Reviewed by Anonymous
Rating: 1/5
I went into Goalie Interference thinking this could be exactly my kind of messy.
Hockey. Age gap. Coach/player. BDSM. A relationship with enough questionable decisions to keep me entertained.
Unfortunately, the execution just didn't work for me.
My biggest problem was the writing. From the very beginning, I felt like the book was constantly telling me who these characters were instead of letting me figure them out. There was so much exposition and explanation that the characters rarely felt like they were developing naturally on the page.
And then there was Thayer.
The age gap and power dynamic were clearly intended to create a particular kind of tension, but instead of finding it sexy or deliciously uncomfortable, I increasingly found Thayer's behavior unsettling. I wasn't titillated, I was disturbed. Ash didn't feel like he had enough agency within their dynamic for me to really buy into this being a relationship.
The BDSM parts had a similar problem. I wanted to feel like these were two people actively choosing and building a dynamic together. Instead, too much of it felt like Thayer deciding what Ash needed and not giving him any other choices. There's a responsibility to these romances, where the aggressor has to care for the sub, and that ... did not exist here.
That doesn't work for me romantically.
I also really, really, REALLY thought this story desperately needed more room to develop. The premise had SO much potential, but everything felt rushed and overly explained at the same time. I never got enough depth from the characters or their relationship to make the emotional progression land.
And honestly? If this hadn't been an ARC, I probably would have DNF'd it.
Which is frustrating, because I wanted to like this one. The ingredients were there. I just needed the book to actually give me the depth and character development to make all that deliciously messy potential work.
ARC received from the author in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.