Brady's Story: A Hockey Bois Story

by A.L. Heard

Brady Jensen's life is he goes to work, he plays hockey, and he keeps to himself. Things get a lot more complicated when Nick Porter, a new teammate on the Jags Bombs, enters the picture. Maybe that's for the best, though?

Genres: Hockey, Sports, M M Romance, Romance, LGBT

72 pages, Kindle Edition

Published July 30, 2024

About the author

Ashley, pen name A.L. Heard, fandom name jhoom, is a 34 year old teacher, writer, and mother of two little boys. She’s been writing fanworks since she discovered ff.net back in her middle school days; the platform has changed and the writing’s improved, but Ashley ultimately still spends her free time writing about characters she adores in worlds she’d like to explore. Her first novel, Hockey Bois, was published in 2021. In between writing projects, she works as a language teacher in the Pittsburgh area, plays hockey, and plays trains with her sons.

Reviews

[Dani · Rating 4 out of 5]

I can't fully remember the events of Hockeybois, but I do remember really enjoying Nick and Brady's story, so it was nice to get Brady's POV of significant events for him throughout the book.

It made it easier to empathise and relate to Brady instead of thinking he was a bit of a dickhead to Nick most of the time!

[Nick Vallina (MisterGhostReads) · Rating 5 out of 5]

I super loved Hockey Bois: A Beer League Romance by A.L. Heard but the ONE THING I wanted most of all was an Epilogue several months later. This companion novel gives us that.

It ALSO gives a lot of nice scenes that can be slotted into the original novel from Brady's perspective. I think this is a must read if you enjoyed the book. It really gives more time and light to Brady's depression and makes it feel less "crammed in there at the end" (though in Nick's perspective it really was out-of-nowhere kind of so it didn't irk me as much as some other reviewers).

I dunno. I love these two sweet adorable hockey dummies and loved having some more in this companion piece.
TBH I desperately need a full-ass sequel please.

[chelseaerinreads · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was fun to read because I loved Hockey Bois so much! I don’t think it really added anything to the story so I’m glad it wasn’t included in the original. I probably would have enjoyed this more if I read it closer to reading the original book. My obsession has faded so it didn’t hit as hard.

[Sandy Kay · Rating 1 out of 5]

As far as filling in blanks for Hockey Bois, this does...not much. We get Brady's excuses for treating Nick poorly and holding him at arm's length, and every single time, spoiler alert! the excuse is, "but OMG what if he acts the way the kids in high school acted! He might treat me the same way they did!"

Uh. How old are we? It reads like self-protection to the point of being a bad friend. Excuse after excuse for making decisions like a 15 year old. Actually my 15 year old is more mature than this.

It doesn't include insight that would actually be insightful to experience, such as Brady when he realizes Nick got HIM a present for white elephant, or Brady in the moment at Nick's family picnic, or Brady actually at his sister's wedding without a plus one (we see the day before), or, Brady's thoughts just before he and Nick are finally intimate (all we get is an annoying aftermath where all Brady's thinking is Oh yay! I can be horny now! There's zero emotional insight into why he finally went for it with Nick). It also includes a bizarre scene with a co-worker at Brady's job, and I realized after reading it that I still have NO IDEA what his job even is, or why we needed to meet "Mirah" his colleague, or see him at work at all given it's clearly a nonentity in his life. I think he's in marketing? For what and what his expertise is, I have no idea.

The moment it shares that I truly wanted to see is the time in the PA bar with Brady's high school "friend" (if you can call her that, frankly, I wouldn't), Aimes, so we could find out what the hell she said to him that freaked him out to the point that he treated Nick like a disease, and the reveal is so frustrating that I almost wished I hadn't found out. Because the weak and ridiculous reason Brady does a 180 and freaks out/decides oh gosh no clutch pearls I just CAN'T risk pursuing anything with Nick even though I set it up and have been looking forward to it is a weak-ass reminder of...you guessed it...how assholes treated him in high school. OMG Nick might behave like we're in high school and bully me even though I have experienced nothing but kindness, patience, and great friendship from him ever since we met! I will now not talk to him about why I'm shutting him out, and hope he gets the clue to not confront me about my incredibly egregious behavior! Grow TF up, Brady.

