Book Reviews

Book Blurb

Veteran goaltender Eric Bennett has faced down some of the toughest shooters on the ice, but nothing prepared him for his latest challenge—life after hockey. It’s time to make some big changes, starting with finally dating men for the first time.

Graduate student Kyle Swift moved to New York nursing a broken heart. He’d sworn to find someone his own age to crush on (for once). Until he meets a gorgeous, distinguished silver fox hockey player. Despite their intense physical attraction, Kyle has no intention of getting emotionally involved. He’ll teach Eric a few tricks, have some mutually consensual fun, then walk away.

Eric is more than happy to learn anything Kyle brings to the table. And Kyle never expected their friends-with-benefits arrangement to leave him wanting more. Happily-ever-after might be staring them in the face, but it won’t happen if they’re too stubborn to come clean about their feelings.

Everything they both want is within reach… They just have to be brave enough to grab it.

 

Book Review

‘Common Goal’ is set two years after the end of book one. Scott and Kip are about to get engaged, and Eric, the Admiral’s goaltender, newly divorced and now an “ancient” for hockey players at forty-one, needs to start seriously considering retirement. This story is a friends-with-benefits to lovers tale, one with several obstacles. The age difference between Eric and Kyle, a graduate student, is one problem, a previously broken heart resulting in commitment issues for Kyle is another, and both men are too stubborn for their own good once they discover there might just be more to their “arrangement” than either wants to admit. The physical attraction may be what brings the men together at first, but emotions develop pretty quickly and neither man is sure what to do with them. Ignore them and they’ll go away, right? Wrong!

 

Eric Bennett plays for the New York Admirals, with Scott Hunter (from book one) as his captain. Things are not going well for him on the ice, but he is so dedicated and determined to keep playing that he ignores all the signs that it may just be time for him to retire. And when he does? He is a little aimless at first but one thing he is looking forward to is dating men, something he didn’t feel he could have done before. But how to go about that?

 

Kyle Swift is a graduate student working as a bartender to make money. He is studying for his master’s in history, just like Kip. Kyle has a crush on Kip even though he knows the man is engaged and less than available. Kyle moved to New York to get away from his last unsuccessful relationship and here he is again, crushing on someone unavailable. He has absolutely no intention of getting involved again any time soon, but meeting Eric throws a wrench in his plan.

 

Eric and Kyle have been around the same hockey players for a while, but when they talk at Scott and Kip’s engagement party, they begin to be interested in each other. With Eric not really knowing how to go about “the gay dating thing” and Kyle being well-versed in the art of hookups, the idea of Kyle “showing Eric the ropes” sounds great. But it turns out that it doesn’t quite work as intended. Feelings develop, but both men are too stubborn to admit it, so it takes a while for them to sort things out. I was ready to give up, but they made it in the end.

 

If you like friends-with-benefits stories that turn into more, if stubborn men hiding their emotions even from themselves are your thing, and if you’re looking for lots of experimental sex while both men try to decide to be honest about what is really going on, then you will probably like this novel.

 

 

 

DISCLAIMER: Books reviewed on this site were usually provided at no cost by the publisher or author. This book was purchased by the reviewer.

 

Additional Information

Format	ebook, print and audio
Length	Novel, 282 pages
Heat Level
Publication Date	21-September-2020
Price	$4.99 ebook, $12.91 paperback, $14.95 audiobook
Buy Link	https://www.amazon.com/Common-Goal-Sports-Romance-Changers-ebook/dp/B086GZ9CNV