Changing Lines, by RJ Scott and V. L. Locey

Changing Lines, by RJ Scott and V. L. Locey

My rating: 🍸🍸🍸🍸

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Blurb:

Can Tennant show Jared that age is just a number, and that love is all that matters?

The Rowe Brothers are famous hockey hotshots, but as the youngest of the trio, Tennant has always had to play against his brothers’ reputations. To get out of their shadows, and against their advice, he accepts a trade to the Harrisburg Railers, where he runs into Jared Madsen. Mads is an old family friend and his brother’s one-time teammate. Mads is Tennant’s new coach. And Mads is the sexiest thing he’s ever laid eyes on.

Jared Madsen’s hockey career was cut short by a fault in his heart, but coaching keeps him close to the game. When Ten is traded to the team, his carefully organized world is thrown into chaos. Nine years his junior and his best friend’s brother, he knows Ten is strictly off-limits, but as soon as he sees Ten’s moves, on and off the ice, he knows that his heart could get him into trouble again.

🍸

Okay, this one has been sitting in my Kindle for a while now. I was putting it off for personal reasons (specifically more of my life has been dedicated to hockey over the past couple of years than I thought possible, thanks to a certain small person with a pink helmet and an unseemly desire to check the entire school into the boards, but that’s beside the point.)  I regret waiting. And now, despite the fact that I’ve been strongly encouraged to stop spending money, I’m going to go and buy the rest of the series.

Because the Bruins can’t play every day, damn it.

Anyway, in all seriousness, I finally started reading this while my kid was at practice. Maybe that helped make it so easy to slip into the world these two amazing authors created. Maybe it was the completely believeable sibling rivalry going on with Tennant. I’m new to hockey but I’ve (ghost)written sports romance before, so I found it easy enough to understand most of the rhythm and ins and outs of professional sports as described here.

The thing about this book is, it’s a fast read. It’s short, which was a little frustrating to me (more on that later).It’s also a fast read because you stop remembering that you’re looking at words on a page or a screen. You find yourself completely immersed in the work. You are there on the ice, smelling that little sharp edge to the air that comes with freezing temperatures. You feel the anxiety of first-day jitters. There are a couple of moments – I don’t want to spoil them for you – where you are in the characters’ skins and you’re holding your breath because you know just how badly everything could go.

And hey, it’s romance. You feel that rush of endorphins when you get that happy ending.

My complaints about it being short – well, I hate to characterize them as complaints. My “issues,” I guess, were about areas I wanted to know about. Jared, the other lead, has some huge issues I don’t want to spoil for you. And they’re a little bit unresolved at the end of the book. If the book were a little longer, maybe that particular loose end could be tied off and this particular antagonist could ride off into the sunset, off a cliff? 

Jared and Tennant have a relationship that must raise some eyebrows, just by the nature of their positions.(This isn’t a spoiler, it’s right there in the blurb.)  I want to believe it won’t cause any problems for them in the long term, but can I honestly have faith in that? 

These are minor issues, and obviously not enough to keep me from running off to the Zon and picking up the entire rest of the series. I just wanted to put them out there, because every once in a while, I do wake up going, Hey wait a minute, wouldn’t the league have a problem with this? 

I also reread my favorite books thirty times and find new loose threads each time, so it might just be me. Anyway, if you like sports (especially hockey), you’re going to love Jared and Ten.