Florence .'s Reviews > Game Changer

1.5 stars

My rating for this book does not reflect my enjoyment of the entire book, but rather one plot point that I just didn’t like and that I think is problematic in the way it was shown.

This was a buddy read with my dear Candy, thank you for the moral support bestie, it really was needed for this one.

Brief summary
Kip works at a smoothie shop and Scott goes to get something there. Scott is a big time hockey player thats not having a good season. They end up falling in love but run into issues because Scott doesn’t want to come out and Kip does not feel comfortable hidding their relationship.

I will be honest, I was loving this book before the 71% mark. I was well on my way to a book I really loved. I was loving the banter, the super sweet romance, how everything was kind of awkward at first and then super sweet in their relationship and Scott, who is one of the best main character of all time and now a favourite of mine. Also the hockey parts were super lovely and as a hockey fan, I really appreciated them, a lot. And Scott’s teamates were such a good group of guys and I loved them.

But at 70%, they get into an argument because Kip wants Scott to come out and Scott does not want to. They go their separate way, but they are not broken up, they never say anything about being broken up, they just had a fight, but it wasn’t a break up. And after that, another guy kisses Kip and Kip kisses him back. They stop at that but considering that Scott and Kip hadn’t broken up, that is cheating. No amount of excuses and the fact that they had fought makes it any better to me, it’s still cheating in the situation they were in. Even if Kip stoped the kiss, he still kissed the other dude back. And then no one talked about it being cheating or anything, and Kip did not even tell Scott or apologize about it. Which really rubed me the wrong way, I just wish they talked about it atleast. It’s not a good sign if you’re hiding things like kissing someone else from your partner. But it was still cheating and I just cannot get behind a romance in which one of the character cheats because they get in a little fight. Expecially since they just got in a fight and hadn’t broken up. And it’s even worst for me if that character doesn’t tell his character what happened, I just cannot see a romance working with that event as a fundation.

Also, I didn’t like how it was Scott who had to apologize and come out to be with Kip (after Kip had pressured him into it) when in this situation, it was Kip was seemed to be in the wrong and should have been the one apologizing. I really don’t like the trope of the wrong person apologizing and I don’t like the pressuring someone into coming out thing, at all, so those parts didn’t work for me either.

There were many sweet scenes after that and I did really love the start of the book but sadly I just couldn’t enjoy the book knowing that one of the main character is ready to cheat on his partner any time they have a small disagreement.