Reviewed by Larissa
TITLE: Star of the Game
SERIES: Stick Side, Book 6
AUTHOR: Amy Aislin
PUBLISHER: Self-published
LENGTH: 352 pages
RELEASE DATE: December 27, 2022
BLURB:
Felix only wants two things:
- To make music.
- His best friend, Emery.
But he’s not willing to risk two decades of friendship for something more. Besides, a bout of writer’s block is preventing him from creating new material, and he’s got deadlines to meet. He doesn’t need any distractions—and Emery is the biggest distraction of all.
Emery only wants two things:
- To play hockey.
- His best friend, Felix.
He’s ready to risk it all for a shot at being together. While he should be concentrating on playing his best hockey so his team will grant him a contract extension, there’s no reason he can’t multitask.
With their careers at a crossroads, the timing for romance couldn’t be worse—but when Felix is forced to move in with Emery, will Emery finally convince him to take a chance at becoming the stars of their own game?
REVIEW:
Star of the Game, the sixth book in Amy Aislin’s hockey-based MM romance Stick Side series, loosely spins off the fifth book, Two Man Team. You don’t need to read Two Man Team first; however, Star of the Game ties in with the TMT characters. Star of the Game stars Felix Bonenfant, aka Tenor Jones, superstar singer/songwriter, and NHL hockey star Emery Stanton, the older brother of NHL player Rory Stanton, who is one-half of the couple featured in TMT. Felix, Emery, and NHL hockey star Kris Xappa (Rory’s love interest in TMT) are longtime best friends, and Two-Man Team alludes to the longtime crush harbored by Felix for Emery.
Star of the Game tells the best friends-to-lovers romance of Felix and Emery, and like the other books in this series, it’s a sweet, low-angst story with a likable couple and a solid found family dynamic. It’s an easy, low-steam read and enjoyable, albeit unremarkable. There’s nothing wrong with the story or the writing per se. Aislin knows how to construct a story and create endearing characters. However, it’s easier to engage with her romances when rooted in a larger context, like hockey drama or on-ice action. Unfortunately, as we’ve gone deeper into the series, the connection to hockey has grown more attenuated, and Aislin hasn’t added enough content external to the relationship to take its place. Aislin did include a mental health subplot here, which I appreciated, but I would have liked more angst with it to give it more teeth. YMMV.
My notes about slow pacing and lack of emotional dynamics in TMT persist here. Additionally, the friends-to-lovers progression is very “tropey”, which perhaps is unfair to complain about since friends-to-lovers is intended as a trope, after all. But here, it feels like a trite telling of that trope, pretty “textbook” without much variety to set it apart from the many, many other friends-to-lovers romances out there. The inclusion of the roommates/forced proximity overlay didn’t add much.
Overall, the friendship and camaraderie of the found family of the various hockey player couples across the series have brought me back to Aislin’s series repeatedly. Star of the Game includes that, but the rest of the story didn’t engage me as I had hoped. TL;DR: While not the strongest book in this series, Star of the Game is an enjoyable read with a solid HEA in a colorful sports universe. It’s worth a read if you’ve read the other stories in this series.
RATING: 
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