Medaling

by Hailey Reaves

Two rivals. One room. Three weeks to ruin everything.

Declan Morrow is Team USA's most intimidating enforcer — six-foot-three, granite-jawed...and so deep in the closet he's forgotten there's a door. He's at the Winter Olympics for one gold. What he's not here for is Cole Arsenault.

Cole left the US for Quebec at sixteen and never looked back. He's bilingual, bisexual, and he's built his whole life around refusing to be anyone other than who he is. Declan has resented him for six years.

And now they're stuck sharing an apartment in the Olympic village.

The room is too small. The tension too high. And somewhere between the late-night silences and the on-ice chemistry they can't deny, something happens that neither of them has a playbook for — making every stolen hour behind a locked door harder to walk away from.

But the Games have an expiration date. Declan's agent is circling. A journalist is closing in with a story threatening to out closeted NFL players. And Cole has been here waiting for a man to choose him, watching the clock run out.

The countdown is real. And falling for each other might cost them everything they've spent their careers building.

Perfect for fans of Rachel Reid's Heated Rivalry who want higher stakes, and an Olympic clock ticking down to zero.

Medaling is a dual-POV, rivals-to-lovers MM hockey romance featuring forced proximity, a closeted athlete finding his courage, explicit open-door scenes, and a guaranteed HEA.

Genres: M M Romance, Hockey, Sports, Romance, Sports Romance, Contemporary, Enemies To Lovers

292 pages, Kindle Edition

First published April 4, 2026

Reviews

[Grace Btrs (Catching Up!! - semi ia-work)]

🏂 So I am slumping so hard… but not as "hard" as these two were, I guess.

🎯 Premise & Expectations
I was genuinely excited for this book. It had a great premise that really plays on the ridiculously hilarious condom shortage incident in the latest Winter Olympics and includes some favourite tropes.
And it delivered for the most part… except this isn’t my personal preferred writing style, and I know the book could have done so much better in some aspects.
3.5⭐

✍️ Writing Style & Flow
When it comes to the writing, I am personally not a fan of third person for MM.
I find it a bit confusing, although I must admit that Hailey (Liz) did a wonderful job in that regard.
It still put me at a distance, however, and that wasn’t helped by some storytelling devices or the fact that we didn’t completely dive into several emotional arcs. We did just enough to deliver within these 277 pages.
The first few chapters were a bit frustrating and had me worried:
• a lot of POV (of both MCs) switches in the same chapter
• repetition of the same information from both POVs
• very descriptive sequencing of actions → which made it feel monotone
However, this improved considerably after those first chapters, and the storytelling found its groove and flow.
So if you find yourself stuck in the beginning, I’d say give it a chance.

🧑‍🤝‍🧑 Characters & Themes
Both MCs, Liam and Nic, had nice personalities — whether sunshine or grumpy. ☀️🌧️
I appreciated that they didn’t really have tragic backstories (just sad romantic ones).
Not every MM needs a devastating childhood, you know? And I liked that the author steered away from that and gave them more complex, adult things to deal with.
These aspects were interesting to explore because:
• they didn’t go the mainstream route
• no one had to drastically change who they are
• there was a lot of accountability
I also love how Liz can be political enough without being overwhelming:
• showing that politics are always present in the background
• acknowledging what being queer in sports (especially for men) actually means
• highlighting bisexual erasure in a very grounded way
It made the story feel like more than just visibility; it felt intentional.

🤔 Why Not a Higher Rating?
Now, with all this praise… why isn’t this rated higher (aside from my preference for a different writing style)?
Because the emotional arc wasn’t fully fleshed out.
We moved from one emotional milestone to another without it fully translating into anything beyond the physical relationship (which, to be fair, was hot hot 🔥).
Nothing felt premature, exactly…
I just wanted:
• more emotional growth
• more depth in those transitions
• more balance between emotional intimacy and physical intimacy
At times, things didn’t completely align with the characters and their personalities, which made some moments feel a bit off.

