This one was just okay for me unfortunately. I couldn't connect to any of the characters. Maybe it just wasnt for me right now.

I love sports romances, but Shoot Your Shot fell flat for me. We have a professional hockey player MMC and and FMC whose dream it is to be a tattoo artist. I felt like there wasn’t a lot of growth between our main characters, and the insta-love trope isn’t my favorite.

I did find the stolen sign scene humorous. And there’s definitely some steamy scenes. But overall, this one won’t stick with me.

Thank you to Harlequin Audio, The Hive and NetGalley for the review copy!

Bold, empowering, and full of heart. Shoot Your Shot is a fierce reminder to go after what you want, on your own terms.

I was so fortunate to Listen to this on NetGalley also while following along on KU. I thought this was an easy read. I want to say I finished in two days. I thought the narrators, Jamal Roque and Kristen DiMercurio had great chemistry. This has anxiety representation in the book and I always appreciate that. Especially when the character doesn't know and is learning. I truly normalizes getting therapy and I really appreciated that. What was supposed to be a one night stand changes but completely on accident. I found myself laughing out loud at many parts.

This is a hockey romance and I always enjoy those. Lucy was so spunky and just trying to live her best life. She never expected to see Jaylen again and each time they continue to run into each other the interaction is just absolutely adorable. Overall I enjoyed this one quite much.

꧁𝓠𝓾𝓸𝓽𝓮𝓼꧂

💣 𝙄 𝙘𝙖𝙢𝙚 𝙤𝙪𝙩 𝙤𝙛 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙬𝙤𝙢𝙗 𝙥𝙧𝙤𝙜𝙧𝙖𝙢𝙢𝙚𝙙 𝙩𝙤 𝙙𝙚𝙨𝙩𝙧𝙪𝙘𝙩, 𝙩𝙧𝙞𝙥𝙥𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙤𝙫𝙚𝙧 𝙢𝙮 𝙛𝙚𝙚𝙩 𝙞𝙣 𝙖 𝙧𝙪𝙨𝙝 𝙩𝙤 𝙧𝙚𝙖𝙘𝙝 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙘𝙤𝙣𝙛𝙡𝙞𝙘𝙩.

😰 𝙄’𝙡𝙡 𝙙𝙚𝙖𝙡 𝙬𝙞𝙩𝙝 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙩𝙧𝙪𝙩𝙝 𝙬𝙝𝙚𝙣 𝙞𝙩 𝙗𝙚𝙘𝙤𝙢𝙚𝙨 𝙖 𝙧𝙚𝙖𝙡𝙞𝙩𝙮.

🙌 𝙒𝙚 𝙢𝙖𝙮 𝙠𝙣𝙤𝙬 𝙝𝙤𝙬 𝙩𝙤 𝙡𝙤𝙫𝙚 𝙚𝙖𝙘𝙝 𝙤𝙩𝙝𝙚𝙧, 𝙗𝙪𝙩 𝙩𝙝𝙖𝙩 𝙢𝙚𝙖𝙣𝙨 𝙬𝙚 𝙠𝙣𝙤𝙬 𝙝𝙤𝙬 𝙩𝙤 𝙝𝙪𝙧𝙩 𝙚𝙖𝙘𝙝 𝙤𝙩𝙝𝙚𝙧 𝙩𝙤𝙤.

I loved that the audio was dual narrated (and done well!!) and it's in first person pov which is my preferred book set up.
Overall I enjoyed it!

3.5 rounded up. The reviews on this one were so harsh! I’m a longtime pro hockey journalist and have followed Lexi LaFleur Brown on social for years. She strikes me as cool, smart and unafraid to speak her mind. I’ve noticed the recent influx in sports-themed contemporary romance, and I haven’t read any of them because, frankly, I figured the sports references would be off and I’d be annoyed. If that makes me sound like a snob, well.

As a hockey wife who has played the game herself, I knew Brown would get the hockey right and she does. But what I enjoyed most about this book were the personalities of the two main characters. Jaylen, a former first rounder trying to get his career back on track, has the purest golden retriever energy. Lucy, an aspiring tattoo artist who’s getting the runaround as she hopes to apprentice at her current shop, is a bisexual black cat with family issues.

