Goaltender Interference by Ari Baran is the fourth and, I'm guessing, final book in the Penalty Box series. I love this series, and I loved this book even though second chance is definitely not my favorite trope.

Aiden and Matt had a relationship 10 years ago and reconnect as Aiden is adrift and depressed upon retiring from a Hall of Fame career as a goalie. Matt is facing the same decision--retire? get traded? take a low contract to stay with his team?

As the two try to rebuild a relationship, they are very tender, but also a bit hesitant, with each other. I really felt for Aiden and his struggles with who he was as a person without hockey, or without Matt being with him 24/7. The emotions are a similar arc to Danny Garcia's journey in the first book of the series, Game Misconduct.

This is an emotional, sexy, and satisfying read with two great characters.

ARC generously provided by NetGalley; opinions my own.

This is one of the best MM sports romances I’ve read this year. While many hockey romance novels tend to rely on similar themes, this one stands out for its creativity. The protagonists are nearing the end of their 30s, and the drama is perfectly executed. I highly recommend it!

I was surprised by this book. I did not think a hockey romance would be so sad and hit home as much as this one did. I felt like the books started out light and ended very heavy but also hopeful at the end. This book had a lot of depth and I loved it!

I’m not much of a second chance romance kind of gal but I love Ari baran and I will read anything they publish. I enjoyed this one, though it has the lack of communication trope that is just not really my thing. However, if you’re looking for a good hockey-fic, I’d still really recommend to anybody!

Thank you to the authors team for the ARC! I am an Ari fan until the end so this was so exciting!

A second chance M/M romance set in the world of professional hockey, Ari Baran continues this series with undeniable chemistry between Aiden and Matt, but also with numerous problems and issues that need to be overcome. I liked that it delved into how devastating retirement can be for talented athletes who are unsure how to proceed afterward. This is a love story for the ages.

This series just keeps getting better and better. I loved Aiden and Matt and their second-chance romance so much. It was beautifully written! Their journey is not an easy ride. They both make mistakes and there are realistic struggles they each have to overcome, which is part of why I loved it. Just being in love doesn’t magically fix everything and they both have to make choices to work on their relationship, and on themselves, to forge their happy ending.

It was also a really fascinating look at retirement in the sporting world and how to approach the struggle of redefining your life in your thirties.

The whole cast of characters were wonderful and so fleshed out. One of the things I love most about Ari’s books is how large the universe of these books feels. The stories all subtly interconnect and it’s so much fun spotting characters from previous books when they make cameo appearances.

If you love sports romances and second chance love stories then you’ll absolutely love this book!

I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

Finding the love of your life in a teammate in your 20s when you’re both playing professional hockey in NYC of course didn’t have a happy ending for Matt and Aiden. Meeting Matt in a bar 10 years later, freshly retired and without any plan for his future wasn’t what Aiden planned on. But the feelings aren’t gone even a little bit, so after a passionate night together, finding Aiden depressed and without any direction for the rest of his life Matt decides to take him in. I think these two found each other again at the perfect time and while this was super angsty, it was also a really beautiful story about two guys I absolutely rooted for individually and together!

I generally enjoy this Authors work and book 1 & 2 of this series,I particularly enjoyed.
Although the authors lovely writing style still shines through in this one, the overall story and characters didn’t quite seem to grab me and therefore feeling like this was a somewhat uneventful story.

I do hold out hope that whatever Ari Baran has in store for us next will be another hit.

I enjoyed the story that unfolded through Ari Baran's Goaltender Interference. Second-chance romances are always an interesting premise for me because it demands a lot of skill as an author. Many rely on telling the reader about the former relationship and then lean too heavily on the telling rather than showing the development and reparation of the aforementioned second chance. While it didn't top my list for the most skillful development, it was still well done and I was not left feeling the relationship was hollow. The character's reconnection was unlike any approach I've read before; they have such a volatile and impulsive need for one another despite their past pain. I found the depression representation to be well done, especially the aspect of "when therapy doesn't work." Many times I've seen the mental illness go very smoothly towards the outcome of remission, and Baran shows another side that we experience but don't see often in books. My main hangup that kept me from rating this story higher, was the resolution of Aiden's mental health and ultimately his relationship with Matt. There was little progress and that was repeatedly acknowledged, however, one confrontation from a side character - who repeatedly crossed boundaries - in an attempt at tough love suddenly was the catalyst for change. I would have preferred to see the confrontation of the self or even from one of Aiden's loved ones, who repeatedly reached out and supported him, be that catalyst. For me, that would have been more meaningful.

