A solid hockey romance with two characters both working through their own feelings and issues. JJ definitely has a bit of a jaded side and needed therapy and Lucy just has a lot going on. I like that they both could find the love they deserved and be true to themselves. Overall, pretty much 'middle' ground for me with hockey romances.

I love Hockey Romance, it is my favorite type of romance to read, this book tho was not the one for me. I will say what saved this book was Jaylen was the perfect MMC!

New Life Goal: Become an NHL Player’s Lucky Charm

I love one (1) man, and his name is Jaylen Jones.

This book??? Perfection. Lexi LeFleur Brown really said, “Here, have a hockey romance that’s actually funny and not just, like, three decent banter moments stretched over 350 pages.” And for that, I am eternally grateful.

Some highlights of my emotional journey:

• Jaylen being so convinced his mystery one-night stand is the key to his NHL career?? Sir, be serious. But also, I support your delusions.

• Lucy being a struggling tattoo artist with big “I don’t believe in luck, but sure, I’ll humor you” energy. Love that for her.

• The fact that their entire relationship starts because Jaylen is desperate for a pre-game good luck text. Imagine the power.

• The banter??? Top tier. The chemistry??? Sizzling. I was literally cackling and grinning like an idiot.

• Situationships?? Misunderstandings?? Forced proximity disguised as casual deals?? I’m foaming at the mouth.

This book was so much fun, and I am obsessed with Lexi LeFleur Brown’s humor. The writing is fast-paced, the characters are lovable, and the romance is just chef’s kiss. If you like hockey romances that actually make you laugh, this is the book.

5 stars and a pre-game good luck text from me.

I've been seeing this all over social media and the hype is worth it! Lexi LaFleur Brown's debut novel is the sign of good things to come...I hope to read more from her! She's informed (meaning that it was realistic and not just random hockey knowledge that was made up for the convenience of the plot) and the bi character representation was everything. I'm going to add this title to a list of options for choice reading in my classroom. There is some "spicyness" but compared to a lot of the YA lit/booktok romances out there, it was palatable and sex positive.

Very fun read! I loved exploring Lucy's path in the art and tattoo world, as well as Jaylen's career development and tackling his inner demons. This was a very poignant hockey romance, dealing with real emotional issues, and was a very enjoyable read.

Unfortunately this really missed the mark. The characters felt like caricatures, I didn’t believe their relationship, and the third act break up was unsatisfactory.
I did appreciate the discussion of mental health, but I don't think this author is for me.

I wanted to love this more because I love this creator on TikTok! I think I just found the MMC very unlikable at the beginning and it was hard for me to over come that.

I will say that if you love fake dating via one night stand and working together, you will love this! It has a great balance of hockey and romance. I would definitely give this author another try when she comes out with another book!

2.25 stars

I like the author from TikTok and I had high hopes for this given the actual hockey knowledge but this fell incredibly flat for me unfortunately. Sure the hockey stuff was probably more accurate than other hockey romances but you need more than that. The FMC Lucy was definitely written to be a bit unlikable but I found her fun. The MMC Jaylen was a complete cinnamon roll simp. But I felt…nothing. Because the writing had no feeling. It was just a story told like “this happened then this happened he said this I said this” very unemotional. And because there was no prose, everything felt so rushed and sudden. And the spicy scenes were…odd and too fast and almost never made sense for the characters. Like there was no lead up to it at all and Jaylen suddenly was saying incredibly filthy things but it felt forced because it was like a switch flipped for 3 lines then boom it’s over. Basically I felt like yes there was a story and some effort but there was no writing if that makes sense?

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for this eARC.

I received a digital copy of this book from NetGalley for review. My opinions are my own.

4/5 stars

I really love hockey romcoms. This one was no different - I loved it. I love the chemistry btwn the MMC and FMC and I loved the diversity of the characters - it made it so interesting and fun.

Now, romcoms all follow a typical, predictable path and I liked that this one had a few different twists.

This lost one star for me because I feel like Jaylen’s friends played a bigger role in the book than Lucy’s friends… I wanted more out of her friends!

