Chase Sidora

"This has to be a dream..." Gavin was gone and she was laying in a pool of her own blood. Was this really how her story was going to end? Of course not. Domonique "DJ" McGee was born to fight. Up to this point she had failed miserably at shouldering the weight of the empire that Gavin created but DJ was determined to prove everyone, including herself wrong. She has never been one to back down from a challenge and King, Deuce and the rest of the newly restructured Iron Fist would be no exception. They would pay for the betrayal of both men she loved and she refused to die before that happened. With Ace's help she was determined to get back on her feet and get back to business. But her focus on vindication is quickly shifted when Ace delivers crushing news and her dead ex-boyfriend is no longer dead. "Ain't no guessing about it...G is back and he's back with a vengeance..." Gavin Harlen had always been ten steps ahead of everyone else. That's why he could be both faceless and feared in the street. A ghost. The boogeyman. He was the man that no one would dare to cross...that is until his own crew spit on his name. After must speculation Gavin put his plan into action and verified that there truly had been snakes hidden in plain sight right in front of him. Not only had they been willing to kill him but they continued on with the business he built and tarnished its reputation. But with Ace, DJ, and a surprising new edition they are ready to reclaim the Iron Fist in a winner take all battle. But his attention is turned elsewhere when DJ isn't as enthusiastic about his return as she has begun to live a life that doesn't include him in it. In the epic finale, all of your questions are answer. Has Gavin lost DJ for good? Ace or Gavin? Who will she chose? What's up with Professor Mosely? What made McKenzie turn on DJ the way she did? Do the bad guys win? Find out all that and more in Game Changer 3.

Game Changer 3

Molly Morgan

THIS BOOK WAS SO GOOD.

Scott is the captain of a professional hockey team and he falls in love with Kip, the cute guy who makes him a smoothie before a big game. Only problem is.. Scott is still hiding who he is.

I felt the pressure Scott felt to stay in the closet, being so in the public eye and also in such a "manly" sport. The stigma attached to that felt very smothering and I could feel the struggle. His and Kip's relationship was hot and heavy from the get go. Very tender, romantic moments.

I absolutely sobbed at certain parts, something about queer romance really hits me in the soft spot. There was proper communication between characters, the spice was top notch, and the love was fucking adorable. Cannot recommend enough.

Lauren Sullivan

Goodness, this book is simply adorable! From the meet-cute to the grand finale, everything is delightfully fluffy and low angst, and it stars a hot hockey player. Sold!

Kip is biding his time working at a smoothie shop while trying to figure out what to do with his life. He’s graduated from college with a history degree, but is struggling to find a job in his field, so he still lives with his parents. It feels like all of his friends are getting promotions and moving on to bigger and better things. Enter Scott, the star hockey player for the local team – well, he was the star, but now he’s having a bad run. His fortunes take a turn for the better after Kip makes him a blueberry smoothie, so naturally, that’s the reason he returns the next game day – and not because he’s interested in the cute smoothie-maker. One thing leads to another, and before you know it, both guys are head over heels into an adorable romance.

“Like I said, I’ve never dated anyone,” Scott said. “I’ve never… I thought I didn’t need to. That I could maybe live without that.”
Kip heard the past tense in what Scott was saying. “And now?”
Scott exhaled. “I don’t know. I feel like…maybe I hadn’t met the right person yet, you know?”
Holy shit.
“I’m just saying,” Scott said, “I don’t think it’s the smoothies.”

