ˏˋ°•*⁀➷ 0.5/5

sighs why do I even try?

Hopefully, I won't hit the character count with how much I need to yap about all of this. I think this is my longest review till date and my fingers are about to fall off because of how much I typed.

Also, where should I even start? I have so much I need to say, but I guess I'll talk about the characters first and then talk about the plot.

First up, we have our "beloved" mmc.

Aiden Crawford. He's your basic college "fuckboy" hockey captain.

I would like to start this off by saying that I have some leftover ptsd from a male character with the name Aiden iykyk, so we definitely didn't have the best start and then it went downhill.

Anyways, his pov opens up with him in bed with another woman because of course that's how you get the ladies to fall over their tits for you. In my very honest opinion, whoever first introduced the idea of a hoe for a male lead needs to come and justify why that was a good idea because why is it so mainstream right now? Every other book, especially hockey romance has a hoe for a male lead.

I mean, no hate to you if you want to be a hoe, but like seriously? And why are all these women so interested in them. Are they not scared of contracting anything from him? The way they all take his word for it when he's like "I'm clean"? I would be repulsed if a guy like Aiden was in my vicinity. You would not catch me being attracted to someone like that.

If you are trying to convince me to like a male lead, 9 times out of 10 having a woman in bed with him when his chapter opens up is not going to impress me. I say 9 times out of 10 only because it didn't bother me the first couple of times since I thought it was a one-off. However, I'm tired of that dynamic and characterization where the male lead fucks everything and anything until he meets his female lead and suddenly becomes obsessed with the blandest female. I am absolutely abhorrently disgusted with men like that.

Also, it kind of gives off the wrong image. Like, I mean of course we're supposed to be separating fiction from reality, but there are people out there that might still get influenced by this. Imagine trying to fix a fuckboy in real life because you saw the female lead do it in your favorite book? I really hope people don't actually try that, but you can never be so sure. Although, I also have to say that in Aiden's case, his fuckboy image seems super forced. Given the rest of his personality, it didn't really mesh well with it. It was like he was marketed as one just for the sake of it. I don't really know how to explain it, but it was like him being a manwhore had to be shown and said way more than it needed to. The fact that he was a complete simp later kind of added to that.

You would have thought once would have been enough to establish that he's a manwhore, but then you also have that scene where there was a naked girl with whipped cream in his bed even after he met the female lead...and it was like the fuck was I a witness to? I'm not saying he needs to be obsessed with the female lead from the start, but like we also didn't have to see all that. It's not something quirky or funny. It's just gross and icky. How am I even supposed to have positive thoughts about him? Not that I would because no thanks, I'm good.

Anyways, his manwhore thing aside, like I said above, he's just like every other college hockey player. To prove my point, let's run down the list shall we?

Lives in a hockey house ✔︎

Fuckboy ✔︎

Dreams of being in the NHL (duh) ✔︎

Basically insults the female lead in their first meeting ✔︎

Loves to party ✔︎

Has a group of 4-5 friends who will also eventually get their own story ✔︎

oh and bonus for these next few because these happen at least once in hockey romance series:

Opening scene with a random woman ✔︎

Captain of the team ✔︎

Signed to an NHL team by the start of the book ✔︎

Weirdest Golden Retriever Energy ✔︎

Acts like a fuckboy but is kind of deep with the female lead from the start ✔︎

Some trauma related to his parents ✔︎

Essentially, Aiden Crawford is a mix of Garret Graham from The Deal and Nathan whatever his last name is (I would like to say it's Hawkins, but don't quote me) from Icebreaker. I didn't like either of those male leads, so it might not be a surprise that I didn't like Aiden either (don't look at my review for The Deal cause my opinions have changed and I just haven't gotten around to fixing that review).

The point that I lost it with him was the line below.

"It’s going to be because you know the only guy that can satisfy you is me."

“Just so you know, you’re ruining my hair-wash schedule.”

“I have five, ten, and twenty-year plans.”

“Summer. Like the season.”

We stopped at an Indian place by Dalton that Aiden swore had the best butter chicken.

i’m sorry but i truly do not think i can say one positive thing about this disjointed mismatch of plotless chapters that somehow can be labeled a “book”

DNF at 46%
Hated the characters and couldn't understand how Aiden was so obsessed with Summer after meeting her once.