i found this series recommend on reddit after looking for hockey romances and was so excited to see it was multiple books, most of the ones i’ve found are only one or two.

unfortunately this story was not what i hoped it was, scott and kips timeline felt so weird like there was no build up or development before they went on a date and were official. scott not wanting to come out is completely understandable and valid that wasn’t the issue, it was more that kip immediately started complaining about hiding and scott’s hesitation on coming out.

i almost dnf’d this and for the sake of the rest of the books i’m really glad i didn’t because despite the start this book gave the rest of the series is fantastic and will be rereading in the future. i did love the ending where scott takes kip down to the ice instead of formally coming out with a statement or something. it was shocking and i loved that it was after the stanley cup game as if to say “clearly i can be gay and win cups” which was obviously the message sent.

overall series ranking:
- the long game
- heated rivalry
- role model
- tough guy
- common goal
- game changer