Sunday, June 25, 2017

Empty Net (Scoring Chances #4), Avon Gale

I mean this is the most positive possible way: reading this m/m romance felt like reading fic.

This book was recommended to me because "Laurent is my type of character," which is true (and not the only time that's happened with a character named Laurent). Hockey romance isn't generally my thing, but it's a big enough subgenre that I've read a few, and this one is very enjoyable. Isaac Drake is an out-and-proud captain of a minor-minor hockey team, and then his arch enemy , who spit on him and called him slurs last season gets transferred to his team. Will they learn to work together? Will it turn out that his icy nightmare of a rival, Laurent St. Savoy, has dark secrets and is actually not THAT bad after all? Yeah, of course.

The drama is a little bit over the top (Laurent's backstory is VERY dark, he's dealing with an eating disorder, Isaac was kicked out of his house for being gay and struggles with telling Laurent that he used to do sex work to survive) but the emotional heart of the story is very real. There's a moment toward the end when Laurent is talking to a mental health professional, who tells him that he deserves kindness and love, and he doesn't know how to react, and I had that exact moment in therapy when I was in college.

I read this all in one night. If that particular enemies-to-lovers trope is your jam, you'll definitely enjoy this.

Grade: B
#48 in 2017

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