Name: In the Penalty Box
ISBN: 9781682815762

Kelly Anne Blount

Lynn Rush

The Cutting Edge meets Friday Night Lights in a sizzling new hockey romance from bestselling authors Kelly Anne Blount and Lynn Rush.

In the Penalty Box

Annabella

Lauren Sullivan

Content warnings: (view spoiler)[MC’s mother was killed by a drunk driver (before book starts), MC’s dad is verbally abusive and neglectful, misogyny and sexism, side character has an abusive father, underage alcohol use, side character is injured in a car accident by a drunk driver, suicidal ideation (from MC’s father) (hide spoiler)]

After being injured, Willow’s back home from her Olympic training program to finish her rehab as quickly as possible, even if that means sometimes sharing ice with the local high school hockey puckheads. When a goalie injury – and a stray puck – bring her to the hockey team captain’s attention, Willow suddenly finds herself spending time with Brodie and agreeing to act as his team’s goalie – just until she recovers enough to go back to training, of course. But as she spends more time with the team, and especially Brodie, she starts to love hockey, and, well, maybe Brodie, too. But any sort of relationship is against team rules, and she’s got her eyes on the Olympics anyway. What could possibly be worth losing that dream?

“Everything falls into place when I’m on the ice.” She straightened up a little, slowing the pace. “I can’t think clearly anywhere else.”
“Same,” I said.”

One of the things I loved about both Willow and Brodie was how much they loved their respective sports, and just being on the ice. Willow’s been focused on her ice skating career to the exclusion of everything else for years, and it’s a relief that her best friend from home is willing to forgive her for that. Willow initially joins the hockey team for the extra ice time and team workouts, both things that’ll help her recover more quickly so she can get back to ice skating. She’s a bit surprised how much she likes the teamwork aspect of hockey (minus some seriously misogynistic nonsense) as opposed to the mean girls aspect of figure skating. She’s definitely portrayed as “different from the other girls” – she’s not an ice princess like the other skaters Brodie has dated or that he’s used to encountering at the rink. While Willow’s dealing with conflicting feelings, Brodie’s also got a lot on his mind. His mom died two years ago and ever since then his dad has struggled with alcoholism. He’s been left to fend for himself and his eight year old brother, who has bad asthma, while at the same time being the hockey team captain. It’s lot on his shoulders, and I think that’s partly why he respects Willow’s own hard work and determination so much.

“Everything about us broke the rules, yet, while I skated on this uneven ice with the splash of the setting sun bouncing red rays of light through the air, everything about her felt right.”

Some of the book felt repetitive. Both Willow and Brodie are continuously reminding each other that it would be violating team rules to date, that Willow’s planning on leaving, that Brodie has enough on his plate, etc. It felt like they kept circling back to these issues without actually addressing them, and then they sort of ignored them because they couldn’t resist kissing each other.

And on top of that, there was just a bit too much going on – the family issues, the rival team player (this plot line sort of just fizzles out) – plus a large cast of characters. It never felt like there was enough time focused on any particular thing – we’re ricocheting between Willow’s failed attempt to date a rival team player to her friend back in Colorado getting hurt to Brodie’s issues with his dad to his little brother’s sickness to hiding their relationship from everyone to worrying about not hearing back from the Boston College coach to a teammate being a misogynistic idiot to… well, you get the idea. Honestly, most of my bookmarks weren’t for bits of dialog that I loved but for more things to add to the content warnings.

And I know this is some serious nitpicking, but it’s annoying that the book frequently refers to Willow’s long black hair which she usually wears down her back in braids (Brodie is really, really into it) while the cover model is a short-haired blonde.

Overall, I enjoyed the book – I love YA hockey books for whatever reason – but it felt a bit too jumbled for me.

I received an advance review copy of this book from NetGalley. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

Aundreya Rich

Takes a lot more than a little fall like that to knock me out of the game. Like Celine Dion says, my heart will go on." 

Willow Covington. Olympic Skater now injured and taken away from the dream that's been all she's known her whole life. Now she's back in her small town, spending every waking moment strengthening herself to return. Well... until the a hot gust of "Wind" about takes out her best friend with a puck. 


Brodie "Wind" Windom. Captain of the hockey team. Soon to be college hockey star (if the season goes right). But his dream might be taken away with an injured goalie and a second rate replacement... until he meets the gorgeous, blue eyed figure skater who might just be his ticket to gold, if he can convince her... and keep his hands to himself.
Oh... did I mention his is HAAAWWWWWWT?!?!?!


Now teammates, Brodie and Willow have a deal... to spend every moment they can training her to be goalie and also strengthening her for her skating career. By January, Willow might just be back in Denver with her team.

But "no fraternizing between teammates" may be the hardest part of it all.

The chemistry between these two were REAL, all consuming and sweet.
A great romance for all with its YA writing style. A puck head and an ice princess is just what I needed!

From sweaty practices to freezing on the ice I was HOOKED on these two.

My favorite part? The team. The games were epic, and watching them grow, cheer each other on, and find success had me smiling till the very end.


Read if you like:
-the cutting edge meets hockey hotties
-young love
-big dreamers
-young adult genre
- girl power!
-HEAs
Rating:
Story- ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️.5
romance- friends to lovers
steam-"pans slow camera down sweaty abs, and 4 scenes of mouth plundering?... ya that sums it up."


song: Oasis by Sam Smith

Izzy Bassett

Phenomenal read!! This book was amazing, such a unique and gripping story! I didn’t want to put it down. The two main characters Willow and Brodie will make you fall in love with them and hockey! 100% recommend, quickly became on of my favourite books! 🖤

Alicia Haws

3 STARS

This one was cute, but not necessarily my favorite. I really love a good sports romance, and I also really enjoy a YA with real-life issues. The problem for me was that this one just seemed SO jam-packed with drama that it ended up feeling pretty unrealistic in the end. I think I would have enjoyed it more if the drama was turned down just a notch.

Other than that though, I found it to be a cute story, and worth the read.

Many thanks to the publisher for the advanced copy. All opinions and thoughts are my own. 



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In the Penalty Box

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