Save the Game: SCU Hockey, Book 2

This book made me cry, gave me hope, had me grinning, wish I was Luke's fists, and left me happy. JJ Mulder has a magical way of reaching out and gripping your emotions, attention, and stealing your heart with her writing. I read this series backwards, but that's my normal routine it seems—find a new author, but only when they release book three of a series. But the things with her books are that you can read them in any order and enjoy them. It all boils down to your preferences. I love getting to go back and learn about side characters I met as couples in a book that came after their's. Romances have HEAs. There is no spoiling happening if you keep that in mind, but that's my opinion. Another thing I enjoy about her writing is that even though the book ends, you learn more about the couple in future books when you get glimpses of them. Both her first series and this one are set on the same timeline, so one flows into the other, with exception of Offsides book 4. It was written after this book, But I digress... I love knowing we get to continue to learn more about her characters in each book. It's like an extended epilogue, essentially. If you love heartfelt stories, strong character development, engaging characters, and finishing a book with a huge-aXX grin on your face, this book is for you.

I was gonna give this 5 stars but it ends so abruptly, I’ve read from other reviews that this author doesn’t know how to end books and I definitely have to agree.

This book is a lot different from the other books written by J.J. Mulder. The tone and theme is much darker and sad. Where as the other four have been fairly light and sweet with low-stakes, low-angst and fairly little drama. That is not this book. This book revolves almost solely on the SA of one of the main characters and its ramifications on his life. The topic is so heavy and there is very little hockey shown or mentioned. That being said it is still very good. But I would not recommend it to anyone who has experienced any type of SA as it can be very triggering. Things are said in great detail. I also would not reread this one. Because I don't really like to read sad themes in general. My favorite part of this book was the couple cameos from the previous two books. It was nice to see what the other couples were up to. ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ of 5 overall 🌶🌶.5 of 5 for spice 🧁🧁 of 5 for sweetness 🚫☕ - nothing in this book would be considered cozy to me

The premise of this story was adorable. You have a star hockey player coming to a midnight diner because he doesn't sleep well and falls for his waitor? Sign me up! I felt for Max after his SA, but the way that Max didn't have therapy, nobody knew, and the school had no repercussions for the parties made me feel like it was a bit unrealistic. Especially since Max had the police investigate his case, and another student knew about the case because of a family member in law enforcement... This would have been talked about, and people would have known. A lot of times, SA isn't taken seriously, but people do know and unfortunately gossip, so it would be unlikely that a popular hockey star wouldn't be at least the talk of the school. I felt the relationship between Luke and Max was rushed and very insta-love. They click and hang out, and I felt like there wasn't much working through Max's trauma alone, and he leaned on Luke for his healing. It was very sweet, and Luke took his time with Max, but it all felt unearned. Max had kept this secret for a year, and all of a sudden, he's okay confessing it all when he can't even talk to his best friend about it. I probably won't continue the series since I wasn't a huge fan of the writing style either, but you might enjoy it if you like insta-love and sweet love interests.

This book gives readers a look into the after affects of assault and I felt so much for max and Luke. Whew. It was a great read. The o oh thing I didn’t like, and this could just be me, the use of those really big words. I was like ummmm