...so this was an interesting one.

I asked Netgalley for this ARC to review because I enjoyed Nary's previous book so much.

Basically, I loved the writing, but not the story. The MCs were not having a good time with each other for most of the book. This is explored in their internal monologues, and I kept feeling that a relationship between them was not going to work. It also felt like the characters were not really seeing, connecting with, or trusting the other person, so the reader never did.

Oddly, in a mainstream published book romance (ie with presumably a proper editing process), the characters were not really fleshed out, and hockey was pretty much absent in the story. You could do a "find and replace" through the text replacing "hockey" with baseball or football and it would have made no difference to anything. In fact, we never really get a sense of Brody, the hockey player, at all. He is tidy and conscientious. In everything. That's pretty much it.

This book is a romance, so they end up together at the end, but I was not convinced by the ending, or that the relationship was desirable. Unusually for me, not because I disliked one or more of the MCs, but because they were not really compatible/capable of having a functional relationship. I never got any sense of love or connection between them.

Weirdly, the excellent writing really accentuated the flaws in the romance story.

This was super frustrating for me. I was so excited to get into it, but it didn't meet my expectations. I don't like miscommunication, but when it lasts so long it gets old and frustrating.

This was a lovely read with complicated leads and a fun cast of secondary characters who I could've happily spent a ton more time with. (Party is <i>the</i> guy. I would read a book just about Party with zero romance. A man who should be studied like a bug under glass.) I liked the role Nashville itself played and the glimpses of the music industry, though I'm so used to reading player/player romances, I did at one point wonder where the hockey was before I realized that having about half the usual was probably to be expected!

Fake dating really isn't my thing and there are a lot of elements here I'm not normally crazy about, but it was immersive and quick and I ended up having a four star time anyway, which, I cannot emphasize enough, is a massive testament to Nary's writing.

Thanks to Carina for the ARC!

Holy moly. I loved Seamus and Brody. What a pair they make. Sea is so very complex, he’s full of self doubt, he’s a rock star and he doesn’t even know it. Brody on the other hand is confident, self aware and very much used to the spotlight, but after his 3 year relationship ends due to his inability to come out of the closet to his hockey team, he has trust issues and no desire for anything ‘more’. On the surface Brody and Sea are complete opposites. They have absolutely nothing in common except their undeniable attraction and chemistry. Life is not all moonlight and roses, and I found this story to be true to that. The characters are real, they make mistakes (a lot), they have issues, and they stress about the little things. I found it refreshing. Two opposites, who are actually perfect for each other. They’re the only ones that don’t see it. Hence their fake relationship works, even if they think it won’t. There’s also some seriously cute pussy cat interaction thanks to rescue kitten Princess Kiwi. Not a traditional fake romance story, but still highly entertaining. I received an advanced copy of this book via NetGalley. This is my honest review.

Another excellent sports romance book from Cait Nary! I really appreciate how Nary juxtaposes external pressures (fame, pressures to perform/conform, privacy vs authenticity, toxic masculinity, etc.) and internal struggles and anxieties. While Brody and Sea are opposites in a lot of ways, they deal with a lot of the same pressures as relatively young celebrities (26 year old professional hockey player Brody and 23 year old star country musician Sea, respectively) and — in addition to their mutual attraction — this becomes a point of connection for them both. While they deal with their pressures in different ways, I found their mutual support and respect for each other to be really charming. While their journey is full of missteps and miscommunication, their connection is palpable throughout the story. In Contract Season, Cait Nary provides an angsty, fresh take on celebrity romances and fake dating. I’m eager to read what she writes next!

Contract Season 2,5-3 ⭐️ Bonus points for trying, but I am not sure that this really worked, which is such a shame.

⚠️ Possible triggers :⚠️
I personally did not have any problems reading this, but here you go, just in case:
Implied homophobia, alcohol abuse, forced outing, religious fanatics/hypocrisy

I just recently started reading LGTBQIA+ novels. I am personally not that much into steamy novels. They are fine, but I need a good story as well, not only smut. For this one, the spice level was slow burn and moderately tame. If this is important to you, here is my spice rating: 2/5🌶

The story Centers around ice hockey NAHA defenseman Brody and country star Seamus, Sea for shorty pronounced something like Sha-ay. See, the Finnish speaking brain pronounces everything as it’s written so these things always confuse the heck out of me. Read one thing, say it a million times more complicated. But as said, Finnish brain….

Both men meet at a wedding and are semi out of the closet to not at all. Insta connection between the two, ending in a one night stand. Or so they want to believe. Maybe it was destiny, maybe chance, but they met again and of course got their pictures taken by paparazzis or whatever. So what do they do? Strike up a fake relationship.

