A review by downtown_kb
Gravity by Tal Bauer

emotional hopeful tense fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

5.0

Two hockey players, one already a legend, and a rookie player who worships him, meet in the All-Stars Tournament and find they have an instant connection.

My 3rd read by him and I have fallen in love with how Tal Bauer develops characters and romance. It’s swoony as hell and I love it. There was a lot of intense things happening around these two but it was just so sweet it became…cozy angst? And it’s all very lyrical writing. He’s probably gonna be an auto-read/comfort read author for me now.

I really loved where the name of this book came from. I loved how gob-smacked Hunter is when he first meets Bryce. That whole interaction was adorable. It was a gay-awakening hockey story - tried and true combo but I was sucked  right in and couldn’t put it down. Once again, I don’t know flip about hockey and that didn’t bother me at all. Translating all the French didn’t even bother me either. Since he was a French Canadian it felt more authentic for Bryce to think/speak that way and I appreciated the risk taken here. Bryce seemed so wise beyond his years his character seemed older than 26. And I loved how Hunter was caring for Bryce right from the start. The external 3rd act conflict was a total gut punch - this was pretty gruesome
traumatic injury, and as a former ICU/trauma nurse, he captured the frantic intensity of the moment so well and did not hold back on graphic detail
 

I can see how some people could find this to be over the top sweet but I loved it and was all in with these two.
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