🏁 Should you read?
Overall, this was:
• engaging
• fun
• and thematically meaningful
…but it didn’t hit as deeply as it could have.
Still worth the read. 🥊

--
Pre-read:
So Liz Shipton is experimenting with MM and a pen name, and we get the pleasure of seeing that first hand and enjoy her humour?
Yes, please.

ARC received through author's newsletter.

[Gaby]

I hate it here. There are so many things that make no sense in this book that I don’t even know where to begin or how to write this spoiler-free, so spoilers ahead.

I think the most important thing is that the cover is deceiving; it makes it out to be like Nic is Canadian and Liam is from the US and they are rivals and playing against each other, when this is absolutely not what happens. Nic was born in the US and lived there until he was 16, yes his parents are from Canada and he has dual citizenship, but at the time of the book he is 24 so really the majority of his life he lived in the US and yet, even though he went to the Olympics as a part of the American delegation he somehow still calls himself the Canadian ambassador to the cafeteria when there is a whole Canadian delegation.

Liam hates Nic; you would think that maybe he did something to him and that’s why, 6 years ago when they were both rookies, he broke his shoulder, but no, Liam was apparently just jealous of him because Nic has dual citizenship, speaks two languages and moved to a better development league when he was a teenager. And really, that’s the most absurd reason ever; just hate all Canadians then? And can I just repeat that he broke his shoulder for this and never apologized? And now I am expected to believe that this iconic moment in their careers 6 years ago was the beginning of their romance?

For reasons that are never explained, Nic is with the American hockey team instead of Canada, and so Liam is forced to room with him and *gasp* spend time together, 80% of which Liam acts like a huge dick, and Nic has the most cringey inner monologues ever. Somehow, I am supposed to believe that all this led to them being in love.

Special mention to the annoying reporter who decided to imply that because there were rumours of Nic being bisexual and he was rooming with Liam and playing decent hockey, this obviously meant they were smashing. 🤦🏻‍♀️

It was dumb and a waste of my time.

[Kailee]

This was a fine Olympic hockey MM romance. A bit shorter, easy to read in one setting.

Now here’s my problem:

I think marketing this as for fans of Heated Rivalry is maybe not the best move, as it is TOO similar to Heated Rivalry and almost reads like a fanfic. I marked about five sections in this 267 page book that felt literally lifted from the show/book. (One being bisexual and the other gay, one having autism, one speaking English and French and repeated jokes about how easy it is for him to learn languages, “probably, maybe”, a kiss in public then a “wtf are you doing”, “look at the view.”) Any of these alone wouldn’t really be an issue but all together it just felt too similar for me. I think some easy changes could be made to fix these issues, but as it stands I cannot get over feeling like it was just Re-heated rivalry.

It wasn’t bad. Still enjoyed it. Just wish it felt a little more original.

[Kiandra 🦋]

Immediately no

[Ariana Weldon]

This is a VERY generous 3/5 and I may come to change that when I write up my full review shortly.
_____

Right, I've sat on it. This is 2.5/5 but GR doesn't allow for half ratings.
"Perfect for fans of Rachel Reid's Heated Rivalry" and in fact it is so much like Heated Rivalry it almost reads like a fan fic more than anything else.
- One MC is gay, one is bisexual. - Which was also a little confusing since there is a mention of the gay MC having relationships and sex with men and women while finding both equally exhausting. (This is only to say that based on the phrasing of the specific paragraph this is mentioned in left some confusion when he expresses he's gay. I definitely thought we were having two bi-baddies in this.)
- The gay MC has autism.
- One MC is a French/English speaker that is Canadian. - Then also quips he speaks two and a half languages but later says he's trilingual.
- The shower room scene.

These didn't feel like nods to HR. Like I said, it just felt like fan fic in a lot of ways.

Now, I had FAR more issues than just that.

The history between these two characters is that Liam Harris broke Nicolas Arsenault's shoulder six years ago. You cannot possibly forget this. It is mentioned every other page basically.

