Shutout: Rules of the Game, Book 2

Give. Me. More!!! I need more of Sera and Tyler - like NOW! Did I binge-read this book and stay up until the wee hours of the morning reading it? You bet you're fine a$$ that I did because this book can't be put down. I didn't want to, I couldn't - I desperately needed more of Seraphina and Tyler.This is book #2 in this series and as I posted in my review for book #1, Avery Keelan has quickly entered my Top 5 list of favorite college hockey authors - it's hands-down, she belongs there. Full stop. Her writing is phenomenal, her stories are riveting, the characters are interesting and complex, the chemistry between the two main characters is palpable - it is literally jumping off the page! Ugh, the struggle is real. You quite literally feel yourself living inside the characters and it is everything.If I thought that I loved Chase and Bailey (from book #1), I think I might love Chase's sister, Seraphina, and one of his best friends and teammates, Tyler, more. Sera and Tyler's story and chemistry will have you fanning yourself off while tugging at your heart strings at the same time.Now, I need to bring something up that I found in book #1 and was more in book #2, the way that Avery writes these young 20-year-olds was fascinating to me. A lot of stories that feature characters who are barely 20, they can often feel naive and immature. That is not the case with Avery's writing of these characters. They are in fact the opposite: they are capable, smart, driven, confident, and complex. It makes the story even more riveting. Like, for example, at the onset, you might think that Seraphina might feel immature and flaky based on the description that she's kind of scatter-brained with her ADHD and chaotic life (in a way), but I found her to be so compelling and relatable. I loved that girl so much! And then Tyler, phewwww, Tyler. The grumpy-ish, strung-tight goalie of the hockey team... I mean... just hello!!!! I stutter when I think of him - and then the two of them together? Oh my goodness. And here's the other part that I found about Avery's writing - you might think these seemingly "opposites attract" characters might be cliche, because let's be honest - that happens a lot. But here? In this book? Giiiiiiirl. They are so far from cliche! They are in fact, everything.This story was amazing, beautiful, so hot, sexy, complex, emotional, smart, .... throw half of the dictionary of adjectives at it to describe this book because that's how amazing it was!Now... Avery... where's book #3? I need more of your writing - more of this world - more of these characters. Gimme-gimme-gimme, please and thank you!

(Sigh) I’m so in love with the idea of being in love. This book was an amazing follow up to Chase & Bailey. Tink & Hades were fire. These two had so much chemistry it was literally stëaming up my kindle! 😮‍💨 The story has a bit of a slow burn (a staple of Keelan) but she is one of the ONLY authors who writes them that I read because the relationship building in the process is so good!! You have a chance to fall in love with the characters then root for them to boot. This story followed Seraphina (Chases’ baby sister) and one of his besties, Tyler who met previously on Halloween in costume and hooked up in a club bathroom. He gave her a hat trick of “O’s” and she gave him the inability to be with anyone else after. They meet again when Tink moves into her brothers house with 2 hockey brothers, Tyler (Hades), being one of them. The world relationship building was so amazing I gobbled this book up way faster than I wanted to. Gabriel Spires (new to me but love his voice) & one of my all time favs, Stella Bloom added depth to the story when I listened as I did both, read and listened. I had to turn my radio down quite frequently while driving cause DAY-UM! This was HOT AF! 🥵 All in all, another amazing read. I loved the real life events in this book as well as the romance and character growth. I swoon every time I read a novel by Avery. My only gripe was no closure with Abby & her brother, moms recovery & whether or not Chase was a carrier. Other than that?! Bellissimo!

Blown away. Speechless. Stunned. Amazing. Incredible.Without a doubt, Shutout is one of the best books of 2023.Fun fact about me: I’m OBSESSED with Avery Keelan’s writing. She’s personably responsible for some of the key players on my book boyfriend roster. Like my Instagram story is virtually a shrine to Chase Carter and I’m not the least bit ashamed.Without question, Offside is my favorite book of all time. And Shutout has been my most highly anticipated read of 2023. I will be the first to tell you, this book exceeded all my expectations. Absolutely shattered them! I was not ready for Tyler and I was so not ready to love Sera as much as I did.We met Tyler in Offside. He’s the quiet, sarcastic goalie who liked to have a good time. There was always an aire of mystery about it and I’ll be the first to admit I wasn’t sure what we were going to get when it came to Mr. Donahue and boy oh boy he is everything. Trying to keep up with a crushing amount of pressure, Tyler is all business and no bs. But then when his roommates sister moves in and turns out to be the hookup he can’t stop thinking about you see a whole different side of Ty. He is so damn sweet and good with Sera I can literally just melt. Like the way he’s resolve shatters around Sera is the sweetest thing. He’d do anything for her and it’s so apparent. You could tell he loved her before he even knew the name of the emotions he was feeling. So freaking sweet. And he calls her Tink?! C’mon 🫠Turns out I’m just a lover of the entire Carter family because I love Sera Carter almost as much as I love her brother. She is without a doubt the most relatable female main character I’ve read in a long time, if ever. Like seriously, so many pieces of Sera’s personality resonated with me. You can always find me googling restaurants before I go out to eat, being the most indecisive human regardless of the magnitude of decision, put the pro in procrastination, and leave a trail of open doors and cupboards in my wake. Only exception is that in my marriage, I’m definitely the Scandinavian architect in the dishwasher situation 😂 I just loved her. She was so strong by vulnerable. Sassy but sweet. Confident but unsure. I loved her ADHD representation! I loved how real and raw her emotions were and how relatable she was. I loved her sassy attitude and quick Carter retorts. Without a doubt one of my top FMC!Tyler and Sera’s love story was so much fun to watch develop. The chemistry was fire from the word go and regardless of how they tried to resist it at first, it was destined to burn big. They were able to be there for each other in a capacity no one else could. They both had self isolating tendencies, but managed to break each others walls and be there for each other, even if they didn’t know what they were being there for. I loved all the texting in this book and the constant game of 21 questions.It was also awesome to see the characters we all know and love in this story. I will never get enough Bailey and Chase (shocking, I know) so I loved every scene we got of them. Also seeing Chase in a different light as the protective big brother, even though I agree with Sera, sometimes he was borderline too protective. I do wish we could have seen more scenes with these two one on one like the party scene on his birthday. I love their dynamic 🥹 I also love Dallas and Shiv, I think Dallas’ scenes were the ones that always had me laughing the hardest. 😂 I also loved the new characters, Reid and Chloe, and cannot wait to watch their story unfold.Honestly, it would probably be easier to tell you the things about this book I didn’t love because honestly, there’s none. It’s literal perfection and you can’t change my mind.This book is a must read! But let’s be honest, anything Avery writes is a must read. I’m pretty sure she laces the words in her books with some kind of drug because they’re addictive in the best possible way.I’m overwhelmed with all the happy feels this book gave me, and the book hangover from this one is real, but so worth it. It was one of those books that you are so engrossed in the story you forget you’re reading. The pages just fly by and you’re left wanting more…tell tale sign of a really good book!Avery, from the bottom of my heart, THANK YOU! Thank you for the opportunity to read an advanced copy of this book. Thank you for creating these characters (especially Chase Carter 😉) and sharing their stories. And above all, thank you for sharing your gift of writing with us all. You are an amazing author through and through. I cannot wait to see what you have in store for us next 😍