It was so disappointing. I thought there might actually be solid motive for his about face. Turns out it was just the friend intimating that "what happened to you in high school is probably going to happen again if you take a chance on that guy!" even though she never met Nick, knows zip about him, and they're all in their late 20s now.

By the time we get to a brief scene of his sister Lucy telling him to get TF off her couch and go back to Maryland to fix things, I was beyond exasperation. Brady's "revelation" is, Oh. Yeah. Talk to Nick! What a GREAT idea. I should do THAT! #facepalm (plus, I already know Lucy already texted Nick and told NICK it was all NICK'S responsibility to "fix this" and she'd do her part by getting Brady to come back to MD so NICK could fix it. Gee thanks Lucy. Way to pass the buck for Brady so he can continue to bear no responsibility whatsoever for his absolute utter shite behavior. Let's not even get into him NOT EVEN TELLING THE TEAM HE WOULDN'T BE AT GAMES AND GHOSTING ALL OF THEM TOO).

The enabling of Brady's crappy treatment of Nick and even his teammates abounds everywhere. God forbid we confront Brady about it! It might upset him!

Anyway, yes Brady has anxiety and trauma and does need to care for himself. Absolutely. But he chooses to deal with it by not dealing with it and instead yanking his "friend" around and treating him like garbage, even though he gets nothing but green flag after green flag, patience, sweetness, insightfulness, and a likeminded sense of humor and love of hockey from Nick. Yeah, watch out for that guy. He's SUPER sketchy. #sarcasm

Very insightful. #moresarcasm

[Paupy · Rating 4 out of 5]

A nice additional read after Hockey Bois! I wanted to read more about Brady's and his thought process after the trauma he went through and this explored it well and added more to his story than what the original work could have done.

So like with the other side story, I would highly recommend reading it after Hockey Bois, but be prepared to be really emotional as you are reading from Brady's POV.

[Tara · Rating 2 out of 5]

My biggest issue with Hockey Bois is that we didn't get Brady's side of the story, so I was really excited when I saw this was available on KU. However, unfortunately I don't think that the short amount of time we had with Brady's POV was enough to give him a distinct voice. Super fans of Hockey Bois might enjoy this but otherwise I don't think it adds much.

[Gabi · Rating 5 out of 5]

this added so much context for Brady and I’m grateful for it. it also cleared up why Brady’s depression felt sort of thrown in at the end - I suspect this POV was either written at the same time & cut or in the authors head when she was writing. either way, I was thrilled for more Brady

[Mollie - moll.ereads · Rating 4 out of 5]

Shut up Brady Jensen is so important and real to me

[Sarah McKnight · Rating 5 out of 5]

Really enjoyed seeing Brady's side of the story!

[Meyda · Rating 4 out of 5]

Knocked down a star because the author didn't really include fresh materials and fresh materials were the reason I started reading in the first place :/

Still enjoyable though!

[Juliet · Rating 3 out of 5]

Less a story and more context for what on earth Brady is doing in Hockey Bois.

[Lingovise · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5…. Truly wish this had been a complete standalone novel from Brady’s perspective. It’s quite wonderful, just far too short.

[juli✨ · Rating 3 out of 5]

i wanted to re-read hockey bois … saw it was $9.99 on amazon … i am cheap … decided to read this instead <3

[Dylan (bearded.bibliomaniac) · Rating 4 out of 5]

4 / 5

Spoilery discussion about Hockey Bois ahead.

Hockey Bois: Brady’s Story does a good job of showing Brady's inner thoughts throughout the course of Hockey Bois - especially since he's got such a thick, impenetrable shell. We get to see his struggle with depression on a more intimate level, and we get more insight into why he withdraws from Nick after Pennsylvania and the picnic with Nick's family.

I enjoyed that this fleshed out some characters in Brady's family, and we see sides of characters we hadn't already.

It's definitely worth the read if you enjoyed book one, it expanded on the epilogue and it adds some new content, too.

[Rhode PVD · Rating 4 out of 5]

A few scenes from the original novel from Brady’s POV. We don’t learn much aside from the fact that Nick is blonde with brown eyes (which honestly helps me - I always like to know key characters’ hair.) Also, there’s a scene at Brady’s job, which has been a mystery heretofore, and a short but sweet epilogue.

BTW: You can get this via the author’s Kofi account in epub format. It’s not on Amazon.

[Matt · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.1. Shorter