Take the Shot was a romantic romp with a hockey backdrop. Dinah is a 30 year old YA writer who lost her husband about 2 years ago. Noah is her 22 year old hockey playing neighbor. She can’t imagine love in her life again while he has a crush on her, his best friend. Unlike some very graphic sex sports stories this is a true love story. It is told uniquely in chapter by him and chapter by her- almost epistolary in nature. The characters are real and quirky and the plot is sweet.
I would recommend this book to my patrons.

This is the first book by Ms Flynn that I’ve read, so I wasn’t sure what to expect. I liked her writing style, most of everything flowed pretty well (sometimes that’s not the case and it’s hard to keep reading). My main problem with it was that I wasn’t crazy about the characters. Dinah acted and spoke like she was the younger person in the relationship and Noah was almost too perfect, always doing and saying the right thing. I would read another book by Ms Flynn, hoping that the characters (for me) are a little more rounded and interesting.

I liked the hockey parts of the story. It seemed authentic. I loved Noah but as he was portrayed as a man/child factory made Canadian, Dinah turned out to be the immature one of the two characters and least sympathetic of female leads.
So I skimmed the last ten percent because nothing more was forecast to happen.... epilogue was him moving in by hauling his stuff to her apartment next door.

Lots of interesting secondary characters that I suspect could be showing up in book 2.

Great story about friends becoming lovers. Noah's character was very endearing and Dinah was a strong woman who learns to open up after tragedy and loss. This story has a lot of strong funny characters that can easily have their own stories.

2.5 stars

I received an ARC of this book from NetGalley for my honest review.

This is the debut novel for this author, so hopefully her style will improve with practice. The basic plot is that Dinah is a thirty year old widow who has a day job as a marketer and is a writer in her nights. She lives next door to 22 year old Noah an TJ, two Canadian pro hockey players. Noah fell in love at first sight when he met married Dinah. Her husband died , and Noah was there as a friend. Two years have passed and now they start to explore whether they can be more than friends. I like the overall plot, older woman with the hot hockey player, but there were so many thing that drove me nuts.

POTENTIAL SPOILERS
1. The backstory of Dinah’s husband’s death and her miscarriage really should have been a prologue. It was awkward that two years have passed and no one knew the details about this and it had to be explained multiple times.
2. The dialogue seemed stilted, like what an older person thinks how a younger person would speak.
3. Too much use of the word dude and the f-word. I have no problems with swearing, but the author seems to be having Dinah use it to be “cool”.
4. Noah is depicted as a super polite Canadian. Which the author interprets as having the personality of a twelve year old girl. At one point, I expected him to give a note to Dinah “Do you like me? Yes__ No__”

Bottom line, this series has some potential, but this book doesn’t quite do it for me.

Noah has to finally ask Dinah out on a date!

Writer Dinah Lace was trying to move on with her life after being a widowed when she realized that there might be something between her and hockey player Noah Kennedy who lived next door. Noah knew that Dinah needed time and he was going to give it to her but when his teammates told him to either ask her out or one of them was going to ask on a date.

Take the Shot by Danica Flynn starts off pretty good but the author has so much about the age difference between Noah and Dinah that isn’t a problem between them. I love friends to lovers type of romance books but this didn’t quite make it for me.

I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book from NetGalley. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

It's not a bad debut story. A friends to overs with a little bit of an age difference...a little sports, a little heartache...it has all the right things but 'Dude" stop with the use of the word Dude and bro - especially during the intimate scenes when she is always using dude. it really took away from the overall story and made me feel like I was reading about a couple of teenagers instead of a woman in her 30's.

This was in the low side if nothing special. I have never heard from the author bug this felt like a first novel. This is a one time read that will get put on the shelf and never thought of again. It will not age well, do to the massive use of slang, that was only used to show how 'cool' the author is. She also used all the cliche tropes. By the end of this book o was afraid that my eyes would get stick thanks to all the eye rolls this become caused. Sadly this is not a book that I will recommend.

I love hockey romances but this fell a little flat for me. I found myself skimming to the end and that also ended a bit abruptly to me. I would have liked a more finate ending. I did like Noah but something about Dinah just rubbed me the wrong way. Thank you to netgalley for the arc.

Take The Shot by Danica Flynn

Okay so....... 10/5 Stars!


When Dinahs husband died, she pretty much ruled out the idea of finding love again. Especially in the arms of her younger best guy friend Noah.
Noah a hopeless romantic can only ever live Did from afar. Hoping that one day his love will be returned.

That's right this book blew my mind. Wow!
It was everything I could have asked for in a romantic comedy/ drama. I fell hopelessly in love with these characters literally at page 4. Sweet, Romantic, Heartfelt, will pull at even the coldest of hearts heartstrings. Great character development. I read this book in 1 day and cannot wait to read more from this author and hope she continues on with a series about the rest of the Philadelphia Bulldogs hockey team.


Thank you #NetGalley and publisher for this ARC in exchange for my honest review.

I liked it!! It's my first book by this author and i definitely enjoyed reading this book! I was a little iffy in the beginning cuz I thought maybe it was a little too wham bam thank you mam lol but no it definitely got more interesting! I definitely recommend reading this book! It's well worth the read! Thank you Netgalley and the publishers for sharing this book with me!