"I remember being pleasantly surprised by Delay of Game when I read it a few years ago and wanting to read more from Ari Baran, though I skipped Game Misconduct after reading some reviews and determining the bully romance angle would not be for me (though I loved seeing that couple in Delay of Game). Here we follow Aiden Campbell, who has just retired from his job as the New York Liberty starting goaltender. He's not handling retirement well and when his rookie (and new Liberty starting goaltender) forces him to go out one night, he runs into Matt Safaryan, captain of the Montréal Royal and Aiden's ex. The reader quickly realizes that the breakup was messy and despite being a decade ago has still left its mark on both men. This run in leads to Aiden and Matt reconnecting and we follow that journey. One thing I love that Ari Baran does is give us a really deep character connection. Aiden and Matt are both messy main characters and they make mistakes but they feel authentic even if they can be frustrating. I also love that Baran writes diversity into a sport that is still very straight and white. All of these books follow M/M relationships but Aiden's mom immigrated from South Asia and that detail is baked into who he is as a person rather than just a token diversity element. This also really digs into the concept of ""after"" for professional athletes. Aiden retires at the start fo the book and Matt is in the final year of his contract and they're both struggling to learn what a life without hockey could be and I thought that was really well done. I think I struggled with some of the second chance elements of this because for one, it's not my favorite trope, and for two I didn't love the pacing and the way the previous relationship was explained throughout this story. I also struggled with the fact that some key plot elements would have been resolved if they just talked to one another. As previously mentioned, I think those pieces made sense given where the characters were at but from a pure enjoyment level, I am a hard sell on plots that hinge on miscommunication. I enjoyed this though and I will likely go back and read Home Ice Advantage and any future works they write in this series."

I love that the MCs are older and that the book deals with real/deep emotional issues. The development of the relationship is sweet and I love the depth of the side characters too.

Heat Factor: They start in chapter one and really don’t quit

Character Chemistry: We communicate with our bodies

Plot: Aiden is in the midst of a depressive episode after retiring, bumps into his ex, and rekindles the old flame without addressing any problems. What could possibly go wrong?

Overall: Gabe is the hero of this book, and I have very big feelings about everything else

Uff da. Okay. This book probably falls into the “too close to home” category for me, so I realized while I was reading that while I could understand what was happening and why, I was alternately frustrated by or disappointed in everyone in the book…frequently. Except Gabe. Gabe is an angel and I love him.

The basic premise is that Aiden, a professional goaltender, realized he kind of had to retire due to injuries and getting slow, but his entire life was hockey, so when his team is knocked out of the playoffs he has absolutely nothing to do. His baby goalie, Gabe (squish those cheeks!), drags him out one night, and he runs into his ex—the ex who proposed a decade ago, but for whom he refused to come out or otherwise jeopardize his career—and he spirals. The ex, Matt, appears at his door, and they just bang it out every day until Matt’s vacation is over and he goes home to Montreal. While talking was not a thing that happened during the banging, with separation text chatting becomes a safe option, and Matt invites Aiden to stay in Montreal for the summer so he’s not just spinning his wheels depressed at home. Aiden moves to Montreal, and… Basically neither of these guys deals with any of their BS. But they are almost 40 now, so they’re less young and dumb, at least.

So, this is where it gets tricky. Even though both Aiden and Matt are POV characters, this is really Aiden’s story. Aiden is the one dealing with the depressive episode and is also the one who limits what’s up for discussion. There are a few times that Matt tries to talk things out, and Aiden just shuts down. Matt has some stuff to deal with, like his feelings about the end of their relationship back when and his own looming retirement, but without Aiden addressing his inability to find a raison d’être in his own life, there’s not a lot of room for them to move forward together.

Okay, so, Aiden. What about Aiden?

I’ve said he’s having a depressive episode (at a minimum—he could have clinical depression, but we’re only looking at a snapshot in time). My evidence for that is as follows:

- He shuts out his friends and refuses to leave his house unless he’s kindly bullied into it by Gabe, his Captain, the head WAG in Montreal, etc.
- He experiences anxiety about changes to his Routine (caps his) after his retirement.*
- He routinely has thoughts about his lack of worth and that he’s going to drag Matt down.
- He also routinely feels extreme guilt about what happened with Matt when they ended their relationship ten years prior.
- He engages in avoidant behaviors, especially where his most challenging feelings are concerned.
- Any thinking about what to do with his life without hockey starts a doom spiral.
- He relies on rigorous routines to get through his day, but he derives no satisfaction from the routine.
- He’s constantly tired, doesn’t sleep well, and looks worn down.
- He stops taking care of his hair and beard.

