Season's Change: Trade Season, Book 1

Trade Season #1

by Cait Nary

A veteran hockey player and a rookie can't get away from each other—or their own desires—in this sexy, heartfelt opposites-attract hockey romance.

Olly Järvinen has a long way to go. He's got a fresh start playing for a new team, but getting his hockey career back on track is going to take more than a change of scenery. He's got to shut his past out and focus. On the game, not on his rookie roommate and his annoyingly sunny disposition—and annoyingly distracting good looks.

All Benji Bryzinski ever wanted was to play in the big leagues, and he's not going to waste one single second of his rookie season. Yoga, kale smoothies, and guided meditation help keep his head in the game. But his roommate keeps knocking him off track. Maybe it's just that Olly is a grumpy bastard. Or maybe it's something else, something Benji doesn't have a name for yet.

Olly and Benji spend all their time together—on the ice, in the locker room, in their apartment—and ignoring their unspoken feelings isn't making them go away. Acting on attraction is one thing, but turning a season's fling into forever would mean facing the past—and redefining the future.

Contains mature themes.

Genres: Romance, Sports, Hockey, M M Romance, Sports Romance, Contemporary, Queer

Audible Audio

First published February 1, 2022

Reviews

[lila · Rating 4 out of 5]

fellas is it gay if you wanna wake up with your buddy slash male teammate’s hair in your mouth every day for the rest of your life

this was made for me. the roommates/friends/teammates-to-lovers!!! the slow-burn!!! the hurt/comfort!!! the softness!!! the pining!!! the way these two boys were so touch-starved for each other!!! so cuddly!!! god. the writing hit me right in the feels. benji & olly are so precious and endearing 🥹 like my heart was aching whenever the slightest interaction happened between them. domestic + idiots to lovers… i have a type it seems.

i love how this really emphasized on the fact that love doesn’t heal everything, and that accepting someone wholly and exactly the way they are is what leads to the person actually seeking out help and feeling like they’re /seen/. the miscommunication was also realistic in that sense because of course they’d have troubles trying to communicate. one of them is so used to building walls around his heart while the other is used to burying his true feelings so deep even he can’t make them out sometimes.

olly is definitely a new fav character for me because his anxiety and the way it was portrayed? i cried several times because it hit hard. also!! benji’s sunshine personality just won me over. i loved how he would do anything to cheer olly up even if he was oblivious as shit. these two were fucking idiots but the best kind because they took care of each other throughout it and i’m always a sucker for that. i love how they were each other’s lifelines in a way and both of them needed each other!! 😭🩵

the side characters! poiro has my entire heart for how he always has olly’s back, plus his quick and sassy remarks in french just had me gasping. ugh i’d love for him to have his own book someday.

anyways. i’ve rambled enough i think, just know this is definitely one of my favorites this year and i loved how oblivious benji was and yet puppy-like in the sense that he’d immediately sense something was wrong with olly and he’d jump up to make him feel happy again. so lovely. this wasn’t a fluffy, cutesy read by any means so don’t go into it thinking it’s that because it’s also emotional and angsty at points.

[Heather K (dentist in my spare time) · Rating 4 out of 5]

*2025 re-read update*

Knocked down my rating by 0.5 stars this time. Audiobook was good, though one of the narrators sounded vaguely like Kevin from The Office, which took me a bit to get past. There was also too long where these two didn't communicate. But the slow burn was DELICIOUS and I still really loved the story.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

*4.5 stars*

An angsty hockey book with a painfully slow burn, and plus a closeted, anxiety-ridden MC and a sexuality discovery story?? YES AND YES. And from a debut author?? Be still my heart.

Okay, Season's Change is not a perfect book by any stretch. There are about 1,000 "buds" too many (very OTT dude-bro language), and the MCs don't admit feelings for each other until WAY too late (I was checking my Kindle location and scratching my head), but after a string of books that have made me feel nothing at all, I was practically drooling over this tortuous slow burn hockey drama/romance. I stayed up until 2am to finish, and the fact that I had literally no expectations made it all the sweeter.

It's no secret that I love a tortured MC, and if you give me one with hockey?? I'm putty. This book had the right combo of actual hockey scenes and brotastic friendship moments mixed with real, painful emotions and family drama. I was in it 100% of the time, which is for sure saying something. I adored how unique each of the MCs was (I didn't feel like I've read them time and time again), and I just really liked how the MCs got to know one another over time.

Warning: the MCS do hook up with other people on page before they get together. Relationship purists, beware. Also, you need to love a very slow burn (I do) to enjoy this one. However, IMO, this book has been one of the best surprises of 2022, and I absolutely can't wait for more in this series. But please, Cait Nary, a few fewer bro-y nicknames, please.

*Copy provided in exchange for an honest review*

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[moonlight ☾ [semi-hiatus] · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5 stars ☆

“Why didn’t you tell me you were leaving?” he mumbled into the skin of Olly’s shoulder, words blurred into a bass rumble like they got when he was drunk. “I looked for you for ages.”
“I didn’t think you’d notice,” Olly answered, feeling like his chest was made of raw, broke-open edges.
“Shut up, Olly,” Benji said, one big hand sliding over his hip to settle against his stomach and pull him closer. “I always notice you.”

this was so precious omg!! while some moments were heartbreaking bc of what both mcs, Olly and Benji, were dealing with in their personal lives (i just wanted to hug them, especially Olly 😭), their interactions really just made me smile or laugh through most of the book. i loved how Benji’s awakening was written and i think the direction it took in the second half could have gone in many ways, but it truly worked for me bc of where it ended up going. i also loved how Benji was naturally touchy feely with Olly (and we got so many cute and domestic moments bc of it) and, even when he was oblivious, he was still endearing to me, lmao. most of the side characters were great and lovable, such as the teammates (Poiro?? i LOVED him) and the coach, as well as i enjoyed the family moments from Benji and Olly’s families and they had me tearing up a few times. overall, while this isn’t a fluffy book (bc some parts had me crying fr), i had such a fun time reading this. 🥰

[anna · Rating 5 out of 5]

rep: gay mc with anxiety, bi mc, Black side character, Asian side character
tw: internalised homophobia, implied past homophobic abuse, vomiting, panic attacks, toxic parents, blood & violence (hockey)

shut up! this is my comfort food! a romance book has NEVER made me this feral!!! everything abt this is perfectly tailored to my taste

okay so what this books offers:
- an amazing slowburn, and i mean an actual slowburn
- the tension & pining is just *chef kisses*
- super-well fleshed out main characters, which leads to great chemistry btwn them
- great supporting characters as well, a true found family
- very interesting family dynamics, and actually explored too
- a lot of focus on mental health
- an extremely oblivious mc (who only realises he's bi through the course of the book), who's also a bit of a himbo tbh

[Mir · Rating 2 out of 5]

I’m annoyed with this book because it has all the things I love in a hockey romance but none of them were put together well enough for me to have enjoyed this. I feel so sad and unsatisfied.

There are definitely some awesome parts to the book. Olly and Benji are good characters, and relatively well-fleshed out. They have chemistry. The relationships and scenes with the side characters on the team, especially Poiro, are great. There are some really nice moments with Olly and Benji as well, especially when they’re being supportive of each other. They have some lovely moments together that are just…”soft” as the book would describe. Also, there is a lot of hockey in this book which I really love. I love the sport but refuse to support the NHL due to their absolutely disgusting behaviour as an organization, so reading about the game was nice.

