The characters in Shoot Your Shot were really great and I was invested in their stories from the get go. The queer representation was a breath of fresh air and made the book even more enjoyable for me. What I had a harder time with was their internal dialogue/narration which felt too 'cerebral' and pulled me out of the story because I felt like no one talks to themselves like that. It was evident that the book was written by someone who is smart and educated and sometimes that made the internal thoughts of the characters too intellectual which then made it hard to relate and clashed with the tone of the book. Overall, it was still very enjoyable and I'd definitely recommend it to fans of hockey romance and especially if they're looking to read something by a Canadian author. Also, Lexi LaFleur Brown knows her hockey, it shows!

3.5 rounded up
Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I wanted to love this book but parts of it just fell flat. It was okay. Not bad, not great. It was cute and I liked the characters.

The MCs were definitely loosely based on the author and her husband and I don’t have a problem with that. For a debut novel, it was fine. It was a lot of tell not show. Allll throughout the book. It was just description after description after description and the writing style was just not my favorite.

Finally a hockey romance for people who actually watch hockey! As a fan of Lexi’s tiktoks and the Seattle Kraken I knew I needed this book in my life. It did not disappoint. I found myself constantly laughing but also loved how well the heavier topics were handled. I will say this book is very niche for the gay millennial woman who understands hockey so I understand if not everyone loves it. But as someone who read all of the MMC parts with JTs (Lexi’s husband and Kraken announcer) voice it was a great fun time.

I feel like I’ve been waiting for this book for one thousand years and not just because I’m a huge fan of Lexi on twitter. I love hockey and it’s hard to find a hockey romance that doesn’t make me want to throw up and die immediately from cringe. This healed me from the many books I’ve picked up where it felt like the author googled “hockey slang” and tried to fit in as many as possible. Did the pacing get a little weird in parts? Sure, but it’s a debut and minor errors are to be expected. I cannot wait for the next one!

I think this was a good book for a first time author! Lexi is knowledge about hockey and the lifestyle that accompanies being in a relationship with a professional athlete and I think that is well represented in the storyline. Some of the wording came off a bit awkward and robotic, but I think overall it was still great. There was a good amount of humor and spice with two very lovable characters!

I loved Shoot Your Shot! The author did a great job of letting readers get to know the characters (including the supporting cast), and I really liked both Lucy and Jaylen. I loved that all the characters were real, with real feelings, fears, and insecurities. Shoot Your Shot is different than most of the books I read because of that, and it was great to see both navigate through their demons and grow stronger as individuals while growing stronger as a couple. The author also clearly knows hockey (although I've never heard a +/- rating being called "dash" rather than "minus"); as a hockey fan that was very much appreciated. Can't wait for the next book!

This is a super cute hockey romance with just a little bit of spice! I love the lgbt and mental health representation. This book hooked me in right from the first line.

I honestly thought this was so interesting. I am in love with Hockey related books. I loved the way this book was written the author did a great job writing this. I would definitely recommend this book to my hockey loving friends. This was amazing to listen to and even better to read!

I really enjoyed this one! The two main characters had great chemistry, and I hope to see more queer romances by Lexi LaFleur Brown

I love love love the black cat/golden retriever dynamic they have. It was very enjoyable to read about and their opposing personalities were such a treat

I also really enjoyed the writing style. It had the common rom-com-esque witty style, but the way the characters were so dynamic, and the reader could tell when they let their guards down and let each other in versus when they were putting on a facade was intriguing, and personally, it made me feel more connected to the characters

However, although I loved the main leads, I think the persistence with which Jaylen asked Lucy out felt a bit icky to me. Of course they did end up falling in love, but at First Lucy was very standoffish and I would hope that Jaylen is not actually that persistent. I would have loved it even more if either Lucy accepted him asking her out, or if Jaylen took her no for a no and they ended up meeting again in a similar way.

Other than that, I really loved it. I think it's a sweet and sexy romance featuring main characters with opposing personalities that are completely individual, yet fit compliment each other wonderfully

I would recommend this book to readers who want a book with witty banter, a badass FMC, a golden retriever MMC, and characters who work through their traumas and struggles together

Lucy is trying to focus on her career to land a tattoo apprenticeship and is taking a step back from dating. Jaylen has no time for relationships while trying to get his NHL career back on track. When their paths cross and Jaylen starts playing better, he's convinced Lucy is his good luck charm. But trying to convince her of that might be another story. Can this simple favor stay simple, or will this complicate both their goals?

As a lover of sports romances, and specifically hockey, I enjoyed this. I thought it was a cute story that has a lot of diversity in the characters and their backgrounds. I also enjoyed how accurate the aspects of hockey are portrayed because I think that can be lacking in other sports romances. I think Lucy and Jaylen had good banter back and fourth and I enjoy a story where the guy falls first. They struggle through problems and situations that feel very real to real life. I think if you're looking for a quick and fun read after reading long fantasy books, this is a good choice!

The prose is stilted and awkward from the get-go, making for a weird combination of show and tell that fails to immerse the readers in the story. Instead, both main characters overexplain everything, making the story repetitive and slow-paced. It's difficult to connect with the FMC, even though I was looking forward to a black cat personality from Lucy. While I'm grateful for all the representation, each character is reduced to a few base cliches and stereotypes. The smut, which this book markets as "steamy," comes off as robotic as well.

