Game Changer
by Rachel Reid
Genres: RomancePages: 366
Series: Game Changers #1
Rating:
Synopsis:New York Admirals captain Scott Hunter takes his pregame rituals very seriously. When a particular smoothie precedes Scott's breaking his on-ice slump, he’s desperate to recreate the magic… and to get to know the sexy, funny guy behind the counter.
Kip Grady knew there was more to Scott’s frequent visits than blended fruit, but he never let himself imagine being invited back to Scott’s penthouse. Or kissed with reckless abandon—and more. What goes on between them is hot, incredible and frequent… but also only on Scott’s terms and always behind his closed apartment doors.
Scott needs Kip in his life, but with playoff season approaching, the spotlight on him is suddenly brighter than ever. He can’t afford to do anything that might derail his career or the public’s image of what a hockey captain should be. Kip is ready to go all in with Scott—but how much longer will he have to remain a secret?
I’d been meaning to try Rachel Reid’s Game Changer for a while, given people’s excitement about the Heated Rivalry series, and it was definitely fun. I’d say it was pretty predictable, and quite a lot of it focused on sex scenes to a point where it didn’t feel like they were advancing the connection between the characters or the characterisation of either of them… but it was fun, all the same.
It helps that Kip and Scott are both characters that make sense, and their connection (and the ways they didn’t always work perfectly together) proceeded from that pretty well. Scott’s a very successful but deeply closeted athlete; Kip’s a poor queer arts graduate working shit jobs who’s happy to go to gay bars and pick up men who seem handsome and fun. It makes sense that there’s a lot about Kip that attracts Scott, at the same time as it makes sense that they’ll struggle to find a balance in terms of money and in terms of how public they want to be.
I did enjoy their friendships outside of the relationship, too, particularly Kip’s with Elena, but also Scott’s with his team. Kip’s dad is pretty cool as well…
So it all added up to something that wasn’t groundbreaking or full of surprising turns — and seeing the third act breakup coming from a mile away did have me wincing in anticipation, which I always hate — but which managed to be pretty cute and entertaining for what it is.
Rating: 3/5 (“liked it”)
This sounds very cute! And it sounds like a lot of the interactions are believable, which would be a bonus for me too.
It definitely feels pretty realistic/believable, stuff isn’t “too easy”.
Glad you liked it! I feel like the series gets better the further in you get. The 4th book is my favorite.
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Ah, interesting! Good to know.
This series is a solid pick if you like Romances with lots of sex. I think I was a lot warmer on this one than most people are (though the audiobook narrator is god awful). The actual Romance elements didn’t do much for me, but I think Reid did a great job of capturing the intense inner conflict of being in love with someone who isn’t out, which then forces you to warp your life around that. It’s a uniquely queer experience, and I think authors rarely get it right despite the prevalence of gay/bi awakenings in the m/m romance space (of course, this book wasn’t, but bi-awakening stories almost always have a ‘in the closet’ storyline to them). The meet-cute I could take or leave, but this book in particular resonated with some of my life experiences a lot. If you decide to continue the series, know that they’re all in the ‘nothing groundbreaking’ category, but Reid generally does a better job of convincingly writing the experiences of queer men than most m/m authors.
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Good to know re: the audiobook narrator! And yeah, I think the agony of not being out and hiding a part of yourself is well done.
I enjoyed it too! I agree it was a fun if predictable. I didn’t realize that it was quite so sex heavy, which usually isn’t an issue, but I was listening to it on Audiobook and I prefer to read sex scenes instead of listening to them so it got a little weird I have bought a physical copy of Heated Rivalry to read!
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Yeah I think I’d have found that a bit awkward, haha!