Book Review: “Boyfriend” by Sarina Bowen
Can somebody please explain to me the chokehold hockey romances have on the genre? I definitely see the appeal of hyper-masculine men with plenty of stamina -- heck, I even dated a hockey player once back in my younger days. But sometimes I wonder if the market is oversaturated. There ARE other sports out there, you know? For instance I would recommend lacrosse. Have you ever SEEN a lacrosse game? *fans self*
Anyway, that sort of sums up my opinion on "Boyfriend" by Sarina Bowen. It was a fun romp to read, and Weston "Westie" Griggs is definitely a dream book boyfriend. But other than that, I couldn't really muster up any strong feelings one way or another about this book. It's just another hockey romance with a fake dating trope. There was nothing really in there to set it apart from the eighty bajillion OTHER hockey romances out there. But you know what, for many the formula of it all is honestly part of romance's appeal. We all have our favorite sub-genres -- I personally like alien romance, werewolf and other magical realism romances, and military romance -- so if hockey is your thing I think you'll probably like this one.
I do love the fake dating trope, and Westie is absolutely the sort cinnamon roll boyfriend with golden retriever tendencies I adore. I do wish that, like a true cinnamon roll, he had a few more layers to him though. We hear so much about Abbi's feelings and inner turmoil, but poor Westie doesn't get any introspection at all. What he DOES get, though, is some fantastic moves in the sack. The spicy scenes were good, and I think there were just enough -- it definitely wasn't one of those novels where you find yourself saying, "Sheesh, let her at least catch her breath!" This book definitely didn't let the plot suffer for an abundance of smut.
I'd have to say my biggest complaint about this book is... WHY IN GOD'S NAME IS THE SCHOOL CALLED "MOO U.?" I get it's #3 in a series but I kept expecting Bowen to at least explain the nickname. I'm a New England girl myself so I loved seeing a book set in the area (in this case, Vermont) but I was wracking my brain trying to figure out what "Moo" could be short for (like my alma mater, UMass, was sometimes called "ZooMass" because of the school's, ah, vibrant social scene.
So yeah... to sum up, this book was... fine. It was FINE. I can say I read it. That's about it.