Now this is expanded on much later but there's a scene where Nicolas is speaking to his friend and the friend, meant to be his best friend as well, says 'dislocate your shoulder.' This COULD be a small thing but since it's been harped on for nearly 100 pages by this point that Liam broke the guy's shoulder, and they're meant to be best friends, it just had me scrunching my face.

Adding that in alongside the denim that became sweats in the middle of a fondling scene, the shirts that were flung off 'approximately four feet inside' of entering their house but then are flung across the room when they get to the bedroom, and the jeans that came off but then suddenly respawned back on Nicolas before they get down to business, and being skin to skin but then also taking off their jeans (again), I was floating in a sea of inconsistencies.
Seriously, these are the quotes:

They made it approximately four feet inside before their shirts were on the floor.

Nic moved backward onto it as Liam crawled on top of him, pulling at his clothes while they went. When both shirts had been removed and flung across the room...

This is the same page! It's the same scene!

He got Liam's jeans off and then his own and they were skin to skin....

Nic's c**k went stiff in record time inside his jeans.

Those would be the jeans he had gotten off btw. Because there are like four small paragraphs between these sentences.
Followed by:

Nic stripped the rest of the their clothes off without hurry. Jeans.

Those respawning jeans again!

This is before I even comment on the bruised ribs that just apparently aren't a problem after like three days. (Or the fact that the GR synopsis doesn't match the characters in this book. I did check Amazon just in case things changed between the ARC I have and the final version. Final version available lists the character list I had so, I remain perplexed and in my sea of inconsistencies. My inconsisten-sea.)

Nicolas' character was also just insanely annoying. Like he was feeling overwhelmed with everything and instead of considering that maybe his roommate is also feeling overwhelmed at his first Olympics, he goes with wondering 'if it was all the foreigners that made Harris so stiff.' So....racist was somehow an easier jump than equally overwhelmed???
I need to warm up for these mental gymnastics.

The line 'stupid little poutine-eating mouth' did make me laugh.

I think Liz is an incredibly funny person. I haven't picked up her works under her own name as of yet but I've been looking forward to getting them off my TBR and into my hands.
This....did not hit anything especially positive for me.

[Ana]

I love Hockey and read a lot m/m hockey romances and it's not easy to write something unique.
This story's setting is the Olympics and not some random Olympics but in Italy 🇮🇹 🏒❄️
America against Canada for gold? Ring any bells?
There are strong heated rivalry vibes (reads like a HR fanfiction? Is that bad? Use the momentum?)
There are sweet moments, it's entertaining, sexy and heartfelt. I spent a nice afternoon reading and enjoying an Olympic throwback.
P.S: extra points for creative use of gold medals 😂

[theshadyivy]

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ 🫦🫦🫦

I have a confession — it was the cover and the enemies-to-lovers vibes that got me. Hook, line and sinker. 😏🖤

This is the story of Nic and Liam, rivals since an accident that almost destroyed Nic's career as a professional hockey player. The tension between them is electric from the very first page, and I was completely hooked.

What I loved most was how slowly we got to know these two. They reveal themselves layer by layer, and by the time you think you have them figured out, they surprise you all over again. 🖤
And can we talk about Medaling for a second? Best new word creation I have encountered in a long time. Absolutely iconic. 😂

Go read this if you love slow-burning rivals who can't escape each other, the kind of forced proximity that makes your heart race, and characters with enough depth to keep you thinking long after the last page. 🏒🖤

🏒 Hockey Player
🥅 Roommates to Lovers
🏒 Forced Proximity
🥅 Secret Relationship
🏒 Mental Health Rep
🥅 Enemies to Lovers

119/26

[Ria]

meh. not good not bad. felt kind of incomplete

edit: well no it‘s just 2 stars. there were too many inconsistencies and so many sentences with a word or two missing

[Alexa]

DNF @ 52%. Y’all this was SO BORING. Are the rivals in the room with us bc they sure as shit weren’t in room 14 😩 not convinced anyone was except two sacks of plain flour good lord, the scenery was more interesting than these two

This books other fatal flaw? Continuity errors. So many of them.

