3 stars

Let me start this review by telling you about how excited I was to read this book. This book is about a French Canadian hockey player from a small town in Quebec. IÂ’m also French Canadian and from a small town in Quebec and iÂ’m a massive hockey fan. So safe to say that my expectations and excitement for this book were through the roof. ItÂ’s not often that I get to read books with characters that are from the same place as I am, and there is always something super fun about being able to relate to a character due to the language that they speak (French in this case) and due to their upbringing and I always love reading about hockey. Which I why I was waiting with bathed breaths the moment that I could put my hands on this book, I just wanted to read this story, so badly.

This book is friends to lovers and bi awakening, which are some of my favourite tropes, so that really helped sell the book for me, too.

Brief summary
Hunter has looked to Bryce as an hockey player for years. Bryce plays hockey for the Montréal Étoiles. They meet during a special hockey event and they start hanging out with each other and then they slowly fall in love.

I really d the relationship progression in this book. I loved how they meet and then they hung up with each other a lot and I just loved reading about all of their interactions and them spending time together. That was just so much fun to read about for me and I really enjoyed it. I d seeing them spend time together because I got to see why they d each other and why they fell for each other later on. All of their interactions were just so sweet and and they had super great chemistry, which I just loved.

Also, I always love a book where they start out as friends and then get to know each other before they start dating and I really enjoyed seeing them hang out in this one. I just d seeing them all the things together. It was just so fun to read about. And it made me much more impactful when they did start dating.

Their romance was just so cute. I just kept swooning while I was reading this book because the romance was one of the cutest one I have read in a while. I just absolutely adored their relationship so much. It was just so full of super sweet moments where they showed how much they care about each other and I loved that, so so much. They were always there for each other and it was just so lovely to see.

I really enjoyed the hockey descriptions in this book. I d how the teammates were nice and were a found family for the main characters, that was super fun to read about. But I also really loved all of the little details about hockey that the author incorporated in the book. There were so many little specific details about the history of the sport (in fact, the Montreal team in this book had the exact same history as the actual Montreal team. even their moto in the teamÂ’s locker room is the same as the one in the actual Montreal team locker room. Which I really d, I thought it was a fun detail) that I just really enjoyed reading about. Also, I loved reading about them playing hockey, that was just so much fun to me. It almost was a substitute to watching an hockey game since the games in this book were explained in a lot of details, so I thought it was super fun to read about.

I havenÂ’t read as many Tal Bauer books as I wish I had but I have always enjoyed his writing style in the ones I have read. I always love really flowery and expressive writing and he really nails this style of writing. ItÂ’s just so much fun to read about and really gives character and personality to his stories. This book was super engaging and fun to read to me because I just loved the authorÂ’s writing style.

Now weÂ’re about to go in the section in my review where I analyze how the Quebec rep is done. Since I have lived in Quebec my entire life, I have a lot of opinions on the matter.

First I just want to point out how much French there was in this book. The characters always spoke random words in French in the middle of their sentences in English. And that just felt a little out of place to me. IÂ’m also bilingual and I never just randomly started swearing in French while I was talking to someone in English. sometimes I use French words if I subsconsiously donÂ’t realize it, but I donÂ’t willingly just incorporate them in the middle of my sentences in English. So good on the characters for speaking this way, but it isnÂ’t an experience I could really relate to as someone whoÂ’s also bilingual.

I do have a complaint about this book. And it seemed insignificant at first but the more I read the book, the more I just didnÂ’t really appreciate it. I didnÂ’t really enjoy the use of French in this book. And there is a lot of it, the characters actually speak in French many times during the book. First of all, a lot of the sentences didnÂ’t really read how someone would say them in French, but a direct translation of the English sentences. And the French language doesnÂ’t build sentences the English language does so it didnÂ’t always work and made for some really hard to read sentences, and I say this as someone who speaks the language. But, that isnÂ’t my biggest thing. It was meant to be all about the Quebec language and using expressions specifically to Quebec, but a lot of the times, the expressions used to say things in France were used instead of the ones specific to Quebec. To explain this more, you know how there are so many expressions in British English that are super different from English used in the USA and how people probably wouldnÂ’t understand them if they didnÂ’t know that specific dialect, itÂ’s the same thing for French used in Quebec and the one used in France. If you go speaking the expressions used in France in Quebec, people would look at you really strangely and not be able to understand anything that youÂ’re saying. More so, if I can compare my experience of reading this book to something else, the French in this book felt as out of place as it I was reading a book about a cowboy from Texas and suddently he started calling everyone he ever encounters a cunt, they do in Australia. This is how out of place the French used in this book felt to me.

Which is why the use of French bothered me in this book, because most of it were expressions that just aren’t used in Quebec. To try and make it simpler, in France they use full words to build sentences and they speak a super proper French, but in Quebec, when speaking, we tend to use contractions for everything, put some English words in the middle of sentences in French, change the pronouciation and spelling of a lot of words, have our own expressions to say things, etc. And every sentence in this book was all prime and proper French and the expressions they use in France, which is why it didn’t work for me because it just isn’t accurate to how someone from Quebec casually speaks in their day to day life. (This book did nail the use of “Tabernak” and “Criss” (which are both swear words and just mean fuck), as we do use those a lot, but unfornatually, that was the only part I loved when it comes to how French was used in this book). And I know that it’s a little thing but since I speak the language, it just kind of ruined my immersion into the book. I was just expecting it to be all about Quebec and the Quebec language since thats what the book is marketed as, so thats probably why. I just really wanted it to be all about Quebec French since thats what the book is marketed as and the language I know and speak every day of my life, so I just was a little sad about it.