I respect anyone, part of the community or not, who chooses to live their lives true to who they are. Who are not afraid to love who you love. I do understand the fear of coming out. I never lived it, but I feel for anyone who does not have the chance to live and live freely. I felt for the guys to have to go through a forced outing. The media/internet is a crazy and cruel place.

And now total random thought: Can I say that I loved that Brody got a cat?! Cats heal everything. Cats make everything better!

I did enjoy the writing. It was solid and easy to get into. I enjoyed the angst to some aspect, but guys, TALK! COMMUNICATION! But I guess we would not have had much of a novel if they did the east and logical thing. I could have done with a hundred pages less, it dragged a bit at some point. 90 % they danced around the topic of a real relationship and in the very very very very end, they decide to take the plunge and realise what they mean to each other. I mean I love a Happy End, but I could have had it a tad sooner. The ending came out of nothing, after 500ish pages of drama and angst.

I can relate to Sea’s way of thinking. Its not that I don’t understand. I see my own ways in it, but boy, I just wanted to shake him at some point. 🫣😂 while I really liked the characters, they did not have a lot of growth (together). Did they work any of their problems out? I don’t think so. Communication, people! You gotta work, okurr?

To sum it up, the story had all the potential to be amazing. I love the topics covered and the importance of equality and choice of when and how to come out. The problems I had were with the pacing and the lack of communication. The relationship was fake from the beginning and not much changed because the reader just got told they got a Happy End. But we were not part of it.

Thank you NetGalley, Carina Press & Carina Adores (Harlequin) and Cait Nary for letting me read “Contract Season” in exchange for an honest review.

The setup is interesting and subverts the fake dating and forced outing tropes by having the characters fake date after they’re already at odds with each other and have been “outed” for a relationship that doesn’t really exist. Unfortunately, however, the execution leaves a lot to be desired.

This book felt like I was reading a compiled fanfic serial and is an example of how applying genre expectations for fanfic/original fic to books often does not work. I’m not using fanfic as a pejorative; many fic writers are just as talented as the best published writers. But fanfic undeniably has different expectations for both authors and readers that can clash with expectations in other formats.

The characters in this book don’t get together until the last section of the last chapter – 93% of the way through the story. They have one conversation about how they’re finally ready to try being in a relationship. Then they have sex and there’s an epilogue set a few months later to reassure you they’ve now worked out all their issues (off-page). The end!

This is pretty typical fanfic pacing but atypical romance book pacing. Fic is often written in a community of people thinking about the same characters or character archetypes who want to iterate out various scenarios for those characters so they can explore how the characters would react to being in that scenario, with readers filling in details based on what they already know about the characters/archetypes. Many of these scenarios are complete as soon as the characters enter a romantic relationship, because reader enjoyment comes from consuming the characters’ angst about wanting (or not wanting) to be together in serial installments read days, weeks, or months apart. Stories about what an established romantic relationship between the characters/character archetypes looks like are often a completely separate thing. For these reasons, if you write a fic that ends as soon as the characters admit their feelings, you’re safely within the bounds of genre expectations and the average reader isn’t going to be surprised by that pacing.

The average romance book reader, on the other hand, is not going to be satisfied by a story where the characters are together for exactly one scene and don’t work out any of their problems. Romance book readers have an expectation that characters will talk through their problems on-page, and that if (for example) a character is shown feeling uncomfortable about sex due to inexperience, he and his partner will be shown working through that issue in the book.

That’s not to say romance book readers are right and fic readers are wrong, or even that authors of romance books should be required to satisfy existing genre expectations. But I do think it’s the reason why the majority of reviews for this book, as of the time I’m writing this, mention being unsatisfied by the pacing: They wanted to see the characters together for more than one scene, and they wanted to see the characters working through some of their issues before the book ended. It just isn’t satisfying to learn in an epilogue that Sea is no longer uncomfortable with his and Brody’s sexual dynamic because they worked through it in the months between the last chapter and the epilogue.

The other major issue that seems like a fic vs. book problem is Brody’s lack of personality. Both he and Sea mostly have the personality of “horny overthinker” (they’re almost unbearably horny for each other), but Sea has more background – we learn more about his childhood, his family, the start of his career, and his professional relationships. Brody is just Serious Hockey Defenseman sad about a recent breakup (the ex-boyfriend isn’t given a personality, either). The problem is, because I don’t regularly read hockey fic, Serious Hockey Defenseman is not an archetype that already exists in my head. I don’t have a pre-existing set of character traits to apply to Brody, or any other character in a hockey romance; I need the author to supply those for me. If I regularly read hockey fic, I might be glad Nary hadn’t spent time on character description I’ve read in dozens of other works. But I don’t, so instead I was frustrated that all Brody does in the book is think about Sea’s legs and lips, and how he shouldn’t want to do things with them but does anyway.

