Easily among the best books in this series. Troy is so repressed it’s insane and watching him exhale and allow himself to enjoy things and connect with others is really sweet. Ilya is also an obvious highlight- it made me wish we got more actual hockey in Heated Rivalry (lol) bc seeing how Ilya operates as captain of the Centaurs definitely adds to his character. Now I wish Ryan Price or Eric Bennett had played for Montreal so we could have gotten a look at Shane in the same way!

I do wish Harris had a bit more going on as a character as he doesn’t really have a character arc of his own or any major flaws but that’s pretty typical for this series so no big surprise. Very excited to finally get into The Long Game as I’ve heard it is generally people’s favorite.

Ngl this one wasn't really for me. I found Eric and Kyle to both be really bland, the central "conflict" to be paper thin, and there's not much of a character arc for either of them. I do like the inclusion of the dom/sub dynamic but I wish it went deeper since it's the one thing that stands apart from the other books.

There's also a lot of Scott and Kip in this book which should be a plus since I liked them in Game Changer, but now that their conflicts are resolved (and no new ones were introduced) they're pretty bland as well. Overall not a terrible book but I'm happy to have this one done and move on to Role Model.

Things I loved about this book: -The portrayal of Ryan's anxiety -The sexual dysfunction caused by Ryan's meds!! I love that it's included since I've never read a romance that had any kind of earnest handling of sexual dysfunction and I especially love that it's not magically cured by Fabian's raw sexual prowess or whatever. It's cool and it's real and it's fresh and deserves all the flowers. Seriously it will probably be the thing I remember the most from this book. -Androgynous/not traditionally masculine main character. In a series full of buff hockey players I love to see a little gender fuckery get the appreciation it deserves.

Things I did not love: -Fabian as a character felt a little underdeveloped as well as not being the most dynamic character concept overall. -Third act breakup hit really late and was kind of cheap feeling. Definitely a "cmon if y'all would just communicate none of this would be happening" kind of vibe which isn't my favorite kind of conflict.

Overall- not a bad book at all but I'm not expecting that it will be among my favorites from this series.

It’s really sad to me that Lisa Marie wasn’t able to sympathize with her mom more. Apparently they reconciled later in life but there’s a lot of bitterness featured early in the book that’s painful to hear about, especially knowing that they were both damaged by and (to some degree) raised by Elvis. They deal with it in different ways because they had different relationships to him but having read Elvis and Me, it’s impossible to miss that they both had the experience of being caught in his whirlwind- fawning for him and bending to his every whim to avoid his unpredictable tempers while revering him like a god. It seems like Lisa Marie never really recovered from the lack of stability or normalcy in her childhood which is really too bad. It sounds like she suffered a lot. It just goes to show how far the shockwaves of one person’s dysfunction (plus the trauma of fame) can reach.

More love stories should feature ass eating s/o Rachel Reid you're a real one