It seems obvious to me that he’s on the autism spectrum. I’m perplexed at not seeing reviewers flag him as neurodivergent. Humorless, intense, easily angered (although he keeps it all inside), focused on hockey to the complete exclusion of anything else, unable to parse (and completely disinterested in) “normal” human social interaction, David is not your standard romance hero. Arm-chair psychologizing here - but wait, there’s more! I’ve only just begun. The urge to win over the one person who loathed him must have been irresistible. I decided it was the “always loved” thing combined with his innate competitive drive. One can’t help but wonder what Jake - upbeat, playful, unguarded, always loved - sees in him. So what we have here is a rivals-to-lovers story, but with only one side emotionally invested in the rivalry.ĭavid is both an unlikable and (at least initially) unsympathetic character.
One of them does not take kindly to coming in second place. They live up to their potential, so at the end of their first season they’re the two top candidates for the Calder (aka the rookie of the year award). The story starts with two 18-year olds heading to the NHL as the 1st and 2nd draft picks of their year.
It’s a romance, sure, but to me it felt like more of a character study. That will - understandably - be a dealbreaker for some readers.ģ. The POV character, David, is not likable. So the ending feels more like a convenient place to pause, rather than the wrap-up of a story arc.Ģ. It’s the first of a trilogy, from a story originally posted as a serial on AO3. So here’s some stuff I believe it would be useful to know about this book going in:ġ. Can’t keep sitting here with my mouth open like a landed fish. Maybe I’ll elaborate on why when the series is complete, but for now I stand by my original review, below. Let’s not call it an obsession, okay? “Intense attachment” is what I’m going with.
I’d be very hard pressed to pick a favorite couple from the author’s huge interconnected YCMAL universe, but let’s face it, if you held a gun to my head - no, if you simply scowled menacingly in my general direction - I’d ’fess up to having an extremely intense attachment to David and Jake. 2022 reread: I wasn’t expecting to read this again before the publication of books 2 & 3, but they’ve been pushed back and I was hit with an irresistible urge.
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