Okay, I have to admit something: I absolutely despise hockey. This may not seem like a big deal to you, but I live in Michigan. Hockey is a state pastime here. What is even more confounding is that I've grown up in a house where hockey is nearly as sacred as God. All my brothers played, my parents are die hard Red Wings fans, and I've been to more hockey games than I can count. We have signed hockey sticks and Jerseys hanging in our basement. This is a hockey family, but somehow the gene skipped me.

That being said, I actually find hockey kind of hot in new adult novels. I guess it's because it eliminates everything I hated about going to my brothers' games: sitting in the cold for hours a time, being stuck in an arena when I'd rather be anywhere else, etc. In a book, it's just me sitting in my bed reading about very attractive men throwing it down on the ice. It's pretty easy to like in this format.

I actually think the hockey aspect added a star to my rating because I had trouble liking the characters. Danny, for her outside rebellious quirkiness, was pretty much a Mary Sue. She was too tragic and wholesome, and it made me want to throw up in my mouth a little bit. Ryan is your typical spoiled rich kid, and I didn't find much fire in him. I wasn't really interested in either Danny or Ryan individually so I had trouble being interested in them as a couple. I do think Emily's story has potential though. The supporting characters were a mixed bunch. Some were interesting (Emily, Paula) and others typical of the content (Angelica, Ryan's parents). It just wasn't anything unique, and if you're not going to be unique, you have to do ordinary extremely well. This was not extremely well down.

If you are very much into new adult, I guess you should give this a go, but there is really nothing new here. The genre itself has better stories.