These two meet and have what’s meant to be a one-night hookup, because Jaylen has just been released from his contract and is leaving town. But, surprise, he doesn’t leave town after all, they are forced into proximity as Lucy is hired to paint a mural at the arena in lieu of her jerk of a boss, and he finds she is a good luck charm whom he now obviously has to keep around. That premise, very true of hockey players who get into some elaborate and ridiculous superstitions, truly cracked me up. Along the way there is a cast of mostly forgettable side characters, from his team and her mostly LGBTQ friend group, Lucy dealing with her jerk boss and jerk father, and Jaylen coming to terms with longtime mental health issues that I truly appreciated seeing represented from an athlete character.

No closed-door romance here; the spicy scenes are direct. I had some minor quibbles, like I didn’t think Jaylen would really care to explain goalie interference passionately for an hour - but was so amused by Lucy still not bothering to know enough about hockey by the end to understand why Jaylen has grown a scruffy playoff beard, assuming that he is struggling and has let himself go. I appreciated that in her personality and how funny this often was.

This is a debut with a second book committed, and I’m here for Brown’s second “shot.” Thanks to #NetGalley and #HarlequinAudio for this one, out now!

A very special thank you to NetGalley and Harlequin Audio for an ALC.

I was thrilled to listen to Shoot Your Shot because I enjoy hockey romance novels and have read many of them. Regrettably, I found this one challenging. I managed to get through around 20% of the audiobook during my initial try but had to pause. After a month, I returned to the audiobook for another attempt, and this time I reached 35% before choosing to stop listening.

This was a good hockey romance book. It dove deep into the characters and their flaws. It had fun romcom moments. It included LGBTQ+ characters and tackled mental health. The main characters had a lot of personal growth. I enjoyed the narrators of the audiobook. I think it was really well done.

DNF’d at 54%

I REALLY tried to like this book. And I tried so hard to finish it… but the FMC is just so mean and annoying that it’s hard to get past it. I was very excited for this ARC bc I love hockey romances, but I think maybe my expectations were just too high for this one.

Shoot Your Shot was an audio I was looking forward to reading, especially as Lexi LaFleur Brown's husband is an NFL player. Yet, at around that 17% mark, I was cringing at the dialogue that was supposed to be "banter" and wasn't a fan of either character. I chose to "not finish" this audio.

I enjoyed this audiobook. It was a quick, easy listen and I thought the narrators did a good job. There was no really drama, everything was resolved relatively quickly except towards the end. I wasn't thrilled about how Lucy handled the situation but did remind myself that she's still relatively young and had never been in a serious relationship before. I did enjoy the author's writing and plan to read/listen to more of her books.

I received this audio after the book was published so I did immersive reading! It was a delight! I also am a titkok fan of Lexi so it was fun to see her personality shine through, I wish more authors would be so active on social media! I will say it heightened my experience. I will say I did not feel an emotional connection between the characters, attraction yes, but I wish I could have felt deeper emotions. More tension & longing would have put this book in a top tier category for me!

I have been waiting to read this and I’m here to say it’s worth the wait! I loved this story and it was perfectly spicy. I loved that it was diverse. The plot was addicting and I didn’t want to stop listening.

Plus the narrators were perfect!

Thank you to Harlequin Audio and NetGalley for this arc!

I enjoyed listening to this book it's about a hockey romance. I liked having Jaylen's POV and hearing how he struggles with mental health and him coming to terms with it. Also, Lucy's struggle with family and learning that she deserves love was great! It was an easy listen it did get a little slow at time, but I enjoyed it.

I have never read anything by this author, but I will be looking out for other books they write in the future. I really enjoyed the story as well as the pacing of the story.

