panThis was the worst book I've read in this series. It wasn't a cohesive book, it was a series of one shots with no tension and no meaningful payoff.
It's very clear that Rachel Reid has a favourite character. Ilya is afforded a level of compassion and grace that Shane is not. Ilya‘s mental health struggles are approached respectfully. Shane's disordered eating is treated as a joke (and magically goes away when they are outed)
⬇️
pickI loved Heated Rivalry and somehow was not prepared to once again be blown away by The Long Game! Ilya and Shane are just chef kiss perfection 😍 and my boy llya is going into the hall of fame of book boyfriends🙌🏾 I adored so many elements in this book but my top was llya relationship with Yuna and David. It was just so sweet seeing him welcomed as second son❤️ I‘m obsessed and will be patiently waiting for season 2.⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
pickThis was so so good 🥹 I couldn‘t put it down! Ilya and Shane went through so much together, and you could see a lot of growth in their relationship. Ilya is sick of hiding, and he feels isolated with no one to talk to about being in a secret relationship with his rival. To make things worse, Shane doesn‘t seem to get it. What will matter more, them or hockey? I loved how many more side characters were in this one from the series ♥️🏒
Presenting all my new-to-me 5-star reads of 2022! (I never count rereads on Best Of lists, or Tamsyn Muir‘s GIDEON THE NINTH would be here too. I loved that book SO MUCH MORE the second time through.)
While I‘m incoherent with love for each of these, I‘ve got a clear tie for first place: the tagged book and THE DEVIL COMES COURTING by Courtney Milan. They both blew me away and keep popping back into my head weeks and months later. #bestof2022
I had another hefty reading month, thanks in large part to yesterday‘s Readathon. More importantly, I read SO MUCH GREAT STUFF, including a whopping 3 new-to-me 5-star reads! Along with the tagged book (which I still can‘t stop thinking about), I adored THE INVISIBLE LIFE OF ADDIE LARUE by V.E. Schwab and RUN TOWARDS THE DANGER by Sarah Polley.
pickThe TL;DR version: I LOVE THIS BOOK SO MUCH, Y‘ALL. SO. MUCH. 5 STARS
The long version:
This is a direct sequel to HEATED RIVALRY. You should start there, and I‘d urge you to pick up ROLE MODEL, too, since the timelines overlap in some cool ways.
Once you‘re prepped and ready: THIS BOOK.
I‘ve thought of it constantly since I finished it. I love these characters so, so much, and I wanted so, so much for them, and Rachel Reid delivered. ⬇️
This is the view out my window. I feel totally justified in my choice to read all morning.
I also feel like I‘ve lived a whole life in the last couple hours, because that‘s how much THE LONG GAME consumed me. There‘s this bit with some Funko Pops, right? And I started crying there, and I barely stopped until the book ended. Direct romance sequels can sometimes feel redundant, but this one earns its place on the shelf.
I may or may not have downloaded my ARC of THE LONG GAME three separate times, far apart, in the hopes they added the actual cover to the file so I could make prettier social media posts. Alas, no joy.
THE BOOK, THOUGH. I stayed up until 1:00 with it, turned out the light, then picked my ereader up again and read another big chunk. I have many emotions and no idea how I‘m gonna condense them all into a proper review. Maybe I‘ll just shout a lot.
The Long Game | 
