Book Blog #371: The Long Game by Rachel Reid

 

Title: The Long Game

Author: Rachel Reid

# of Pages: 453 (ebook)

Genre: Adult, Romance, Contemporary

Rating: ★★★★☆

Synopsis: Ten years. That’s how long Shane Hollander and Ilya Rozanov have been seeing each other. How long they’ve been keeping their relationship a secret. From friends, from family…from the league. If Shane wants to stay at the top of his game, what he and Ilya share has to remain secret. He loves Ilya, but what if going public ruins everything? Ilya is sick of secrets. Shane has gotten so good at hiding his feelings, sometimes Ilya questions if they even exist. The closeness, the intimacy, even the risk that would come with being open about their relationship…Ilya wants it all. It’s time for them to decide what’s most important—hockey or love. It’s time to make a call.

Review: I honestly don't think this book is particularly better then the other books I enjoyed in this series (Heated Rivalry, Role Model, etc.) but SOME book in this series has to get the coveted 4 stars to show how addicted I am to these Game Changers books.

Here's my justification for the extra star; while ALL of the Game Changers book are DEEPLY hopecore, The Long Game has that underlying feeling of hopelessness and angst that makes the story even more irresistible. Shane and Ilya have already done the formula all the other books have gone through of becoming a couple, which allows this "sequel" to their love story concentrate on other relationship problems (long distance, compromises) as well as broader issues with themselves and those around them (mental health, systemic homophobia/bigotry).

As typical of romance books (and staying on the hopecore theme), The Long Game still has the typical happy ending and wraps up any lingering issues into some (too) easy resolution. But similarly (and actually more so than Heated Rivalry), I thought the ending actually had a good amount of tragedy too. This puts it a step above the endings for the other books in the series; it feels a bit more realistic because not EVERYTHING is just sunshines and roses.

Don't get me wrong; this book is far from perfect. The beginning 1/4-1/2 of the book dragged because of all the story "recap"/overlap with other books (I was worried Reid didn't know how to write an actual romantic sequel without focusing on new characters). It seemed like The Long Game was treated as a reunion episode where EVERY lead character from the previous books gets their time in the lime light. 

Since I read all of these books in rapid succession, all the sex scenes sound the same to me and was actually one of my least favorite parts of this book (they kept having sex instead of talking/doing something more plot relevant). All the dirty talk is about the same across all the lead characters of the book (they start slurring and speaking in the same sentence fragments), so it gets really old by book 6. 

Once again, shout out to the Heated Rivalry show for making it so easy to imagine and love these characters, even if we are a long ways from the second season. 

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!