Both Scott and Kip are absolutely endearing. Scott’s the child of a single mom who died when he was a teen, and has now become a superstar hockey player through a combination of hard work and talent. Even though he loves his job and view his team as his family, he still feels lonely – partly, I’m sure, because he’s a closeted gay man who has to listen to his teammates talk about their girlfriends, wives, and kids. Kip, I think, is someone a lot of new adults can empathize with – an underemployed college graduate struggling to find his place in the world. Put the two together, and you’ve got a recipe for ridiculous cuteness. For instance, Kip finds it sexy that Scott wants to talk about his day with him. Scott hasn’t been in a relationship before, and Kip hasn’t been in any serious ones, so some of the cuteness comes from watching them stumble around like little baby ducklings trying to figure out how a relationship works – like when Scott keeps trying to give Kip expensive presents. I’m not a big fan of insta-love, so it was a bit eyebrow-raising how quickly they fall into a serious relationship. They go from meeting at the smoothie shop to Scott contemplating having Kip move in over the course of a few weeks. But, goodness, they’re just so heart-meltingly adorable together that I find it hard to get too worked up about it.

“It’s not a big deal,” Scott tried.
“It is a big deal, Scott! It’s a very big deal! You can’t just…change my whole life!”
“Why not?” Scott said softly. “You changed mine.”

Since Scott is closeted to everyone, their relationship has to be a secret, of course. There is some worrying from him over coming out as the first gay NHL player and how that would affect Kip’s life, but overall it’s pretty low angst. You would not think that book about a man stressing about the effects of coming out on his profession and relationships would be low angst, and yet, somehow, it is. At the same time, it doesn’t downplay the stress that Kip faces as Scott’s dirty little secret. Which all comes down to my main quibble with the book – it’s 100% a smoothie barista Cinderella fairy tale. Realistic it isn’t – well, except for the hockey bits, which seemed pretty well done to my hockey fan self. Again, though, I found Kip and Scott to be so ridiculously cute that I pretty much just shut off the part of my brain complaining about insta-love and everything else. Also, there’s a lot of sex. In-person sex, jerking off, phone sex, webcam sex… This is not something I’d normally complain about it, but there was so much of it I actually skimmed some of the later sex scenes.

Overall, though, this was the fluffy hockey romance I needed right now. Highly recommended to anyone looking for a sweet sports romance!

I received this book for free from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

Sahi K

This was more of a 3.5.

As someone who’s never played a sport in life and doesn’t know much about team sports, it’s really surprising that I fell in love with sports romances this year, especially hockey romances. So when I saw this book on Netgalley, I really couldn’t resist and it was a sweet love story that I very much enjoyed.

Kip is a young, handsome, extroverted history major who is unhappy in his job as a barista and is quite unsure of what he wants to do in life. He has a great supportive family and awesome friends but seems slightly low on confidence which is supplemented by his huge college debt. But that doesn’t stop him from flirting with the gorgeous NY hockey team captain Scott. 

Scott may have been in the closet for a long time, but he is tired of keeping his secret and is very lonely which is affecting his game too. So, when he meets Kip and feels that instant connection with him, he decides to take a chance for the first time in his life. Their chemistry is scorching hot right from the get go and it doesn’t take long for the declarations of love.

Their relationship definitely feels very insta, but the author makes it very believable. They are a very cheesy couple, completely moony over each other and quite perfect. The conflict is pretty obvious and predictable, but it did need to happen because for a long time in the book, Kip gave a lot of himself for the relationship but Scott was happy to keep it limited just to the four walls of his house. When they finally did resolve their issues, it was quick and sweet and the ending was very very romantic which I enjoyed.

I don’t usually mind reading romances which would probably put me in a sugar coma and I really did enjoy the love story here, but there were some things that could have been done better. There are a lot of sex scenes here and while I do like some steam in my romances, it got boring after a while. Kip and Scott’s conversations were a lot of fun and I would have liked to see more of that. The coming out of Scott is also made out to be a big deal throughout and while I really admired the way he did it, it was just too easy and we never get to see the consequences. However, it was nice to see him supported by his teammates and coach and wish that was the case in real life too.

Overall, this was a very charming, sweet and sexy love story with low angst, but it did manage to make me emotional sometimes. I would recommend it when you need some cheesiness in your life.

PS: Thank you to Netgalley and Carina Press for providing me an advance copy of this book. All opinions expressed are unbiased and entirely mine.

Game Changer 3

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