The book is also extremely repetitive in ways that are probably necessary for something published serially but bog down a book. The same basic ideas are told to us over and over, always in the form of the characters ruminating on them, but they rarely evolve and we almost never see how they play out in the real world. For example, we’re told repeatedly that Sea was an awkward teenager and is now hot and doesn't know how to deal with that or the expectations people have because of his appearance. But we don’t really see examples of how people interact with him, we just know he gets a lot of people sliding into his DMs. This could have been an interesting conflict to play out – Sea wondering if Brody is attracted to him for more than just his looks – but instead Brody figures it out after one conversation and that’s that.

The book also tends to have the non-POV character in important scenes rehash the entire scene in their next POV chapter by ruminating over their actions. Oddly, however, reactions to key things seem to be missing. We know Sea writes a song about getting ghosted after their very first hookup, but the song is never described. Although I’m extremely thankful I wasn’t subjected to any song lyrics in this book, it’s not really sufficient to say that Sea was so bothered by getting ghosted that he wrote a whole song about it, but never describe those feelings on-page. There are also weird things like Sea getting multiple tattoos during the course of the book (I think??) yet never even mentioning them during his POV chapters.

I also agree with other reviewers frustrated by the lack of communication in this book. The characters spend so much time thinking about their past interactions, but in a shallow and self-centered way. The lack of communication is often the result of a lack of empathy towards the other character, which doesn’t fit the characters’ personalities and seems motivated by the author’s desire to draw out their separation at all costs. For example, it's extremely obvious from context that Sea is upset hearing about how Brody doesn't want distractions, so why does Brody only ever make a token effort to explain himself? Sea’s reasoning for never wanting to talk about it (because it’s somehow a sign of Brody being more experienced and good at everything?) felt contrived. It would be one thing if both characters were genuinely trying to move on, but they both think about these past events incessantly and have a strong desire to resolve things, but neither acts on it because the author has more will-they-or-won’t-they scenes to check off the list first.

Finally, I’m irrationally annoyed at the author for using the nickname Sea for Seamus. I simply do not believe people shorten Seamus to Sea in real life (and even did some Google searching to validate this belief). People spell it Shae, or Shay, or Shea, because if they spelled it Sea, they’d be constantly annoyed by people pronouncing it “see.” I was constantly annoyed by my brain automatically reading “see” and then having to mentally correct it to Shea. It’s clear the author just wanted to be able to use the wave emoji to represent Sea, for whatever reason (it truly adds nothing to the book). But the thing is, when Brody puts Sea in his phone as the wave emoji, he has no idea it’s spelled Sea (because no one spells it that way in real life!), and no one is going to think “oh yes, the ocean, a wave” upon hearing someone’s name is Shea. This problem seems symbolic of a of of the book’s problems, because it’s an example of how the author was motivated by how things look to the reader instead of what makes sense for the characters.

This probably sounds like I hated this book, but I didn’t. I liked the setup and the outline of where the characters were going, I just wish they’d gotten there quicker and spent more time at the destination before the book ended. Above all, I wish about 30% of this book had been deleted during editing. I think Cait Nary is talented and has good ideas, but I hope when writing her next book she’ll get out of the hockey fic bubble because it really isn’t doing her any favors with the general romance audience.

Nary's writing made both characters easy to connect with, setting them in a world with enough details that they each had a life outside of each other, I understood where their insecurities were rooted, but kept the story tight and the focused on their relationship with each other. I was shocked to see this is only her second story since it reads in that easy way I so often see with prolific authors.

I do love the entire sports romance genre and I really enjoyed that this one did something different, it is equally just as much about Sea's world as a country music celebrity as it is about Ryan's world as a pro hockey player. Blending the two also allowed for both characters to come in as equals and able to have a mutual understanding of each others situation.

Sea and Brody are placed in a situation where they agree to fake dating. Fake dating may be getting over done lately, but I'm still not tired of it when it's set up well, and having it been set up by agents for image purposes is something that is instantly believable.

Lastly: read the acknowledgements. Nary has used that space as a platform to highlight real people and it comes across very touching at the end of an emotional story.

2.5/3 stars
I have mixed feelings about this one. I really liked the idea of this story with a professional hockey player and country star. I even liked the characters themselves and the side characters. It started out interesting and I was intrigued by them. And the thought of two very public people in not-so-inclusive professions possibly being outed is a setup that could definitely lead to issues and angst.

But the execution of the story with the pacing, starting fast and downgrading to super-slow burn, self-doubt, poor coping mechanisms and avoidance, complete miscommunication and inability to talk to each other wrapped up in a fake romance for the media just frustrated me. I just wanted to yell at my kindle for them to text, call, talk, or something and just be freaking real with each other.