However, this book is the slowest of burns I’ve ever read. The first 40% or so was actually quite good. But then around 60% I was exhausted because it was the same ol’ stuff with no real path to resolution. There was barely any romance to be honest. We get the dreaded 80% breakup, of course, but Benji and Olly weren’t even together by then. They hadn’t even remotely discussed anything to do with their relationship. Olly is absolutely drowning in internalized homophobia the entire book, and Benji is clueless as fuck (which is a trait I normally love but didn’t work for me here). Then after a prolonged breakup they get together finally, but still don’t talk things out. There’s zero relationship communication here. One day they nearly literally fall on each other’s dicks and then we watch poor Olly have a meltdown about it for the rest of the book. We never get to see them be together, as a couple. Also, the scene that was the catalyst for Benji thinking of Olly sexually made me really uncomfortable. There is a lot of talk in the book about Olly getting better, getting help for his depression and anxiety. We never see him get better, though.

I still don’t understand exactly what happened with Olly and his previous team. I can’t figure out exactly what happened that Olly needed one of the most savage lawyers he could find. I also can’t figure out what exactly happened with Benji’s family in the past. Benji’s sister is a horrible woman and I’m still unsure if we’re supposed to like her. I’m not sure if the author wanted us to hate her or feel empathy for her. I definitely hated her and her storyline wasn’t even resolved by the end of the book. She treated Benji horribly.

The use of “bro” really put me off as well. I have trouble seeing a true romantic relationship grow when the two MCs call each other bro every five words. Also, the “steamy” scenes were like reading the most vague dictionary on how to perform the acts - they were incredibly dull if they weren’t fade to black. There was also some lingo in here that I struggled to understand that lead me to reread some scenes a few times. Maybe a bit too niche of language?

The last thing I want to note is the misogynistic shit in this book. I have five bookmarks of misogynistic stuff I wanted to talk about but I can summarize most of it: women are only ever called girls in this story. I sure hope it’s not girls the characters are talking about because every single one of them is a sexual object unless she’s a parental figure. In chapter four we get to read a delightful paragraph from Benji’s POV about his billet sister:

Darcy wasn’t allowed in the basement, because she was a smoke show seventeen-year-old and hockey bros were dogs. Not that Benji would have laid a finger on her, even without the warning from Coach that the Deveraux were taking him on as a personal favor because they’d heard what an upstanding young man he was, and that if he fucked this up over pussy, he was DOA.

To summarize: sexualizing children, “protecting” the girl from the boys who “just can’t help themselves” (implying girls need to be kept pure and boys can’t resist their urges), implying the girl can’t make her own decisions and needs adults and nearby boys to dictate her sexual experiences, the use of the word pussy, etc. etc. etc. Rereading this paragraph enrages me all over again. Lastly, the constant use of “man up.” Barf.

I don’t think I’ll continue with this series, unless book two is also about Olly and Benji so maybe I can get some closure on their relationship because I feel incredibly unsatisfied and unfinished.

[Bascal · Rating 1 out of 5]

Big let-down for me. If you want a book with detailed hockey games, this is it. If you want a book that gives you comfort with the hurt and leaves you satisfied and FILLED instead of tired and frustrated...this one isn't for you.

Oh, man....I was REALLY hoping to like this one.
I love sports romance, sunshine and grumpy, angst interweaved with sweetness, and a slow burn. This book, unfortunately, left me unsatisfied and...sad, and not in a good, angst fest way.
It's been a hard couple years, ya'll! I love me some angst but the reason I love romance is because it feels like comfort food....and there was just no comfort in this reading experience.

First of all, I feel like the sunshine and grumpy dynamic wasn't embraced like it could have. I love that trope and really respect when it's done in a new and fresh way, but this dynamic just felt kind of stale without hitting the sweet spot.

Most of all, I felt like the book was a little exploitative of mental health problems, especially those that arise with internalized homophobia. I do like when these things are shown and given a voice, but in this book, these things were used to give some angst but without showing any true recovery and I'm kind of over that?

Why is it always the trauma that gets all the attention, and not the recovery? I guess it's not as sexy to a lot of people?
And I don't want some magic-d*ck thing where the other main character is the whole solution and only reason it gets better, either...

We need more good sports romances!!! This is not it!!!

::TLDT left me feeling tired and unsatisfied. Do not recommend.::
(Will be moved to main account when issues resolved)

[Mila · Rating 1 out of 5]

***1.5 had enough of the bro talk stars***


Dnf 😔

Time of death: @ 20%


I guess they let anyone become a writer nowadays. The writing was just painful....

I fell asleep twice while reading it. That should tell ya how it went down. Tsk tsk.

[Drache.... (Angelika) · Rating 5 out of 5]

Reread 01/2026
My only regret is that I didn't reread this sooner. Bumping it up to all time favourite, because I was hooked from the first to the last page.
--------------
Read 03/2024
5 stars.
LOVED Olly and Benji. So, so much.
Who else I loved:
Their teammates (Poiro!!).
Olly's brothers.
Their coach.
Benji's former billet family.
And no, Olly's dad is not on this list, I hated him. I hate parents who pressure (=mistreat) their children because they want them to reach their full potential. It makes me sick.
I didn't particularly like Benji's sister, but I appreciated how the author decided to flesh out her character, never OTT but in a realistic way. I felt sorry for her.

The storyline was awesome, I felt every step of the way with Olly and Benji. I'm already happy that I'm going to reread this some time in the not so distant future.
It took me long to get into the story because of the abrupt writing style, but the longer I read, the more it felt completely in sync with the MCs's thoughts.
I loved that therapy was central to the plot, I appreciated how Benji felt about mental health being part of an athlete's concern as well as physical training and healthy nutrition (and I appreciated that parts of a vegan diet were mentioned and not ridiculed like many authors do). It was lovely to see how Olly slowly took Benji's advise and got stronger and healthier.
I loved how much they were there for each other, and how fierce their teammates' support was, on the ice as well as off the ice, when dealing with Benji's brother in law or Olly's dad for example.


Last note - mild SPOILERS ahead:
I had read in the comments of lila's review (btw thanks lila for reminding me of this book!) what was going to happen around the 50% mark and was on one hand grateful for the heads up but still apprehensive how I'd feel about a threesome between the MCs and a random woman, before the MCs got together. But I was surprised and so glad that the author wrote it the way she did. It was a short scene, they were drunk, and thankfully it didn't trigger spontaneous "he's mine" reactions.

[Carol (bookish_notes) · Rating 2 out of 5]

I guess my rating for this book entirely depends on WHO book 2 is going to be about. And if it’s not a continuation with Olly and Benji…? I don’t think this ending gives enough ENDING because it just feels like there should be more. Like, we haven’t even had a chance to see Olly and Benji being actual boyfriends and this book just feels like the beginning of their relationship? I wouldn’t say this book ends in a HEA, but a HFN if you want something to call it. So. Yeah. I’m not entire happy about this book and the way it ended.

Let me back up.

I love the hockey in this book, I love the camaraderie between hockey teammates, and I think there are really sweet and tender moments between Olly and Benji that I ADORED. But where there are highs, there are some pretty low lows for me. What started as a book that was probably 5 stars for me just winded up floundering around the halfway mark and the story never fully recovered after that.

Content notes include depression, anxiety, panic attacks, homomisia, intense fear of coming out, mentions of abuse/bullying, mentions of emotionally abusive relationships, a secondary character staying in an emotionally abusive relationship throughout the entire book, and violence.

Although the series name is called Trade Deadline, nobody of note actually gets traded after the book starts? Oliver “Olly” Järvinen gets traded from the Minnesota Wolves to the Washington Eagles before the story begins and we first see him at training camp. He’s been playing hockey for a couple seasons now at 24 years old and had skipped college to go pro. He had an extremely bad time with the Wolves after his hockey roommate found out he’s gay, and he’s just going through a LOT. Olly is not in a good headspace when the book starts.

