thank you to netgalley and the publisher for providing me with a free audiobook in exchange for an honest review! this has not affected my review in any way, all opinions are mine.

4.5/5, rounded up to 5/5 where needed

mickey james is the son of a hockey legend and jaysen caulfield is the one person standing in his way to be the top draft for the nhl. they're college freshmen, they're on the same hockey team, and they hate each other. you know how the rest goes.

sometimes a book just hits you. you read it at the right time and it just hits you like a semitruck going 80 mph. and this was one of those books for me. i picked it up at 2 am and then i didn't put it down until 5 when i finished it. and it's important to tell you that i spent a huge majority of those three hours sobbing my eyes out

i feel like it's important to note while this book is emotional at times, i was probably crying more than necessary. but mickey's struggles with mental health felt so real and true to me that, again, it felt like i got hit by a truck.

the one place this book loses points for me is the ending, since i love the characters and their dynamics and the writing. while i definitely understand what the author's purpose was with the ending, i couldn't help but want something more from it. but the rest of the book affected me so much that i have to round it up to a 5 for rating systems

warnings: this book deals in depth with anxiety, depression, and alcoholism/dependency