This story was very cute and wholesome it had me melting and wanting more. The characters were so cute and their love story was to die for. I loved this and definitely recommend. 4.25/5 stars

The characters were great and they were a good pair, but the writing wasn't totally my style. I haven't read anything else by this author, but I would give her another shot. This wasn't my favorite read though.

⋆.˚✮ 4.5 stars ✮˚.⋆

⤿ Thank you to Atria Books for the arc through netgalley, physical arc, and finished physical copy in exchange for an honest review!

I am so thankful that I was sent this advanced copy by Atria Books because this is one of the best romances I've read all year, and one of the most interesting romances I've read probably ever! firstly, it's not necessary to read the first book Unsteady by Peyton Corinne to understand what happens in this book, BUT this story is about characters from the first book who appear consistently. it also takes place at the same time as the first book, and so i think to better understand the story this should be read second, but it's not necessary.

one of my favorite things about this story was how mature the main characters were, both in themselves but also their relationship that ended up happening. they were NOT perfect people, both Ro and Freddy/Matt had things going on in their personal lives that made them make some silly decisions, and they experienced hardships that affected their emotional functioning. however, throughout the story it was obvious that the author wasn't writing into typical romance tropes, these characters fought and made up in and communicated in ways that feel much more mature than other romances i've read in this genre. also, slight spoiler - there's no third act break up. which is one of my LEAST favorite things that happen in romance books, so i was positively thrilled to see that in this story.

i also really loved how Ro and Freddy/Matt were always just there for each other, in friendship and romance and gave each other space when it was needed and protected each other's peace. both of them were so interesting in themselves too, and i highly related to Ro for wanting to people pleace, and also because she was a (smutty) reader. she was so sweet and smart and deserves all the love Freddy can give her. even himself, Freddy deserved a lot of love and it was GREAT to see from his point of view, and he also deserves so much better.

i'm kind of hoping that there's more books in this series, i would love to see from Bennett and this mysterious side character (who i won't reveal), but if not I am greatly looking forward to the next Peyton Corinne book that releases!

↬ trigger warnings: sexual abuse, parental abandonment, parental verbal abuse, parental death and death of loved ones, unwanted sexual advances

4.75⭐️ 2.5🌶️ 4.5🎧

Relationship dynamic: MF
Tropes/Microtropes/Vibes/Reps:
📚 College
🏒 Sports (hockey)
💖 Friends to lovers
🔥 Slow burn
📖 Athlete x tutor
👩🏻‍💻 Woman in STEM

Book Publisher: Atria
Audio Publisher: Simon and Schuster
Narrators: Caitlin Elizabeth + Bradley Ford
Narration type: dual
Writing perspective: first person, dual POV
Standard length (pages): 461p
Standard length (time): 14:01
Listening speed: 2.5x
Listened via: LibroFM
Read via: Kindle
ARC/ALC provided by: Atria + NetGalley / Simon and Schuster + LibroFM

📖 Matty and Ro… they are so easy to love. I fell for them both almost instantly. Yet, they didn’t feel lovable for so long. I could feel their lonliness coming right off the page. They were both broken in very different ways and they needed each other’s friendship so badly. And then they needed more. They needed each other to learn what a healthy, trusting, loving relationship looks like and Peyton handled all of that with such care. Matt and Rosalie were each other’s biggest advocates. I LOVED the scene where Ro stood up for Matt in the academic review for his math course. The hate I felt for their respective exes was next level… 😡

🎧 This dual audio performance was enjoyable all the way through! Caitlin Elizabeth is a new to me narrator and I thought she did a great job! She has a medium to high pitch female voice with a clear distinction between her inner dialogue and speaking voices and a nice lower pitch for her male voices. She expressed such a wide range of emotion and kept me so engaged!
Bradley Ford was also a great pick for Matty. He pulled off that broken boy masking as a golden retriever so well and you could just feel the emotions through every word in the angsty parts. Bravo to both narrators!

This book just gives you all the warm fuzzy feels.

I loved how Killian and Nova have a raw, healing story where they both have trauma they deal with. I love seeing them come together and strengthen each other.

This book is a must for hockey romance lovers. It just hits all the marks you want in that genre.

AHHH I LOVED THIS! the perfect follow up to Unsteady. I just loved Ro and Freedy’s dynamic. They way they were so raw with each other and just felt like they were looking for love with each other. They were so vulnerable with each other. It really felt so genuine and how protective the MMC was. This book just surpassed what I even expected from a 2nd book in a series

3.75 Stars
There were a lot of things about this book that I loved, but then there were some things that I didn’t love and unfortunately one of the things I didn’t love was the writing style itself because it somehow felt a little bit impersonal to me. I love the concept. I love the characters. I love the plot, but just the way it was written never fully immersed me in the story and I was never 100% invested. It was still really good book and I did really love the plot and how everything played out and the character growth that occurs throughout the book I just didn’t totally vibe with the writing.

