Author: Rachel ReidTitle: Heated Rivalry
Publisher: Carina Press
Published: 2019
Genre: Contemporary/sports romance
Links: Amazon / Storytel / Goodreads
Would you look at that, yet another book that has been read because I spend too much time on social media. This time @escape_in_a_book is the felon who made this book present in my tbr. She told us that this is one of the best M/M-romances she's ever read and the best sports romance. I tend to agree.
Not being majorly interested in sports, I don't usually go for it in romance, either. But it happens. This time, I'm glad it did.
Heated Rivalry starts out with a hockey game from Shane's POV. It leads to defeat and then a sexual encounter with his biggest rival - Ilya Rozanov. Apparently, this is a thing they do and have done for seven years. Then we're taken back to their first encounter and it all goes down(hill) from there.
This book was a pure delight. Being kind of sick of drama and angst, I appreciated this book for what it was - a steamy, romantic, sweet romance with very little drama. Having read my fair share of closeted gay romances, I know that drama and angst plays a mighty role in most books. And despite being about two NHL-players who can lose their careers and be the ridicule of media and fans, this story lacks the usual darkness of minds.
What did I love so much about it, then? First of all, both Ilya and Shane were fleshed out, honest characters. They have their insecurities and their strengths. They also felt like they grew during the entirety of the book - Shane grew from quite insecure about his sexuality and attraction to a confident and honest man. Ilya went from a smug player who took his pleasures where they were dangerous to a romantic, domestic and sweet man. I also loved how neither of them were ever really ashamed of their sexualities. Sure, Shane was a bit insecure and had conflicted feelings about sucking a dick and enjoying it, but it seemed to be more about sucking Ilya's dick than anything else.
It's enemies-to-lovers done right! They trash talk and have an open rivalry on the ice and in the media and it's a bit of frustrated hate-fucking from time to time. Except it never feels like hate. It feels like competitiveness, a bit of jealousy perhaps. But it gradually morphs into longing feelings, conversations, getting to know one another. This is a story about two consenting adults, falling for each other, reluctantly but quite honestly. They never stop being competitive, but why should they?
This is steamy as nothing else - not for the pearl-clutchers -, but it's also romantic as hell. The way they saw each other, though of each other, reacted to each other made my heart ache. Their looks, the words they exchanged, the pining. Ugh, my heart is bruised from growing five sizes during this book. And that's what I loved the most - that this got to be a romantic book with little angst. Not to spoil anything, but the ending made it all that much better, because it was so free from drama. There was nervousness, some awkward moments, sure, but in the end, it was lovely.
So much to say about this book, but I'll leave it here. Go read it.
5 of 5 hockey-sticks or whatever they're called
/ Denise
Would you look at that, yet another book that has been read because I spend too much time on social media. This time @escape_in_a_book is the felon who made this book present in my tbr. She told us that this is one of the best M/M-romances she's ever read and the best sports romance. I tend to agree.
Not being majorly interested in sports, I don't usually go for it in romance, either. But it happens. This time, I'm glad it did.
Heated Rivalry starts out with a hockey game from Shane's POV. It leads to defeat and then a sexual encounter with his biggest rival - Ilya Rozanov. Apparently, this is a thing they do and have done for seven years. Then we're taken back to their first encounter and it all goes down(hill) from there.
This book was a pure delight. Being kind of sick of drama and angst, I appreciated this book for what it was - a steamy, romantic, sweet romance with very little drama. Having read my fair share of closeted gay romances, I know that drama and angst plays a mighty role in most books. And despite being about two NHL-players who can lose their careers and be the ridicule of media and fans, this story lacks the usual darkness of minds.
What did I love so much about it, then? First of all, both Ilya and Shane were fleshed out, honest characters. They have their insecurities and their strengths. They also felt like they grew during the entirety of the book - Shane grew from quite insecure about his sexuality and attraction to a confident and honest man. Ilya went from a smug player who took his pleasures where they were dangerous to a romantic, domestic and sweet man. I also loved how neither of them were ever really ashamed of their sexualities. Sure, Shane was a bit insecure and had conflicted feelings about sucking a dick and enjoying it, but it seemed to be more about sucking Ilya's dick than anything else.
It's enemies-to-lovers done right! They trash talk and have an open rivalry on the ice and in the media and it's a bit of frustrated hate-fucking from time to time. Except it never feels like hate. It feels like competitiveness, a bit of jealousy perhaps. But it gradually morphs into longing feelings, conversations, getting to know one another. This is a story about two consenting adults, falling for each other, reluctantly but quite honestly. They never stop being competitive, but why should they?
This is steamy as nothing else - not for the pearl-clutchers -, but it's also romantic as hell. The way they saw each other, though of each other, reacted to each other made my heart ache. Their looks, the words they exchanged, the pining. Ugh, my heart is bruised from growing five sizes during this book. And that's what I loved the most - that this got to be a romantic book with little angst. Not to spoil anything, but the ending made it all that much better, because it was so free from drama. There was nervousness, some awkward moments, sure, but in the end, it was lovely.
So much to say about this book, but I'll leave it here. Go read it.
5 of 5 hockey-sticks or whatever they're called
/ Denise
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