Also, I just want to mention, that I, someone who lives in Quebec and speaks French every day of my life, had to to google two of the expressions used in this book because they are super outdated sayings that used to be used in France a long time ago. Which was just a little sad to me since I was expecting to open this book and find sentences that iÂ’m ly to use in my day to day life, but sadly it just wasnÂ’t the case.

Also, an even smaller thing, but the blurb for this book has a sentence that says “swoony Quebec love songs” so I was really expecting to see some of them show up in the book and thats one of the reason why I really wanted to read this book, because it isn’t often I see this kind of rep in books, and I got kind of bummed that none of them were mentioned by name. Céline Dion is from Quebec and has a lot of love songs, so I was atleast expecting that name drop, since thats super popular, but I would have taken anything really. I think I was just sad because 80% of the music I listen to is from artists from Quebec so I was really hyped to see some mentions for those songs in this book, since the blurb mentioned it. There is a couple songs and artists who are talked about in this book, but they all come from France …. So it just wasn’t what I was looking for.

Overall, this was a super sweet book and I really wish I could have enjoyed it. But, caliss, it was just missing something to push this book over the edge for me.

I received an ARC of this book and this is my honest opinion182 s3 comments Heather K (dentist in my spare time)3,977 6,103

I adore Tal Bauer but this book was mega cringe for me, so much so that I gave up around 45% in. That's baaaadddd.

Now, Tal does schmoopy romances, but this sappy, insta-lovey story just about made my eyes roll permanently into my head. It was just too much

However, my main pet peeve was the weird insertions of French into every sentence. I've read a ton of books with bilingual characters, and they don't constantly shove in other languages in every sentence. Trust me, we would have gotten that he was from Quebec without Tal's awkward, novice-level French making every conversation feel stilted and strange. I had a hard time getting through it.

I love Tal AND I adore hockey romances, but this book is not it.

goodreads|instagram|twitter|tiktokbisexuals-pansexuals contemporary did-not-finish ...more130 s4 comments Renae Reads556 529

*** I reviewed a complimentary copy of this book. ***
Gravity is an emotional sports romance between two professional hockey players, Bryce and Hunter. They meet in Vegas during a tournament and share an instant connection that takes both by surprise. What begins as a simple friendship soon grows into a serious connection leaving both shocked and confused as to the change in their dynamic and lost as to what it all means.

After the initial confusion and shock eventually wears off, the love story between Hunter and Bryce is so consuming, honest and sweet that I was so happy seeing these two characters behave and act in ways completely new and foreign to them. Hunter and Bryce's joy while experiencing their newfound feelings was such a delight.

Gravity is a unique sports romance that never goes the way you expect it to. There are intense moments that left me shocked, and heartbroken as our couple suffers in such difficult ways mentally and physically, but as with any well-written romance you are carried away by the characters and that is what Gravity does. It grabs your attention and never lets go, I was so utterly swept away by this beautiful story that I didn't want it to end.

Hunter and Bryce have a love story that is so earnest and sincere. Another fabulous story by Tal Bauer, his talent for writing complex characters that tug at your heartstrings never ceases to amaze me. Cannot wait for his next one!2022-mm-favs favorites mm-romance107 s ? Loulou ? Free Palestine ?1,201

Tal Bauer seems to be trying his hand at different tropes in the MM romance genre and I for one couldn't be happier.
There is nothing more satisfying than picking up a book by an author you KNOW would never let you down, because you can count on them delivering a high quality book.

And let me tell you: TB DELIVERED.

For me, "Gravity" is all about acceptance.

Bryce, our first MC, accepts that he is in fact gay and those errant thoughts he'd been having are what his heart and body truly want.

Hunter, our second MC, accepts that gender doesn't matter when you find a connection with a person, a real authentic connection that is rare to find. And who better than your hockey hero/role model.

Both these men accept that their friendship and ultimately their romance is worth having, even if it's in secret at first.

They accept that their teammates, who are their family really, are their for them and have their back.

They accept that life throws many hurdles your way, but it is how you react to these hurdles and how you are a unit that is important.

What I found refreshing is the lack of homophobia in this book. Yes it's a TB book, and their are some WTF moments because he wants you to hurt, even if it's just a little. But all in all it is pretty lowish angst and the drama doesn't come from homophobic teammates or homophobic management who wants to tear them apart. In contrast, the teammates and the coach were genuinely great people who were one big happy family. No toxicity in sight.

The prose is as always beautiful. Tal has a way with words and I know that some may describe it as purple or OTT or too sugary sweet, but for me, it suits his romantic men and the overall narrative he spins.

This is a slow burn, medium steam book and there is of course an HEA and it is beautiful. The whole mood of this book felt dreamy and smooth for me, from the friendship to the romance to the french and even the steam.

Honorable mentions:
The French: Slap me on the a$$ and call me Pierre. Bryce just dropping French words and phrases all over this book was a thing of beauty. It was so beautiful and so romantic. His "S'il te plaît" nearly killed me.

I never felt overwhelmed with the hockey aspect of the book and I know NOTHING about hockey. I loved that aspect of the book as well.

Note: TB urges the readers to use the translation function in the kindle/kindle app because the phrases are not explained every time. Now I'm not Québécois of course but I am Lebanese and we tend to do the same thing where we use arabic, french and english all in the same sentence. I felt seen
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