Even Matt, shortly after Aiden moves in with him, recognizes this clearly:

"Matt couldn’t explain to Jammer that he had thrown caution to the wind, invited his ex to stay with him for the summer and had promptly realized two things: his ex was fucking depressed and also, that Matt was still as stupidly in love with him as he had ever been."

In addition to all this, Aiden is autistic-coded, and here’s my supporting evidence for that:

- Aiden struggles with social interactions. He’s frequently described as awkward around others, and later in the book his mother tells him that he wouldn’t play with other kids, except when he started playing hockey.
- Except that the hockey was actually parallel play, because his coach had to explain to him that his team would defend him better if he made an effort to befriend them, so he learned “cheat codes” to have conversations with them.
- He’s perfectly happy to eat the exact same thing every day, and the only reason he doesn’t is that he’s cooking for Matt, too. His mother later mentions that when he was a child he was extremely particular about what food he ate and how it was prepared.
- During hockey, he was completely absorbed by his daily Routine, and without hockey, he struggles with changes to the Routine, resulting in anxiety, stress, and irritability.*
- He doesn’t like to make or maintain eye contact.
- He engages in repetitive actions to calm himself, specifically cleaning and organizing Matt’s condo.
- His mother mentions that when he was a child he would organize and stack his blocks as his way of playing with them.
- His hyperfixation is hockey. For decades.
- Oh, and, depression is frequently co-diagnosed with autism.

Aiden being (possibly) autistic has nothing to do with anything, except that it probably makes the depression harder to treat, because in addition to the challenge of this particular transition in his life, he should probably unpack how constant masking has affected him. But mostly it would be harder because cognitive behavioral therapy has to be modified for autistic individuals so it doesn’t increase masking (since it’s focused on changing behaviors), and also because autistic individuals can be uniquely sensitive to brain medications. I mean, and also it’s just part of who he is, and anyone who values him should probably understand and value those aspects of him, too.

Okay, also. We frequently say [diagnosis] is a reason, it’s not an excuse. I won’t say Matt, Aiden, and everyone else should recognize all of Aiden’s autism indicators because unless they have reason to know, people (especially people Matt’s and Aiden’s and their parents’ ages) are really bad at recognizing low-support needs, high-masking autism. There’s a moment when Aiden asks his mom why she didn’t do anything for him when he was little, and that hit me square in the chest.

"Neither Mom or Dad had ever made him feel weird or different as a kid. They’d never taken him to a doctor. They’d just let him put his head down and focus on goaltending with the kind of single-minded drive that had taken him to a probable Hall of Fame career. But they’d always known… “Mom, why didn’t you do anything about this? About me?”

"She looked, for the first time, a little guilty. “What would we have done about you? You always seemed happy, or whatever happy meant for you, and you were so successful, we never wanted to upset things. I wonder now whether we shouldn’t have… but you’re almost middle-aged now, and it’s far beyond second-guessing that.”"

So, that is what it is. BUT THE DEPRESSION! EVERYONE SEES. NO ONE DOES ANYTHING ABOUT IT.

By the time I started having really big feelings during this read, I was fully invested in this book. I love Ari Baran’s writing. I was completely sucked in, and I always consider books that make me feel things to be successful stories, even if the feelings are uncomfortable, because I’m feeling things.

But this whole Aiden’s depression thing. I was so disappointed in everyone. Except Gabe. Gabe is golden. Like. We’re at 25% through the book when Matt specifically says Aiden’s depressed (that first blockquote). Hello, maybe that’s something to address. Aiden does start going to therapy in Montreal. He exercises for at least an hour almost every day, so his serotonin levels do have a chance to increase naturally, but it’s very clearly not enough. Six months later, and he’s still curled up in a ball in Matt’s bed with no improved outlook for his life. Like. WTF are the people in his life doing?

