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.

I was so excited when I saw that this book was coming out. I love following the author on social media and to see how she incorporated her hockey knowledge into the book was great. I felt some parts of the story were a little slow. But the characters made up for it.

“Why can’t you accept that you’ve changed my life and I want you in it forever?”

Shoot Your Shot is a quick, flirty read filled with banter and hard-hitting topics like mental health, career stress, and difficult family dynamics. if you’re in the mood for a hockey romance with a spitfire fmc, this one is for you!
—

this and that:
♡ artist x athlete
♡ dual pov
♡ he falls first
♡ hockey
♡ mental health x therapy
♡ one night stand turned situationship
♡ open door spice
♡ pop culture references
♡ queer rep
♡ seattle
♡ she’s his good luck charm
♡ sports romance
♡ tattooed fmc

triggers:
☞ alcoholism x addiction
☞ anxiety x panic attacks
☞ death of a loved one
☞ depression
☞ gang involvement (mentioned)
☞ parental abandonment

This one needs some work.

Jaylen is a flopped hockey player who just got cut from the NHL. He finds a string of good luck in Lucy, manic pixie dream girl aspiring tattoo artist.

There were a lot of issues here. I felt little chemistry between the two characters. They didn’t feel very fleshed out to me. They’re total opposites with a few common shared interests but huge lack of chemistry for me.

The spicy scenes were very rushed and borderline clinical in a few spots. I wish there was more hockey. The banter in the beginning was great but tapered off too quickly.

The author needs to work on “showing” rather than “telling” the story.

I had high hopes for this book. The author knows her hockey and has been promoting this book well on TikTok. Unfortunately, the main two characters are unlikeable and shallow. Lucy acts like being a mean girl is her personality, when it’s just a defence mechanism and JJ isn’t emotionally mature enough for a relationship.

I’m not staying that there was plagiarism, but earlier this month Lauren Blakely released a book with a male hockey player who called his love interest his “luck charm”, and his love interest was also an artist painting a mural at the hockey arena. Just seems odd to have two books so similar coming out so close together.

shoot your shot 🏒🍀

thank you to net galley and harlequin trade publishing/canary street press for this arc!

when i heard that dr. lexi lafleur brown, phD in hockey, hockey wags and all things hockey tea was writing a hockey romance book i was beyond excited!

the story was predictable as most hockey books and most debut books are, but it was so much fun and subverted a lot of tropes. LOVE the bisexual representation AND men’s mental health representation, something you don’t often get, especially as it relates to the pressures of a high intensity sport.

lexi’s hockey knowledge shines through and js way more realistic to the actual sport than your average hockey book.

also the characters just feel so real!! they’re flawed and make mistakes but they learn and grow and maybe make more mistakes again but they feel like real people.

thank you @lexilafleur and can’t wait for your next novel!

2.75 ⭐️

If I’m being honest the first sentence had me with this book, loved it! The banter was so cute, I loved how they began, the stealing a sign was such an iconic moment and I’m a sucker for the sunshine character that has anxiety and depression; the character depth to accomplish that is really nice to see.

In general all the queer rep and mental health representation was on point.

It wasn’t until the 63% mark that things kinda fell flat for me. The characters felt more telling than showing and the plot got too cliché for my taste. A lot of the drama near this point and to the end was extremely predictable and I just couldn’t get back into it.

Most of the things that happened near the end just felt rushed and lacking whatever charm it had in the first part of the book.

Plot: 4/10
Pace: 5/10
Ending: 3/10
Characters: 7/10
Enjoyability: 4/10
Writing Style: 3/10
Would I Recommend? Maybe
Favorite Character: Jaylen

Favorite Quote: ❝ Wait until you see the jerseys tonight for Pride night in action. It's going to be like if the Care Bears were violent. ❞ - Jaylen