This was a good story. If you like hockey romances, then you’ll enjoy it. I do love a good hockey romance, however, I had a hard time rooting for our main characters. They were just ok in my opinion. To me, they were both just a bit too wedged into their personalities. It wasn’t that they were horrible people, but they weren’t entirely likable either.
The audiobook narrators tried to give the characters a bit more life, and succeeded to a point, however, it didn’t quite work.
**Thank you Netgalley**

I struggled with this book. Listening to the male narrator was difficult. I did not enjoy his voice.
The writing felt very adolescent. I do understand that this is the author’s first novel, and if I remember correctly, she was writing this because she’s a hockey wife and wanted a more “accurate” description of hockey in a romance book. Here’s my hot take on that, as an avid hockey fan and reader, I am ok with my hockey romance books not being 100% accurate as long as the writing is good and I don’t dread picking it up. This book unfortunately was a no for me.

I received an ARC audiobook of Shoot Your Shot by Lexi LaFleur Brown, and unfortunately, it just didn’t work for me.

There’s a lot happening in this book, but none of it really comes together in a satisfying way. The writing leans too much on telling instead of showing, which makes the clichés even harder to overlook. Lucy is frustrating, JJ has no backbone, and their relationship lacks the emotional depth needed to make it feel real. The pacing is inconsistent—some issues are dragged out unnecessarily, while others are wrapped up too easily. I kept hoping for things to improve, but instead, I found myself more and more disconnected.

The one highlight was the hockey. The details were clearly well-researched and felt authentic. But at the end of the day, I’d rather read a hockey romance by someone who understands how to craft compelling characters and relationships rather than one that just gets the sport right.

First off, I didn’t even know it was a tiktok star until i read someone’s reviews… and it’s Based on her relationship with her hockey husband?? Woah.

Now on to the actual story. It was just eh for me. Their start was very quick and more about lust.

I did like all the hockey and the artist talk but it just felt mostly about sex with some little things mixed in.

Thank you @htpbooks and @netgalley for the audiobook in exchange for my honest review

I loved this audio book - the characters voices were so good and exactly how I saw them (if that makes sense for an audio book). I loved the fact that Jaylen wasn't always the overly confident macho superstar hockey player. And I loved how Lucy was such a spitfire but also just a mess. They brought out the best in each other and their banter was wonderful.

A fun hockey romance to add to the list of other hockey romances out there. It's tough competition but this one is one I would recommend as a palette cleanser. I think Lexi was a breath of fresh air in her style of writing and her characters were something totally new to me. I enjoyed her pacing a lot. Narrated by completely new to me narrators but I did not mind them at all. I really enjoyed hearing new voices that allowed me to really let them belong to these characters.

I enjoyed this one a lot more than I thought I would. I don't usually read hockey romances but an IR romance written by a Hockey WAG peaked my interest. The pacing for the most part was good and I liked that although their relationship started as a one night stand it developed beyond the physical to the point where that wasn't a main focus. It took awhile for Lucy to open up but I liked that she and Jalen were able to be open and honest with each other.

With the amount of hockey romance out there, I’m not sure what compelled me to pick this one, but I’m glad I did! It was a cute story.

JJ’s hockey career is almost over when he has a one night thing with Lucy. He failed to secure a new contract with the Seattle Rainiers. But after his night with Lucy, things seems to turn around. He gets a call from his agent that someone on the team is hurt and they actually do want JJ. He plays that night and has one of his best games of his life. In fact every time he talks to Lucy, he plays amazing. Is Lucy his good luck charm?

Lucy is an aspiring tattoo artist who is looking for an apprenticeship. She agrees to keep in contact with JJ in exchange for some tattooing practice for her portfolio. They are kind of an opposites attract- he’s athletic and sport, she’s tatted and artsy. But they have a great connection. Lucy also turns her art career into painting murals at the Rainiers stadium.

There’s great representation in this book- JJ is a Black hockey player who went first in the NHL draft and has struggled with his mental health after his childhood friend turned to drugs and passes away. Lucy is bisexual and also has some issues with her alcoholic father, who ruined her art showcase in college and has caused her to turn away from her passion.

I liked JJ a lot- he’s open and honest and seems to really like Lucy, despite his lucky charm start. Lucy is very in her own head and picks fights with JJ that are one sided. This book has just the right amount of steam for me.

The author is a hockey player herself turned into a hockey influencer personality. This is her debut novel.