[M]

Look, any author writing enemies to lovers hockey fic in the year of our lord 2026, and in perpetuity, takes on the professional hazard of being compared to Heated Rivalry. It is what it is, we're all still coming down from our collective HR psychosis, and while this a great time to capitalize on it, you're also going to suffer in the comparison. Sorry, I don't make the rules.

That said, I actually really did enjoy this book that definitely did read a bit like HR fan fic. It's a forced proximity, grumpy/sunshine kind of story about two young Team USA players who have a checkered history with each other, now playing on the same Olympic team in Italy. Nic is actually more Canadian than American, but he is drafted onto the US team because he was born there and he ends up in the same room as Liam, a kind of glowering defenseman who broke his shoulder in a game six years prior. Quiet, asocial (autistic) Liam is an enigma to the friendly, outgoing Nic, who deep down is kind of a lovergirl. Nic is immediately attracted to Liam and spends a bit of time flirting and sussing him out. After a very specific shower scene (*ahem*), these two get physical even while understanding that this is a Bad Idea. They spend the 3 weeks of the Games in a sexy push-pull situation that I really enjoyed.

Even though this books gets 0/10 for originality, I think it was really well written, with a depth and humour that I appreciated. Both Nic and Liam are compelling characters written pretty compassionately, and their chemistry feels natural and effortless. I wish the ending (their cottage scene, if you will) was a bit more fleshed out and we got a bit more of them outside of the confines of their tiny Olympic Village room. But otherwise I don't have a huge amount of complaints with this book. I'm definitely looking forward to the rest of the series.

[R. Small]

I loved the Winter Olympics setting and all the tension that came from Nic and Liam being forced to share a room after years of resenting each other… I lovedddd seeing their relationship going from hostileeeee to undeniable attraction… this one wasn’t quite five stars… but it was emotional, spicy, and incredibly easy to binge… and definitely gave off heated rivalry vibes

[Meri]

This felt like a watered-down version of Heated Rivalry, but without the depth or emotional payoff.

Loved the rivals-to-lovers setup with the Olympics and forced proximity, and I thought it had potential, but the execution was just horrible. The conflict between the two lacked real depth. We’re told they’ve been rivals for years, but there’s barely any convincing backstory to support it. It ends up feeling shallow.

One of the characters being autistic could have added an interesting layer, but it was handled in a very surface-level way. There’s no nuance or subtlety, everything is spelled out so directly that it leaves nothing for the reader to interpret. The writing overall feels overly simplified, with little subtext or emotional depth. It honestly reads like it’s been heavily AI-assisted, especially in the dialogue and sentence structure.

I understand this is a shorter romance, so I wasn’t expecting heavy world-building or complex plotting. But even within that format, there’s room for stronger character work and more believable emotional progression. I’ve seen MM romances handle similar themes with far more care, which just made this one kind of disappointing.

I barely made it to the end.

[Marta]

I really wanted to like this book, but unfortunately I don’t enjoy stories built on misunderstandings and lack of communication — and there’s a lot of that here. The characters are together, and then suddenly they’re not - likę in one paragraf- > lets have sex. Ok Cool. No wait we cant, oh Ok cool. and it’s not really clear why. It’s simply frustrating.


Something about the writing just doesn’t feel quite right. When I read the paragraphs, I can’t tell who is doing what. I keep mixing up the characters — one moment this one pushed him, then it was the other one; this one was sad, then the other one was sad. I don’t know, it’s just confusing

[Anne Gituku]

This book was absolutely ATROCIOUS. The writing felt clumsy, repetitive, and poorly structured, making it difficult to stay engaged. The dialogue sounded unnatural, the pacing dragged, and the characters lacked believable development. What could have been an interesting idea was buried under weak execution and awkward prose. I wanted to like this book I really did, but the characters had the depth of cardboard cutouts

[Diya]

The book was fun, but it had issues. The theme and characters felt way too much like _Heated Rivalry_, even though the plot was completely different.