Then he gets paired up with his new roommate - 21-year-old defenseman and rookie on the Eagles, Benji Bryzinski. Benji is everything Olly is not. Or at least he appears to be. Benji just appears to be super pumped about…everything? He does yoga, drinks veggie smoothies, and openly talks about going to therapy. Olly is resistant to all of these things.

You could say Olly is the grumpy one, and Benji is the sunshine one in this relationship. But it also runs much deeper than that - like WHY is Olly so grumpy all the time, or after everything he’s been through, HOW does Benji manage to exude so much sunshine with everyone he meets.

One of the highlights for me in this book is the hockey. The hockey play here is quite immersive and there’s a LOT of hockey. I loved it but I feel like there’s going to be a lot of people who won’t. If I wasn’t familiar with watching and trying to learn the sport since I’ve been on a hockey romance kick, I think a lot of it will be confusing because nothing is really explained? There’s definitely a certain level of expectation here where you need to be familiar with hockey like the whole idea of farm teams, billet families, and just what everything MEANS. There’s no dictionary/glossary in this book (or at least no placeholders I can see with the arc). So, I can see folks more interested in the romance part of sport romance books to maybe not be so interested in all the hockey in this story? But I was LIVING for it.

I’ll get more into this in a bit, but this is also why when all the hockey suddenly comes to an end at the 75% mark, it felt abrupt and left me aimless and baffled that hockey suddenly disappeared from the story. It’s certainly not like we had a romance to prop up the last quarter of this book.

What’s weird, and took me awhile to realize, is this book is dealing entirely with a fictional pro hockey league called the NAHA rather than sticking to imagined teams in the existing NHL. The choice is more baffling when you realize the NFL teams in this book are actual NFL teams, so why not stick to the NHL? Who knows.

When I say the middle part of this book is where this story started to fall apart for me, it’s because of a totally unnecessary threesome. Like, I LOVE an enthusiastically consenting threesome, ménage, or polyam scene. But this was NOT.

Olly knows he’s gay and has zero interest in women. Benji doesn’t think he’s interested in men at all and has only been having sex with women throughout this entire book. Olly and Benji are at an event and they are both very drunk. And then Benji invites a woman to go back to their apartment with him and then the both of them hook a drunk Olly into a threesome. Olly is too drunk to properly beg off and when he realizes the full extent of what happened the night before he feels so bad he throws up and hides from Benji. Like??? How is this okay?? WHY was this scene even necessary??? Olly was already feeling awful and experiencing some pretty intense angst before this and THIS being the ~pushing~ point where Olly winds up telling his brothers he’s gay just leaves me feeling…ick.

For a book coming out in 2022, I though we were far past the point in m/m books with unnecessary, not fun m/f/m threesomes shoved in, BUT I GUESS NOT.

The story takes a major fumble here for me and never truly recovers. When we see the end of the hockey season, I DID like the vacationing the hockey guys did in Mexico. Just chilling and relaxing on the beach is fun. Olly and Benji starting to really feel their feels about each other was fun too.

This is a massively slow burn of a book. And I LIKE slow burns. But this story moves very, very, very sloooowly. I think there’s definitely a delicate balance in delivering a slow burn and knowing how much story is left to give the characters time to actually be together. But this book somehow completely misses that balance, in my opinion. We wind up with a much hated third act breakup, which winds up with a further delayed resolution of the guys getting back together. It just feels way too late. There’s no space in this book for Olly and Benji to truly be themselves, out with their teammates, and Olly not feeling so burdened by his fear of people finding out he’s gay. There’s no room to breathe a sigh of relief and just for us to be happy for Olly and Benji because then the book is OVER. No real epilogue either.

The only thing that can save this book for me is if the second book in this series is also about Olly and Benji. At the time I’m reading this arc (3 months from publication), there’s no “official” news who book 2 will be about - only hints at other characters off the author’s twitter.

Because if not Olly and Benji? What a waste. All that time for them to realize their feelings for each other and that’s it? This could have the beginnings of an epic love story and a series worth re-reading, but if book 2 isn’t with Olly and Benji navigating their new relationship, then this falls flat for me.

Everyone else in this book seems to be giving off cishet vibes (which is also strange for a m/m hockey series like WHERE are the other queer characters). Judging by the (again, useless) series name, the only character getting traded I can recall from this book is Stormy, the goalie who we barely saw or interacted with. So? That’s weird. Usually you have a book setting up characters for future books but this book gives me nothing but wanting more Olly and Benji. And maybe some queer side characters at the very least. From the author’s tweet about lines from the next book, it seems like it’s about characters we haven’t met.

And regarding Olly and the Wolves. I don’t understand the threats of lawsuits and the threat of what waivers mean for Olly at all. Who is suing who? Are the Wolves threatening to sue Olly if he tells of the abuses he suffered from the coach and the players, or is league threatening to sue the Wolves if they tell? I can’t make heads or tails about it. None of that whole thing makes any sense to me. And what does the waivers thing even mean? Just no clue at all.

Another problem I had with this book is the way Krista’s, Benji’s sister, storyline plays out. Krista is trying her hardest to be an influencer and make money to support herself. She currently dating an awful hockey guy named Rob who cheats on her all the time and seems emotionally abusive (from what I gather from Benji’s perspective). She doesn’t leave Rob. Ever. Or wise up to the fact that she SHOULD. The whole storyline with Krista cutting off Benji but then only getting back on talking terms in a shallow sense is very disappointing to read about. It would’ve been nice to see Krista leave and be independent and successful in her own right, and for Benji to have his sister back again. I just felt like this subplot one this story is a huge unresolved deadweight that leaves me disappointed.

I think there are GOOD moments in this book that I really did love reading about. This book feels like it handles mental health well? But there’s just too many frustrating decisions made with the book and the story points where this definitely feels like a debut and leaves me disappointed on too many fronts.

***Thanks to the publisher for providing me this ARC on NetGalley***


Initial Reaction: finished it. thinking about what I want to rate it. if book 2 was staying with Olly and Benji, I would give it more leniency and give this book 4 stars. But if not, I think this is more of a 2 star book for me because of the last quarter of the book? i am conflicted.

[Kathleen in Oslo · Rating 4 out of 5]

Cat Sebastian tweeted about the MCs of this book: "One brain cell, and they use it to take care of each another." Which is both delightful and a pretty accurate summation of the book as a whole.

This is a gay-biawakening hockey romance taking place in a fictionalized NHL, where the setup is that the two MCs, Olly and Benji, are put together as roommates when they turn up for pre-season training camp for the Washington Eagles. Olly is going into his 4th season; he was traded to DC after a traumatizing season with his hometown team in Minnesota, where he was subjected to sustained homophobic bullying and physical violence from his roommate and teammates. Olly is almost entirely closeted; a small circle of people know he's gay because of the legal fallout of his experience in Minnesota, but this was essentially a forced outing, not something he chose (all this is off-page btw). Benji is in his first season in the big leagues, after spending a few years doing college and farm league hockey. His back story is that of a poor kid let down by the adults in his life, who has (entirely justifiably) cut off contact with his mom and who has a complicated, difficult relationship with his sister (herself married to a pro hockey player on a different team who's a total shit). But while Olly tries to deal with his trauma by denying it/ powering through it/ not dealing with it and hoping it will go away, Benji is exactly the opposite: he approaches his mental health (particularly anger issues) in the same way he approaches his diet, his physical training, etc - as something to deal with head-on, in order to maximize his chance for success on the ice. This "everything for hockey" attitude also characterizes his approach to relationships - which is to say that he is much more comfortable with one-night stands/ friends with benefits/ no-strings type relationships since they demand none of the attention that he only wants to give to hockey.

