Hockey Is My Boyfriend Part Two

By Melanie Ting

Synopsis

Can a summer fling turn into real love?

From leaping a raging river to driving collegiate opponents into the boards, there is no physical challenge Kelly Tanaka won’t take. But when it comes to love, she’s running scared. Luckily for her, a job at a summer hockey camp is the last place she would expect to meet Mr. Right. Sure enough, from an overconfident ladies man to a tongue-tied nerd, all the guys here are Mr. Wrong. And there’s no way she could be interested in a tall, muscular centreman who looks young and acts even younger.

James Frechette has just been selected near the top of the NHL draft. He’s completely confident about his hockey abilities, but when it comes to women, he’s wiping out. The summer is his chance to hone his social skills. The problem is that there’s only one girl at his hockey camp, and he really likes her—but so does every other instructor there. Can he overcome his awkwardness and convince Kelly to take a chance on him?

This book contains adult language and sexual scenes, and is suitable for readers 18+. Part Two is the middle novel of the trilogy, Hockey Is My Boyfriend, and the books are meant to be read in order.

Review

As the title suggests, this is Part 2 of the Hockey Is My Boyfriend trilogy. It’s also about hockey. Have I mentioned that I love hockey?

Part 1 was about Kelly Tanaka and Phil Davidson, two high schoolers who fell in love only to break up before leaving for college. The author mentions briefly that when Kelly first returned home after leaving for college, she and Phil hooked up but it was too hard for her to switch her emotions on and off, so after that first trip back she tries to keep Phil firmly planted in her past.

Flash forward to 2006 and Kelly is now 20 and loving college life. She’s doing very well with hockey but she’s accepted that she’ll never go far in competitive hockey once college is over. The book starts with Kelly’s teammate mentioning how she has to back out of a three week coaching commitment at a hockey camp. Kelly offers to take her place just for something to do during school break. On the way to camp she meets Jimmy, an 18yo who’s also heading to camp, but only for two weeks. What she doesn’t realise initially is that Jimmy is actually James Frechette, third pick in the first round of the NHL Draft. This kid is going to be a star. Despite all his confidence on the ice, when it comes to girls, he’s shy and inexperienced. Reaching the NHL has been his mission in life and girls haven’t factored into it at this stage.

Jimmy quickly falls for Kelly, and despite being two years older, she’s very attracted to him as well. In a twist you don’t see too often (in fact I don’t recall ever reading about it before), Jimmy is actually the virgin and Kelly is the experienced sexual partner. Together, they quickly advance from hardly interacting with each other to having sex whenever they can get it. Which isn’t too often since they end up starting a long distance relationship. The third time they meet up for sex is in Kelly’s hometown, where she runs into Phil. Phil declares again that he loves Kelly and would never hurt her (even though he did in Part 1) and that Jimmy is not the guy for her, he’s a kid. Of course, this is when Jimmy does something silly and upsets Kelly, so she breaks up with him.

So I finished reading this book yesterday and started this review the same day, and to be honest, I was already struggling to remember what happened in the book. And then it hit me. I felt like I had skimmed my way through this entire book and that nothing of substance really happened. That can’t be good right? All I really remember about the book is that Kelly pretty much gets coerced into a relationship with Jimmy because she doesn’t want to hurt his feelings when, after just one blow job, he declares her his girlfriend. She doesn’t love him but loves having sex with him, so she agrees to try a long distance relationship. They meet up, have sex, then go home. They meet up, have sex, party, then go home. They meet up, party, have sex, Jimmy hurts Kelly’s feelings and they break up. That pretty much sums up the whole story. The book ends with Jimmy vowing to get her back, just like Phil did at the end of Part 1.

I was really let down by this book after reading Part 1. I felt the characters weren’t really fleshed out (I still don’t know what Kelly is studying at college), and the book was filled with trivial stuff. And for a book supposedly about hockey, there’s surprisingly very little hockey in it. Any talk of games only lasts about a page. So really, this isn’t a book on hockey, but on people who play hockey. Is there a difference? I think yes, but don’t ask me to explain it. It’s just a feeling.

I will read Part 3 since it will be the final in the trilogy, but I’m not as excited as I was to read Part 2. The author has hinted at a third player vying for Kelly’s love.