Trope list:

*📚 Tropes & Vibes 📚*
✧ Gay×Bi
✧ Hockey Rivals → Lovers
✧ Austim Rep 🌵
✧ Insta-Lust → Insta-Love
✧ HFN [Happy For Now]

The characters were almost carbon copies: Liam Harris came off as Shane but grouchier and grumpier. Nic was like Ilya but more sunshine and less of an asshole. Naomi honestly felt creepy.

Plot-wise, it’s set in the Olympic Village instead of the NHL, so that part was fresh. But the pacing was odd — marketed as insta-burn yet also slow burn. Didn’t really commit to either.

The writing style was different, with short POVs that made it feel choppy. The emotional impact was weaker too. The characters go from closed-off to suddenly trauma-dumping their hardships, and it felt forced instead of earned.

Would I say it’s as good as _Heated Rivalry_? No.
Would I say it’s okay-ish and fun for a one-time read?
Yes.

Overall, it could’ve been better if the author hadn’t relied so much on _Heated Rivalry_ character blueprints and instead focused on building real emotional connection.

Still, if you’re curious, it’s worth reading once.

“You!” Liam yelled, and pummeled the side of Nic’s head. Just that.
One word, barely audible over the noise. “You!”
“You fucking psycho!” Nic yelled back, grinning even wider than he was. “You didn’t even look!“

Yeah chemistry was there but writing not so much.

[Jine]

I really really enjoyed this! I’m a sucker for an enemies to lovers forced proximity type situation!
Nic and Liam have past history 6 years ago Liam dislocated Nics shoulder in a hockey game so when they realized they were both living in the same room in the Olympic village things got tense! Nic is bisexual and Liam is gay but Nic doesn’t know that Nic originally wanted to get with Liam as a payback but eventually realized that he just wanted to understand him
They start fooling around but have to be careful because a reporter is sniffing around and she already put Nics name in a article
They both realize this was something more they shared
Emotions like when Liam told Nic he was autistic which made some things fit in place for Nic which is also why Liam is scared of being out
When Nic decides to come out officially in a article Liam is scared but Nic never ever presses him to come out too
Things I loved was when they kept saying it was the last time and they went into overtime
How Liam opened up more and they shared their secrets
The airport scene killed me like I legit cried so much!
The chair lift scene was 🔥
But what I loved most of all was when Liam visited Nic in Montreal it reminded me of Shane and Ilya at the cottage they just got to be themselves with no worries and more importantly they discussed their future together’

[Alana H]

I really enjoyed this book. Characters were great, I liked the progression of the relationship. The enemies-to-lovers trope didn't feel forced or unrealistic. I found myself really rooting for Nic and Liam. The conflict felt real and nothing was just magically solved in the end, even with the characters ending up together.

I saw another review point out there are a lot of similarities to Heated Rivalry that seem a little too similar, and I tend to agree. A bisexual, bilingual player with a gay, autistic player. The airport pickup and the 2 week stay at Nic's place in Montreal felt very reminiscent to The Cottage. And even the ending, they aren't publicly out as a couple, but are discussing Liam signing in Montreal with Nic and maybe one day they can be together openly. Definitely a lot of similarities, but I think that might be why I enjoyed it so much. The ending felt realistic. Nothing was perfectly wrapped up in a neat little bow.

Worth the read for sure and I'll definitely keep going with this series when the next book comes out.

[laureneliza]

Look, there is a lot of m/m hockey romance on KU and a lot of it I have DNFed or not even started because I also don't do dark romance and that seems to be a popular subgenre.

This one I didn't immediately put down after a few pages, so it was better written than some, but then there were several weird word or phrase choices that left an odd taste in my mouth. The forced proximity of them rooming together slightly offsets the fact they've only known each other for a few weeks, but the shoulder injury was made to be a huge thing then just... Accepted. Another odd choice. There were a few funny lines, a few sweet lines, and a few hot lines, but it all adds up to just okay.