So that's the starting point for a slow-burn that is just as much about building trust and building a friendship and finding one's place in a team and in one's own family as it is about steam and pining. It's really beautifully done, with the heavy issues - primarily Olly's trauma, internalized homophobia, and severe anxiety issues, but also Benji's dysfunctional relationship with his sister - dealt with sensitively and with empathy, and lightened by a good dash of humor, lots of hockey details, and an enjoyable, polished writing style.

I am a sucker for biawakening stories where the, uh, biawakened is totally chill about the whole thing, and that is the case here. Benji has fooled around with other dudes, both in configurations with women and, one-on-one, with a previous road roomie, and has been the recipient but not giver of "bro jobs" (which, heh), but has never considered himself anything other than straight. Insofar as he freaks out, it's about being in love as an aspect of human existence for which he is entirely unprepared, as opposed to being attracted to/ in love with a guy. Let's just say he handles this heretofore unexamined dimension of his sexuality in a much more laid back way than Olly, who is the very opposite of laid back. Once their relationship goes from tentative friends to good friends to good friends with benefits, the main tension stems from Olly's inherent inability to believe that the feelings can possibly be mutual, real, and lasting - which, admittedly, is a fair enough thing to angst about, given Benji's rather steadfast obliviousness and refusal to consider his own feelings at all, instead slotting his thing with Olly automatically into "two dude friends who jerk each other off" brainspace rather than "two dudes totally in love with each other" brainspace.

I do think that there is a point at which things slide into the "if these two people would only talk to each other like mature adults, this would all be easily resolved" territory. Olly is so damn afraid to make himself vulnerable and have a real discussion with Benji - about Olly's own sexuality, about Benji's sexuality, about Olly's experiences with his former team and how that affected him, about their feelings - that one does start to get a bit impatient. Then again, I am the expert in avoiding difficult discussions, assuming the worst, and taking all my sorrows in advance, so I could be reacting to these traits in Olly because they are what drive me the most crazy about myself. Typically enough, it is Benji who finally tries to initiate discussion with Olly, who, um, doesn't react well. But he's also the one who takes the first step back, despite all his fears. It's a really lovely, hard-won journey.

The hockey part was extremely well done (says the person who learned everything she knows about hockey from Rachel Reid). I was, like, googling stuff. I now know what a celly is. Valuable knowledge, that.

I guess my only complaint is that it wraps up really quickly. I mean, all that pining and slow burn and angst and then it gets resolved and then, bam, epilogue time. It seemed too sudden and abrupt. I wanted more Benji and Olly!

But all in all, an absorbing slow burn (b)romance full of feels and big men hitting little pucks and a very sensitively handled story of two men who learn to trust each other, learn to forgive themselves, and learn that loving someone else doesn't make you weaker, but stronger.

ETA that I originally had this at 4.5 stars rounded up to 5, but on reflection I changed it to round down to 4 -- mostly because of the abruptness of the ending and the feeling that it was more a tentative HFN than a proper HEA. Still a great debut, though!

[Cat the bookworm (semi hiatus ish) · Rating 4 out of 5]

There’s a lot that I loved in this debut hockey romance. And a few things I wasn’t a fan of.

Let’s start with the things I didn’t care about, and that’s mainly the over-abundance of dude-bro talk, even between the two main characters. Oliver is a very closeted 24 yo NAHA hockey player, who had some kind of traumatic experience with his last team when his roommate found out he’s gay. We don’t get to know what happened, only that he’s obviously gotten beaten up and tossed out, and that his lawyers and his agent had some kind of nda/agreement of sorts afterwards with the bullying team. That’s another thing I wasn’t a huge fan of: with how hard this incident impacted him, I would have wanted to understand more of what had happened.

In his new team, he’s rooming in with Benji, a 21yo (mostly) sunshine/himbo character. It’s impossible to NOT love Benji, so ofc, even though he fights it tooth and nails, Olly falls in love, even if Benji is oblivious for a VERY long time.

This very long skirting and each other, the slowest of all slow burns, I actually enjoyed. Yes, there were moments where I glanced at the percentage of my kindle and wanted to SCREAM at them to FINALLY get their shit together, but tbh it’s not a small accomplishment for a debut!!! novel to get me as invested as I was in this romance. Their chemistry was palpable, and I just couldn’t comprehend how long it took Benji to realise that he’s more than bromancing his roommate.

The side characters - really well written, not only their teammates, but their respective families, too. I was frustrated with Benji’s sister, and I might have shed a tear or two when Olly’s father had “the talk” towards the end of the book.

It ends with a hfn, which - again - is more realistic than most sports romances, even if we collectively would wish otherwise. And I like that the issues both of them had (Benji with anger management, and Olly with depression/panic attacks) weren’t brushed off or dealt with too easily.

All in all a very well written hockey romance - I think if you’re a fan of Heated Rivalry(which, according to the author, was the push she needed to start writing this book), you might love this one, too ❤️

[Rina Pride · Rating 5 out of 5]

loving reading books with hockey players 🏒 is my new addiction. I love this story 🤩I felt like reading more moments of the protagonists. The only character I didn't like was Krista, unbearable character

[ash · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was just fantastic. Really well- and lovingly drawn characters, a near perfect amount of hockey, emotional work that felt really authentic and realistic, and just, phenomenally strong writing. I laughed a lot while reading this and also cried like, three times and, as is frankly always most important in a romance, swooned early and often. I love the secondary characters here, so much, especially the team, but also Olly's siblings and the wives and girlfriends who make brief appearances and still manage to feel like whole people. I love Olly, but Benji is the star of the show for me here -- a big dopey big-hearted guy? My favorite? Who could guess! -- and I don't think I've loved a romantic lead so much in a long, long while, maybe not since Lane in Avon Gale's Breakaway.

I stayed up until two am to finish this one and over the course of reading it sent my wife thirty different screenshots of things I wanted to yell about to her and I really can't offer any higher praise than that.

Thanks to Carina for the ARC!

ETA 01/16/2025: I reread this in 2022 and apparently didn't re-review, but I listened to the audiobook this week and had a wonderful time all over again. I really love these characters and I think Nary does such a lovely job rendering not only their feelings, but their personalities, which is something I often find lacking in romances. And my god I had forgotten how good the first kiss is in this, drawn out in the most tortuously enjoyable way. The sex is good in general, but good god that kiss is probably one of the best I've ever read. Benji Bryzinski is right up there with Ilya Rozanov in the recent-ish beloved characters tier and my life is better for it!

[BigGoose · Rating 2 out of 5]

1.5/5

It’s so weird when you read a book that has all the elements you like, but the reading experience is just not enjoyable.

I had to take some time to figure out what I didn’t like about this book. Some stories I can just say ‘this isn’t for me’ and move along, but technically I like this TYPE of book! it's a little unconventional in it not being a perfect, neatly packaged romance with its usual tropes, climax, and neatly wrapped ending, and I usually LOVE that...but this one just didn’t do it for me.

What I concluded is that this book is just…bland. Like, you know that feeling of reading a good book, when you just can’t get enough, totally absorbed, desperate to know what happens to the characters? Yeah, that’s what’s missing.

