4.5, i have been a follower of lexi’s for quite a while and was over the moon when i got my hands on an arc of this, i really adored jay and lucy’s story, they felt very raw and human in a way that some romance novels miss, i also appreciated the accuracy of the hockey part of this (everybody say thank you lexi’s awesome husband), overall would definitely recommend to all romance readers

thank you to netgalley for an arc of this in exchange for my honest feedback

A very entertaining hockey m/f romance! I liked both main characters, and that they had their own friends, ambitions, and interests. The Seattle setting and the hockey details were well done! I would have liked to see more of their character growth as well as their developing relationship, as after their first meeting, there were a few time skips or instances of telling us about their time together rather than showing us, and ultimately the declaration / realization of feelings felt a bit abrupt. Still, this book went down very easily - very readable and enjoyable! I would be interested to read more from this author.

I really enjoyed this debut novel! The characters felt like people that I know, and there were so many funny moments as well as mental health and family trauma representation that felt grounded. As someone who’s followed this author as she’s shares her life on TikTok, Lexi’s love and appreciation for her community and for hockey shines in this book. I’m excited to watch as she continues her writing journey and gets better and better!

Lisa Love once asked Lauren Conrad, “Can you write?” I thought the same thing when I started this book, and Lexi LaFleur Brown can! This was a very impressive first book! The storyline, romance, and hockey were all wonderfully detailed. This wasn’t just a good read, it was a great read. I can’t wait to see what Lexi comes up next!

I was super excited to read Shoot Your Shot after following Lexi LaFleur Brown on social media for a while! I love a hockey romance and I love a black cat/golden retriever duo.

Lucy and Jaylen meet in basically a drive-by on a night out and Lucy’s demeanor hooks Jaylen from the first moment he lays eyes on her. After spending the night together, through unforeseen circumstances, they end up seeing each other again.

It had all the tropes: hockey romance, black cat/golden retriever, he falls first, no feelings hookup, big gesture apology, etc.

I think this was a good debut novel. The syntax and diction were different than what I’ve read in the past so it left me a bit hesitant to give 5 stars. There were lots of similes used which felt a little juvenile, some of the sentence structure had me going back and rereading to understand what was going on, some hockey jargon was left unexplained, the FMC was described using the same words over and over (weird, bitchy, cool) and I felt that every once in a while a really obscure word was thrown in without much reason.

As for the plot, the beginning had a lot of potential. I thought it was just going to be a book of the MMC trying to win over the FMC so the good luck charm plot point was unexpected (props to the author). I felt like both the MCs family (minus Lucy’s dad) were sprinkled in for convenience or to explain away plot points or unnecessarily (Jaylens sisters, him having so many cousins, Lucy bringing home Jaylen just to explain her art but never mentioning her mom or brother ever again).

Overall, I would recommend this book anyone looking for a palate cleanser romance that’s a quick read but has a rich overall plot. I would rate it 1.5/5 for spice and 3/5 overall <3

I’ve been following Lexi on TikTok for a while, and love her hockey insider commentary. I was so excited when she announced she was going to write her own hockey book and enjoyed following along with the process. It was then even more exciting to get this advanced copy of the manuscript to review.

When Lucy meets Jaylen, he was supposed to be from out of town, but when she’s working to paint a mural at the arena, she discovers he’s playing for the Seattle Rainiers. Jaylen was indeed supposed to be on his way out of town, having lost his contract, but a last-minute spot opened on the team. While Lucy is finishing this project, she has to occasionally see him at work, but she doesn’t need to see him beyond that, except Jaylen is convinced she’s his good luck charm.

I really appreciated that both main characters were outside of the norm of the genre, with Jaylen being a Black player and Lucy being a queer woman who doesn’t fit the usual hockey rom-com physical mold. Their relationship also progressed in a unique way, as she was largely not interested in pursuing a relationship. A lot of this genre is cookie cutter, and it was great to see different representations in this book.

Feeling seen as a bisexual mess! This was a cute romance that was a fresh take on sports romance. I would recommend to people who are both fans of hockey and chappell roan.

Final review of 2024

Shoot Your Shot by Lexi Lafleur Brown
4/5 ⭐️ 2/5 🌶

RELEASE DATE: March 11th, 2025

Anyone who is close to me knows how excited I was to get the chance to ARC read this amazing book. I have adored Lexi and her family for years now, so being able to read the book early was honestly my highlight of the end of the year. Thank you to Lexi and Harlequin for giving me the arc.🫶

Shoot Your Shot is HOW A HOCKEY ROMANCE SHOILD BE DONE. Lexi took every chance she had to explain the sport and made it just as important to the plot as everything else in the book was. I feel so many authors miss actually, including the sport truly in their hockey romances.

The story starts out following Lucy, who had just gotten out of a 6 month relationship after finding out her girlfriend actually had a boyfriend the entire time, and Jaylen "JJ" Jones, a hockey player draft bust looking for one last chance in the league.

