Reviews with content warning for Car accident - Those Three Little Words

This book was a little funny, but it was also a little toxic. Penny does some stuff that definitely waves red flags, and blames it all on the pregnancy (yeah, not an excuse). The pranks were funny, though.

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beckyyreadss's review

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challenging emotional medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

I wanted to read this book because I loved Meghan Quinn’s Cane brothers’ series and was wanting to read more of her work. I loved hockey romances, and I enjoyed Pacey and Winnie’s story, but this book was so frustrated and just damn annoying and long for no reason.

This book has two points of view. The first is Penny Lawes, she is the baby sister of Pacey Lawes who we met in the first book. She works for the same hockey team as Pacey as the social media executive and she posts and makes Tiktok edits for the hockey team. Pacey has made it clear that she is untouchable – none of the hockey players can have her. Everyone knows this. But Pacey has especially told playboy hotshot Eli Hornsby to stay away from her. However, one night Penny is dragged on a night out by her best friend on Valentines Day and ended up leaving early. Eli asks Penny to stay out and to hang out with him on his birthday, Penny being slightly intoxicated gives in to her feeling that she’s always felt. However, she is determined not to sleep with him after she has been told in the past that she is bad in bed. Eli makes her confidence plus with a bit of liquid courage, she ends up sleeping with him and five weeks later, she finds out she’s pregnant. The second point of view is Eli Hornby, we met him in the first book. His family is his team, he doesn’t have any family. So, when his best mate’s little sister is pregnant, he will do anything to be in his child’s life. Once Pacey finds out he has knocked up his sister, threats were made, friendship were revoked and then he was marched up to her apartment, suitcases in hand and forced to live with her so he can take care of her every need. What Pacey didn’t know was that Eli had been wanting this girl since her first day and that the sex they had blew his night and he hasn’t stopped thinking about her. Eli wants to get his friendship back with Pacey, but with every mood swing, every pair of pants that don’t fit right and every late-night run to find the perfect donut, he is finding it harder and harder not to fall for his best friend’s sister especially when she kisses him again.

Again, as with the first book, I loved the bromance between the boys, and I would die for any of them. I love how they all call out each other’s bullshit and make sure they are responsible for the shit they do especially when they aren’t communicating correctly. I love how the boys came together to help them through the pregnancy and everything. I love that both Eli and Penny’s friends are like we are here to support you, you tell me what you want to do, and I'll do it. That was about it. I liked the lads. Eli’s trauma was so well-handled, and I loved his story and his arc.

I hate the pregnancy trope, especially one-night stand pregnancy. Penny drove me nuts, I wanted to punch her – pregnancy or not, she was a bitch, and she didn’t deserve the sweetheart that was Eli. She was extremely immature and pretty much just wanted to throw her rattle out the pram when she wasn’t getting her own well and then just winding up Eli for no good reason. Like Eli did everything to help her and she still wasn’t happy about it. Like be a single mum then, leave Eli alone. I hated the miscommunication, and the third-act conflict wasn’t needed at all. This book did not need to be so long for Penny to be such a pick-me and a child. This book should have been smaller than the first book and I would have preferred that compared to whatever the hell this one.

The boys in the cabin and the little snippets of what I hope the next book is saved it, otherwise it was going to be two stars. Poor Eli deserves better.

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shaykay's review against another edition

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emotional funny lighthearted medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

Overall this one wasn't my favorite follow-up. I really wanted a lot for Eli because he was one of my favorites from the previous book, and I could not wait to see this one play out. Plus, it has a surprise baby angle, and that's my freaking jam! I loved seeing the tension between Eli and Penny. We got the extra layer because of everything with Pacey, but it took way too long for Pacey and Eli to make up.
Even though I loved the banter in this one, and I loved seeing how these two were going to makeup, I hated how Penny handled it. She knew how Eli felt, and he told he how hard it was for him to open up due to his abandonment issues, but she still just did the whole third-act breakup crap, and it just crashed and burned for me. I wanted more for them. Plus, I'm just tired of the miscommunication and third-act breakups.

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