I loved the narrators!! They captured the characters' voices perfectly. The book was an okay debut, but I think I went into it with my expectations too high. I felt like it was trying so hard to be self aware that it fell off the deep end into near satire. Every gay character felt like a caricature of harmful stereotypes, and not in a tongue-in-cheek way. The writing style was frustrating in that Lexi would start showing us something about her characters only to go off on an internal monologue that bordered on a lecture about whatever she wanted readers to understand, rather than trusting us to extrapolate that information for ourselves. I wanted more from this.

What you get in Shoot Your Shot: Opposites attract, Sports romance, LGBTQ+, Dual POV romance. The hockey knowledge and references were the true shining star of this book for me. As a hockey fan, this was my absolute favorite part. The cast of the book is strong, funny, and diverse and I appreciate that both main characters undergo significant personal growth over the course of the book.
Unfortunately, I just felt like the chemistry between the main characters was lacking, which lost stars for me. Sure, I like them together, but it didn’t have that tension and spark that makes a romance stick out for me.
The narration for the audiobook was great. I love the dual POV narration and it included one of my favorite audiobook voices, so that was a definite hit for me.
This was good, but not great for me – enjoyable but lacking a spark.

This was fine but nothing special which was disappointing since I expected the author, who lives this life would have more.

I both read and listened to this book story wise it was a great debut novel. As an audiobook I loved that the voice actors matched the ethnicity of the characters. I wish this would have been a duet though as sometimes the voices took me out of the moment when they flipped into the other characters voices

Thank you to HTP Books, HTP Hive, and Harlequin Audio for the free book and advanced listener copy. These opinions are my own.

This is an opposites attract hockey romance. Lucy is an aspiring tattoo artist who doesn't follow sports. Jaylen is a hockey player trying to get back to the potential he had as a rookie. He's really superstitious and decides chatting with Lucy is his good luck charm for playing well.

I really liked the funny snark from Lucy's POV. I appreciated the queer representation throughout the book. And I found the storyline with her father quite interesting. For Jaylen, I enjoyed seeing his striving and relationship with his teammates. But I wanted more from the romance between the two.

Kristen DiMercurio and Jamal Roque narrated the audiobook. I would have preferred duet narration, as neither narrator did a great job matching the other character's voice.

3.5 stars rounded up

I really enjoyed the narrators of this audiobook. They kept me listening to the story. Overall, I felt like the FMC came across as whiny and I had trouble liking her character at all. This was a meh read.

This book just didn't pull me in, but it had potential. The narrators were ok, I don't think they were the issue. I think it was my mood reading just didn't click this time. Hockey romance fans would probably like it though, so don't let me stop you.

all the hockey was great. lots of hockey terminology. the story was a bit lacking. black cat meets a golden retriever, who is diagnosed with anxiety and panic attacks.

audio: new to me narrators and I actually really enjoyed them. They gave this story more life.

If you’re looking for a funny, campy book that hits all the right notes, this one is for you. Would recommend for anyone who needs a palette cleanser and loves hockey.

This was a cute read and I enjoyed the dual narration. It was definitely black cat x golden retriever coded, and Lucy’s hard edges were derived from daddy issues. In her defense though, her dad really did suck, and was mainly out the picture. But she never got rid of that feeling of not being good enough until she really started working on herself towards the end.
Meanwhile Jaylen is very loving but also has his own issues, which he didn’t even realize. For example, he didn’t realize what he was having was panic attacks and depression and he needed therapy. But he did the work, and it also helped him on his hockey game.
It was a bit of forced proximity too, as after their initial fun night together, Lucy was only back in the picture because she needed to paint a mural at the arena. Then Jaylen would request a “fix” that was needed on the mural to keep her around. Then after that, he convinced her to stick around as his good luck charm. The ice around Lucy’s heart began to thaw, but once it was basically fully defrosted, she panicked.
She had some self reflecting to do— Jaylen loved her enough though to wait.

Thank you Harlequin Audio for the listen!

Thank you to Harlequin Audio and Netgalley for this audio of shoot your shot. I thought this was a cute rom com sports romance. I enjoyed it more than I thought I would. I would recommend this on audio.

I read a lot of hockey romance. A lot. So when I say I wanted to love this book, I really did. Unfortunately, it was a bit of a miss. The chemistry wasn’t quite there for and the writing wasn’t to my taste. I just couldn’t connect with the characters like I hoped. A good reminder that not every book is for everyone and this was just not for me. I do think it will be a big hit with many. I also appreciate that the hockey elements were likely the most accurate I’ve read which was fun. I will definitely check out future titles from this author.

🎧 The narration was great and the main reason I continued to listen.