4 stars
Okay, after reading so many negative reviews for this book, I’m going to start with a warning. Despite the cutesy art-style, this is not a book meant for children. I got a copy from the library and there is a big old YA sticker on it, but it appears that some people were under the illusion that this is a book for kids. It is not. There is a lot of profanity, sexual references, and alcohol. This is a book about college hockey players; they swear, drink, and talk about sex. I guess some people were surprised by this. Moral of this warning: this book is not for kids. Also, apparently some people don’t like books with profanity. If that’s you, probably don’t read this one. It has a decent amount of swear words and such.
Now onto the book itself. Oh. My. Goodness. I think this is the cutest book I have read all year. Bitty is adorable and I loved seeing him start to grow into himself in his first two years of college. What an absolute cutie pie (pun intended, sorry). So I have a passing interest in hockey (been to a few games, but don’t really follow it) and I have no interest in baking, but geez this story is just so cute. I was into it from start to finish. It’s so easy to get sucked into this book.
Great art style as well. As I said before, the art is very cutesy, but I think it really makes all of the characters (especially Bitty) all the more endearing. I also just loved all of the little details, like the changes to Bitty’s vlog background across time and situation. That little bunny was so cute and it was fun to see what it was up to in the background.
The only teeny tiny critique I have is some of the offensive language in terms of sex. It wasn’t the words themselves, but kind of the overall tone of women as sexual objects. I think it’s kind of a weird line because yes, these are college men and hook up culture and all that, but you really don’t see the women they are talking about so some of the scenes were a little cringey. I get it, it’s part of the culture, but especially since everyone is so cool about Bitty’s sexual orientation, it was just sad to see women not treated with the same respect. Such scenes did seem to kind of peter out as the book began to focus on deeper issues though.
Story-wise I liked this one. The story itself is drawn out and it more so just follows what is happening in Bitty’s life in terms of hockey, classes, developing friendships, possible romantic relationships *wink, wink*. But it was all told is such a fun way that I was really interested throughout the entire book. Plus, that ending. Ahhh, can’t wait for the next book.
The back of the book also includes some bonus comics, including some hilarious ones about hockey lingo. Very funny. And there are a ton of tweets from Bitty, which are kind of fun to read in hindsight since the reader knows everything that has happened up until this point and how things go with a certain adorable someone.
Great read. I am so excited for the next chapter in Bitty’s college years.