I enjoyed this. I enjoyed that the characters had some serious issues and they worked through them together. I enjoyed that there wasn't some big miscommunication trope. I really enjoyed the ending.

2⭐️ DNF @48%

I had such high hopes for this book. As a hockey WAG who rose to fame on TT critiquing hockey romance Lexi set some pretty high expectations that I’m sad to say this book did not live up to.

I found Lucy to be entirely unlikeable. She was rude, defensive and entitled. She had a goal of being a tattoo artist (after abandoning painting for an absolutely ridiculous reason) and yet put very little effort into accomplishing that goal other than complaining about how terrible her boss was.

I didn’t love JJ either. He seemed fine at first but realistically he was incredibly self centered. I get that hockey is his life. But he must have been really desperate to push so hard for Lucy to be in his life. I didn’t get far enough to see them actually fall in love, but I can’t help but feel like he wont actually love her, he loves winning.

I just wasn’t rooting for either of them so I ultimately threw in the towel at 48%.

Listen, I wanted to love this book. A hockey himbo with a superstition problem? A tattoo artist with big dreams and bad luck? A transactional relationship that turns into something more? That’s catnip for me. But somewhere between the puck drop and the final buzzer, this one just didn’t click.

I never quite vibed with Lucy. I wanted to, but she felt more like a “cool girl” checklist than a fully developed character. Jaylen, was flat and a little uninteresting, to be honest—adorable, yes, but without much to challenge him, he lacked some needed depth. Also, the banter tried hard, but sometimes it felt more like a Twitter thread than natural conversation.

And the spice? Look, I’m not saying I need Shakespearean-level dirty talk, but I do need more than “he touched me, I gasped.” The chemistry was there in theory, but on the page, it read more like a play-by-play than something swoony.

At the end of the day, this wasn’t a bad book—it just wasn’t my book. If you’re a hardcore hockey romance fan and don’t mind a straightforward writing style, this might still work for you. But if you’re here for layered characters and banter that actually banters, you might find yourself sitting in the penalty box with me.

Big thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for the ARC!

This was such a wonderful debut! I loved the story, the characters, and the hockey (and as a hockey fan, I appreciated Lexi's attention to detail and ability to really accurately reflect the sport).

I really enjoyed having a hockey romance told from someone who was a hockey wife. It added some elements but still honored the tradition of the sub genre. It was really fun and the superstition set up for their relationship was also fantastic.

I've become an unironic fan on hockey romances. And after reading so many, Shoot Your Shot is a fun, sexy, and refreshing take on the genre that I just enjoyed to bits.

Thank you to Harlequin Trade Publishing and NetGalley for the arc copy of this book. All opinions expressed are entirely my own.

Aspiring tattoo artist/painter Lucy Ross and hockey player Jaylen Jones seem meet at the right time, at least that's what Jaylen thinks. Out for his last night in Seattle, Jaylen runs into Lucy at a bar and spills alcohol all over her. Lucy immediately hates him, but that doesn't stop Jaylen from talking to her later that night. Sharing a mutual physical attraction, they agree to a one night stand, with the assumption Jaylen will be flying home to Chicago tomorrow and they'll never speak again. But that isn't what happens.

The next morning, after leaving Lucy in his hotel room sleeping, Jaylen gets a call from his agent at the airport with a one year offer to play for the Seattle Rainiers. Ecstatic to have another shot at a permanent spot, Jaylen takes the deal and leaves the airport. Lucy finds herself with an offer from her boss as well: paint a mural for the Seattle Rainiers team and in exchange she look at her portfolio and possibly consider her for an apprenticeship. When Lucy shows up to paint the mural, she finds Jaylen in practice. Believing Lucy is his good luck charm, Jaylen goes out of his way to bring her coffee/talk to her daily, and soon the pair become friends. Developing feelings is inevitable and the pair find themselves up against their own personal road blocks to happiness.

This is a cute book and a quick read. I giggled multiple times from the banter, specifically from Cooper. I enjoyed the LGBTQIA+ and mental health representation, as well as the lack of resistance towards that from other characters in the book. It was refreshing to see all of the characters be supportive. Lucy and Jaylen both portrayed healthy character development, with Jaylen taking his mental health seriously/seeking help and Lucy creating boundaries with her boss and father. However, I found the third act break up really unnecessary. Also, the whole "I'm on birth control and clean, lets not use a condom" thing is very cliche in sports romances and a major eye roll. Overall, a solid debut novel.

