I finished two ARCs for upcoming releases, DNF one older book from my TBR, and I am 70% on another book. Snowy weekends allow lots of reading time.

Overnight Sensation by Sarina Bowen– This is part of her Brooklyn Bruisers hockey series, which I have mostly enjoyed. This was a miss for me. Not enough that I DNF it, but I can’t say I truly enjoyed it. I did like seeing, even minimally, some of the characters from previous books.

Heidi, the heroine, is kind of a Mary Sue. She is a Southern girl who is very polite, she has her racing license, she can ice skate, EVERYONE likes her but she didn’t seem very complex to me. I didn’t hate her though. What I did hate was the relationship Heidi had her with father. Her dad is the hockey league commissioner. He is mad at Heidi because she doesn’t want to finish her college education, so he relegates her to menial tasks to shame her. Thankfully that doesn’t work. But I loathe the trope/plot device where the heroine’s father forbids her from doing something and she doesn’t immediately cut him out of her life. The only reason I kept reading was because I typically really enjoy Bowen’s books.

Jason, the hero, was a fine hero. I would have liked to have seen a bit more exploration of his being the ONLY Hispanic player in the league. I use that as an example because it’s a comment in the book and ends up being a throwaway comment because it is never addressed. I know this is fiction but if you write a character who is an overwhelming minority in their field and don’t have the character address that in some way, I am going to give you a tiny bit of side eye.

Bowen seemed to be laying some groundwork for a the next book and it definitely piqued my interest, even though I didn’t really enjoy this book. Devoted fans of this series and those willing to overlook a nearly perfect heroine, will probably enjoy this. Release date January 22.

Grade: C-

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Love Like This by Melissa Brayden– I have had this ARC for several months and in the effort of trying to clear out my Kindle of older ARCs, I wanted to give this a try. I really wanted to like this book. The two main characters weren’t exactly enemies but they weren’t really friends either and I enjoy that trope. But the heroine Hadley was incredibly annoying. The story was dual POV and when it was Hadley’s POV, the author used excessive amounts of exclamation marks. I complained on Twitter than the author used over 70 in the first 7 chapters. It was too much!!!!

I really enjoyed the other heroine, Spencer. I wanted her to have a less annoyingly excitable love interest.

Grade: DNF

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99% Mine by Sally Thorne– I will have a longer review closer to release date, January 29.

Next week, expect to hear all my very positive thoughts on Now or Never by Victoria Denault.