luck charm. It's funny that more accidents towards Lucy when she's around Jaylen. They became close to each other. When Jaylen discovered his panic attacks, Lucy was there for him. When Lucy met up with someone from her past, Jaylen was there for her. They were right for each other.

The only thing I didn't like was when Lucy was trying to pick a fight with Jaylen. Communication is key. I'm glad she found her true passion again with painting and with someone who cares about her. Jaylen is with someone who noticed him for him. That's so sweet!

I can safely say that the vibes of this book are like no other hockey romance out there, and I’m here for it! I was so excited to read this because I’m a hockey romance reader turned hockey fan, thanks to Lexie LaFleur Brown‘s videos. Not only was this book fun to read, but it had some surprises in subject matter. The character arcs tackled mental health, grief, and generational trauma. I was impressed by the handling of these topics in a way that made the characters feel relatable. The side characters were effective in moving Lucy and Jalen’s stories along, making them feel like dynamic people with full lives. When the couple came together as an unexpected pairing, they brought out the best in each other, and got their HEA.

Thank you to NetGalley, Lexi LaFleur Brown, and the publishers for this ARC ebook for me to read! I found this author on TikTok where she mentioned this book was a hockey romance with LGBTQIA+ and POC rep and I ran to NetGalley as fast as I could to request it.

I really enjoyed this book! It reminded me a lot of the Hannah Grace and Tessa Bailey books I’ve read in the past. I enjoy hockey a lot and liked the way that Lexi integrated not only the fact that JJ is a hockey player, but also included scenes during the games and terms/lingo from hockey. It really made it feel like she knew what she was writing about and wasn’t just writing about hockey players just to write about hockey players.

I really loved the queer representation in the book and that in addition to the queer best friend tropes that Lucy is bisexual. I cracked up so many times at the queer coded jokes and the scenes with Cooper and Maya were some of my favorite in the books. I found myself actually laughing at loud at their sarcastic conversations.

⭐️4.5

3.5/5

i follow the author on tiktok and as soon as i found out she was writing a hockey romance i had to have it.

jaylen and lucy are a cute, funny and supportive couple who i could root for the entire time.
lucy being jaylen’s good luck charm was the cherry on top of their dynamic before they start really falling for each other. nothing about their relationship or plot felt unrealistic and really enjoyed their individual plotlines that brought them together.

i wish we had gotten more intimate moments between the characters especially as their relationship was developing at certain points it felt more like we were just told about it rather than seeing these moments.

thank you to netgalley and the publisher for access to this arc. all opinions are my own.