2.5 stars — and I’m rounding down because the audiobook made it worse
Huge thanks to Harlequin Audio for the ALC via NetGalley 💌

Premise? Ex-hockey golden boy Jaylen “JJ” Jones has one last shot at making it to the NHL, and he’s convinced a one-night stand with a grumpy, tattoo-loving stranger named Lucy is the reason for his sudden good luck. So… he pays her to keep texting him before games. She agrees (??) because she’s stuck in life and could use the money and tattoo practice. Obviously, they catch feels. Obviously, it gets messy.

Okay but… whew.
This book was like if you took all the popular tropes, shoved them in a blender, and forgot to season it.

Let’s get into it.

JJ = golden retriever energy but no spine.
Lucy = black cat but with the charm of a wet napkin.

This book should’ve been a whole vibe… but it was just... vibes-less.

The tropes were trooping but with no depth:
✧ Grumpy x sunshine
✧ He falls first
✧ Forced proximity
✧ Relationship of convenience
✧ Golden retriever hero x emotionally unavailable heroine
But it felt like ✨tropes for the sake of tropes✨ — no actual connection.

Lucy?? Girl was trying to be edgy but it came off more like “pick me but make it nihilist.” Her whole personality was “I have walls up” and “I do tattoos” and “I don’t do feelings”… okay? and???
JJ?? Bro needed a personality. Being nice isn’t a personality. He was just kinda… there. Like a walking therapy blanket. No tension. No fire. No real chemistry. I wanted to shake them both.

And let’s talk about the writing.
Y’all.
It felt like fanfic written during lunch break.
Tell, don’t show. Awkward dialogue. Way too much inner monologue and not enough actual relationship building.
Every scene was like: he says something → she rolls her eyes → they kiss → end scene. Repeat.

The audio??
The narration just made Lucy even more annoying and JJ even more bland. I ended up listening at 2x speed just to get through it.

There were moments where I smiled, sure. A couple decent lines, some good banter here and there. And the hockey stuff? Dead accurate. You can tell Lexi knows her game.
But a romance novel needs more than a strong slapshot. Give me the angst. The tension. The depth. Not just “you’re hot, let’s kiss” and a bunch of quirky side characters that feel like they were grown in a lab for TikTok approval.

In short:
Good hockey.
Flat romance.
Bland writing.
Forgettable characters.
Too many pop culture references.
And smut that read like IKEA instructions.

Wouldn’t reread. Wouldn’t recommend.

I wanted to like this book more than I did. I love the story set up as an idea, I love the concept, and I love the pieces, but it does not seem to fit together. I feel like the book could have benefited from some development work to link the pieces together better. I also felt like there was a lot of being told what happened instead of being shown what happened.

There were some great pieces in the book, and I loved the accuracy and inclusion of hockey details. Part of the book they are in game seven of playoffs, and I read this as the record setting games sevens between the Avalanche and Stars and Blues and Jets happened, so that was really cool.

If she writes another book I will pick it up because I felt like this one had potential.

Shoot Your Shot is a cute, easy to read, hockey romance. Overall, I enjoyed reading this book, though the first few chapters felt like a major slog to get through. I started and stopped this book several times before finally getting to the point where I was engrossed enough to finish. I did end up liking the book, but it felt a little off at points. It also gave me a little bit of anxiety as to how the main character was treated at some points.

I received a copy of this book from netgalley in exchange for an honest and fair review.

I thoroughly appreciated this experience. It was distinctively quirky while addressing significant themes. The chemistry between the characters was invigorating, and I found their clumsy interactions delightful, often making me giggle. Lucy was an entertaining character with a personality I resonated with. Jayden a golden retriever, seemed like an ideal match for Lucy. Additionally, the audiobook served as an excellent remedy for my reading slump.

2 stars⭐️

I really wanted to like this book because it had a decent plot judging by it's description. Upon listening to it, this book felt very much like a wattpad story, and I wasn't really a fan of either of the main characters. In fact, the FMC felt like a bully at times, but I did admire her dedication to her career. One of the FMC's best friend made too many innuendos while the other best friend had a lot of unexplored potential as a character. Although the book did discuss his mental health journey, besides that the MMC felt like he lacked depth.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publishers for the audiobook arc.