Title: Still
Author: Carmen Wilder
Genre: MM Romance
Rating: 4⭐️
Book Links: Goodreads | Amazon
My initial thoughts:
I went into this expecting a hockey romance. I closed it thinking about resilience, healing, and the quiet courage it takes to let someone love you when every instinct tells you to run.
The Vibe:
Hockey Romance, Forced proximity, college romance, Emotional
My Review:
I went back and forth on how to write this review. No matter what I wrote, it never seemed to capture what this story left me feeling. So in the end, I decided to stop overthinking it and simply write what felt right.
Jamie Nash, captain of Hartwell University's hockey team, and Rhys, a transfer from Eldridge University, completely stole my heart.
From the very beginning, Jamie is hard on Rhys. It feels personal, and I kept wondering what Rhys had done to deserve it. But as the story unfolds, you begin to realize Jamie isn't really fighting Rhys... he's fighting parts of himself that he's spent years trying to keep buried.
Both Jamie and Rhys carry wounds that run far deeper than what you see on the surface. Their experiences have shaped the way they trust, the way they love, and the way they protect themselves. Watching those layers slowly unravel was, for me, the heart of this story.
"The things that hurt us don't care how much time's passed. … They just sit there and wait until it's easier to hurt us again, when we least expect it."
That quote perfectly captures the heart of this book. Trauma doesn't simply disappear because time passes. It waits. It whispers. It convinces you to run before someone has the chance to hurt you again.
What stayed with me most wasn't the romance itself—it was watching Jamie slowly unlearn everything his father taught him about love and about himself. Every time he pushed Rhys away, my heart broke a little more because I understood why he did it. He wasn't rejecting Rhys. He was protecting the only version of himself he'd ever known.
And Rhys... he never tried to fix Jamie. He simply kept showing up.
By the end, I realized this story wasn't just about falling in love. It was about learning to be still enough to let someone love you... and brave enough to stay when every part of you wants to run.
Maybe that's why this book is called Still.
Despite everything they'd been through...
They were still standing.
Still fighting.
Still choosing each other.
Still believing that love was worth the risk.
This isn't just a college hockey romance. It's a beautiful reminder that the things that happen to us may shape us, but they don't have to define us forever.
4⭐️
I received this arc from the author in exchange for my honest review
Synopsis:
Jamie Nash has spent his whole life learning control.
Control on the ice. Control over his body. Control over every thought, feeling, and weakness that could ruin everything he’s worked for. As captain of Harlow University’s hockey team, control is the only reason he survives the pressure.
Then Rhys Callahan transfers in from Eldridge.
Rhys is reckless where Jamie is rigid. Loud where Jamie is silent. Infuriatingly talented. Impossible to ignore. And from the moment they meet, every interaction between them feels less like rivalry and more like a dare neither of them knows how to walk away from.
What starts as tension turns into something neither of them can name. Meaner. Messier.
Wanting each other becomes its own kind of violence.
Because both of them have spent years standing still inside the wreckage of who they used to be — trapped by grief, anger, fear, and the things they survived long before they met each other.
And the closer they get, the more dangerous it becomes.
Because Rhys sees too much.
And Jamie has spent years making sure no one ever gets close enough to.
Still is an emotionally intense MM romance featuring obsessive tension, emotional repression, explosive chemistry, high heat, trauma, and two men finally forced to want something more than survival.
Still is the first novel in The Northbound Series.
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