Reviewed by Jess
TITLE: Shots on Goal
SERIES: Stick Side #3
AUTHOR: Amy Aislin
PUBLISHER: Self-published
LENGTH: 317 pages
RELEASE DATE: January 7, 2020
BLURB:
Recently traded to the newly formed Vermont Trailblazers, professional hockey player Roman Kinsey needs to focus on helping the team win games and filling the stands, not on the blond, bespectacled part-timer who works at the library he volunteers at. He knows all too well that outing himself equals heartache and ridicule…or worse.
Cody Evans, psych major and grad school hopeful, notices everything and thinks too much. But he doesn’t know what to think when he sees Roman reading to kids. The rugged hockey player just doesn’t look like the type. But it stirs something in him, something he’s never felt before.
When the library is threatened with closure, Cody enlists Roman’s help. As they get to know each other better…much, much better…they realize that they have more in common than books. But Roman’s keeping a big part of himself from his team, and giving in to his feelings for Cody might be more than he’s willing to risk.
REVIEW:
When given the opportunity to review this book, the third in Amy Aislin’s “Stick Side” hockey series, I was more than thrilled. These books are top-quality and always filled with amazing chemistry and unique dynamics between the characters. Though this one was a little slower for me, I still adored it, and I’m even more hyped to read more of the series—and of Aislin’s writing in general.
We’ve already met one of the main characters, Cody, in the previous two books. He’s the mellow, voice-of-reason best friend of Mitch, one of the mains in On the Ice. But until now, he’s been mostly an enigma—we always see something about him below the surface, something that makes him different from his outgoing best friend. With the focus turned to him, we learn he’s demisexual, has never been in love before, and that he’s living with the fear of abandonment after his dad’s long military career kept him away from home for most of his life. And he’s really not expecting to fall for Roman, the tattooed, facial-pierced bad boy who has just been signed to the Vermont Trailblazers, a new NHL team just getting their footing in the league.
Roman is dealing with his own demons, and he’s in no place to fall in love. He was cruelly outed to his teammates as a teen, and after a brief stint of homelessness, has vowed to never need or trust anyone again. His hard appearance and bristly demeanor keep most people away, but Cody sees right through his façade when Roman volunteers to read to kids at the local library Cody works at. When Cody finds out the little library may be in danger of closing, he and Roman team up to create more community involvement, which ties them both a place they never expected to love.
The romance between Cody and Roman is treacle-slow but never cloyingly sweet. They are both blunt, practical, and a little bit neurotic, though they’d never admit it, and though sometimes they struggle, they are always honest with each other. Everything develops slow and natural, letting us get to know them before the fireworks go off. They don’t even get their first kiss until over halfway through the book. We fall in love with them just as slowly as they do with each other—the shy glances, playful flirting, and not-dates shift steadily into something heavier, and we just fall harder. It helps that we know a lot of the characters already and see their interactions in the background, because it shows us what kind of world Cody and Roman inhabit and why they act the ways they do.
I do feel that the characters in previous books were a little more unique, a little more dynamic. Mitch was one of my favorite M/M protagonists of 2018, and I think the complicated chemistry between Ash and Dan in 2019’s The Nature of the Game was written with perfection. I didn’t have as much of a tight bond to these guys, but that may be due to their romance being a little softer, a little more low-key. There’s not a ton of drama that can’t be fixed with a good chat, and even side-plots, like Cody’s relationship with his dad and Roman’s reuniting with his former best friend, feel generally low-stakes. It’s still a great book, just one that drifts like a feather instead of sinking into you like a stone.
I really enjoyed this book, even if it didn’t grip me as hard as the first two. Aislin has built a really interesting cast of characters, and I hope she isn’t anywhere near finished with them. You definitely need to get started on this series if you haven’t already!
RATING: 
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