He Shoots, He Scores
(Skate to Love Book 1)
(Skate to Love Book 1)
by Tricia Owens
Publisher and Cover Artist: Tricia Owens
Genre/s: Sports M/M Romance
Heat Rating: 5 flames
Length: 70 000 words
Release Date: June 16, 2020
Buy Links - Available on Kindle Unlimited
“There’s more than one way to score.”
Blurb
When superstar winger Neil Shannon is injured in the Stanley Cup Finals, he loses more than the hockey championships. With his confidence shot, his career begins to fall apart and an early retirement seems inevitable. Unwanted by his former team, Neil is traded to one that's starting over. Even worse, he's joined there by his biggest rival, the sexy Swede Adrian Magnusson. Adrian feels responsible for Neil's fall from grace and is determined to revive his career, but Neil wants to stay far away from this Swedish temptation, or else he'll lose the last thing of value he owns: his reputation.
Excerpt
“I like keeping in touch,” Magnusson admitted. “And I thought it would be fun, texting you. We’re always being pitted against each other by the fans and the media. Funny if they got it all wrong, yeah?”
“We’re not really friends, though,” Neil said, regretting it immediately when the light dimmed behind the other winger’s eyes. “I mean, we don’t know each other that well,” he hastened to add. “This is the first time we’ve said more than a few words to each other.”
“We should be a secret.” Magnusson’s face, normally animated, became still. “You and me.”
You’re already mine, Neil thought. He knew Magnusson meant only friendship, but a person could dream, and Neil was good at entertaining dreams.
“We are a secret,” he declared with drunken boldness. Let Magnusson think he meant it innocently. It didn’t matter.
Emotion moved across the Swede’s face, something wistful. Something stronger. Magnusson was strangely intense when he was drunk. It made Neil nervous, as though anything could happen, good or bad.
Then Magnusson grinned, and the tension snapped.
“I’m glad you yakked today, Shannon.”
Neil sighed, his arousal deflating. “Bite me, Magnusson.”
“Don’t say something like that around a Swedish lion.” Magnusson abruptly stood up and strode to the bathroom. “I’m going to shower.”
He left the door open and Neil could see him clearly in the mirror’s reflection, clumsily undressing. Neil opened his mouth to yell at him to shut the door. But then the tight yellow dress shirt came off, and the undershirt beneath it—and Neil forgot what he was going to say.
Damn, he’s built. He stared openly, unable to look away as the other man struggled with his tight pants until he finally managed to yank and kick his way free of them. His thighs were indeed tree trunks, his calves chiseled. And his ass—Magnusson wore a thong beneath his pants. Neil choked.
Magnusson heard him. His blue eyes flashed up to the mirror, wide with shock. He hadn’t realized Neil could see him. But instead of blushing as Neil expected, Magnusson’s expression grew intent again. Holding Neil’s captive gaze, he reached back and slapped himself loudly on one ass cheek.
Carra's Review
I’m a sucker for hockey romances so picking this one up was an obvious choice for me, made more tempting by the fact that I haven’t read any of this author’s other books. This turned out to be a solid story with interesting characters, and I’m already looking forward to more in the series.
Adrian is definitely the more self-assured one of the two overall, and has a better handle on his personal life. Both he and Neil are closeted (because of course since they’re hockey players), but Adrian seems to handle it more easily…Neil can be more high-strung and wary. One thing’s for sure though—together they have that off-the-charts chemistry physically, which by the end of the story starts to spill over onto the emotional side as well. But you will be waiting quite a while for that emotional aspect, and even by the end it’s just a hint that’s starting out.
This means that while Adrian and Neil do seem to have come to an understanding by the end of this book, it’s obvious there’s a longer road ahead of them so you’re going to get a tentative happy-for-now once you finish. Just know this going into your reading and you’ll be anticipating the next book in the series to see how things will progress. There are also some conspicuous hints regarding another possible couple, so it will be interesting to see where that may lead too.
For those of you who look forward to the hockey scenes, you won’t be disappointed. There’s enough to make fans of the sport happy without being too much for anyone whose eyes glaze over with the first mention of “offsides” ;-)
Overall, this was somewhere between 3.5 and 4 star for me, leaning more towards the 4. Let’s see where things go from here. The adult language and heated sexual content make this book one for readers 18+.
About the Author
Tricia Owens has been writing m/m fiction since 2000, after stumbling onto the term ‘slash’ and thinking it referred to horror stories. She is the author of the Sin City, A Pirate’s Life for Me, and Juxtapose City series, among several others. She lives in Las Vegas.
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