The characters were likable and had depth and flaws. Sea thought Brody was Mr. Perfect and had it all together. Brody thought Sea was amazing and charismatic. But they not only had their own self-worth issues, but they were also horrible communicators and in their own heads most of the book. And even the handling of the expected homophobia situation in a lot of ways felt like it was glossed over and did not live up to the fact they had lived in fear over ever coming out. It rallied a bit at the end as we finally saw more vulnerability between them, but then it was not much time for us to see them as a real couple. So there were things I liked especially in the beginning and end, but the middle really frustrated me.

So, I wanted to give this author another chance as I love a good hockey MM romance. I could have lived without the fake dating between our MC's. I would have rather they just dated. And don't get me started on the lack of communication; come one guys it's not that difficult. My other issue is they are not together as a couple for very long & then the book is done. And my last real issue with the book is that Sea is IMO an alcoholic or nearly one, and we don't see him doing the work to get well or Brody supporting him. I don't think I will be continuing on with this series.

Thank you, Carina Press & Carina Adores, for allowing me to read Contract Season early.

I requested this ARC because I wanted some distraction and love angsty romances. Unfortunately, I didn't like the story as much as I wanted to. It's a me thing, I think, so other people should definitely check out other, more positive reviews!

This was truly lovely.
I think I've said it before, but Cait Nary is a master at creating angst-riddled, highly emotional, I-have-been-punched-in-the-sternum-with-a-boatload-of-feels-help-me, romances.

I absolutely adored "Contract Season", and although I preferred the first book a tiny bit more (nothing can beat Olly and Benji in my heart; they're just so *bursts into tears*), I really enjoyed this emotional, romantic rollercoaster of a book, and its two complex and flawed, but deeply relatable, protagonists.

Sea and Brody were fabulous MCs.
Sea was a walking, talking contradiction: he's charming and sexy, but deeply insecure and anxious and so endearingly pure, at the same time. And also, 100% realistic.
Brody was equally relatable: he's high-strung and always in control, but also insecure and afraid and just as charming as Sea, although in more quiet, reserved way. I loved them together, although they frustrated me to no end with their lack of communication and jumping to conclusions without actually talking to each other, but I guess that was what made their relationship so believable.

I also loooooved the side characters. I think I might have preferred them to the MCs at times! Cait Nary is very talented at making you fall in love with a vast cast of side characters, so much that you'd literally sell your soul for them to have their own romance novel and arc, and I distinctly remember "Season's Change" being exactly the same. I especially loved Party and Alex, but the whole hockey team was unbelievably lovable, as Sea's industry friends (and of course, Kiwi the cat: Brody being a cat dad was top tier stuff.)

The story was riveting and angsty, the slowburn romance was *chef's kiss* (if a bit on the "can you please talk now, and then maybe kiss and make up, pretty please" end of the spectrum) and the writing was UNBELIEVABLY good: it made me feel so damn much. So much, I actually nearly cried once or twenty times.

Cait Nary is a very, very talented writer and I literally cannot wait to read more of her stuff. Actually, in the meantime, I miiiight re-read "Season's Change": those small glimpses of Olly and Benji made me miss them (and yes, Poiro too) so damn much.

3.5 rounded up because I'm feeling nice, though it could just as easily have been rounded down, and I am definitely overthinking this.

There are a lot of things I really liked about this book. And there are some things that really frustrated me. And that leaves me a bit unsure how to rate it, because I always find it harder to review something that's <i>almost</i> hitting my sweet spot than to squee about something I love or rant about something I hate.

A bit of context: I really, really liked Cait Nary's debut novel Season's Change (review here: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/4493553857). Contract Season takes place in the same world as Season's Change ("world" here being exactly the same as ours, except that the NHL is called the NAHA and the team names and other details of this fictional hockey league are made up), but it is entirely a standalone: there is a cameo scene with Olly and Benji, the MCs of Season's Change, but otherwise there is virtually no overlap between the two books.

Although, not really. Because while the books don't especially interconnect in terms of the characters and story, in reading Contract Season I found that the things that frustrated me with Season's Change were both very much present and even more frustrating. I'll get to that in a second.

First, the set-up. Sea (pronounced Shay, short for Seamus) is an up-and-coming, young, very attractive country music star. Brody is a defenseman who's been in the league a while and is known for his extreme work ethic and focus. Both are closeted, although Brody is out to family and a select group of friends; he is also coming off a 3-year relationship that ended when his ex got sick of being in the closet and, crucially, Brody blames his implosion in the previous year's playoffs on the ex's poorly timed breakup. Sea is out to even fewer people and has never had a serious relationship or even much in the way of sexual experience; he struggles with the gap between people's expectations of him -- based on his looks, his fame, and the confidence he projects -- and his extremely limited experience, which makes him both self-conscious and ashamed.

