My initial reaction to reading book one in the St. Cloud Hockey Book Series by Mari Loyal: Ahhh I wish you could see the smile on my face after reading this story.
This series came across my Instagram feed a few weeks ago and I am an absolute sucker for a hockey romance. So I promptly disregarded my previous TBR schedule for the month and dove head first into the first book Faceoff.
The whole series is reviewed below, they are the genre of Romance (Closed Door), College Romance, and Sports (Hockey!).
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About Faceoff (Book 1 in the St. Cloud Hockey Book Series)
He’s the cocky captain of the men’s hockey team, and now we’re stuck together for a class project.
LUZ
The days in my hockey career are numbered after an accident years ago that left me with chronic pain. Now that I’ve become the captain of the women’s team at my jock-hating ivy league college, the last thing I need is any distractions from school or hockey.
But then something that can only be defined as a meet-disaster with Max Cassiano, the men’s team captain, leads to open hostility between our teams. Fortunately, that whole mess helps me ignore how freaking hot he is.
Kinda.
MAX
I might seem like the hottest prospect to everyone in town, but I’m chopped liver to my massive Italian family. My focus has to be on my hockey career if I want to wow them, and I’m sure being named captain of the men’s team is the ticket.
Until a snobby professor pairs me up for an assignment with the one distraction I can’t seem to shake: Luz, the captain of the women’s team. And she’s way cuter than anyone who hates me has a right to be.
Sparks fly when we faceoff off the ice, but can we win this game if our teams hate each other?
Review of Faceoff
The Characters
Like I said at the beginning of this post Faceoff left me smiling like very few books do. Mari Loyal managed to combine some spectacularly spunky characters with just the right amount of tension and sarcasm to make them highly enjoyable. They make you wish you could watch them in real life.
Luz and Max are some of my all time favorite characters because of that reason.
Both Luz and Max are college freshman, and get this, Luz is a hockey player too! They both end up being captains of their respective inaugural teams.
I loved all the secondary characters and their rivalries, but I also liked how they all supported each other too. I do hope that Mari Loyal goes on to write some spin off series about these characters cough *hint hint* cough. As I am so not ready to leave the St. Cloud realm she created.
The Setting/Plot
It may surprise you to know that I’ve read just about every hockey romance out there, yet I rarely take the time to review them. Why might you ask? Because after a while, most follow the same pattern, just like most romances now days, but Faceoff surprised me in the best of ways.
Mari Loyal set the plot up with a spectacular opening chapter and NO THIRD ACT BREAK UP. A college romance centered around a lot of Hockey, good sub-plots of learning who you are, overcoming your past, and having the courage to choose it all.
This book has cemented Mari Loyal as an Auto-Buy author for me.
5 hockey stickers. 🏒🏒🏒🏒🏒
*Note: This book does have some mild language and is closed door.
About Overtime (Book 2 in the St. Cloud Hockey Book Series)
He’s the grumpy hockey captain with a bad boy reputation, and now I’ve been assigned as his tutor for the rest of the semester.
ARAN
The pressure is on in my senior year to wow hockey recruiters no matter what. My only outlet was casual dating until the latest fling makes a scene in the middle of my team’s locker room, and gets me in trouble with the coach. And that’s without him even knowing I’m about to flunk an elective.
So I have a plan: Step one, swear off girls for the rest of the season. Step two, do some overtime school work with the help of a tutor.
Except said tutor is about to ruin the whole plan.
MADDIE
Just a few months left of college and I’ll officially start my career as an author. But before that, I’m in desperate need of more income to move away from my fatphobic roommates. So I ramp up my tutoring gig, and start working on a hockey romance idea that I can self-publish quickly. There’s only one problem: I know nothing about hockey—or real life romance.
Insert Aran. Not only I’ll get paid for tutoring him, but maybe he can also teach me about the sport. All I have to do is remember that a real-life romance is off the table.