Unloved totally pulled me in. Ro and Freddy's story is raw, emotional, and just so real. I loved how their friendship slowly turned into something deeper — it felt natural and honest. The way Peyton Corinne tackles things like grief, mental health, and learning struggles made the characters feel so relatable. It’s the kind of book that makes you feel all the things and leaves you thinking about it long after you're done. Definitely recommend if you're into slow-burn romance with a lot of heart.

This was a sweet nerd/jock romance - enjoyable enough, but didn't stick with me. Maybe that's a me thing - I'm too old to feel like university romances are particularly high stakes, perhaps. Both Ro and Freddy felt a bit over-perfect to me - I could see their struggles but couldn't really feel them as I read. I also felt like the ex-boyfriend was a bit too super-villain to take seriously - I appreciate the attempt to give a representation of the terrible impact of emotional abuse, but I could almost hear him cackling every time he was on page. I did, however, really enjoy the wrap up - seeing briefly how they built a life together was one of the high points for me. In summary, this was cute, and well written, but not really for me.

I absolutely adored Unsteady, so I had high hopes going into this one, and Peyton did not disappoint! I loved seeing Ro and Teddy grow together, and Peyton does a great job of handling challenging topics surrounding mental health, especially in the D1 world. I can't wait to read more from her!

This series will be my undoing! The character development and stories are just so wholesome.

In Unsteady, we get the story of Ro and Freddy - the academic tutor, and the hockey player fighting for a barely passing GPA.
I will say that I highly despised Ro original boyfriend. He gave off so many red flags (can we all say "douchebag?!") and I literally CHEERED when she finally got rid of him.
Having a child that struggles with academics (due to very similar learning disabilities), Freddy's struggle in and out of the classroom touched my heart and made me want to wrap him up in a big hug. Seeing these two come together to help each other overcome obstacles once again had tears in my eyes by the end.

Thank you Peyton for sharing them with us! Please give us more!

Thank you to NetGalley and Atria Books for this arc in return for my honest review.

Pub Date: 04 February 2025

Unloved was an emotional and sweet read. I liked how real the characters felt. Freddy is a hockey player who struggles in school, and Ro is his tutor trying to help him while also dealing with her own stuff. Their relationship grows slowly, and I really liked their late night talks and how they opened up to each other. The book talks about learning challenges and mental health in a way that feels honest and important. Overall, it was easy to connect with the characters and their story. I absolutely adored these characters when they were featured in Unsteady and I’m so glad that my loved for them grew throughout this book!

Thanks to NetGalley and Atria Books for the ARC!

4.5 STARS ⭐

Unloved by Peyton Corinne was my first book by this author and I loved listening to the audiobook through Spotify. There was such a lot of college angst and these characters were wonderful!

Ro and Matty were polar opposites. Both going through so much. Ro becomes Matt's tutor. He's the popular hockey player and she's crushed on him since freshman year.

Ro is in a turbulent relationship with her ex. They've been off and on again. I hate him so much and how he'd tear her down. Those moments were probably the most anger I felt. Matty stepped up as a good friend to Ro and as their relationship developed, he showed her that she can be herself.

Behind Matt's flirty smiles hides someone who's going through so much hurt. He's been struggling with dyslexia and ADHD most of his life. Ro has been so supportive. Helped him pass his classes. He was also able to be vulnerable with her.

I loved Peyton Corinne's writing and look forward to reading more books from her. This book may have been a slow burn, but when Ro and Matty finally come together, it's perfect. And the epilogue was everything!!

Ultimately one of the sweetest characters I have read in such a long time. Freddy and Ro truly took my heart away with their tears, laughs, special times together, and all around their vibes towards each other. I am truly looking forward to Peyton's next release!

I ate this up 👩🏼‍🍳! This one felt so different from the first book, but overlapped the timeline this time with Ro and Freddy 🥰! Loved the learning disability/ADHD rep in this one, it made it super unique! Pining, friends-to-lovers, angst, and dual POV!

Tyler may be one of my most hated characters I’ve ever read 😤, but it brought a lot of drama!! Lots of deeper topics of anxiety, toxic relationships, grief, harassment, and dealing with narcissistic parents!

Overall this was such a sweet college sports romance book with deeper themes woven in!

I LOOOOVE a good friends to lover story and I felt like this did not disappoint! I really like Unsteady when I read it last year so I was so excited when I got confirmed for Unloved this year too. I love a good slow burn too and this book was perfect for it. I was maybe 3/4 of the way through the book before any true spice happened and it was spicyyyyy. I did get icked out a bit at times, sometimes the tropes felt a little cheesy or "tropey" but when you overlook that, I feel like it was a great time! I am so excited to see what comes next in the series!

