Next Season

Positively Fluffy & Adorably Sweet

This is a story about two young men on a hockey team falling in love, obviously. They face issues like casual homophobia from teammates, uncertainty on how far to go publicly while very much in a private relationship, and whether to come out as the first openly gay players in the NHL - a thing which hadn't yet happened in the real world when this was published. There's a lot of interesting substance here, with plenty of potential for the standard trappings of romance: angst, poor communication, jealousy, etc.

But, thankfully, those don't happen here. This isn't a soul-crushingly pessimistic world. The homophobia they face is mostly people using “gay” to mean “stupid” - most willing to stop when they are taught better - with only one brief encounter with someone who actually used an off-page/unwritten slur. The only communication issues are believable, realistic, and minor. The only jealousy is more an emotional reaction to having a crush. This story takes place in a world which just... It feels nice. It feels comfortable and sweet and like there are stakes here but not high ones. It's a nice, positive universe.

The characters are fun and engaging. The story flows well. And I have a big grin on my face, feeling happier for having read this wonderfully fluffy story.

Honestly, the only thing keeping this from being a five-star experience for me is the handful of grammatical errors. They're few and far between, but each of the ones I encountered made me stumble and re-read the passage affected just to comprehend what was intended.