What a gem, WHAT A GEM.
My favourite of these by far: it made me swoon and cry and laugh, and it made my heart ache and rejoice. I couldn't stop reading.
I had HIGH expectations for this book, but thankfully they were not disappointed. I knew I was going to love "Empty Net" as soon as I read the first few pages. It's got everything I love in a sports romance, and then some more: two extremely lovable, realistic and relatable protagonists, a fabulous found family of teammates, a romance that had me on squealing, a whole lot of sports with a whole lot of heart AND so many angsty feelings I had to resist the urge to cry my eyes out? NOW, that is what I call an emotional roller coaster. Another one of these thank you!

Laurent and Isaac stole my heart. Ugh, they're my sons. I loved them so so so so much. Isaac was absolutely great: a snarky, vaguely assholish goalie with aggressive tendencies and a heart that's so kind and gentle and patient you'll want to jump into the book to hug him. Or swoon.
And Laurent! God, that man broke my heart to smithereens. He's gone through HELL, and has the scars (both physical and mental) to show for it and a mean, angry mask he takes out whenever he's feeling vulnerable or scared or unsure. His arc in this book was a thing of beauty. I was so, so proud of him, and his quiet bravery, his love for Isaac, his unexpectedly dry humour, his mean, grumpy (but hilarious) demeanor, all of that made me love him even more.
I adored their romance SO MUCH. No notes, just chef kissing all around. I was obsessed with their dynamic from the very start, and I kept on grinning and swooning and giggling til the end.

I love it when a sports romance manages to deal with heavier topics without loosing that spark of joy that comes with satisfying HEA. A romance with actual substance, a realistic emotional arc, like this one. Don't get me wrong, I love meaningless fluff once in a while, but they don't hit as well and I'll take crying my eyes out and feeling like my heart is being stomped on any day. ANY DAY.
I must applaud Avon Gale for it.
Although, if I had ONE small niggle,

I was a bit disappointed with the way Laurent's ED was dealt with. Not because it wasn't handled well, it was; but because I felt like we were missing a good chunk of that story. Isaac notices it off page, and the consequences of it are mostly off page, and I was sorry that it didn't have that much page time, that's all. Funnily enough, ED is usually one of those topics that kinda trigger me, but the way it was handled it didn't... but still; I was missing a better development of that part of the story.

. The other parts of Laurent's past and abuse were handled very well though; it was gut-wrenching, of course, so absolutely unfair you'll want to jump into the book to murder his father, but well done. As for the recovery aspects of his story too.

Anyway, I wholly recommend this book. I think you can skip book one and two quite easily (they'll alright, but nothing to talk about), but I wholly recommend book three and four, and reading them in order too. I think I'll end up reading book five too, so fingers crossed it manages to win me over like this one.

TWs/CWs: extreme physical, emotional abuse by a parent, eating disorder and vomiting, mental health struggles with self-loathing, sex work out of necessity (past), homophobia, slurs, talk of conversion camps, injury, a brief instance of bullying.