I'm obsessed. This book popped my sports romance cherry, oh man it was great. I loved the chemistry, I loved their banter. The secrets were great. A book without miscommunication, well insane that they break up for stupid reasons. This story was realistic and I loved it. Heart breaking at some times got me teary but nothing drastic. Ty and Seraphina were the perfect duo. I read this book 1st before the others, perfect sports romance read. I loved how we started with Ty and ended with Seraphina. We loved a tall, dark and tatted MMC. The FMC bugged me at some points but the author did well portraying mental health and disorders. I loved this book from 5% in and it did not disappoint.

Soo good!

Tyler e Ser sono molto divertenti, adorabili e hot! Mi è piaciuto molto il libro e anche il modo in cui l’autrice ha descritto episodi d’ansia e l’effetto negativo dello stress.—Another awesome hockey romance by Avery Keelan!Tyler and Ser were flirty, fun, adorable and hot all in one! I had a great time reading this and I also like how the author described episodes of anxiety and the negative effects of stress. Very relatable.

I finished this book late last night and I swear to god, I kept dreaming about it and then… what do you know? I wake up the next morning and Avery Keelan has uploaded bonus scenes!!! HELL YES 🔥🤩!This is the story of Tyler and Seraphina and these two were so perfect for each other, I couldn’t stop grinning throughout the whole book!Ty and Sera, or Hades and Tink as they call each other, have an anonymous hook up during Halloween which stayed with both of them for months afterwards until they meet again under very awkward circumstances… Sera moves in with her brother Chase, who is also Tyler’s teammate and… roommate 🥹.Their chemistry is OFF THE CHARTS and it doesn’t take them long to pick up things were they left them on Halloween 🔥🥵.These two own my fcking heart! The story is not only about their love story, but also about the pressure to not let people down, dealing with the loss of a parent and the most terrifying health scare for a woman! Also, it deals with friendships and the strength to let go when something is not healthy anymore… and let’s not forget about how well written Seraphina’s struggles with ADHD was 👌🏻.Tyler? Tyler is the most selfless character I have read about in a loooong time! The immeasurable love he has for Sera left me breathless… so did his dirty mouth omfg 🫠😮‍💨🤣.Also, I relate to Ty and his stress cleaning SO MUCH, it’s not even funny 🤣🤣🤣.I’d like to have my Reid now, please and thank you 💁🏻‍♀️🤣.

🏒 Best Friends Brother🥅 Grumpy Sunshine🏒 Forced Proximity🥅 Friends with Benefits🏒 College Romance🥅 ADHD RepI read Offside over 6 months ago and it still remains one of my all time favourite books, so to say I was excited for book 2 in the series was an understatement!Tyler and Sera’s story was the perfect mix of heart melting sweetness and the best spice. They became each others safe space and the journey from friends with benefits to falling head over heels for each other was beautiful. A hot broody tattoo’d goalie. Sign me up. Seriously, I want my own Tyler!“He looks at you like you’re the only person in the room.”I’d have rated their story 5 ⭐️’s for the spice alone but my god the story!!! I loved it. Sera is going through so many changes all at once, trying to support her mum, moving, going through the uncertainty of figuring out what you want to do with the rest of your life. Throughout all of this she still remains one of the absolute sweetest characters, so relatable, so genuinely likeable. I really connected with her character, making everything so much more emotional. I swear I cried and I laughed with thee characters, I couldn’t have asked for more!“Something about his tone makes me feel warm and fuzzy, like a hug. It’s new, and I like it.”Tyler’s character. I loved him. He was going through such a difficult time trying to manage everyone else’s expectations and learning what his true priorities really are, I haven’t read a hockey book from the goalies perspective before and I found it so interesting! The pressure is so intense and those little moments between Hades and Tink where they blocked the rest of the world out and just existed together was beautiful. Where can I find my own Hades?!These characters weren’t perfect, they acknowledged their faults, and boy did it make them more human!Trophy for cutest nicknames ever definitely goes to Tink and Hades. I melted.It’s safe to say I absolutely loved this book, it was easily 5 stars for me and is right up there with Offside as one of my absolute favs