Book Blog #370: Role Model by Rachel Reid

 

Title: Role Model

Author: Rachel Reid

# of Pages: 341 (ebook)

Genre: Adult, Romance, Contemporary

Rating: ★★★☆☆

Synopsis: The hits just keep coming for Troy Barrett. Traded to the worst team in the league would be bad enough, but coming on the heels of a messy breakup and a recent scandal… Troy just wants to play hockey and be left alone. He doesn’t want to be in the news anymore, and he definitely doesn’t want to “work on his online presence” with the team’s peppy social media manager. Harris Drover can tell standoffish Troy isn’t happy about the trade—anyone could tell, frankly, as he doesn’t exactly hide it well—but Harris doesn’t give up on people easily. Even when he’s developing a crush he’s sure is one-sided. And when he sees Troy’s smile finally crack through his grumpy exterior, well… That’s a man Harris couldn’t turn his back on if he wanted to. Suddenly, Troy’s move to the new team feels like an opportunity—for Troy to embrace his true self, and for both men to surrender to their growing attraction. But indulging in each other behind closed doors is one thing, and for Troy, being in a public relationship with Harris will mean facing off with his fears, once and for all.

Review: It's possible that if Heated Rivalry didn't already have an amazingly produced TV show with extremely likable actors to bias my impression of the story, Role Model could be my favorite book of the series.

Reid isn't doing anything revolutionary here; the topic she's pushing this time is related to sexual assault and what it means to be an ally. As always, the book leans deeper and deeper into the hopecore as the story progresses, and as a pessimist it actually gives me the ick. All of these problems are resolved so nicely, everyone is so supportive; it's basically a fantasy at this point. 

But what IS new is that Reid wrote a REALLY likable new character: Harris. I was hesitant when starting this book because I already thought Ryan Price in Tough Guy was too much of a side character, and Troy Barrett seemed to be tangential off of Ryan. Was this character too far removed from the original characters for me to care about him? But his love interest Harris is so funny; I was literally laughing out loud. Paired with Troy as a more serious, uptight guy, they complimented each other well.

Based on the timeline and Ilya/Shane mentions, there's a lot of overlap with The Long Game. I actually felt like I was missing out on a lot of key Ilya/Shane details that I'm now excited to read about in the next book.

If there's any non-Ilya+Shane book to read from this series, this is the book!