Shoot Your Shot by Lexi LaFleur Brown is a fun & interesting spicy hockey romance between two opposites a golden retriever hero hockey player & a black cat heroine artist.

Shoot Your Shot Is great for those looking to read…
🏒 Spicy Hockey Romance
🏒 Hockey Player x Artist
🏒 Forced Proximity
🏒 Opposites Attract
🏒 Golden Retriever Hero x Black Cat Heroine
🏒 Bisexual Representation
🏒 Mental Illness Representation

I’ve followed the author on TikTok & their sense of humor is showcased in this book. I appreciated the humor & the sarcastic heroine. This was a little bit of a slower start for me but I was glad I stuck with it & ended up enjoying it. I really appreciated the mental illness representation & especially experiencing from undiagnosed to seeing a doctor & getting treatment. I don’t want to give away too much, but I liked how that was done & feel it’s important to showcase.

I was fortunate enough to listen to the audiobook as well & enjoyed this. This is the first time I’ve listened to Jamal Roque & they did a phenomenal job. I listened at 2x & it was the perfect speed for my ADHD brain

Massive thanks to NetGalley, Harlequin Audio & Harlequin Trade Press-Canary Stress Press for the gifted copy, which I voluntarily read & reviewed.

As a debut novel, I want to give some grace. However, a lot of the story was telling rather than building up an actual narrative. I did appreciate the black cat x golden retriever dynamic, but Lucy kind of lost that energy almost immediately upon them starting to date. Further, the third act break up just never does it for me and here after so much of the storytelling, the break up felt so counterintuitive to the characters’ relationship building. Also, knowing the author’s name is Lexi like Lucy and her former NHL husband is JT like JJ, made the story feel a little too self-insert fanfictiony at times.

I definitely appreciated the author’s attempts at including BIPOC, LGBTQ+, and underrepresented perspectives to her characters, especially as the hockey world is historically known to not include them. That definitely made it stand apart from other sports romance novels, however it fell a little flat for me. At the end of the day, it was a unique take on the typical sports romance and I appreciated how little hockey traditions were incorporated like “money on the board,” playoff jackets, and silly superstitious beliefs.

Lucy, an edgy aspiring tattoo artist, unknowingly finds herself in the company of Jaylen, who until recently was one of the NHL’s fastest rising stars. Neither one of them interested in anything serious, they agree to leave it at one night. That is, until, Jaylen suddenly finds himself on a one-year contract with the team who just commissioned Lucy to paint murals at the rink. Jaylen finds himself playing well after a few run-ins and asks her to be his good luck charm. But when the humoring of a superstition turns into feelings that might jeopardize each one of their respective career paths, they have to figure out what they really want.

As an avid hockey fan, I ate this up. Being the wife of a retired NHL player, Lexi LaFleur Brown was able to bring in an accuracy of the game (and superstitions) that I really appreciated. Her characters were interesting and far from your typical sports romance mains, and the supporting characters brought a lot of diversity to the cast. Overall I really enjoyed this debut and feel so fortunate to have gotten a chance to read it early. I can’t wait to see what Lexi writes next!

"Shoot Your Shot" was an overall enjoyable read. While I appreciated many aspects of the book, particularly the hockey element, the story had some ups and downs.

One of the standout features for me was the sports focus. The hockey scenes were engaging and added a refreshing layer to the plot, keeping things dynamic and entertaining. The overall storyline was solid, and I could see a lot of potential in the author’s future work.

However, I found the main character a bit frustrating at times. Her reluctance to confront her trauma and mental health issues created unnecessary conflict, making her problems everyone else’s to deal with. This detracted from my ability to fully connect with her journey.

That said, it’s clear that this is a debut novel, and I think the author's writing will only improve from here. All in all, despite some character-related frustrations, the plot and hockey aspects were enjoyable, and I look forward to seeing how the author’s storytelling evolves in the future.