Book Review: Heart Check by Emily Charlotte

Official Synopsis: Luke Dawson and Harper Braedon could have been friends. They trade shifts at the same diner, share classes at school, and are driven by their greatest passions: hockey for Dawson and jewelry-making for Harper. But some things aren't meant to be. Dawson thinks Harper is stuck-up, too good for anything resembling school spirit. Harper thinks Dawson is a self-centered jock, a perfect fit for a hockey team that seems to absorb all the budget away from the arts departments.

When his beloved hockey coach gets fired for misallocation of funds, Dawson is terrified that all his plans for impressing scouts are vanishing before his eyes. A rumor goes around that Harper was the one who got him fired, and suddenly she’s public enemy number one.

But even with their mutual dislike at an all-time high, Harper and Dawson can’t escape splitting shifts forever. Can forced proximity help them find some common ground, or will long-held grudges finally succeed in bringing them both down?

Heart Check is a debut novel by Emily Charlotte, who's next book is scheduled to come out in 2027 and has a main character with Type 1 Diabetes! So we will be keeping an eye out for that.

This book follows two 'rival' teens, Luke Dawson who is a star on the hockey team and Harper, who is working hard to get other programs started at the school, but the funding always seems to go the hockey. They, however, also both work at the diner that Luke's parents own, meaning they can't avoid each other all the time. When the team gets a new stadium, Harper can't help but hate it. She was hoping to start a Young Entrepreneur Program, which would help her apply for grants that could support her dream of going to college and getting out of Hamilton Lakes. Harper, and her best friend, are known for their lack of enthusiasm for the hockey team, so when the head coach gets fired for 'misuse of funds', the team immediately knows who to blame.

Harper didn't tattle on the coach, she barely has the time to keep up on her jewelry commissions between work and school to begin with. When the team starts review bombing her website, and their fans start canceling their commissions, Harper becomes determined to prove she wasn't apart of this, even if she agrees with what happened. Luke is angry about the whole thing, Coach Red was his chance to be seen by scouts and their assistant coach can't seem to get the team to mesh together. As the team struggles to find a similar goal, especially when their captain seems to more interested into his USHL team, Luke wonders if this will be the end of his own professional dream. He feels the pressure from the team, himself and his father, who's own professional career was cut short by injury.

After learning the truth from Harper, and believing her, Luke realizes that the anger towards her is impacting her dreams and he is sure he can get the angry reviews to stop. Now they come to a truce, which mostly means avoiding each other but also seems to keep bringing them together in small ways. When they finally start to accept that they aren't against each other, different feelings start to arise. Harper isn't sure she should be falling for a hockey player, and Luke has always kept a strong 'don't date during the season' rule that he is ready to break.

One thing I want to bring up, because I really appreciated, is that Harper's best friend Marissa is a Type 1 Diabetic and we get to see a few scenes of her testing and giving herself insulin and the ease in which Harper accepts it, which personally I loved.

The other thing I really enjoyed about this book is that it is young adult and stays young adult throughout. There is no point where you are like 'oh this is pushing the line' into New Adult/Adult. I think its nice to see a sports/hockey romance in the young adult genre, since most of the ones that are on the market right now are definitely more towards that adult level for many reasons. Even the 'college' ones tend to veer more into new adult, and this one is definitely bringing the genre down to a level that others can enjoy without spice but with romance. There is kissing, some heated kissing, but nothing more, because these kids are juniors in high school and both have big dreams. As young adult, it also is well written and does have those moments that show some learning and/or a theme. We can see that both Harper and Luke have dreams that have a lot of pressure from themselves and others, but also how Harper's mom hopes she does something reckless at least once as a teen. We also see Luke struggle with trying to fulfill his own dreams and not disappointing his father.

Overall, I really liked this book and the way the story felt realistic to me. A hockey obsessed town in Michigan putting more funds towards sports then other programs? That totally makes sense to me. Teens who have complicated feelings for each other trying to figure out if those feelings are positive or negative? Also definitely makes sense.

I am really excited to see what other books Emily Charlotte comes out with in the future!

I rated Heart Check 4 out of 5 stars!

Heart Check comes out November 18, 2025!

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