Lucy is an artist who is desperately trying to get a tattoo apprenticeship with the shop she has been working the front desk at for a while now. She hates the work but is willing to do anything to try and get the apprenticeship she feels she needs. Which is what causes her to keep running into Jaylen.

Jaylen Jones is a black hockey player struggling to make it in the league after each season, he keeps doing worse and worse until he is released from all contracts looking for one last chance. That chance came in the form of a 1 year contract with the Seattle Rainiers after a last-minute injury left an open spot on the roster. Lucy becomes his good luck charm, causing him to play better than he ever has before, and he can't risk losing her even just texting him good luck before the games.

The only reason I docked it any stars is because of the writing- I caught multiple mistakes that became so redundant after a while that hopefully, after fixed before the final print comes out.

Read if you enjoy:

• Hockey romance 🏒
• Bisexual FMC
• He falls first
• Black cat FMC and golden retriever MMC

Thank you NetGalley and Lexi LaFleur Brown for giving me early access to this wonderful story. I seriously cannot wait to recommend this book to all my rom-com girlies! Shoot Your Shot is a laugh out loud, beautiful story of a grumpy FMC and sunshine MMC. I truly loved the depth both of our main characters had. Both of their side plots added so much to the story and their relationship. I am so excited to read what else Brown writes if it is anything like Shoot Your Shot!

thank you so much to Harlequin/Canary St Press and Netgalley for the ARC! I can’t even express how excited I was to get this ARC, as a huge hockey girlie and a fan of Lexi’s WAG/NHL content.

I’ve read my fair share of hockey romances (they take up their own portion of my romance shelf), but this one truly felt like a love letter to fans who don’t get to see themselves loved or appreciated by the sport. Lucy and Jaylen + their growth both individually and as a couple are the heart of this story and I loved every second of it, even the parts that had me teary! What I really loved about this book, aside from Lucy and Jaylen as a couple, was the way that it centered their community, both in lovable side characters and in Lucy and Jaylen’s love for their city and the people in it.

This was an incredibly strong debut, something to make you laugh and swoon and feel like you’re in the pages with the characters! I can’t wait to see how Lexi grows as an author, I’ll be there with my kindle in hand ready to read what’s next.

ARC Review: Shoot Your Shot by Lexi LaFleur Brown
Pub Date: March 11, 2025

NHL player Jaylen has just been cut by his team prior to the start of the season. He decides to go out in Seattle one last night before heading home. He meets aspiring tattoo artist Lucy at a dive bar just after Lucy has sworn off all hookups to focus on getting an apprenticeship. But one last one night stand can't hurt, right? After Jaylen unexpectedly gets a contract to stay in Seattle, he can't help but keep running into Lucy. He equates his success with her and gets her to agree to be his "lucky charm" for the season.

I love hockey romance and when this was blurbed by my QUEEN Rachel Reid, I knew I had to check it out. And when I found out that the FMC was bi and the MMC was black and there was a wide array of diversity in the book, I was even more excited! This book does a really good job at being inclusive which we know the NHL struggles with. That and the clear hockey knowledge that the author had were highlights for me in this book.

Unfortunately, most of the book fell pretty flat for me. There was a LOT of telling vs. showing and I really don't feel like I saw Lucy and Jaylen spend enough time together. A lot of their relationship ends up happening off page and we get some time jumps that often aren't explained (we go from the beginning of the NHL season to the end throughout the course of the book but in terms of scenes between the two it felt like they hung out maybe 3 or 4 times and Jaylen was telling her that he loved her.

I hope this book got another round of editing since being on Netgalley because there are also some continuity issues. The writing itself took me a while to get used to and truthfully I was very close to DNF'ing around 14%. This feels like a debut (which it is) in that the author was trying to use so so many tropes which ends up just feeling like a whole lot is going on. The bigger issues - Jaylen's panic attacks, Lucy's relationship with her dad - felt very surface level and superficial. They either needed more airtime in the book or to not exist.

Thank you to Canary Street Press for the eARC. All thoughts and opinions are my own and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

Thank you to Canary Street Press & Netgalley for giving me this ARC in exchange for an honest review! This is cross listed on Goodreads.

I adore hockey (obviously) and really love Lexi - I can never scroll past on of her WAG tik toks, so I was very very excited to get my hands on Shoot Your Shot and see if she could spice up there very lackluster hockey romance genre. It took me a month to get through Icebreaker, and it surely goes down as one of my worst reads of 2024, so I was hoping for something WAY better.

This still fell short for me. I really think Lexi did a great job for a debut novel; the plot was unique and had diverse characters and relatable nuances, but I didn’t find myself growing attached to any one person or storyline. The chemistry between Jaylen & Lucy was lacking - I didn’t feel like there was enough build up of tension between their drastically different lives. Even when they did come together, it felt awkward and dry - there were no moments when I felt moved or endeared by their exchanges. I did appreciate the way those two characters could use their unique perspectives to help each other out, but it was still a little surface level.