The overtime tutoring sessions start getting less academic, but can we beat the ticking clock?
Book Review of Overtime
I adored the chemistry of these characters.
Aran (ah-RAN) and Maddie are the perfect balance for each other, they had some of the best conversations I’ve ever read and I LOVED Loved how straight forward they were.
Mari Loyal gave a wonderful sense of tension to these characters and she really brought forth Aran and Maddie’s individual personalities.
I appreciated that Maddie stood up for herself and didn’t try to bend to societies expectations of her. I thought her situation was handled beautifully; sorry if it sounds vague here, not sure how to express my thoughts on her without giving the storyline away.
Aran was really an interesting character, at first I wasn’t sure I was going to like him. However, I ended up being a big fan of him. It was interesting to see someone with his personality as a team captain and goalie.
Overall, this book was really fun and I really enjoyed reading it.
5 hockey stickers 🏒🏒🏒🏒🏒
*Note: This is a closed door romance and does include some language, it does have some descriptive scenes.
About Shutout (Book 3 St. Cloud Hockey Book Series)
He’s the golden retriever hockey captain who was once my best friend, turned perfect stranger, and now he’s come crashing back into my life.
OLIVIA
I’m not huge into the party scene, especially after what happened last year at the Bolt House where the hockey jocks live. I’d rather stay home reading a book or cooking up a new recipe to the tune of some hard rock. But now my friends convince me to go to a party and what could go wrong, right?
Of course, we get there and find my boyfriend cheating on me with a random girl. And even worse, the one who confronts my now ex is none other than Brooklyn, Bolt House resident, hockey captain… and my former best friend.
Yep, the same one I had a major crush on basically all my life.
BROOKLYN
I haven’t seen Olivia since she basically shut me out of her life a year ago. Yeah, I was a jerk and deserve it, but does it make me even more of a jerk if I’m happy to see her break up with her boyfriend?
Maybe this is my chance to get back in her good graces, and what better opportunity than fulfilling the promise we made freshman year of signing up for a Spanish elective together.
But just as I’m starting to think I’m better suited for the role of Olivia’s boyfriend rather than her friend, I get a huge offer that could kickstart my hockey career with a bang.
And I really don’t want to choose between hockey and her again.
Are we playing the only game we can both win by shutout or are we about to lose each other forever?
Find it on Goodreads, Amazon, and Bookbub.
Book Review of Shutout
Gosh, I didn’t think this series could get better.
Olivia and Brooklyn are best friends that had a major falling out during their first year in college and it only takes a choice by one of them to completely turn things around. It was fun to watch it all play out. There is just something about falling in love with your best friend that hits differently and it was displayed beautifully in this book.
Olivia and I would be best friends I think. Her personality is one I hope we all have in the friends around us.
I really enjoyed Olivia’s use of Spanish phrases throughout the book (all three books have it, I just though it was more prevalent in this one), it added some cool flavor to her character; truly there are just somethings that cannot be correctly translated without loosing their real meaning.
Brooklyn was truly the definition of a golden retriever, down to his gold hair. He was loyal, sweet, hard working, and he noticed the little things.
I can’t believe this is the end. Again. I want more time in the St. Cloud Hockey Book Series and I hope Mari Loyal continues to write more books set here.
Mari Loyal is now an Auto-buy physical copy author for me.
5 hockey stickers 🏒🏒🏒🏒🏒
*Note: This book is closed door, there are some physical descriptions, there is also some language.
About Mari Loyal
Mari Loyal was born and raised in Venezuela, a baseball country that only cared about another sport, football soccer, every four years. As such, she decided to make hockey her whole personality because she had to make a point of being different. These days she no longer suffers from Not Like Other Girls syndrome and is very happy to be in the sports romance fandom. She writes closed door romance with a Latin American flair and an abundance of cinnamon rolls heroes. She also enjoys eating cinnamon rolls (the confections), in her spare time.
Be sure to follower her at https://www.mariloyal.com/