[Princessofbookishkingdoms]

Dnf @ 20%

I didn‘t like the book at all. For me it was poorly written. The sentences felt totally cut off and the Story didn’t come across as a coherent narrative. I found the extremly short POVs rather distracting, sometimes the same random fact was repeated three times.
I also didn’t warm up with the characters and they kinda felt shallow.
The Book is really short and in the part I read absolutly nothing happend.
The story sounded promising, but the execution wasn‘t well done.

[Banana]

2,5 ⭐️
Que esté ambientado en los juegos me ha gustado mucho pero se ha quedado como corto, no se.
Como que le falta algo para que acabe de sentirse una novela y no otra cosa.
Me hubiera gustado más ver interacciones con los secundarios (Louis y Emma) y Riley me ha dado mucha curiosidad.
Pero todo es como muy rápido y sin explicación entonces por esa parte no me ha gustado tanto, le doy el aprobado justo y creo que si que me leeré el siguiente, aunque sea de age gap.

[allmy_booklovers]

I’m still thinking

So the beginning and hate on for Canada obviously bugged me

There were moments where I’m like do you know hockey.

I finished it

🏒🏒🏒 - they played hockey games, it was the Olympics,

[Kristin Martini]

Better than I thought it was going to be, tbh. I don't mind a HFN and I honestly thought the way they handled the conflict about being out vs. no being out felt really honest. Plus I love a lil compressed timeline so the Olympics delivered there!

[Jessica]

3.5 stars

[Mallie Hart]

I really enjoyed this book. Liam and Nic are both great characters.

I appreciate how realistic this was.

[Driima]

Why are there different names?
The summary on GR names the MC's Declan Morrow & Cole Arsenault (Kindle ed. 04/2026), but the book sold on amazon (Kindle ed. 04/2026) calls them Liam Harris & Nicolas Arsenault. The rest of the text is identical.
The reviews also talk about Liam and Nic, so where did those other names come from?

[Joanna]

Why on Earth does the description and cover make it seem like they’re not both on Team USA? The concept of a self-defining Canadian hockey player playing for the US is so weird that I couldn’t get over it the whole book.

[Alexandra]

🎧 Audiobook review 🎧⚡ Spoilers and profanities might lie ahead—I usually like to talk shit about everything that goes down in these books

Let me get this out of the way first: yes, there are A LOT of obvious continuity errors. Yes, there is an exhausting amount of trash-talking Europeans and Canadians, including gems like “French people sound fake when they speak French” (like… excuse me? The fuck?) and the general disdain for European pop music. And yes, Nic is, objectively, kind of a shitty person.

Then, toward the end, we find out he’s autistic.

My dude.

Can we please stop writing socially awkward, abrasive, hyper-intelligent characters and then slapping an autism label on them as a convenient explanation for why they behave the way they do? I want to be completely transparent here: I’m speaking from a place of ignorance because I don’t have personal experience or meaningful interactions with people with these types of disabilities. But even from that uninformed perspective, this trope feels increasingly overused—and, more importantly, it often feels like a very selective interpretation of autism, cherry-picking a handful of traits to explain a character who has otherwise been written as an asshole. I’m tired of it.

Another thing that didn’t quite work for me was the foundation of their hatred for each other. Liam causes an injury to Nick so severe that it derails his hockey career, and then never apologizes for it.

That should be BLOOD-BOILING.

That should be “I will see this man across a room and immediately start planning his murder” levels of rage.

Instead, the big reason behind the hit is… jealousy?

Uhm.

My brother in Christ.

That should have made the blood rush to my fists, not… elsewhere. And then have me contemplate pummeling him in a completely different fashion. Wink wink.

ANYWAY.

Now let me get to the thing I actually loved, which, for me personally, completely overrode a lot of the bullshit because… fuck you, taste is personal, okay? :))

**THE BANTER.**

I live for good banter, and this was absolutely delicious. It had such a strong backbone and such a natural rhythm. The way Nick slowly thaws the grumpy bastard and makes him start craving him? UGH. Give me a minute.

It gave me chills.

