Reviewed by Sadonna
TITLE: All Hail the Underdogs
SERIES: Breakaway
AUTHOR: E.L. Massey
PUBLISHER: NineStar Press
LENGTH: 347 pages
RELEASE DATE: August 25, 2023
BLURB:
When seventeen-year-old Patrick Roman is offered a scholarship to a top hockey preparatory school, he thinks maybe his notorious bad luck has finally ended. With a hearing for his legal emancipation on the horizon, he dreams of getting scouted and securing a place on a D1 college team. There’s only one problem: Roman has serious beef with his new winger on the team, Damien Bordeaux. They’re supposed to be perfectly in sync on the ice. But Roman, with his buzzcut and tattoos, has nothing in common with trust-fund-kid Damien, his floral scrunchies, and designer T-shirts that cost more than all of Roman’s secondhand hockey gear combined.
When eighteen-year-old Damien Bordeaux starts his senior year, he tells himself he’s going to focus on hockey and school. No more making out in the stacks, no more dorm parties. He needs to decide what his future will look like. Does he pursue his long-held dream of becoming an author? Or stay in his lane and do what he’s good at: hockey. Regardless, he’s not going to let any pretty boys distract him from figuring his shit out. Except his new center, Roman, is possibly the most beautiful boy Damien has ever seen. And his hockey—the way he moves on the ice—might be even more beautiful. Too bad he’s also probably a homophobic, racist asshole.
But their antagonistic beginning turns into an unlikely friendship and then turns into something much scarier for them both. Navigating relationships is hard enough for normal teenagers. It’s a lot harder when contending with lawyers, NHL scouts, and mutual past trauma. Roman and Damien have to decide: What do they really want in life? Are they willing to fight for each other—including fighting against their own pasts and prejudices—so they can have a happy ending?
REVIEW:
Patrick Roman, aka Rome, has busted his but to get himself into a position to make a life for himself outside of his small Maine fishing town. He’s a hockey star and he manages to get into a prep school and hopefully get a scholarship to college or maybe, just maybe get drafted into the NHL. He has no idea how to behave around the other students or his teammates, but he needs to make this work. He’s got a lot of catching up to do from a schoolwork perspective as well, so he works hard at school and at hockey. He’s even got a side job at a garage – because he’s about to be emancipated as well if all goes well.
Damien Bordeaux, teammate and extremely wealthy student doesn’t get Rome at all. He’s a hard worker, but he’s also kind of an asshole. It takes some time for them to figure out that Rome isn’t necessarily trying to be an asshole. He’s never had anything. When the team realizes what Rome has dealt with, well things change. When Rome ends up spending Christmas in New York with him and then meets his family in Maine, well their relationship changes.
Damien and Olly and the rest of the guys? They have Rome’s back too. Damien is trying to figure things out too. It takes Rome some time to understand that even though Damien has money and parents, he’s insecure in a lot of ways as well. They have to learn how to talk to each other when they are both really scared about what is happening between them. Love is scary. But maybe if they are in it together, it doesn’t have to be?
Wow! This is definitely one of the best books I’ve read this year. I haven’t read this author before and I didn’t read the earlier books in this series, but I’m going to get right on that. Truly a beautifully written story that I can’t imagine how it could have been better. Writing teenage characters is really such a delicate balance and I am not sure I’ve read many books that have done a better job conveying that difficult transition between childhood/adulthood than this. Absolutely brilliant. There are so many issues that are covered in this book and I really admire how deftly they were handled. Rome has a LOT of baggage and he really struggles with communication. Damien and Rome both are dealing with something very new to them. Rome has no experience with unconditional love – well at least not since he was a small child. He’s also had a homophobic parent and hasn’t ever acted on his attraction to boys. Damien is struggling with his place in the world in a totally different way and they are trying to find their way together.
Everything about this story felt authentic. The voices of all the characters were so perfectly rendered – the dialog, the big feelings, the chest crushing inability to voice those feelings, the uncertainty. All of it was just so gorgeous. I will admit that I have a love/hate relationship with Young Adult/New Adult romances because a lot of the time, they are just aren’t believable. I believed and felt every single emotion in this book. It’s been a long long time since I was a teenager/young adult, but this book really is spot on in capturing what that feels like – the good, the bad and the downright ugly. I feel like I’ve really missed out not having read anything by this author before, but I’m about to rectify that. If you only read one Young Adult story this year, this would be a great choice. Highly recommended. I expect this will be on my Best Of for 2024.
RATING: 
BUY LINKS:
NineStar Press
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