Book Reviews

Book Blurb

Dallas Christmas

Logan Maxwell, a winger for the Burlington Dragons, is stuck in Dallas and missing Christmas with his family. There's no snow in this damn city, he's lonely, and he can't even remember the last time he hooked up with a guy.

Spending his precious Christmas break with the other single players on the team could be great, he guessed, but for one thing; Archie Simard.

Lusting after the brother of your team captain is the worst idea in the history of bad ideas, Logan knows that. But when fate throws him and the temptation that is Archie together, it’s hard not to fall in love.

Secrets

Benji is the skater in the league who brings down the height average. Coming in at five eight, he's used to players chirping at him all night about his height.

Including the sexy defenseman for the Carlisle Rush, Avery Lester, the defenseman with the stunning eyes and cute smile.

When Benji makes a single inappropriate comment about Avery's ass, everything goes to hell. Add in Avery’s heroics during a hate crime, and things just go from bad to worse.

Abruptly it's not his height Benji has to worry about, but the chance that his closely guarded secret is shared all over the Internet.

Can love find a way, or will keeping secrets tear Benji and Avery apart?

Last Chance

It’s the last year of college and Luke can’t forget the captain of the hockey team, or the kiss they shared as freshman.

Justin has to decide if hockey outweighs his attraction to Luke, because this might be the last chance he’ll have of making things right.

 

Book Review

After the success of Heated Rivalry, hockey romances of the M/M variety are all the rage right now, well, at least for some. But the recent success of one of them making it to TV as a series is not all there is to know – some authors have been writing excellent M/M romances set on the ice for quite a few years. R.J. Scott is one of them, and I was curious to read this ‘Hockey Collection’ – all three novellas of which are set at Christmas time. This is in line with my current exploration of Christmas in July, a much-needed diversion from the current heat wave.

 

All three novellas are short and sweet, all of them refer to characters from the main series they are part of, and all of them made me smile. Based on this “taster” I now need to read all of the books in these series as well, LOL.

 

Dallas Christmas

Logan is a hockey player for the Dallas Dragons. He may be twenty-nine, but he behaves much younger where his personal life is concerned. His motto may be “hit hard, play harder, and never look back,” but he has a lot of trouble following that. He is so determined not to give into the temptation that is Archie – his team captain’s brother – that he completely ignores the fact that he actually has feelings for Archie that go beyond lust.

 

Archie is an investment banker and boy, is he determined to get through Logan’s seemingly indestructible emotional walls. One kiss around Christmas time is what he builds his hopes on… and his strategy to move into the same house where Logan lives with three teammates may just be successful.

 

Logan and Archie had a month-long fling a while ago and that may just be the thing that, in the end, may prove the undoing of Logan’s determination. Even though Logan thinks he can only get into the NHL is he is not outed as gay (by having Archie as a boyfriend), how do you resist your own feelings?

‘Dallas Christmas’ is a short story that shows how overwhelming the need to be together can ge, against all rational plans. As the blurb says “Desire doesn’t care about timing. Love doesn’t play by the rules.”

 

Secrets

Benjy is short (for a hockey player), a Colts player from Canada, and as been in the closet for ten years, determined not to let his sexual orientation interfere with his hockey ambitions. He has an active if secret sex life and is determined not to let feelings – especially those for a rivel team’s defense player – “ruin” his hockey career.

 

Avery is a defense player for the Rush, six foot six, and out to needle Benji into a response to his taunts on the ice. He is looking for advice from Benjy once he discovers that his rival is gay but wants to stay in the closet just as much as Benjy. Until he witnesses a hate crime and cannot stand aside.

 

Both Benjy and Avery have a lot to deal with in this story, including their growing feelings for each other. I was happy to see that, in the end, they figure out that love is more important than pretty much everything else.

 

 

Last Chance

Luke is a nerd and marketing major who has spent four years lost in a kiss he shared with Justin at the beginning of their time in college. Justin is a jock, captain of the college hockey team who has been scouted to play for the Dragons, and a physics major.

 

It is now the end of college and time to deal with the unresolved feelings their shared kiss has created. Justin is the more determined of the two – he just cannot imagine leaving college without at least trying to see if there is more between them than memories of a shared kiss.

 

Both Luke and Justin are trying to run from their feelings – but enough is enough. Add a little Christmas magic, and there seems to be hope for the future.

 

 

If you like your hockey romances short and sweet, if discovering new characters in existing worlds is your thing, and if you’re looking for some fun reads set at Christmas time, then you will probably this collection of novellas.

 

 

 

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 and print
Length	Collection, 164 pages
Heat Level
Publication Date	03-June-2019
Price	$12.99 paperback
Buy Link	https://www.amazon.com/Hockey-Collection-collection-Romance-Novellas/dp/1072045311