First finished book of 2021!
OVERALL: 4.5 stars. This was a slow-burn emotional journey full of steamy sexy times! To me this was a fun, banter-y, HOTT sports romance with a believable rivals-to-lovers trope.
Definitely want to check out the other books in this series!

Content Warnings: sports 'violence', explicit sex, profanity, homophobia discussions
(barely on page: family/previous alcoholism, depression, suicide, abuse, homophobia)

I listened to this book on audio, and the narrator I thought did a good job! The Russian accent sometimes came out a little robotic/had less emotion than Shane's voice, but I certainly can't do a Russian accent, so props to Tor Thom!

For the first ~35% I was a little nervous with where this story was going, it seemed like they didn't like each other so much that I was doubting a believable turn-around. Especially since in the prologue and around 40% they were each kind of miserable about it. Shane in particular was feeling a lot of self-loathing and disgust, shame...
But by the 45% each of the main characters are starting to have feelings, and it is so cute to read! And by the time we were at 60 then 85% it was clear how they'd both fallen for the other, and were really there for the other, while also still being believably competitive and on-ice rivals.
I loved reading Shane's slow coming to grips with his identity and what that meant for him.

I loved having Shane's parents being so supportive when they found out! Nearing the end, I was scared for what the 3rd act drama/conflict/bleak moment was going to be, and I was so happy when it wasn't something harmful, like one of them denying the other if suspicions happened, or for Shane's parents to be unaccepting, etc.
A tiny tiny part of me was grumpy that in the epilogue they hadn't come out/were out publicly yet, but also I felt like that was realistic, and it was great to see them as boyfriends and be committed and having a plan for their careers and safety.