Playing For Keeps

by M.L. Wilkins

As a professional hockey player, James Cronwell has resigned himself to life in the closet. There just aren't any publicly gay players in the league and it never felt safe to tell anyone, not when it could potentially end his career.

When he runs into an old college teammate, and the current captain of the Atlanta Caimans, at a gay club, his entire world view is flipped upside-down.

Richard Hill isn’t out to the entire world, just a few teammates, but he’s comfortable in his sexuality in a way that James couldn’t even imagine.

What was originally just a one night stand inevitably morphs into something more as both men struggle with their feelings and the hazards of being gay in the professional sports world.


Playing for Keeps is a stand-alone gay hockey romance with steamy scenes, nosy teammates, and men learning how to use their words. There is a guaranteed Happily Ever After and no cliffhangers.

Genres: Hockey

139 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 20, 2019

Reviews

[Diane Lynch Lynch · Rating 4 out of 5]

M. L. Wilkins scores with PLAYING FOR KEEPS. Professional hockey player, James Cronwell, is in the closet. The last thing he expects is to bump into Richard Hill, his former college teammate and star of a rival team, at a gay bar. This contemporary sports romance is suitable for adult audiences.

When I started reading this book, I wasn’t sure how I was going to like it. It took me a couple of chapters to get into the novel. For me, this is one of those stories that got better the more you read it. By the time I got to the end, I couldn’t put it down.

The characters were well developed. I liked both James and Richard. I loved that they both thought the other was straight and had crushes on each other in college. Richard was a great captain. I like how he looked out for the rookies. I was upset about what happened to him and love that his team mates stand by him. The plot was skillfully executed. The characters had relevant obstacles. PLAYING FOR KEEPS is a heartfelt and enjoyable read. I voluntarily reviewed an advance reader copy of this book.

[Lisa McAteer · Rating 3 out of 5]

Great story. Bad editing and formatting

Great story, really likeable characters, but badly let down with sloppy spelling mistakes, bad grammar, and dizzying formatting. Would definitely be interested in another book by this author

[jennrubenstein · Rating 3 out of 5]

I stopped and restarted and pushed through because I liked the story, but I want so badly for this book to be edited. A lot of word choice errors that make no sense to the point that it reads like a book that was dictated and then never read through, by anyone. Starting with chapter 12, the entire thing is center aligned. A lot of easily fixable issues that made it borderline unreadable for my (former professional) proofreader brain. But I'm stubborn, and I like hockey, and I liked the story, so I forced myself to finish. And I still enjoyed the story, mostly. It's a 2-2.5⭐ for me, generously rounded up for the purpose of this review. Professional editing would be ideal but I think even some good, honest beta readers with an eye for spelling/grammar/punctuation (the serial commas - I would die for the Oxford comma but there are actually *too many*, somehow!)/formatting would do a huge amount of good, that alone would likely bump be up from 2.5 to at least 3.5⭐.

[Kirsty Mckenzie · Rating 5 out of 5]

I absolutely loved this book. I am a massive ice hockey book fan, I don't know why but that is one of my fav mm sport type books. Anyway this is is quite a great book. Two players from different teams but old colleagues from college hockey. A nice reconnection with a bit extra.
This is James and Richards story.
An absolute must read book one you need to experience for yourself. It is a great a great book and one you won't regret.

I received a free copy of this book via Booksprout and am voluntarily leaving a review.