Title: Goal Lines & First Times (CU Hockey #3)
Author: Eden Finley & Saxon James
Genre: Romance
Publisher: Amazon/Self
Heat: 3 Flames
Rating: 3 Hearts
Synopsis via Goodreads:
COHEN
It turns out making out with my best friend in high school could be considered gay. Who knew? Apparently, everyone but me.
Now that it’s been pointed out, I can’t help reliving it in my head. Repeatedly. Goodbye Denial Town, hello Confusionville.
When my path leads me down the gay dating app route, I don’t expect to meet anyone I like, but then I meet him.
He can’t be more opposite than me. He’s smart, he hates hockey, and he identifies as demi—something I’ve never heard of.
Yet I can’t deny something’s there. Something I want to explore in person. If only I could get him to agree.
SETH
All my life, I’ve felt broken.
Sick of being asked if I could be gay by ex-girlfriends, friends, and even my parents, I join a gay dating app to prove a point.
I don’t expect to find what’s always been missing. A real connection.
The problem is, I’m too scared to meet him in person. He’s a hockey player, and I fear when he finds out my twin plays for the NHL, I’ll be overshadowed by my overachieving brother. Again.
Worse yet, what happens if we meet and that connection isn’t the same?
When I tell him I’m not ready, he’s disappointed but supportive. Fate, on the other hand, isn’t as accepting.
I had no idea the person I’ve been falling for is someone I already know.
Review: I think I have had my fill of this series for a bit. I did like this one, but I’m getting a bit tired of it to be honest and the rating likely reflects that. I think, if I came into this book after some time and other books between the two previous ones, I probably would have enjoyed it more. As it stands now, this book is more or less following the same basic formula as its predecessors and I’ve grown somewhat bored. The fact that I still feel something for these characters is saying something. So with that caveat, I would easily still read these stories, but I would put several in between them so you do not suffer the same fate. This will likely be the last one for me in this series for a while.
That said, I did enjoy it. I liked getting to know Cohen. To be fair, in the first two books I didn’t really care for him all that much. The authors were able to turn that around so that he became more rounded and likable as a character rather than just the butt of the team’s jokes. In this book, he becomes much more sympathetic because you get to see behind the veil. He is such a patient and kind man here, giving as much time to Seth as he needs to figure things out. They spend the first 40-50% of the book texting through a dating app, so it does take a bit to get to the point where they actually figure out who each other is and finally meet. This could have also contributed to my lackluster rating.
Seth is still up in the air for me. I didn’t hate him, but I didn’t love him either. I did feel for him though and respected him for his journey to identify his sexuality after many failed relationships.
I still hate these covers, but I enjoyed the books up to this point in the series and I recommend you give them a shot if you’re in the mood for some hockey. Who doesn’t love hot hockey players?
Purchase Link | Amazon
This series is available on Kindle Unlimited.
