I liked reading about Derek's journey into his new team but the friendship—and romance with—Trevor felt a bit underdeveloped. ( )

The world of professional sports is one I am not exactly familiar with. From what I know about trading, loyalties can change at the drop of a hat when players move to a different team, and that seems very difficult to me. It is the situation Derek, who narrates this story in first person, is confronted with. He is happy where he plays hockey in LA, not exactly a city where the sport is the center of everyone’s attention. Then he is traded to Detroit, and not only is he suddenly in the limelight since hockey is taken very seriously by fans there, his new team is also at the top of the National League. As if that weren’t enough, he also faces having to play with a former teammate on Team Canada at the World Junior Championship. A teammate he did not part with on good terms…

Derek faces a tough professional situation, as well as a personal challenge. And while there is a LOT of hockey in this novel, especially for a non-sports reader like me, there is more than enough personal conflict as well. That, more than anything, held my attention. Derek’s past with Trevor slowly became clearer to me, but what Derek went through as he fell for Trevor all over again was tough.

Trevor treats Derek quite badly, and even though I can see why, I did not like that one bit. It takes Trevor quite a while to start being honest with himself, never mind own up to the way he’s been treating Derek. Both of them have to learn to work together for the sake of their careers, and this story is certainly realistic in terms of showing how hard that is.

If you like athletes as main characters, if fighting for the courage to come out is a topic you are interested in, and if you’re looking for a read that focuses on the professional as much as the personal challenges in two men’s lives as they struggle to find their happy ending, then you will probably like this novel.


NOTE: This book was provided by Dreamspinner Press for the purpose of a review on Rainbow Book Reviews.
( )