And what I loved most was how naturally it happened. There was no sudden “oh, apparently we’re madly in love now” switch being flipped. It progressed so smoothly, so organically, that I was completely sold. Some of the internal monologue when the craving starts getting harder to ignore and the want becomes too much?

**Damn.**

The chemistry was CHEMISTRYING.

There was heat, tension, dirty talk, whispered confessions, desperation—the whole damn package. The kind of chemistry where you can practically hear the tension humming between them.

And then, the *pièce de résistance*:

**THE AUDIOBOOK.**

The narration was GOLD.

And I have to say, I think it genuinely elevated the entire experience. We all know what an incredible voice can do. A scene that might be merely “meh” on paper can suddenly become ten times better when the narrator has the right voice, timing, inflection, and emotional delivery.

And these narrators understood the assignment.

The tone? Excellent.
The inflections? Perfect.
The emotional delivery? Stellar.
The acting? Chef’s fucking kiss.

So, kudos for the casting, because whatever my issues with the book itself, the audiobook was an absolute pleasure to listen to.

In conclusion: problematic? Absolutely. Flawed? Very much so. Did I still have a fucking great time listening to two idiots verbally spar their way into wanting each other?

Unfortunately, yes.

And apparently that is all it takes to buy my affection.

[Karin Mallard]

Received an ARC copy of this book by the author in return for an honest review.

Disclaimer: I've never read this author before, or watched Heated Rivalry, or read any other hockey romance book ever. That being said:

What this book has going for it:

CUTE main characters. Very sweet guys that are easy to root for. Loved them both.
Setting. What's not to love about the Alps and the Olympics?
Pace. This story doesn't get bogged down on any one thing. Makes for a quick, enjoyable read.
Intimate scenes are great. Just the way I like them. Not too, too graphic. Nice blend of emotional and physical connection. Hot in a good way and even though a LOT of sex was packed into a small time frame, the author knows when to spread it over the pages and when to make it tidy and fast. I'd be thinking, "ok, too soon, not ready for another intense scene" and then it would be wrapped up in a paragraph and, yep, just right, thank you.
This book is just cozy. Lots of good vibes here.

What may be lacking:
I say may be lacking because, let's be honest, this book doesn't pretend to be anything other than what it is. Quick, steamy romance. And when I am in the mood for that, this is the kind of title to pick up. I can't criticize something for it's lack of depth when it didn't promise or advertise any depth, yes?

This book is surface level stuff. Characters have hints of backstories that are mentioned but not explored. Every piece of this book is skittering along the surface (that's what makes it fast and fun). But if you wanted something a little more intense (I was thinking we were looking forward to a confrontation with an ex at some point and I was SO looking forward to a protective Liam and then that just... didn't happen) this is not the book for that.

The side characters exist but they do that thing where they only seem to exist to support the leads. They don't have much of their own life, or again, it's not explored. And they seem WAY too fixated on the main characters and helping them through their issues. Is it a problem? Not really? Again, this is fast read, so there's not a ton of time to go side questing, but it does make the side characters very flat - scenery in a school play kind of characters.

The stakes. There really aren't any. The big thing that I thought could be a conflict or a problem rolled over and gave up so quickly that it never was anything. There were No Issues in here. I saw that someone else thought this work read like fanfiction, and this is where I'd have to agree. AGAIN, this doesn't have to be a problem. I've read tons of things where I don't really want anything but character connection and when that's what I'm after, trying to have a larger plot really does just get in the way and I Don't Care. In fact, I'll give kudos to the author for having the Olympics in the background but it was so in the background of the character connection that I'm glad it didn't get a ton of screen time because all I wanted was the boys being adorable and tender to each other. I think it takes a bit of talent to make a huge thing like the OLYMPICS seem like it should stay quietly in the background of what's really important here - the boys getting to know each other.

All in all, this was a lovely, little read. The writing is smooth, the characters are enjoyable, the intimate scenes are just right. I'd rank this as a palette cleanser book - sweet and satisfying.

