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Draft Bust: Delay of Game, Book 3
One injured hockey player. One laid-off beat reporter. One giant mansion. Twenty-Eight days alone together.
Oliver Swan's career is over. Everyone can see that. He's been too injured to play for an entire season. But what legacy does a second overall player have to leave when he hasn't actually achieved anything in his career?
He can already see the Draft Bust Retires After Underwhelming Career. Fuck that. He's going to be remembered the way he wants to be. He's going to write a memoir.
Well, he's going to hire someone to ghostwrite his memoir. Enter Jordan Walsh, recently laid-off NHL beat reporter, and the only person who ever had anything nice to say about Oliver's career.
When Oliver came up with the idea for them to spend all of February together in his house in Colorado, he hadn't considered the fact that Jordan was beautiful. He hadn't known how sweet he'd be. This is a disaster.
Contains mature themes.
Oliver Swan's career is over. Everyone can see that. He's been too injured to play for an entire season. But what legacy does a second overall player have to leave when he hasn't actually achieved anything in his career?
He can already see the Draft Bust Retires After Underwhelming Career. Fuck that. He's going to be remembered the way he wants to be. He's going to write a memoir.
Well, he's going to hire someone to ghostwrite his memoir. Enter Jordan Walsh, recently laid-off NHL beat reporter, and the only person who ever had anything nice to say about Oliver's career.
When Oliver came up with the idea for them to spend all of February together in his house in Colorado, he hadn't considered the fact that Jordan was beautiful. He hadn't known how sweet he'd be. This is a disaster.
Contains mature themes.
Audible Audio
Published January 6, 2026
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January 11, 2026
The story is great - we rarely get to read a romance with someone whose career is cut short due to injury.
Oliver Swan, the former 2nd draft pick and very young captain of his Colorado Range team, was laser focused on his hockey career from a young age - as many of the very famous real life players are/were. When we meet him in the book, he's considered a draft bust - about to retire at 26 due to chronic pain after too many injuries and surgeries not being successful.
Jordan Walsh, the one beat reporter who always seemed fair in the past, has agreed to be the ghostwriter for Oliver's biography. It's a new career path fro Jordan who was just recently laid off from his reporting job. What Jordan he didn't expect is that the memoir will also be Oliver's coming out.
Oliver is prickly - not only from pain and the effect of the end of his career and life as he knows it, but he's also a kind of pricky character - with very soft sides! With Jordan, he lets his guard down rather fast - he has to if he wants to follow his memoir plan, but also because he respects Jordan and both of them get the other. Jordan used to be a junior hockey player who didn't get drafted so chose reporting about his favourite sport. Him getting laid off puts him in a similar situation as Oliver - both have to figure out what they're going to do next. And he can relate to Oliver being depressed about his dream career being cut short.
They fall fast for each other - but that's understandable when you're in very close proximity in one house (more like mansion where you can almost get lost). As they don't start from scratch, this is believable. Also, imo, if you can stand the other one around you all the time (though with hockey being a team sport where this is inevitable, I might be off here), that's a VERY good sign.
I loooved the tenderness - that Jordan understands what Oliver needs, the caresses, the adjustments to what Oliver can actually do (normal functionality only after extensive yoga sessions in the morning - imagine to need this just for not being in pain during the day at the age of 26!!) - Jordan is a very caring guy, Oliver definitely needs someone who finally cares for him - the loneliness of Oliver's life hits hard and is also totally believable.
Gabriel McKnight reads Oliver Swan - his chapter headings have a spooky quality but he can pull off the melancholic Oliver quite well. I was a bit hesitant about the audio as Jordan is narrated by Alexander Cendese who's usually not my fav narrator as his style always seems very energetic - with a lot of pressure behind his voice. But he CAN tone down the pressure and energy - and this story lends itself to be more in the moment. I will hardly ever auto-buy a title because of him being the narrator, but overall I liked the narration.
Oliver Swan, the former 2nd draft pick and very young captain of his Colorado Range team, was laser focused on his hockey career from a young age - as many of the very famous real life players are/were. When we meet him in the book, he's considered a draft bust - about to retire at 26 due to chronic pain after too many injuries and surgeries not being successful.
Jordan Walsh, the one beat reporter who always seemed fair in the past, has agreed to be the ghostwriter for Oliver's biography. It's a new career path fro Jordan who was just recently laid off from his reporting job. What Jordan he didn't expect is that the memoir will also be Oliver's coming out.
Oliver is prickly - not only from pain and the effect of the end of his career and life as he knows it, but he's also a kind of pricky character - with very soft sides! With Jordan, he lets his guard down rather fast - he has to if he wants to follow his memoir plan, but also because he respects Jordan and both of them get the other. Jordan used to be a junior hockey player who didn't get drafted so chose reporting about his favourite sport. Him getting laid off puts him in a similar situation as Oliver - both have to figure out what they're going to do next. And he can relate to Oliver being depressed about his dream career being cut short.
They fall fast for each other - but that's understandable when you're in very close proximity in one house (more like mansion where you can almost get lost). As they don't start from scratch, this is believable. Also, imo, if you can stand the other one around you all the time (though with hockey being a team sport where this is inevitable, I might be off here), that's a VERY good sign.
I loooved the tenderness - that Jordan understands what Oliver needs, the caresses, the adjustments to what Oliver can actually do (normal functionality only after extensive yoga sessions in the morning - imagine to need this just for not being in pain during the day at the age of 26!!) - Jordan is a very caring guy, Oliver definitely needs someone who finally cares for him - the loneliness of Oliver's life hits hard and is also totally believable.
Gabriel McKnight reads Oliver Swan - his chapter headings have a spooky quality but he can pull off the melancholic Oliver quite well. I was a bit hesitant about the audio as Jordan is narrated by Alexander Cendese who's usually not my fav narrator as his style always seems very energetic - with a lot of pressure behind his voice. But he CAN tone down the pressure and energy - and this story lends itself to be more in the moment. I will hardly ever auto-buy a title because of him being the narrator, but overall I liked the narration.
Displaying 1 of 1 review