🏒 Black Cat / Golden Retriever Ship
🏒 He Falls First
🏒 Hockey Player / Artist
🏒 Opposites Attract
🏒 Debut

Thank you NetGalley for trusting me to read and review the ARC of this book.

This book was fun and easy to read at first. But once I got halfway through it seemed to get repetitive and felt like it started to drag. So I did give it 3 stars for the beginning. I did almost DNF this book and took me 3 days to finish the last 10 chapters. However I did like the concept behind the book as well as some of the characters. But both characters being players and her not wanting to settle down was a little off putting for me.

I also wasn’t a fan of Lucy after a little bit as she seemed to push away any relationship and is a one night stand type of girl. Also Lucy’s boss wasn’t it. Giving away the apprenticeship to someone else. But also seemed like Lucy ended up completely taking over the mural project as it seemed her boss only asked her to cover for the one day since Lucy double booked her.
This book was more a one night stand turned to lovers and a little light stalking.
I wanted to love this book since it’s a hockey romance, but it was a little harder to push through. Also how are you in a relationship and not know it? Especially when she was iffy and kept pushing him away from the beginning.

This book was unfortunately flat for me. I was really excited, and you could tell that the author knew her stuff about hockey, which I assume is from her husband, but the rest of it was lacking. The intimate scenes felt very robotic, and I wasn’t a huge fan of the female main character. This is still a fun hockey romance for anyone who wants something Informationally correct, but it was just not for me.

This was a cute debut! I loved the accuracy coming from someone with inside NHL knowledge, I almost wish there was a little more of that. I didn't connect with the characters but could definitely appreciate their personalities throughout the book.

Thank you NetGalley and Harlequin for the eARC.
This was okay. There wasn’t a whole lot going on, and I feel like it was mostly just trauma bonding, but the two main characters had no chemistry whatsoever. I normally like hockey romances, but I want more spice in them. There wasn’t much, and what there was wasn’t that good.
I really didn’t even like the two main characters. I vibed with Lucy at first but she quickly turned into someone that pissed me off.
There wasn’t too much back and forth and just overall a bit boring. It was just meh. I wanted to love it, but I didn’t, and it didn’t live up to the expectations I had of it.

3.5 stars

It’s no secret that I like hockey and reading hockey romance books, so when I saw that Lexi was publishing a book, I ran to Netgalley to apply for an ARC.

This was cute! I liked that hockey wasn’t an afterthought, and that it’s actually important to the plot. Things like positions, Stanley Cup playoffs, travel schedules, the wags… if it’s hockey-related, it’s probably in this book. I enjoyed Jaylen’s povs the most for that reason!

Lucy and Jaylen were sweet together, and there’s a lot of work done to carve out their backstories within the plot, but the narrative style made their relationship feel a little surface-level to me. Full transparency when I say that I’m not sure what could’ve been done differently to rectify that, but the prose just wasn’t my favorite.

Overall, a cute read!

Thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for the ARC.

This was an interesting take on a hockey romance. Honestly I thought there would be more hockey. I do appreciate the diversity of the characters. Finding out the author was a hockey wag was also very intriguing.

This was cute, however, I unfortunately didn’t love it. This book follows our “black cat” aspiring tattoo artist FMC Lucy, she’s stagnant in her career and struggling to live life without being in meaningless relationships. Then we have our “golden retriever” former hockey star MMC Jaylen (JJ) who is down on his luck and not playing well. After being dropped from an NHL team JJ and Lucy find themselves hooking up, and that’s when JJ’s luck turns around.

The premise of this book sounded great! And there was representation, (Black MMC, bisexual FMC, gay & lesbian bestfriends) however, the characters felt very boiled down to stereotypes.. which was pretty disappointing.

I love a sports romance, I just didn’t really gel well with the characters and writing style of this story.

There were good parts, I liked the humor! These two were funny and did bounce off one another, and I enjoyed the way friendship showed up in this story as well!

Thank you so much Harlequin Trade Publishing, Canary Street Press, and NetGalley for an early copy!

I absolutely loved this book! From the New Girl reference to the adorable nerd bonding between Jaylen and Lucy this book had me giggling and kicking my feet the entire time. The balance between those moments and the very real exploration of mental health, self doubt, representation in a sport that historically hasn't been very diverse, and learning to heal made this book one I can't wait to read again. The premise of starting out as our worst selves has given me hope that maybe dating wouldn't be so bad if we all took that approach. I'm really hoping this becomes a series!

This was a fun debut hockey romance. The story starts with a one night stand that turns into a lucky superstition romance. Lucy and Jaylen are a lot of fun together.

I really liked Jaylen as a character and his growth in the story. He falls for Lucy first and I adored his attitude about her.

Lucy was a bit tougher to love for me. For such a tough cookie, she was way too dormant when it came to her career which is so far from her personality. I also didn't really buy that a hockey club would hire a tattoo artist to do a mural which is so far fetched.

Overall, it was fun and entertaining. Kristen DiMercuri and Jamal Roque did a good job with the narration.

Thank you @htp_hive @harlequin_audio for a copy of this.