[Astrid]

I have some kind of mixed feelings about this one. The premise was super promising, and I was excited. Then the first maybe twenty percent were so badly written? It was hard to get used to the third person after the amount of first person point of view books I’ve been reading lately, and the POV switched way too often. There was also repetition in the events from the different perspectives that felt super unnecessary and I was over all pretty confused. I had to go back to relisten to a lot, and I don’t think that was solely because of the fact that I was simultaneously working. I also felt that the hatred and jealousy between Nic and Liam felt so immature. Breaking someone’s shoulder on purpose is never okay, especially when the only thing they’ve done is have something you don’t.

I was SO disappointed with the Québécois of it all, though. As a person who is half Québécoise I get super excited to see stories set in and around Montreal. And when there’s a promise of French, too, that excitement is doubled. I wish an actual Québécois had been chosen for the voice acting in ten audiobook. That just wasn’t enough accent for meeeeee. Liam’s evolution to being turned on by the French is really sweet, though.

The back half was really good, though. The tenderness between them was everything I’d hoped for going into things. The revelation of Liam’s autism was also quite well executed, and put the beginning of the book into a lot of perspective. Of course, it doesn’t excuse anything, but it explained it, and sometimes that’s what’s needed. I really appreciate the fact that Liam is also explicitly autistic and not another autism coded character. I think he’s pretty well written, es pop virally with the whole picture you get at the end.

I liked Nic, and appreciated the fact that he was so in touch with both his own emotions and Liam’s struggles with emotion. I think he’s a good partner.

Saw somebody else saying something about the fact that it’s also nice to see a set of characters that don’t have a tragic backstory/childhood, but they still have their own issues to work through. And they do work on things, and make efforts to be the best they can - Nic through therapy and Liam by managing his autism. Also it’s sweet to see two romantics connected after having had their hearts shattered in the past.

The ending made me really happy, and I also appreciate that the final “goal” of the book wasn’t a big public coming out. they are their own people, and that’s a strong thing to portray, I think. Also the fact that they work on how to make things work for them and their specific situation, one of them out and the other not, is really good to see. It’s of course something that could end up causing strain in a relationship, but it feels so well communicated that I think it was done nicely.

The smut was pretty good, and I particularly liked the crying sex, it was a sweet scene that was more about what one person can do for another in a time of heightened emotions. I also appreciate a character that can admit to themselves and others that they aren’t really capable of casual sex, even if it’s only implied here that sex leads to more than could be considered casual.

Very good bi rep, too. The discussions of bi erasure are so important, and to see them thoroughly discussed at multiple points is awesome.

[Ash [Ginggercakes]]

TW: sexual content, outing

He’d spent two weeks learning the shape of Nic Arsenault so deeply that the knowledge lives in his hands now. And what the fuck did that mean?

I fear this review is going to come off harsher than it is, because I did enjoy reading this book but there was too much left unsaid for me to give it any more than 3 stars, and that seems to be pushing it. The writing was fine but not consistent, this ARC definitely needed a final check for continuity and sentence structure errors. Overall it came off as a bit too messy for a final draft. There were times I laughed out loud, perhaps more often than I should have, and at times the sentence structure felt too loose to take anything very seriously — even the serious bits.

Nic had wondered at the time if this was the Olympics or some kind of sports orgy. He still wasn’t totally sure.

I liked the characters but the depth of their connection was lacking because there isn’t enough information. There is hardly any inner character work (there’s some inner turmoil but it comes off more as noise rather than insight), there isn’t any detail about their past connections (other than vague mentions of Pittsburgh). There is minimal information about their personal histories and Nic has definitely been to therapy, but that wasn’t enough to support the story emotionally. For the entirety of this book readers just have to accept everything at face value which doesn’t really work for romance.

Being invisible was starting to feel less like he was protecting himself and more like he was hurting them both.

Too much telling and not showing lead to a disappointing romance that was mostly spice and little substance. I would go so far as to say that there was more hockey than character building, which is fine but its not really what I wanted. The characters obviously have chemistry so I know that some people will enjoy this book at face value and have no issues with it I just don’t think it checked enough boxes for me despite the fact that I did enjoy reading it.