They meet at the wedding of Josette, Sea's mentor and a megastar in the country business, and Alex, Brody's childhood friend and fellow NAHA star. Brody and Sea have an immediate, magnetic attraction; they hook up and exchange numbers; Brody then ghosts Sea, on the pretext that he doesn't want any more emotional distractions after his disastrous breakup; Sea writes a hit song about being ghosted; Brody gets traded to Nashville, Alex's team and Sea's town; they meet up again at a fundraiser; they go to Sea's house to hook up again, but it goes sideways and Sea kicks Brody out; but suggestive pictures of them leak from the fundraiser, followed by a deliberate, cruel forced outing of the two of them by neighbors whose security cameras caught footage of them kissing. And then, the damage control, which comprises not just choreographed social media statements and the like, but also a scheme for Brody and Sea to fake-date. And while suspension of disbelief is always baked into fake dating, here it at least lives in plausible-land. Because both country music and hockey are conservative industries with conservative fandoms, Sea and Brody's agents argue that the first openly gay country singer-songwriter and NAHA player would, ahem, be more palatable to the straights if they were in a more heteronormative, stable dating-type situation rather than admitting to a one (1.5) night stand.

Phew!

In other words: we've got insta-attraction; hockey romance; music romance; fake dating; slow burn; (kind of) second-chance romance; experience gap; and controlled-chaotic. This is tropetastic!

And sooo much of it works. The meet at the wedding is hot (although already the seeds are being sown for Sea's major issue down the road). The trauma of the forced outing is handled sensitively and effectively. The ramifications of being "the firsts" in their respective industries is really well done. While the public/ to-their-face reaction from players, the league, other artists and producers, etc is overwhelmingly positive, or at least neutral-positive, neither Sea nor Brody are ever entirely sure if this is genuine, performative, or coerced by fear of social media shaming / being made a sacrificial lamb by the league. The supporting characters are strong and hugely likable, especially Party, Alex, Josette, and Lila-Rose. There is competence porn up the wazoo, not just from Sea and Brody but from pretty much every named character: these are people who work hard and are at the top of their game. And most importantly: Sea and Brody are both good, interesting, flawed, sympathetic characters, and their connection is believable.

Unfortunately, there are also some fundamental problems with pacing and the relationship conflict that left me super frustrated. Basically, Sea and Brody's inability to communicate eventually goes from "self-protective wariness to making yourself vulnerable to someone you're deeply attracted to" to "this-is-bordering-on-dysfunctional" to OH MY GOD YOU GUYS JUST TALK TO EACH OTHER, THIS IS NOT BLOODY ROCKET SCIENCE!!!

And this seems to be a theme in this author's work. In my Season's Change review, I wrote, "I do think that there is a point at which things slide into the 'if these two people would only talk to each other like mature adults, this would all be easily resolved' territory." That is even moreso here. The pattern is basically: meet, connect emotionally if not physically, someone says something dumb and unintentionally hurtful, other person slinks off, they mutually ignore each other while obsessing over each other and over their own flaws/ how this non-relationship was doomed from the start, meet again due to the exigencies of fake dating, repeat. This goes on. SO. MANY. TIMES. To the point where I felt like they really were too dysfunctional to get together. Because, really, people. Not rocket science.

And much like Season's Change, when they finally do get together, we get one little "yay, we're together, let's shag" scene, and then: BAM!, epilogue. Too much build up and not enough delivery. And especially in this book, where there is one major issue in particular that is just sort of swept aside and never properly dealt with: namely that Sea is a heavy drinker who uses alcohol to avoid dealing with things and who is consistently drinking himself to very drunk or blackout status. Towards the end, Sea admits to his agent that he has a problem with his drinking as well as with other mental health issues and asks for help; there is later a reference that he starts seeing a therapist. But even after Sea admits a problem and asks for help, in the climactic relationship conversation between Brody and Sea, he still pounds down two whiskies before they even start talking. Which made me feel *yikes*.

And look. In fiction as in life, people have complicated relationships with alcohol that can change over time according to the person's life circumstances and support network and coping abilities. Just because someone has a problematic relationship with alcohol and social drinking in their early 20s does not mean that they are necessarily an alcoholic, nor does it mean that the only solution is to quit drinking cold turkey. But as written, Sea's relationship with alcohol definitely reads as (edging up to) a use disorder. And while it's great that he asks for help, we see literally no follow through on this very serious, very challenging issue (although we're meant to assume in the epilogue that he's got it sorted). I personally find this challenging as a reader, because I don't see him doing the work and I don't see his partner supporting him in that work.

