Rule #1: Don’t fall in love with your family’s sworn enemy
Taylor Hollis brought home gold at the Olympics, then quit competitive skating at the height of his career.
Four years later, he lives a quiet life teaching figuring skating classes and looking for the perfect guy to settle down and build a family with.
When the Evanston River Otters hire Taylor to take part in a feel-good media piece, he’ll have to defy his father and work with the son of the man he detests.
And his one weakness is a hot older guy who’s good with kids.
Rule #2: Choose your loyalties wisely
Last season, Jamie Walsh left the Chicago Windstorm after a nasty divorce and falling out with his linemate.
Now he’s getting settled as a new forward for the Otters.
His biggest priority is his five-year-old daughter, Ava, but he can’t ignore how attractive he finds her skating teacher.
The only man he’s ever been interested in.
The more time they spend together, the harder it is for Jamie to ignore his feelings.
Too bad Taylor’s father has always blamed Jamie’s dad for ruining his hockey career.
Jamie and Taylor are perfect for one another but they’ll have to ignore both of their families’ unwritten rules if they let themselves fall in love with the enemy.
📕 hockey romance
📘 families are “enemies”
📙 age-gap
📗 figure skater
Two men from different worlds on the ice end up realizing that they have a connection in spite of the feud between their families. Their bond begins to form when Taylor is hired to teach the Evanston River Otters to skate as a way of sharpening their hockey skills. There are some complications for both men not the least of which is the fact that their fathers have ongoing hostility towards one another.
⭐️ Taylor Hollis: Taylor is lovely. He was an Olympic figure skater… then retired.. and he’s been assisting his friend to recover from an eating disorder. He is sweet, caring, loves teaching skating… and really wants a family. Hell, he wants it all but has trouble believing that’s in the cards for him.
⭐️ Jamie Walsh: Jamie Walsh is playing hockey and trying to take care of his daughter after a divorce sparked by his wife and friend cheating. Jamie was a lovely character. He always puts his daughter first and I really liked the way that he saw his sexual self-discovery just as part of his life. Sure, he had moments of insecurity about it – but I liked the way he and Taylor spoke about their futures and worked through problems rather than just building the drama
This book is really well written and I greatly enjoyed getting to know the characters. In particular, Jamie’s progression was really great. It felt really authentic to me. He didn’t panic or over-react to the road blocks that were thrown up in front of him.
The dynamics of the hockey team were interesting. There are a few players on the team who are in relationships with men. I thought it was great that the author explored what would happen in that kind of situation. It wasn’t a sort of “gay Disneyland” approach…rather, the author explored some real world consequences in terms of homophobia, media etc. I found the whole idea of a social media expert to be quite believable and I liked that there were real world consequences to the coming out of players.
Overall, the story was sweet and relatively low angst which I like a lot. The romance was believable and sweet and the friendships were realistic.
Nothing bad in this one! I loved it.
📚 Just Like This (Albin Academy #2) by Cole McCade
Things You May Want To Know: Please be aware, I’m by no means an expert on what may or may not have the potential to disturb people. I simply list things that I think a reader might want to be aware of. In this book: (SPOILERS) infidelity, homophobia, team bullying, substance abuse, hockey injuries, discussion of severe back injury in the past, anger, mentions of disordered eating
I received an ARC of Unwritten Rules by Brigham Vaughn from Two Peninsulas Press via Neon Rainbow Arc Reviews in exchange for an unbiased review.
Kinzie Things 