The strong edge of this book for me falls in the hockey knowledge, which was the reason I was so excited to dive into this novel compared to the oversaturated market. This book was authentic without being too boring - It felt that any details being shared still had a place within the story line. I wish we were able to see a little bit of a deeper relationship between Jaylen & Wells (and the team dynamics overall) but it definetly blows all other books out of the water in terms of its realistic descriptions and hockey inside jokes / nuances.

My biggest gripe overall with the book is the pacing. I found the jumps in storylines very jolted and awkward. Why wasn’t there more to the weeks where Lucy & Jaylen didn’t speak? How did Lucy go from rebelling against her former tattoo studio to getting accepted into a huge apprenticeship with a famous artist? These gaps (some being days, weeks, and even years for the epilogue) drove the plot to have holes and for the character growth to go flat. I think the period of time that the whole book took place was too long - it should have been only over the period of 2 - 3 months and I don’t think that Lucy and Jaylen needed to have the storyline be end game.

I think Lexi has a future as a writer and I’m looking forward to seeing what she brings with the second book in this deal. It was a good start for a debut!

I’ve been a hockey fan since middle school. I’ve tried to read hockey romance in the past but it’s been too inaccurate, too smutty, too much for me but this one was fun, lighthearted, different and actually correct about the hockey aspect of it. As a long time social media follower of Lexi LaFleur Brown it was fun to get a chance to read her debut novel and I am looking forward to her next.

This was just like all the other Hockey romances I've read. It does not stick out or feel particularly different from any of the sports romances out there right now. It was a quick read and it I enjoyed it while reading, but after finishing it just felt a bit lackluster.

Jaylen “JJ” Jones’s hockey career is over. After not securing an NHL contract with the Seattle Rainiers, Jaylen decides to bid the city farewell with a final night of fun, blowing off steam with an anonymous one night stand. But when a last-minute roster spot opens up on the Rainiers, he connects his luck to the girl he spent the night with. Superstitious Jaylen is desperate to keep her around—his career depends on it.

Aspiring tattoo artist Lucy Ross 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 hasn’t offered 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 in exchange for tattooing practice for Lucy’s portfolio—quickly turns into sizzling chemistry that’s too delicious to deny. 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 gameplay…

Just another hockey romance? They're all the rage right now. (You don't need to be a hockey fan to enjoy this book.) This is a cute story, but it was lacking a little for me. I had been looking forward to this for a while, and it was just okay. For me, it was that kind of quick entertainment that I pick up for an evening read, but by the time I pick up my next book, this one has faded from my mind. 3.5⭐

I received an advanced complimentary digital copy of this book from Netgalley. Opinions expressed are my own.

I was really excited to read a hockey romance by a former NHL wife - I thought it would be much more fun and real-feeling - but unfortunately this book didn’t do it for me at all. It felt like Lucy’s sexuality and edginess were being “shoved down my throat” as another reviewer said, and I was sick of hearing about it by halfway through the book. The relationship felt completely rushed and it didn't feel realistic that they got together so quickly. I think the main problem was that I didn’t connect with the characters or their relationship at all.

FANTASTIC!! I am a non-hockey romance girl. I’ve held to that sentiment for years as a big hockey fan. I’m also not the biggest fan of romance books in general cause I feel they’re not very deep. This however has just changed all my opinions. The attention to detail is amazing. You can really tell Lexi put in the time to get the smallest NHL details down. This actually follows real hockey schedules (Jaylen actually plays and practiced in this book LIKE YES!!) and showed the complicated path of Lucy becoming an artist. She really nailed the fear of relationships and many stereotypes in hockey. This is just such a packed book that I loved. Plot was fantastic and wasn’t rushed, characters were perfect and the representation was blessedly amazing.

I enjoyed this book and it was a good debut novel. The main characters as well as supporting characters were interesting and I appreciated the realistic hockey text. The intimate scenes were slightly clinical and a little forced. Overall, I would recommend this romcom to someone who is interested in romance and hockey.

This is EXACTLY how hockey romance should be done.

The love Lexi LaFleur Brown has for the game, her husband, and the little quirks that make players themselves was clear in every page. Some of the details are so simple but made this hockey rom-com feel like hockey. I mean, she talked about racism in the NHL in chapter two. The teammates were from Russia and Canada.

Not to mention that it was just a super well-done romance. I loved both characters and their journeys (especially Jaylen's mental health journey, we def need to talk more about grief and depression in men), I loved the humor throughout (see below), and I loved how they loved each other.

Some of my favorite quotes:
"They both look happy as they lean into their potential love interests like magnets drawn together by an invisible force - though the invisible force tonight is likely the tequila."
"He smiles down at me with the most perfect and disarming grin - contagious, like a yawn."
"I'm not really into athletes. I prefer my men with an iron deficiency and at least three phobias."
"Wow, congratulations. Welcome to the club. WE've been expecting you, but we were too sad to tidy the place up for your arrival. Hope you like microwaved melted cheese on sardines."

Thank you to NetGalley and Canary Street Press for an eARC in exchange for my honest review.

3.5 stars rounded up to 4. You can tell this is a debut but you can also tell it's written by someone who actually knows hockey. A fun read, will definitely be keeping my eye on this author and checking out her next books, too!