And this is, again, why I wish that we could spend less time on all the mis/non-communication that keeps them from getting together, and more time on the actual relationship once they start communicating and commit to being together. Because this relationship has a lot of challenges -- two extremely high-profile, time-consuming, sacrifice-demanding careers, huge amounts of travel, both of them "the firsts," both of them with baggage -- and I would love to have seen some of that navigated, rather than the repeated cycle of "connect-hurt feelings-ignore-repeat."

Also, for a hockey romance, this was more hockey-adjacent. While hockey infused every page of Season's Change -- naturally enough, since both MCs were players and teammates -- here hockey hardly figures in the first third of the book (basically everything that happens up to the forced outing), and then afterwards, we split our focus between the music stuff and the hockey stuff. Don't get me wrong: the hockey stuff was good. I just would have liked more of it. But YMMV.

I realize I larded a lot of negatives into the last half of this review, but I really did enjoy this book for the most part. I think I felt the negatives and the frustration more because it was so close to hitting me in the squee spot. It kept edging up to yummy yum territory, and then backing away again. I suspect, as well, that "loading all the drama into the relationship buildup rather than the actual relationship" is just where this author lives, and now I know to price that in when I read any of her future work. And I will read her future work: this is a confidently written, enjoyable book that, even though it didn't completely work for me, shows real talent and potential.

Disclaimer: I received a free ARC of this book from Carina Press via NetGalley.

I really enjoyed the first book in this series and was really looking forward to this one, but unfortunately, I can't say that I enjoyed this one.

The writing, technically speaking, was solid, but I just could not get into the characters or relationship here. The entire book is *incredibly* frustrating, and partially that's because I do think the author does a good job writing both Brody and Sea's various issues and anxieties. They both have difficulty communicating with one another, and Sea in particular, is very self-conscious about his lack of experience, and gives off a lot of mixed messages. Brody is understandable confused, but *I* was confused, because I felt like the entire narrative kept trying to paint Brody as this amazing, understand, perfect guy, and I actually found his actions to be often pretty inconsiderate, and how I saw him just didn't match with what I kept being told. To be perfectly honest, by the end of the book, I legitimately did not think they should be together--I felt the author did a better job showing why they weren't a good fit than making me believe in them. They spend almost the entire book in a constant state of various miscommunication, and while it might actually be realistic/believable, it just didn't make for an enjoyable reading experience.

It's also relatively low steam--they essentially have sex at the beginning, then there's an entire book of frustrating miscommunication, and then they have sex at the end. It made sense for the story, but since I didn't particularly enjoy the story being told... Personally, I'm not a big fan of music books, either, and despite this being slanted as a sport book, the music focus was far more present IMO, with very little hockey. I don't want detailed hockey play info, but I had gone into this expecting more of a sports romance and I got more of a music romance.

So yeah, this one really didn't work for me, which is a bummer, because I really enjoyed book one! I'll certainly still be keeping my eye out for other books by this author, as I'm hopeful this is just an instance of a particular story really not working for me and not an overall mismatch of vibe.

Three and a half stars.

Brody Kellerman is a gay ice hockey defenseman. He's always kept his relationships out of the public eye, the last thing he wants is to be the first gay sportsman with all the angst that entails. Unfortunately, his partner of three years, London, didn't feel the same way and not being invited to accompany Brody to his best friend and teammate Alex's wedding as his 'plus one' was the final straw. So Brody is going stag. His eye is caught by the country singer crooning with a guitar while the congregation await the bride, too bad he spills two glasses of champagne down the guy's shirt! Brody knows he's not the most talented guy in the league, but he's totally focused and totally disciplined. He eats right, works out, sleeps the regular eight hours a night and has a plan for one year, fives, and even ten years' time. Marriage and kids is something he desperately wants, but after he retires when he can afford to concentrate on something other than hockey.

Seamus (Sea) Murray is an up-and-coming country singer, but it's difficult to write meaningful love songs when you have to be careful about which pronouns to use. After coming third in a US talent show he's still getting used to being recognised out in public, he's the epitome of the ugly duckling who grew into a beautiful swan but it meant he didn't get a chance to experiment in high school with girls or boys. Sea loves living and working in Nashville, but he's not really adulting very well, in fact most days he feels like a kid who'll get caught out at any moment. Uncoordinated, messy, and disorganised.

A no-strings-attached one-night stand becomes two nights when they meet at a charity function hosted by Alex's wife, but then a random selfie-taker catches the two of them in an unguarded moment. As the dominoes fall Sea and Brody's publicist decide the best way to style this is to stage a fake romance, it plays better than random hook-up partners to public opinion. With a fake-romance contract for six months, a set of pre-agreed 'dates', and their careers to manage can Brody and Sea make the story real?

