Save the Game: SCU Hockey, Book 2

This book made me cry, gave me hope, had me grinning, wish I was Luke's fists, and left me happy. JJ Mulder has a magical way of reaching out and gripping your emotions, attention, and stealing your heart with her writing. I read this series backwards, but that's my normal routine it seems—find a new author, but only when they release book three of a series. But the things with her books are that you can read them in any order and enjoy them. It all boils down to your preferences. I love getting to go back and learn about side characters I met as couples in a book that came after their's. Romances have HEAs. There is no spoiling happening if you keep that in mind, but that's my opinion. Another thing I enjoy about her writing is that even though the book ends, you learn more about the couple in future books when you get glimpses of them. Both her first series and this one are set on the same timeline, so one flows into the other, with exception of Offsides book 4. It was written after this book, But I digress... I love knowing we get to continue to learn more about her characters in each book. It's like an extended epilogue, essentially. If you love heartfelt stories, strong character development, engaging characters, and finishing a book with a huge-aXX grin on your face, this book is for you.

I was gonna give this 5 stars but it ends so abruptly, I’ve read from other reviews that this author doesn’t know how to end books and I definitely have to agree.

This book is a lot different from the other books written by J.J. Mulder. The tone and theme is much darker and sad. Where as the other four have been fairly light and sweet with low-stakes, low-angst and fairly little drama. That is not this book. This book revolves almost solely on the SA of one of the main characters and its ramifications on his life. The topic is so heavy and there is very little hockey shown or mentioned. That being said it is still very good. But I would not recommend it to anyone who has experienced any type of SA as it can be very triggering. Things are said in great detail. I also would not reread this one. Because I don't really like to read sad themes in general. My favorite part of this book was the couple cameos from the previous two books. It was nice to see what the other couples were up to. ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ of 5 overall 🌶🌶.5 of 5 for spice 🧁🧁 of 5 for sweetness 🚫☕ - nothing in this book would be considered cozy to me