And, fair, it’s kinda hard to find a book that totally encapsulates that, but this one missed by a hundred miles. I don’t mind books on the longer end of the spectrum (for romance) but this FELT long. Instead of reading eagerly, I wished it was a physical book so I could flip ahead easily or see how much was left. I felt like when I was a kid and I would count how many maths problems were left to do.
It just wasn’t entertaining, didn’t hook me. I could see what the characters were trying to make me feel but the writing just didn’t get me there.

Even for fans of hockey romance I would move right along and save yourself some time…

[Sam · Rating 2 out of 5]

*Received from NetGalley for Honest Review*
First, let me start with my decision for a two star review. Ordinarily, I might have given it three, but when it came down to it: I didn't like this book. I liked Olly. I liked Benji. I liked their vibe. But the book itself... Ugh. It felt like Jonsey and Reilly from Letterkenny were taking over every time there was a Hockey Bro talk. It seriously detracted from the likability of basically any other character. It was also just so long... it took nearly half the book for them to finally kiss and all the steamy bits were vague. Which is fine, if the rest of the book has something going for it. But this one didn't. I was done reading about a 100 pages before it *actually* finished...but I pressed on just to write this review.

Pros: Olly deals with some real issues, the characters are likeable, and the premise itself isn't one that I've read a dozen times already as I'm burning my way through every gay hockey novel there is.

Cons: I already mentioned the Broski speak. The side-plot with Krista seems to just dangle to the side and doesn't actually add anything but angst. Also, I'm just gonna say it: the characters are bi-phobic. I hope that isn't the intent of the author (as Benji is clearly bi or pan --and YES those are two different things), but really... if Benji has the self awareness to know that he likes having threesomes with another dude...he should have the self-awareness that he's into guys.

My last complaint is that I didn't see a lot of character growth in either of the two main characters and they both needed it. Olly needed desperately to handle his shit; he made steps to doing so, but then...never had the conversation with Benji about what happened with the Wolves (to be honest, I'm not sure that *I* completely understand other than the homophobic coach). It's good that he finally came out to his family, but that's about it. He ghosted his therapist when he needed her most, and yoga is only going to do so much, my dude.

This is the start of a new series and I honestly can't say whether or not I'll read another one. It might come down to who the next pair is (considering the series title is Trade Season, my guess is Stormy and we'll be going on to his next team? Or perhaps some new trade to the team that I just don't recall because at that point I had zero fucks left). I definitely wouldn't pay to read another one, that's for sure. (...Thank goodness for Netgalley and libraries).

[Ian · Rating 1 out of 5]

Love hockey. Love romance. Did NOT love this book. Don't even know what to say. A drag :(

[peach · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5 stars
When I first started reading this book I thought I would end up really liking it, but unfortunately it just didn't end up working for me.

The characters
When our MCs, Olly and Benji, first meet, we see that Benji is very in touch with himself, aware of the importance of mental health, and compassionate towards Olly, whom he wants to help since Olly is not doing great. I loved seeing them set up their apartment and get to know each other, but while these two communicated well at the start, that soon came to a stop. They then failed to communicate throughout most of the book, and while that can sometimes work in a story it just frustrated me here. I often felt like small and big conflicts were never resolved, just ignored and moved past, because they rarely actually talked about what the conflicts were about. With Olly's difficulties in letting people in and his desire to stay closeted it made sense, but I didn't find it enjoyable to read.

The pacing
The book is mostly written in short, snappy scenes, but the actual pacing of the story is glacially slow. At first I liked it – usually that means we get a lot of time to explore the characters and the relationship – but by the midpoint of the book it felt like treading water. There were lots of little ups and downs in Olly and Benji's relationship, but it never felt like it went anywhere and I started to get bored. By the time they finally get together the book is over, so we don't get to spend any time with them as a couple. It didn't feel like nearly enough payoff when the buildup was so incredibly long and slow.

Unresolved issues
This book deals with a lot of issues, like homophobia (external and internal), abusive parents and partners, queer awakening, etc, but I felt that a lot of the issues weren't explored, examined or dealt with in a satisfying way. Although I liked how the book dealt with Olly's relationship with his family (particularly his father), some other issues weren't as nicely concluded.

There is a storyline with Benji's sister and her abusive husband that just fizzles out, and while it is realistic for people to deny that they're in an abusive relationship, it makes for a very unsatisfying and depressing plotline when absolutely nothing happens. Olly's issues with his previous team and his extreme fear of being out (even just to friends) was dealt with very quickly towards the end of the book, and I felt like I was being told he worked through it rather than actually getting to see him deal with it, which was disappointing since it was an issue that felt central to him as a character. I kept expecting for him to talk to Benji about it and for Benji to get a better understanding of what Olly struggled with, but since that would require them to communicate it never happened.


While the setup of this book was interesting, I mostly just felt frustrated by the lack of communication, underwhelming romance and unsatisfying plotlines.

[Walford · Rating 5 out of 5]

Big Smile. I loved this. Wish I had something intelligent to say about it, though.
Some think it's too slow or too angsty or too harsh. I felt it had a perfect balance of bitter and sweet, but I like a little psychological realism in my romances; more convincing.
Also, Nary pulls off a perfect balance of hockey and feelings. I enjoyed all the hockey talk even though I didn't understand any of it. That's saying something. And has anybody been able to explain why hockey+romance=crack?
So happy to find two new and gifted writers of sports m/m (KD Casey, y'all, check her out).
And last but not least, it was Edited! Beautifully edited and copyedited. What a luxury.
January 2025: re-read with complete enjoyment. Thanks Cait!

[charlotte, · Rating 4 out of 5]

On my blog.

CWs: internalised homophobia, implied past homophobic abuse

Galley provided by publisher

Season’s Change is the kind of romance novel you finish and all you want to do is start rereading it over again. In fact, that’s even pretty much what I went and did (not quite immediately, but it’s been on my mind for weeks and I am (sort of) rereading it right now).

The story is a romance between two hockey players: Olly, a veteran (of 24, I hasten to add, for those of you, like me, who aren’t fans of age gaps) who joins the Washington Eagles after a bad time with his previous team, and Benji, a rookie in his first full NAHA season. They end up as flatmates, and the romance blossoms from there.

Firstly, probably my favourite thing about this book was the pacing. Specifically, in the progression of Olly and Benji’s relationship. Olly is, at first, understandably cautious and it takes a while for their friendship to fully develop. This, I think, illustrates exactly what I loved most about this book: everything that happens makes total sense in terms of how each individual has been previously characterised. Instead of the characters being made to fit a plot, they drive it. The friendship is slowburning because that’s how Olly is, the romance slower because Benji, loveable himbo that he is, takes a while to get up to speed. And you can see it in their individual responses at the climax too.

So really, it’s not only the pacing that I love here, but the character work too. I normally dislike third act break ups, unless they properly make sense based on how characterisations are established, and they did that here. I don’t know how to put into words how much I loved it here (not necessarily the break up itself, because that was pain, but the entire trajectory of the story. It was a properly good romance.

And, of course, I couldn’t write this review without mentioning just how much I loved Olly and Benji. There are some books where you have a favourite POV to read, there are some where you simply cannot choose which you love more because you love both equally. This book falls into the latter category. These are the kind of characters you stick with you well after you’ve put the book down (and picked it up again, and put it back down). And this is also helped by the background cast too. Not all of them are likeable, not all are always sympathetic, but they all leap off the page as much as the main two. (And make you very invested in seeing who next gets a book… I vote Coach.)