And here’s where I close the loop (finally) on the whole it’s tricky thing, because Aiden knows he needs help. That’s why he starts going to therapy. That’s where the reason not excuse things comes in. But it is really difficult for people in these situations to see clearly just how much their brains are being assholes, and that is why I would expect Matt, as Aiden’s partner, to maybe possibly bring up the need for, IDK, seeking out another therapist who might actually help him? Seeking out medication to see if that helps? Asking about his therapy homework and offering to go through it with him? Literally anything besides letting him float on that raft by himself and letting him avoid his feelings with sex?

But okay, Matt is not a healthcare professional, he’s a hockey player, and I don’t think anyone thinks they (collectively) have super high EQs. SO THEN WHY IS AIDEN’S THERAPIST NOT HELPING HIM WITH THIS? Holding him accountable for his emotional avoidance? Working through why he’s avoiding his therapy homework? Suggesting that his symptoms indicate depression and referring him to a prescribing colleague? Yes, Aiden needs to take ownership of his life and his choices and do the work necessary to make his own life better. Nobody can make him care or do the work for him. But when people are so far down the hole, they need a freaking lifeline.

It shouldn’t have been Gabe’s job to throw the lifeline. But he did, and I love him forever. Gabe is the hero of this story.

(I mean, to be fair to Baran here, Gabe is inhabiting the bestie/parent/perfectly observant stranger who finally says what needs to be said to get our protagonist’s head out of his ass role. Aiden was avoiding opening up to Matt because he was terrified of being vulnerable and that vulnerability not being enough. Is it even a romance if that combination isn’t in the book?)

Anyway. Maybe I’ve already found my thinky thoughts book for the year. I can’t deny that there are legitimate reasons why Matt acted the way he did, including not being the person who ultimately gave Aiden the kick in the pants he needed. I can’t deny that Aiden was not taking responsibility for his own self in a lot (a lot) of ways. I was really frustrated by the way these guys communicated (didn’t communicate) with each other, like, a lot. But at the same time, Baran wrote such a thoroughly considered story about a man in a total funk who couldn’t see his way out of making bad decisions. A story shouldn’t be too easy. A character needs to grow, and we should create space for messy people being messy. And these guys were messy as hell. It was a very compelling read.

But for realsies, give my guy Gabe a HEA, okay?

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.

ARC Review
Goaltender Interference by Ari Baran
Penalty Box - Book Four

I think the writing style was absolutely excellent, however some of it was a bit long and drawn out. I know that Aiden is depressed (and I personally have severe depression) but it felt like a very one sided relationship.

It was okay. I got a little tired of Aidan and his depressive self. I know it's very real and happens all the time, but I wanted a little more romance.

A high angst second chance romance. Both these boys are so heartbroken and it it was so nice to see them melt back into eachother over time. Very realistic, no rushing. Well-developed characters. And as a friend of mine stated, you know it’s true love when you know when your partner needs to be choked. Plus, Baran is always spot on with the actual hockey playing.

This book is a moody, thoughtful, clear-eyes exploration of what losing the one thing you know how to do feels like, and what second chances really mean - romantically, and in life. I love Baran's writing.

As someone who empathizes strongly with book characters, this was a tough one to get through. Aiden's depression and identity crisis post-retirement hits hard, especially as he grapples with the lingering guilt and pain of his decade old breakup with Matt. The book starts off with an explosive reunion between Matt and Aiden, and hurtles into a summer of being together. Matt is a great supportive partner who does his best to offer Aiden love, happiness, and security, but Aiden is lost and can't see a way to a happy future. In the midst of a lot of emotional, very well written and realistic angst, there's equal amounts of sweet domestic moments, high heat, and hockey. There are great supporting characters, including Matt's teammates and Aiden's former teammates. The setting is so immersive and definitely made me want to travel to Montreal! If you're looking a book with second chance romance, two men in their late thirties, hockey, and healing - this book is for you!

Thank you to Netgalley and Carina Press for an advance copy of this book.

I’ve really enjoyed this series so far and I’m not sure why I didn’t click with this one. The plot was really calm and even but I put it down a few times and came back when I had more emotional energy for this one.

I am IN LOVE with this series and this was the perfect book to end on. Aiden and Matt exemplify why I love second chance romance so much. The yearning! The angst! They're just two sad boys desparately in love with each other. I loved this one so much. Sad to see this world end.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for sending me an advance copy in exchange for a fair and honest review. This is on me probably. I didnt enjoy the book before this i had gotten as an arc, i thought hey maybe its a fluke. I think I might just not vibe with the writing style. ALSO if yall break yo that many times you shouldnt get back together ever.