⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Tropes: MFC & MMC plays hockey Friends to Rivals to Lovers Prank Wars Darker elements of j/p/o Touch her/him and never skate again BC Tampering Unhinged This books was amazing! I loved every minute of it! It was hilarious, joyful, painful, heartbreaking, yet heartwarming. Riley & Reign were inseparable since the age of 6 & met on the ice for the first time, until they both let their competitive nature take over. For the past 5+ years they've had a rivalry like no other. Constant challenges & pranks that are at times dangerous. Everything once again changes the summer before senior year at hockey camp. Riley has been through hell & back since she was a little girl. Being raised by a single mom at a shelter, then suddenly losing her mom and learning to live with her father for the first time. Throughout all this Reign has always been by her side. One game Riley let's her desire to please her father get the best of her, injures Reign preventing him from from playing for a year. Reign feels betrayed by his best friend. He can't see past his anger and prevents him from listening to Riley and letting her apologize. He not only can't play for a year, but he lost his best friend. The one person that understood him more than anyone. As years went on his anger grew along with his attraction for her, until he can't control his emotions anymore and realizes underneath all the anger towards Riley has always been love. This story was so appropriate in my opinion. These were literal children that couldn't find a way to express themselves and didn't know what to do with the hurt they were feeling. Even while together they had a lot to work though. Reign's actions at times were unhinged, but we love an OTT obsessed MMC! Also there was no spicy scenes while they were underage. While I was surprised how fast in the story Reign realized his feelings and accepted them(I was expecting more on page rivalry), this story was not insta-love. Riley had so much insecurity in result of the years of challenges, they didn't go away quickly. Even if she loved Reign back, it took time to rebuild that trust. I loved that they never truly gave up on each other. If one backed away the other was there to remind them of their love and the future they could have. Reign was so impatiently patient with Riley and her accepting him and their future together. This book will back you cry, but it's so worth it! Can't wait to see & read more of the author's work!

This was okay for me. I almost put the book down midway through the book. But then it picked up. I didn't like Reign's weird controling behavior. The whole BC thing didn't make to much sense to me. Riley tries to stand up to him many times. But still chose to do everything he says.

This school age hockey romance was just what I was looking for! The main characters started out as best friends play on a hockey team together when both are trying to score the final goal of the game when one wrong move changes it all! Going from best friends to enemies in a blink of an eye starts the rivalry of a life time for all the wrong reasons. You get so much drama that this book was impossible to put down! I was so happy but also sad when it came to an end.

I have mixed feelings on this book. The characters were just a bit too juvenile for me at the beginning but I enjoyed how they were with their friends and family and once they found one another again how they were with each other

This is my very first book from this author but man oh man, it was worth every minute. Reign and Riley’s story is an amazing combination of fear, acceptance, tragedy, hate, revenge, and overall love that makes it one of my favorite. Ashton Brooks delivers the right character growth that makes you root for both the FMC and MMC. I wish it wasn’t a standalone but I know all amazing story has to come to an end. An amazing read and worth it! ❤️

I was looking forward to this release since I saw the tropes and blurb and was not one bit disappointed. In fact, this has easily become one of my top reads this year. Ashton Brooks delivers the most perfect friends to rivals to lovers story with Reign and Riley. Give me a possessive man that's down bad for his girls any day of the week. I am here for it! Reign and Riley were childhood friends from different sides of the track that loved hockey together. When an unfortunate injury separates them, their friendship turns to deep rooted rivals. This is where their journey really begins. Underneath the rivalry was a lot of love and the way their journey played out was perfection. If Reign and Riley weren't already intensely all consuming, the side charters were fantastic as well. The plot had everything that sucks me into a story and doesn't want to spit me out. This book was unputdownable! Highly recommend!

4.5 This book was just so good. This was my first book by this author but it won't be my last! I loved Reign and Riley so much - they were so good together. The chemistry was off the charts and watching them get their HEA - swoon worthy. I love when the MMC becomes obsessed!

This book may be one of my top 3 favorite bully-to-lovers stories. Reign, despite all odds, turns out to be incredibly swoon-worthy. His love for Riley and the lengths he would go to for her are truly rare and heartwarming. From the start, it was obvious that Reign fell hard for Riley when they first met at age six. His misplaced anger, which destroyed their friendship, was all on him. I believe the things he did later when they were together were his way of making up for the past. Riley, on the other hand, was strong and never backed down. She endured a tragic childhood, from living in shelters to the death of her mother and dealing with her father's PTSD. However, I felt the author glossed over both Riley's and Reign's home lives, which could have provided deeper insight into why they acted the way they did. The storyline was solid, and I enjoyed seeing how their relationship evolved—from best friends to enemies to lovers. I appreciated how the story started with them already becoming more than friends, then focused on navigating their past to build a future together. Although there were some grammatical errors, they didn’t detract from my enjoyment of the story. As for the epilogues—loved them! I would definitely read a novella about them in the future. Overall, it was a great read.