this was such a fun lil taboo age gap!! i really enjoyed how the narrators brought this story to life, they did a wonderful job with the theatrics that came with bishop & valors relationship!

im not exactly sure what if anything i was expecting going into this book but it turned out to be everything and more, i cannot wait to continue this series 🤭

Unfortunately, this one just wasn’t for me. It had all the things I usually love—hockey, romance, drama—but the way they came together just didn’t click.

I found Valor really hard to connect with, and while Bishop never stopped telling us how amazing she was, the story itself never gave me much reason to believe it. The romance was also a big stumbling block. Age gaps in romance don’t usually bother me, but the way this one was framed made me really uncomfortable. They meet when she’s 10 and he’s 18, and their relationship turns romantic when she’s 17 and he’s 25. That dynamic just felt unsettling and made it hard to root for them.

On top of that, the writing style leaned so heavily on telling instead of showing. It often felt like I was being given summaries of what had happened rather than being pulled into the actual scenes, and the flowery language weighed it down even more. I kept wishing for more immersive, active storytelling.

I can absolutely appreciate what the author was trying to do here, and I know there are readers who will connect with this story much more than I did. For me, it just missed the mark—but if you don’t mind an exposition-heavy style and the age gap dynamic doesn’t bother you, you may still find a lot to enjoy.