Check Please!

Check Please!: #Hockey and Check Please!: Sticks & Scones by Ngozi Ukazu, 288 pages and 352 pages, respectively

Eric Bittle is a former figure skater and was the captain of his co-ed high school hockey team, earning him a hockey scholarship to Samwell University. He's also a prodigious baker and compulsive vlogger, which makes him more than a bit nervous to join the jock world of Samwell men's hockey. However, he soon learns that there's more to the team than stinky locker rooms and bro culture, and he doesn't necessarily need to buy his way in with pies (though the team certainly appreciates them!).

Covering the four years of Bitty's college career, Check Please! is a love letter to the brotherhood of hockey teams, as well as an LGBT romance and a coming-of-age story. It's gorgeous, and funny, and wonderful. Ukazu has captured all of the things I love most about hockey in these two volumes, and thrown in enough baked goods to both make my mouth water and send me to my oven. I love it and can't recommend it enough!