Finally, I also really appreciated the nuance with which Benji and his sister’s situation was dealt. On the one hand, Krista is clearly in a toxic relationship and Benji wants to support her getting out of it, on the other, she doesn’t think the same, leading to her relationship with Benji becoming quite toxic in itself. I think it was good to see the perspective that, although Benji may want to help, he can’t until she decides she wants it. Basically, I liked the complexity of the situation, and the way Benji learned to set himself boundaries when it came to it (although I would still love to see Krista getting out of that relationship in future books—but, again, it made sense in terms of her characterisation).

So, really, there wasn’t anything about this book I didn’t like. Perhaps the only issue here is that I read this so early that now I have to wait even longer for the second book. Oh well, I guess that’s what rereads are for.

[Marie · Rating 3 out of 5]

This sure did scratch the itch for me.

Yes, it was full of repetitive conversations and situations, the writing was mid and if I ever have to read about two guys calling each other ‘buddy’ or some variation of it on literally every page again, I might give up reading all together but except for that, there just was something about this story.

Because in between all of that, Olly and Benji were so sweet and tender and soft. They both had to deal with a lot, but they tried so hard to get better. And then when they slowly started to open up and fall in love, I was invested. The character growth was great. The slow burn delivered. And their little moments throughout this journey were to die for.

The book definitely needs an editor, but I still enjoyed reading it. So all in all, a win for me 🤷‍♀️

___
I’m watching Heated Rivalry atm and now hockey romances are all I want to read, iykyk 👀

[Wendy · Rating 5 out of 5]

4.5 emotional wreck stars

This book was soooo good! I loved the MCs' relationship, even the harsher part of it, and how it explored some tough topics. Don't worry, there're plenty of sweet and sexy times too💕

Before going of, you have to know there are also a few trigger warnings about mental health issues, abusive relationship and internalized homophobia. I don't think I forgot something, but be aware of the content before getting into it.

First of all, I cried. It doesn't happen very often - even if I just did with The Long Game😅 but we're talking about Ilya and Shane, so it's reason enough! - so it shows how invested I got into Olly and Benji's story. Family troubles are my downfall, and I loved how Olly's ones were treated here, especially as it wasn't exclusively about his sexual orientation. The brothers' scene and the whole resolution made me so emotional.

The novel's pacing was very interesting. It followed the hockey season, which allowed us to feel the time passing between important or enlighting events. Of course, it was sometimes a bit frustrating, especially as it was a slow burn romance, but it made the story's progress more believable. So if you don't like slow burn, don't pick it because it gets painful to read.

It was hard to watch Olly fall in love, because it only added stress to his already unstable mental state. I was sad for him, as we knew Benji was definitely not on the same page at the time. He felt protective of Olly and enjoyed their close friendship, but there wasn't a clear sexual tension between them until later in the book. That's why a particular sex scene made me a bit queasy and downgraded my rating... But once they got in, I loved reading about them together.

Olly and Benji's friendship was amazing. It was a work in progress, about trust and support. Benji was sometimes more of a caretaker than a friend, but that was what Olly needed and in Benji's nature. They had a few fights about topics they wanted to keep separated from their relationship, and it was okay because you don't always want to share the shitty parts of your life with others, including family struggles. Even if Olly's were the ones that made me cry, Benji's problems with his sister just broke my heart. Her situation is much more common than people say, especially as she chose to stay in this toxic relationship.

pre-review
RTC but just know I cried. AGAIN. Why are MM sport romances so hard these days?! 😭💕

[Caz · Rating 4 out of 5]

I've given this a B- at AAR, so that's 3.5 stars rounded up.

Season’s Change is the début novel from Cait Nary, a sports romance set in the world of professional hockey that follows veteran (at twenty-four!) player Olly Järvinen and rookie Benji Bryzinski through a hockey season as they go from roommates to friends to lovers.  It gets off to an incredibly strong start and I was utterly captivated by the characters and their UST-laden and slightly angsty slow-burn romance, but around the two-thirds mark, things began to slow down and became repetitive. Had the book ended as strongly as it began, it would have been an easy DIK, but as it is, I had to knock the grade down for a number of unresolved issues and most of all, the way what had been such a promising romance limps along to a not-completely-satisfying HFN.

When we meet him at the beginning of the book, Olly is a mess.  He’s been playing professional hockey for three years, and is just starting out with the Washington Eagles, but weeks of not sleeping and not eating properly on top of extreme anxiety and stress following an incident at his previous team in Minnesota mean he’s not in a good place physically or mentally.  He’s determined to push through it though, to make a fresh start and leave the past behind, to – as his Dad has so often said – toughen up, and focus on getting his career back on track.

Benjy is twenty-one and all he’s ever wanted to do is to play hockey.  He might be “just a dumbass from Duncannon, Pennsylvania”, but he’s bright, he’s keen and he’s determined to make the most of every minute of his rookie season.  He hits it off with his teammates straight away, although his new roommate Olly Järvinen takes a bit longer to warm up to him.

Season’s Change is a friends-to-lovers story which, as I said at the beginning, starts extremely well.  Olly has some serious issues to deal with, which the author reveals gradually to have stemmed from a homophobic roommate and coach in Minnesota who bullied and assaulted him when they found out he was gay. By this point, he’s absolutely terrified of anyone else finding out about his sexuality, and he fervently believes he can’t be queer and be a hockey player, so he’s decided he’s got to put that part of himself on the back-burner until he retires.  It’s been fairly easy to do that; despite spending so much time around well-built attractive men, he’s never been tempted to hook up with any of them… until now.  Benjy is all sunshine to Olly’s gloom; he’s honest and good-natured and funny (and hot) and becomes a very good friend, someone Olly can turn to and lean on when he’s at his lowest.   But Benji is straight – and even if he wasn’t, he’s off limits.

The progression of Olly and Benji’s relationship in the first part of the book is very well done.  Their friendship is superbly written and their romance is a fantastic slow-burn with lots of longing and chemistry and sexual tension that leaps off the page.  I loved it.

But things start to fall apart in the last third of the book – which means it’s difficult to talk about specifics because we’re into spoiler territory, but I’ll do my best!  The biggest problem is that the romance, having been built up so beautifully in the first part of the story, stalls and doesn’t go anywhere until the very end.  There’s too much repetition and extraneous detail taking up word-count that should have been used to bring the romance to a satisfactory conclusion instead of the flimsy HFN it gets at pretty much the last minute.  In a book of almost 400 pages, there should have been plenty of time for the author to get the leads together and show us a happier Olly doing a better job of managing his mental health and realising he can have all the things he’s dreamed of having with Benjy.  We don’t get to see them navigating life as a couple and truly being themselves, and we don’t get the chance to relax and be happy for them before the book is over.  Given everything they go through, they don’t get the ending they deserve, and that’s a crying shame.

It bothered me that when Olly and Benji finally start a sexual relationship, Olly thinks it’s just a case of them ‘helping each other out’ and that Benji is straight and will eventually find a woman he wants to be with. He never tells Benji he’s gay – in fact, they never talk about what they’re doing at all – and I found it hard to believe that Benjy never once wonders if Olly is queer. And Benjy talks about having fooled around with guys before and having had threesomes with girls and guys, but it never occurs to him that he might be bisexual until the very end.

Speaking of threesomes… There’s one in the book, and it felt like a scene of dubious consent. Benji brings home a woman and convinces a very sad, very drunk Olly to have a threesome (MFM – she blows Olly while Benjy fucks her.) Olly has never been with a woman in his life and has never wanted to, and is so distressed in the morning that he immediately throws up and spends days after avoiding Benji. I didn’t see the point of it and it felt unnecessary cruel given everything Olly is going through. It made me really uncomfortable.