I liked this, it was less superficial than I was expecting, more about Brody and Sea's careers and their feelings. Both men were adorable and I totally understood each one's reservations about their relationship.

Charming opposites attract, fake relationship romance.

I received a free copy of this book from the publisher via NetGalley in return for an honest review.

This was a fun slightly-non-typical fake relationship story, and I really enjoyed the emotions that were present on page.

Some unorganized thoughts:

• There are no lyrics in this book! Thank all the gods, alive and dead, there are no written out lyrics. The author instead focuses on showing the emotions evoked by the songs played, especially when its Sea playing the song. We get to see how Sea feels, and how Brody is affected by the songs which is what I like to see in general. Emotions!! So this was awesome.

• Homophobia, while present given the whole pro-athlete/country star setup, was not an overwhelming presence. It was there, it caused them issues, but it was not a Theme of the book and I appreciated that.

• I did not read the first book, and this read just fine on its own. Cameo by the first books couple is brief.

• I am a total sucker for fake relationships, and this one had a very smooth gradual arc of them going from hookup to contract to relationship.

• Side characters are relevant, with their own personalities. They also do not just tell the MCs how to feel, but help them along by having actual conversations. Like people. I liked that.

• I also liked Ian specifically - Sea’s producer/management. He was a whole person, not a one dimensional evil Go Getter type that I see a lot in band/musician books. A solid secondary character.

• Princess Kiwi sounds so adorable!!!

• There was no overwrought breakup, just people being people, and Sea being a drama baby (affectionate) musician. Sea had his own history and baggage he carried through and I felt like it was well balanced overall.

• Great interactions and pairing for the MCs too - older more stable Brody with his little passionate drama Sea. Many of their interactions played into this beautifully as well, the author clearly has a strong grasp on having distinct and individual characters and how to make that work well.

Sea made a face. “Are you, though? You seem like you’ve got it all pulled together. All the time.”

“Buddy, I have no idea what gave you that impression.”

“Are you, or are you not, the guy in the friend group that would get called to bail someone out of jail?”


• This did end up maybe a little heavy on the internal monologue, though I never felt like it was spinning its wheels. It was always moving forward, but it maybe could have trundled along a little quicker at times.

Overall, this was a very enjoyable read. It was very sweet, and a lovely slow burn (emotional). I could go on with more points and thoughts, but it's best if you just go read it!

I really enjoyed this one! It was fun and angsty and had my interest the entire time. I loved the dual POV and how we could see into both characters thoughts and actions because it helped a lot of things make more sense. This book had my heart hurting in the best way but also made me smile and laugh. I wanted to take both characters and smash them together and say COMMUNICATE!!!!!

4.5 stars
Got approved for the ARC yesterday, started it this morning and then proceeded to binge read it all day. I'll definitely be reading the first in the series now that I've finished this one.

I was somewhat iffy on this one in the beginning. Some of the framing of the breakup between one of the MCs and his ex made me a little wary. And then the catalyst for the fake relationship is really rough. I know forced outing is a thing that happens to celebrities, it's one of the multitude of reasons being famous sounds like a complete nightmare to me, but it's just so fucking awful. That whole part of the book went beyond angsty to being just a total gut punch. For a while I wondered if I could even enjoy the whole fake dating bit because the reasons for it were just so fucked up. So it's a credit to the author that the pacing of this and the emotional arc did end up working for me.

Although the MCs hook up right at the beginning of the book, from there on out its a slooooooooow burn. There's little I love more than a super slow burn, so it was very much my cup of tea. Both of the MCs felt very real. I LOVED the side characters. Again, they felt very real and had depth and were interesting and funny and just added so much to the book. Also, obviously, I was obsessed with Kiwi the cat.

Spice wise, I'd rate this as low heat. There aren't a lot of sex scenes. That was fine by me, even though there were some perfect opportunities for a pining wank scene or a phone sex scene, both of which are faves for me. But really the heat level felt right for these characters and their relationship and I certainly didn't feel like the book was lacking. I also happen to really like when an MC either doesn't feel comfortable doing certain things when it comes to sex or doesn't like them or feels inadequate at them. I'm always happy to see that whole aspect of the awkwardness and insecurity that can come along with sex in romance books, and I really liked it here. I also liked that not every sex scene went well. And the whole vibe of playful and teasing banter between the MCs during sex. It all worked for me.

I appreciated that there was queerness on page apart from the MCs, and the mentions of ace and aro identities being valid things that exists in the world. There was one conversation with two characters discussing whether they thought a side character was still a virgin that I could have done without, but for the most part I liked the way virginity was framed as not a big deal.

I wanted a bit more from the ending and was annoyed by the last paragraph. But it was far from a deal breaker in a book that I couldn't put down and overall really enjoyed. I'll absolutely be checking out anything in the future from this author.