I really thought I was going to love this book—Freddy as a soft hockey player with ADHD and Ro as the hopeless romantic tutor? Sign me up. And honestly, it started strong. Their friendship-to-slow-burn dynamic had me rooting for them early on, and I loved the way they slowly let their walls down around each other.

But somewhere along the way, it just started to feel a little flat. I wanted more—more tension, more character growth, and way less of a certain off-again/on-again ex boyfriend (you know who I mean). It’s like we were circling the same emotional beats without really pushing forward, and by the end I was left wishing something had really shifted.

That said, the romance had sweet moments, and I appreciated how much care was put into Freddy’s learning struggles and Ro’s emotional journey. A solid 3 stars. I liked it—I just wanted a little more of everything (except that guy, we’re good on that front).

Thanks to NetGalley and Atria Books for the arc in exchange for an honest review!

Freddy is a playboy hockey player who, in addition to dealing with past trauma and grief, is struggling to pass his biology class, not just because of his inappropriate past with the professor, but because of his dyslexia, dyscalculia, and ADHD. When Ro’s on-again, off-again boyfriend and fellow biology tutor bullies Ro into taking on his “nuisance” of a student, Freddy, she is initially hesitant because Freddy is her “celebrity” crush and her first kiss (although Freddy doesn’t remember this). But study sessions soon lead to a meaningful friendship and an escape from the loneliness that Freddy and Ro both feel. As Freddy and Ro help each other deal with past trauma, grief, and abuse, real feelings start to emerge.

Unloved is a new adult hockey romance featuring the athlete with tutor, forced proximity, and reformed playboy tropes. It deals with themes and topics such as mental health, dyslexia and dyscalculia, ADHD, bullying and harassment, abuse, death and grief, cheating, manipulation, fame and reputation, sexuality, love and heartbreak, self worth, challenging parent-child relationships, struggles of females in male-dominated fields, loneliness and isolation, abuse of power, PTSD, and dealing with past trauma. I would recommend Unloved to fans of sports romances like The Dare by Elle Kennedy, Stealing Home by Grace Reilly, Hail Mary by Kandi Steiner, Play with Me by Becka Mack, or A Photo Finish by Elsie Silver.

Firstly, I want to point out that Unloved isn’t a light-hearted rom-com. It’s more of an emotional romance that deals with some complex (and potentially triggering) topics; this isn’t necessarily a bad thing, just something to note, especially if you’re a mood reader like me. Furthermore, I felt like the cutesy cover art and even the blurb didn’t really prepare me for such an emotionally complex read. Since the book was a little longer and more emotional than I was expecting, I personally feel like I might have preferred listening to an audiobook version of Unloved (or tandem reading an audio and physical copy of the book). It’s important to note that Unloved takes place at the same time as Unsteady (Rhys and Sadie’s story and book 1 in the Undone series) and a lot of the plot in these two books were interconnected, so I think that readers need to have read Unsteady before picking up a copy of Unloved. Even though I have read Unsteady about a year ago, I felt as though i was missing or forgetting some important plotlines from Sadie and Rhys’ story, which unfortunately created some minor gaps in Unloved. Thus, I’m thinking that a tandem reading guide for the two books could be beneficial for some readers.

Even though I had a hard time getting into this book and it wasn’t really what I was expecting, I ended up really liking it in the end. Unloved is definitely a slow burn romance with a lot of will they/ won’t they vibes, and the majority of the spice takes place at the end of the book. That being said, there was a ton of swoonworthy moments (including a sentimental sewing project, a romantic trip to the bookstore, and a cute hang out involving temporary tattoos) and secret mutual pining throughout the book, which I loved! Ro’s aesthetic with her butterfly clips and bows was fun and I loved how bookish Ro was, as I always relate well to characters who are fellow bookworms. Lastly, the fact that there was no dreaded third act break-up or miscommunication trope (which is my least favourite trope) was appreciated.

If you’re in the mood for an emotionally complex read full of swoon-worthy moments and mutual pining, then I highly recommend picking up a copy of Unloved!

This one was in the middle for me. While I love me a good hockey romance with a golden retriever boy and a good friends to lovers, it just felt like the slow burn was a little to slow for my liking, but hey that's just me.

This was such a sweet and charming read. Ro and Freddy are just adorable together in this feel good love story. This one will have you swooning and smiling. The burn is very slow for these two, and while I felt the pacing was a bit slow at times, I really loved both of these characters and am enamored with the Undone World. Peyton Corinne knows how to deliver romances that sizzle yet feel so pure of heart and wholesome all at once. Sugary sweet and cotton candy light.

- friends to lovers
-hockey
- Slow burn
- tutor x reformed playboy
- Broken hero
-found family
-golden retriever hero
- Grief rep