Other smaller niggles. This is a sports romance, and I know that hockey fans will probably disagree with me, but there is too much hockey stuff in the last third of the book. I freely admit I’m not into sports (and know next to nothing about ice hockey) BUT my issue isn’t so much with the inclusion of sports-related detail – I accept that a story built around hockey will have stuff about hockey in it! – it’s that it uses valuable word count that could instead have been spent building a proper HEA for Olly and Benjy.

Probably going along with the ‘hockey stuff’ is the ‘bro speak’; maybe it’s accurate, but I found it irritating (and sometimes incomprehensible!), and the same is true of Benjy’s tendency to, like, use the word “like” in every, like, sentence.

Assigning a final grade to Season’s Change was difficult. The first two-thirds is DIK standard, the central characters are engaging and their romance – up until they start having sex – is gorgeous and frustrating and they have chemistry by the bucket-load . The author creates a wonderful team camaraderie, the writing is strong overall and Olly’s anxiety and fears are presented skilfully and sympathetically. The complicated family dynamics are well done, too – Olly has one of those pushy ‘hockey dads’ who is always on at him to do more and do better, and Benjy’s sister is in a toxic relationship and can’t or won’t admit it. This plotline doesn’t reach a firm conclusion, but that feels realistic and I liked the way Ms. Nait handles this complex situation.

But while Season’s Change has a lot of really good things going for it, the final third and the ending drop down into C /3 star territory, so I’m going with a low-end B overall. It’s worth checking out if you’re into hockey romances and looking for a new author to try, but I can’t recommend it without reservations.

[Leigh Kramer · Rating 2 out of 5]

There was a good book hiding inside of this story. I enjoyed Olly and Benji’s friendship/roommatehood. Benji has a lovable voice. Olly didn’t feel as fixed for me, possibly due to his untreated anxiety or that he just pales in the face of how sunshiney Benji is. Unfortunately, the writing style did not work for me. There’s so much passive voice and not enough dialogue. It was too much telling and barely any showing. We’re rarely in the midst of the action, hockey games included.

The writing style was reminiscent of fanfic—that’s not a dig—so if you enjoy that, it might work better for you. I still think it would have benefitted from a comprehensive developmental edit. It was too long as it is and many scenes would have been better if they’d been expanded upon. I wanted to feel like I was in the midst of a scene instead of dictated to. It prevented me from really connecting to Olly and Benji. I thought about DNFing around 30% but there was enough that I enjoyed about Benji and Olly that I decided to persevere. I got to 75% and just…set it aside for a week and basically forgot about it. I skimmed the last 25% so I’d know how it ends.

Olly’s internalized homophobia was rough to read about. This is a thorny issue but cis female authors need to think harder before writing MM and what they’re going to put their characters through. (Publishers need to think harder about what manuscripts they accept too.) I simply don’t think cis female authors are the best people to write MM romance with intense internalized homophobia in this day and age. The author invented a whole hockey league. Why couldn’t there already be out players in the NAHA? Why couldn’t the league be actively working on eradicating homophobia? That would actually be interesting. This was a lazy choice for a made up hockey league. (Speaking of made up, she invented Nashville having a Chinatown. I wish it did!)

Lastly, this turned out to be heteronormative. It equated penetrative sex as the only real sex and it was used as the ultimate display of love. How uncreative—and untrue.

Note: Olly frequently throws up due to anxiety. I wanted to be sure to mention it in case it would be a sensitive matter for anyone.

Characters: Olly is a 24 year old gay white hockey center. Benji is a 21 year old bisexual white rookie defenseman. This is set in DC and Rosslyn, VA.

Content notes: closeted MCs (no forced outing), intense fear of coming out, anxiety, panic attack, vomit (anxiety-related, very frequent), internalized homophobia, homophobia (past incident but also the league is culturally homophobic), homophobic slur, ableism (MMC says he’s “not crazy”, initially feeds into mental health stigma), insomnia, former coach was emotionally abusive homophobe, past anger management issues, childhood poverty (past), toxic father (reconcile), sister’s husband is a serial cheater and emotionally abusive (she refuses to leave him), toxic sister (Benji eventually cuts ties), physical assault (during game), sports-related injuries, prescription pain medication for shoulder injury, discussion of diet and weight (sports-related), MMC is estranged from mother (stays that way), on page sex, MFM menage (this read as extremely dubious consent on Olly's part), alcohol, inebriation, hangover, gender insults, gender essentialist language, ableist language, Harry Potter reference, “slaved over” used as slang, reference to past death of pet dog

[K.D. Casey]

A sloooooow burn of a book with crisp prose and a good balance of on-ice action and off-ice perspective. The episodic structure might not work for some people looking for more traditional scene-building/plot beats, but did for me, since it mimicked the rhythm of the hockey season. There are plenty of in-jokes for hockey fans while leaving it comprehensible to people less familiar with the game.

I don't often go for new adult books (the MCs are 24 and 21), but both of them have been burdened with the responsibilities of adulthood beyond their peers. They're not always able to articulate their feelings or desires, but feel them deeply and, at times, shatteringly. Especially well realized are the fractured family relationships both have and the work they do to repair these.

I was provided with an ARC by the author.

[Jenna ✨DNF Queen✨Here, Sometimes... · Rating 3 out of 5]

Rating: 3.5 rounded to 3

I LOVE the Older player/rookie connection trope, and this was marketed as such... but it's not reaaaaly what this story is. So I had to mentally set that expectation aside and reset my feelings pretty quickly about that.

Once I did, I enjoyed it overall and there was a lot to love. But... I found myself very frustrated that there were problems that could have been resolved by TALKING. You know, LIKE ADULTS.



I KNOW Olly was twisted up inside like a snarl of barbed wire. What happened to him was GROSS and of course it fucked him up. But... if he had talked about it with Benji (not right away, obviously, but maybe by the 60% point, after the therapy and the yoga had some time to work? Something like that?) it would have been a much more adult way of working through things. Instead we had 50% of the book that was an enjoyable, if difficult at times, slow growth toward a trusting bond, where it felt like Benji was doing 90% of the work... and then a miscommunication, followed by a Great Panic, followed by a quick catch-up resolution.

I especially felt that Benji didn't really get what he deserved out of this story/relationship. Olly was too in his head to be there for Benji the way he needed him, and I feel that Olly really let him down a couple times. There were some really sweet, genuinely deeply tender moments that elevated the whole thing significantly. The rest was just not as cohesive or as mature as I would have liked it to be.

Also there were a LOT of Buffalo insults. Wow.
This author had me clutching my pearls at the repeated Buffalo = Hockey Hell insinuations. I mean, geez louise.



It's rough here but we're not Arizona!! At least we like... have an arena and haven had to coopt the nearest university's barn. 🤣🤣

Not sure yet if I'll continue with the series... probably, because hockey.

[Cayce · Rating 5 out of 5]

There are so many great things I can say about this book.

As a fan of hockey, I was so grateful to have a fun, accurate backdrop for the story! It also really showcased how the melodrama of actual sports can be so fun to further player narratives. Professional hockey players are so intertwined with their sport, their rival teams, their teammates and the long grueling schedule of the hockey season. Those things can't be ignored when it comes to actually telling the story of a hockey player.

