2017 Contemporary Romance Challenge
ARC Review: Just One of the Boys (The Chicago Falcons #1) by Leah & Kate Rooper
10:00
Series: The Chicago Falcons #1
Author: Leah & Kate Rooper
Published October 2nd 2017 by Entangled Teen
Goodreads Synopsis
Alice Bell has one goal: to play for the elite junior hockey team the Chicago Falcons. But when she’s passed over at tryouts for being a girl, she’ll do anything to make her dream a reality…even disguising herself as her twin brother. With her amazing skills on the ice, Alice is sure she’ll fit in easily. That is, until she starts falling for one of her teammates…
Hayden Tremblay, star of the Falcons, can’t keep himself out of the penalty box. Constantly living in the shadow of his older brother, Hayden’s losing his passion for hockey. But when he gets shown up on the ice by the Falcons’ new rookie, Hayden’s determined to teach the kid a thing or two. Little does he guess that “Al’s” surprises on the ice are just the beginning...
Disclaimer: This Entangled Teen Crush title proves that wonderful things can happen when you’re brave enough to go after your dream. Dream hockey player, that is! Warning--a few locker room scenes are included...
Goodreads
Review
I received an Advance Reader Copy from the publisher. This in no way impacted on my view.
When I first heard about this book, I was immediately intrigued. Everything about the synopsis screamed it was a book for me, and I had quite the feeling that it would be very much like the movie, She's the Man, which is perfect. In Just One of the Boys, Alice has always wanted to be a hockey player. But, because she's a girl, she can't play with the boys. (sidenote: this really resonated with me, as I was told when I was 12 or 13 I couldn't play on the football team I was a part of any more, because I was a girl, and we had no girls teams in our area!). However, her cunning plan is to disguise herself as her twin brother, and don the persona of 'Al'. We get two PoVs in this book, and the second is from Hayden, who is the star player on the Falcons. He always gets compared to his older brother, and wants to do anything to get out from under his shadow. When the new rookie player, 'Al', rocks up, he takes him under his wing, and finds himself drawn to him, and 'Al's twin sister Alice when they meet too.
The chemistry between Alice and Hayden was unreal. Whenever they were together, the sparks literally flew, and I loved how open they could be with each other. Yes, there were obviously some tension and angst when Alice/Al was revealed, but other than that, there wasn't actually much drama in this book, which was nice. Hayden's PoV was wonderful too, and I loved his backstory about being treated differently because of his brother, and how he was finally getting his hockey mojo back throughout this book.
Another thing I really liked in this book was the friendship, especially between Alice and Madison, and Hayden, Daniel and Tyler - the others who I believe will have their own companion books! The friendships shown were all legit and real, and it made the book seem even more realistic, and improved the book! I loved this book, and the definitely comparison to She's the Man was apparent. If you love that movie, this is definitely a book for you!
Dates Read:
September 9, 2017Rating
4 Stars