Heat Factor: awkward sex → “you should leave” → slow burn → spectacular sex
Character Chemistry: They are so awkward with each other, but they’re also the only one who really understands what the other is going through, and they’re so sweet to each other
Plot: Brody and Sea’s attempt at casual fails horribly, but somebody caught them smooching on camera so now the whole internet knows they’re gay. In order to contain the fallout raining down on their careers, their agents negotiate a six month fake relationship
Overall: The perfection of this fake relationship is that, when they would normally just walk away, they have to stick around and talk things through and UGH MY HEART

Second verse, better than the first. I enjoy a bi-awakening and angstfest as much as the next person, but I really enjoyed that Nary’s second book had a less brooding mood and much more inclusive language. Sea and Brody deal with a lot in this book, but they have supportive families and communities (Brody’s is bigger than Sea’s because the hockey team is bigger, but still), and it makes a difference in how they are able to cope not only with being outed but also with navigating their feelings about each other in reasonably healthy ways.

Also, I love Party and would be super stoked to read his book. I am totally down for a surprisingly sage hockey himbo.

Brody meets Sea (short for Seamus and pronounced “Shay”) at his childhood friend’s wedding right after he’s been dumped by his boyfriend of three years and he lost the playoffs (or whatever you call it, hockey people don’t @ me) because his boyfriend of three years couldn’t wait until after the playoffs to do the dumping. So he’s done with love (is it even a romance novel if somebody’s not done with love?) but hey, he can fool around again!

Sea sees Brody and catches his eye while performing at his mentor’s wedding. He’s actually a country superstar in his own right at this point, but he’s only 23, and there’s still a lot of himself that he’s faking until he makes it. He’s theoretically not looking for anything because he’s closeted because he’s a country singer, but also he’s a, er, penetration virgin (?) when he has sex with Brody and kinda realizes he maybe would like maybe having a one night stand be…more.

Things are already not off to a great start between these guys when Brody signs with Nashville, but also these guys are hot for each other, so they hook up again. Sort of. It ends badly. But just as both men have retreated to their respective corners (I know I’m mixing sports metaphors, just go with it), Sea’s totally-supportive-of-the-gays-but-good-Christians-should-know (🙄)neighbors post a video of these very intentionally closeted famous people caught on their door camera to the internet, and scandal ensues.

And now we arrive at the fake relationship. Brody’s better off than Sea because his team is extremely supportive and not completely unaware, but Sea, as a solo artist, doesn’t have the same professional support network that Brody does. So why wouldn’t Brody step in and help Sea if he can? These guys both have good hearts, even if they’re complete doofuses sometimes.

The components of this fake relationship that I particularly liked include: there’s actually a contract with specific contractual dates and no need for engagement beyond that. So for the first little while, even though both Brody and Sea are still all up in their feelings about their history, they leave their relationship solely at those contractual dates. But then they start texting. And then they kinda want to hang out just for fun. And oh, feelings are hard. Even though they’re pretty much having sex on page two (not quite, but you catch my drift), the development of their relationship is actually a very slow burn. They don’t have sex again until they get through a lot of hurdles (a lot…this is a long book for Carina).

I also think this is a great example of a fake relationship trope doing its job perfectly because there are moments when something goes wrong and one or both of these guys just wants to turn tail and leave, but because of the contract, they are forced to at least make the effort to get to the other side of the problem. There’s more at stake than simply their own feelings, and it’s not only the big picture reason for the fake relationship in the first place making them pause, it’s the fact that they made an agreement that forces them to think twice before reneging on that agreement.

And finally, unrelated to the trope, I just really love protagonists who take care of each other. They see each other and see when the other is having a tough time (especially Brody seeing Sea) and they reach out, and it’s just everything I want to read in a relationship. You know what, that is actually trope related, because they wouldn’t be as comfortable simply taking those actions if they weren’t in the forced proximity situation. The fake relationship forces them to be in the same boat and because they’re in the boat together, they are willing to reach out.

Perfect trope is perfect.

I voluntarily read and reviewed a complimentary copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own. We disclose this in accordance with 16 CFR §255.

This review is also available at The Smut Report.

Thank you to Carina and NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review

CW: forced outing, implied homophobia, self-medication with alcohol

I would recommend if you're looking for (SPOILERS)

-m/m sports romance
-fake dating
-opposites attract
-one night stand
-an adorable rescue cat
-a lot of denial

This was another great sports romance read from Cait Nary. I really enjoyed how she showed Brody and Sea's different personalities but how they fit so well together. The hockey was chef's kiss and these two had great chemistry. A bit angstier than I was expecting I really enjoyed their HEA.

Steam: 3