Review: On the Line

On the Line by Amanda Chaperon
My rating: 1 of 5 stars

DNF at 91%, a new personal record!

Mitch is a professional ice hockey defenseman, playing for the LA Knights. Two years ago he was playing for the Michigan Warriors when he met Lexie at a club. Before he got his big break playing hockey as a teenager, Mitch and his mother suffered a lot of abuse at the hands of his alcoholic father. Lexie is a successful headhunter travelling the US persuading candidates to accept jobs. The daughter of two highly-successful venture capitalists, Lexie was just a possession to them, something to be trotted out in front of family-focused investors, and she has suffered with abandonment issues ever since which she copes with by never getting close to anyone who could hurt her.

Told both in the present day (which itself moves forward at least a year) and in flashbacks from two years ago, and coming closer in time, we see how Mitch and Lexie met, had a smokin' one night stand, got together again and finally fell in love, only to spectacularly implode when Mitch got traded to the Knights.

Honestly, I really tried to finish this book but when the two of them started over with their push-me-pull-me shenanigans AGAIN I had to bail. When things get tough Lexie runs away (literally and figuratively), when one of them makes an approach to mend the rift the other pushes them away, then they each spend weeks (yes weeks) angsting about what they would have done differently. And then they do it again.

When yet another of these ridiculous scenarios starts for the umpteenth time, I threw in the towel.

Also, be warned, this is the sort of novel where Lexie has two besties from college who will literally shout at her for making it all about her when her boyfriend dumps her, not thinking about how him leaving Michigan affects his friends! These friends are all deeply insightful when it comes to Lexie's problems but I bet good money they were similarly clueless when it came to their own love lives. And fancy thinking that making MItch Best Man and Lexie Chief Bridesmaid at your wedding wouldn't be awkward!

Anyway, when you are forcing yourself to read a book and doing literally anything other than reading, it's time to quit, even if I was close to the end.

I received an ARC of this book from the publisher via NetGalley in return for an honest review.

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