When it comes to Olly and Benji, I'm truly in awe of how well fleshed out and truly character driven they were from the very beginning. They grabbed onto my heart and really never let go. On paper you have the hardened "veteran" and the happy-go-lucky rookie who meet at an unusual time in each of their careers... and they are! But as the story unfolds, you really get to see each character grow individually and together. I really appreciated how much we get to see of them with their families and support systems, especially Olly. There is truly nothing like having big character growth moments with the people in your life that have known you the longest. I have seen a few reviews saying that the mental health explored in the book felt "exploitative" but honestly that feels like such a disservice to the writer and the characters. Talking about things explicitly and having those issues be very impactful on the characters doesn't exploit the them. I have read a lot of stories where it felt as though mental health was thrown in solely for plot purposes, to check off a list and trust me, this is not one of those instances.

As lots of people who read these kinds of books, myself included, are probably looking for, the sex in this book was phenomenal. Olly and Benji really have so much fun together and are the epitome of friends with benefits that definitely want more. The double-blind pining makes it even juicier. I also think a lot of their relationship showed the joy of the ebb and flow of sexuality. How things aren't always black and white and showing them on their journey together is fun and felt very truthful as a bisexual reader that often struggled with the idea that things had to go a ~very certain way~ in order for that label to be "accurate."

I would love to give a special shout out to Benoit Poirier aka Poiro aka my favorite, fun side character that was such an incredible mix of a lot of my favorite hockey frenchmen. Every hockey story needs one (and a fun Russian).

I think if you come into this book expecting very macho, over the top display of what people think about athletes then you'll probably be disappointed. If you come into this book wanting just lots of "spicy" content from the jump... maybe not for you! If you are looking for a well thought out, character exploration about what it means to be queer in a very straight world, then you will probably love this book. I hope that the people who this book is for find it because it's truly one of a kind.

[CrabbyPatty · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm a huge fan of hockey .... and an equally huge fan of M/M hockey stories. And I honestly wish I could say I'm a huge fan of this book, but this story just did not work for me personally.

The book has good bones - a hockey team chock full of great characters, some pretty good hockey action, interesting family dynamics for both MCs, and a budding friendship / bromance / something more? between a veteran player and a D-man rookie who has always given hockey his all because it's his only way to rise up from his childhood.

Olly Järvinen is gay. He was harrassed by his homophobic roommate with his former team, and suffers from extreme anxiety / PTSD. Benji Bryzinski "was just a dumbass from Duncannon, Pennsylvania, but he had arrived." He's a good bro, and shortly everyone on the team is his bro, and he takes nervous twitchy Olly under his 6' 5" wing.

But at 377 pages, Olly's terror about being outed and Benji's dude-bro goodness grows thin after a while. There is a lot (a lot) of internal monologues from both MCs and nothing happens between the two MCs for the first half of the book. Finally, they begin a sexual relationship, with Olly believing that Benji is mostly straight-ish and will leave him for a woman eventually, and Benji doesn't really figure out until almost the end that he's probably bisexual. Sigh ....

I suppose it's unusual to have a M/M hockey romance where the two MCs and their relationship is the least interesting aspect of the book. The Washington Eagle's team is really well done, and I liked reading about how the players really care about one another; the hockey itself is well-written; the family dynamic between Olly and his brothers is touching; I really want Benji's sister Krista to wake up and realize she can do much better than her unfaithful husband; I like the way Benji works so hard to move from the trailer park to the NHL; and the author really does a good job on showing how Olly is helped during his therapy.

Overall I would give all these aspects of the story a strong 4 stars, but the relationship angst is 2 stars, so I'm giving 3 stars to Season's Change and hoping that the second book in the series will improve on the good bones of this book.

Oh, and as a side note, if Olly's family lives in Duluth, they aren't going to have a cabin on Lake Vermillion. For us Minnesotans, the North Shore area is God's country and an "in-land" lake is just not the same. Sorry.

I received an ARC from the Publisher in exchange for an honest review.

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[Grace · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very solid hockey read!

It starts off a bit slow and I struggled at first, because Olly is in such a bad headspace mentally and is basically doing nothing to help himself and it was a bit anxiety-inducing to read. But thankfully things start to trend upward, and I really appreciated that the author pretty quickly reveals to the reader what happened in the recent past to kick all of this off instead of drawing it out for ages.

I enjoyed the characters, both separately and together, and I thought they both felt quite distinct in terms of POV. The build between them was really lovely, and I also really enjoyed the background characters and relationships, which all felt really natural and authentic and fleshed out the novel to really feel like a real world. There's definitely a hockey presence, but it's not overload for those that aren't massive fans of the sport itself.

Quite a slow burn, which I didn't mind for the most part and I thought overall worked quite well. Actually, my biggest qualm with the pacing is the very end--after the requisite misunderstanding/separation everything gets resolved quite easily and quickly, and while I appreciated the lack of unnecessary angst, I did find myself wanting a big more. Some kind of conversation where Olly actually tells Benji why this has all been such a big deal for him, and Benji maybe showed some sort of depth in terms of his own sexuality discovery. He was so chill about it, in a way that partially felt believeable for his character, but it didn't quite ring authentic that he'd have absolutely no concerns about it, particularly given his career, and I think the author could have added some substance there without weighing down the narrative.

I've heard people make comments about the bro-y language, but I actually had zero problems with it here--I didn't even notice! And that is definitely a thing that has annoyed me in other books, but I felt it worked fine in this one.

The writing was solid, and overall I quite enjoyed! The sexual dynamics here didn't 100% work for me, which might just be a function of there being such a slow burn that we only get one anal sex scene, and just a couple of other on-screen handies/blow jobs. But the whole "the smaller gay one bottoms and the big bi one tops" is a trope I'm just not super interested in, and while I'd like to thing we'd have seen a different dynamic if we'd got to see further into their relationship, that's not what we saw here. I think most people will love it, and I didn't dislike it, it just wasn't quite the vibe I wanted from these two.

Definitely looking forward to book two and reading more from this author!

[Jacqueleen the Reading Queen♡ · Rating 3 out of 5]

2.5 / 2.75 stars? I feel bad as I write this but this book missed the mark for me. It was a lot of telling without the showing. The majority of the book is inner monologues of the MCs. The other part is hockey talk, which if you're not a real fan of the sport you may find yourself skimming. The romance is non existent the entire first half of the book. It is riddled with internalized homophobia and mental health issues that we're told have been worked through, but don't really get a front row seat to it. We only see the suffering aspect. I may be splitting hairs here, but there is also a scene that some might consider dubious consent. Benji brings a woman home and convinces a sad, drunk Ollie to have a (MFM) threesome where the woman blows Olly while Benji has sex with her...Olly, who is gay and has never been with a woman in his life and already hates himself for not being attracted to them. The next day he's so distraught over it he literally pukes. Just no. .

The second half of the book is Benji and Olly hooking up, but it's not until the very end they finally admit their feelings. As in, they admit their feelings and the book ends. I wanted to see them together, navigating life as a couple. I was invested enough to want to see Olly healthy and realizing he can have all the things he dreamed of having with Benji. I wanted a strong HEA for them so bad after all the hell they went through. I also wanted things to wrap up with Benjis sister, but that was kind of left hanging somewhere.

I did love the side characters. The teammates were awesome. Their banter was so fun and you could tell they all wanted the team to succeed and be like a big happy family. They continually checked on each other if they felt something was wrong with another teammate. The coach was fabulous. All these were good things about the book and kept it off my DNF shelf. There was so much potential here and I think if book 2 continues with the same couple it might place this closer to the 3 stars. If this is the end of Olly and Benji then well, the puck didn't exactly make it in the net.

[Kirsten · Rating 4 out of 5]

YCMAL
Vibes. Slowest burn, sweetest guys.
All the hockey love.

Re-read, and knocked it down a half star in my head.

It meandered a bit.
They took some hard hits.
But still by the end,
Went from lovers to friends.