Reading: CHECK, PLEASE! BOOK 1: #HOCKEY - Ngozi Ukazu

Webcomic series sensation-turned-graphic novel, Check, Please! Book 1: #Hockey follows vlogger and figure skating pro Eric Bittle, as he leaves small-town Georgia life behind to start college at Samwell, his choice college because of the school's reputation for 1) its awesome hockey team; and 2) its open acceptance of LGBT+ students. Originally setting up his vlog as a platform for college life and his #1 passion (baking), volume one of this two-volume set covers Eric's freshman and junior years of college in total, in which he learns that college hockey comes with "checking" (something that Eric's never experienced and is terrified of: direct contact on the ice with another player) - as well as an ornery hockey team captain, Jack, who comes with his own baggage and very little patience for Eric's checking issues. The artwork here is beautiful, feeling very much like an animated series come to life on the page, and Eric is a genuinely funny, engaging, bighearted guy who - though it takes awhile - finally begins to come to terms with the fact he's falling for his very hetero-appearing team captain. For all its strengths, however, for me I found my attention wandering sometimes while reading it. Maybe because of reading it as one volume instead of as a webcomic, but for me the book was more all about hockey, the blooming crush/love story between Eric and Jake fairly non-existent until very close to the end of the book. Also, as open and tolerant as Samwell University is in these pages, I found it unrealistic that never, within the course of the entire story, does Eric run into so much as a negative comment about gays or the LGBT+ community. Not that I wanted him to, but story-wise it makes for zero conflict or tension, and comes off not very true-to-life - so between that and the potential romance that doesn't come up until toward the end, outside of hockey and pie-making and depictions of frat house life, there just isn't a lot of story here to propel a reader forward; to hold your interest and keep reading, unless maybe hockey is your passion. That said, the characters are wonderful, and book one does end on a cliffhanger that more than propels you into book two. Which I will be following up with, as it seems Eric's junior and senior years are where the meat of this story lies.  3/5 stars