4.5 stars
Summary from Goodreads:
They don’t play for the same team? Or do they?
Jamie Canning has never been able to figure out how he lost his closest friend. Four years ago, his tattooed, wise-cracking, rule-breaking roommate cut him off without an explanation. So what if things got a little weird on the last night of hockey camp the summer they were eighteen? It was just a little drunken foolishness. Nobody died.
Ryan Wesley’s biggest regret is coaxing his very straight friend into a bet that pushed the boundaries of their relationship. Now, with their college teams set to face off at the national championship, he’ll finally get a chance to apologize. But all it takes is one look at his longtime crush, and the ache is stronger than ever.
Jamie has waited a long time for answers, but walks away with only more questions – can one night of sex ruin a friendship? If not, how about six more weeks of it? When Wesley turns up to coach alongside Jamie for one more hot summer at camp, Jamie has a few things to discover about his old friend…and a big one to learn about himself.
Warning: contains sexual situations, skinnydipping, shenanigans in an SUV and proof that coming out to your family on social media is a dicey proposition.
While Wes is now sort of “don’t ask, don’t tell” out to his hockey teammates and coaches at college, he was only really coming to terms with his sexuality when he was eighteen and crushing hard on his best friend at hockey camp. Absolutely desperate for an excuse to touch him, he made a drunken bet and subsequently freaked out after he and his best friend fooled around one very memorable time. Feeling horribly guilty, Wes cut off all contact with his friend and they haven’t spoken for four years. Now their teams are likely to face off in the national championships, and Wes feels he should probably make some sort of gesture of reconciliation.
Raised in a large and loving family in California, Jamie really isn’t too bothered about the drunken experimentation at hockey camp, but he’s hurt and upset that Wes pretty much burned all the bridges of their friendship and never spoke to him after that one night. He’s surprised to discover that Wes has resurrected their old tradition of sending each other gag gifts, and suddenly seems willing to patch up their broken friendship as well. He’s even more surprised when Wes shows up at camp to coach for the summer, even though he should be getting ready for his big break in Toronto.
Having seen and spoken to Jamie again, Wes can’t get him out of his mind, and wants to spend as much time with him as possible, even if he can never admit his true feelings. He’s shocked to realise that Jamie wasn’t horribly traumatised by their one drunken night together and even more surprised to realise that he may even be willing to repeat the experience. After Jamie does some soul-searching and concludes that he very much seems to be attracted to either gender, the two friends can barely keep off each other, hooking up every chance they get.
Full review here.
So glad you liked this one too! The sequel is good, but not as good. There are more obstacles for them to overcome (and some of them are more melodramatic than others), but the authors avoided cliches. One of my favorite things about this one was how they handled Jamie’s old friends-with-benefits situation. The way that played out gave me a lot of confidence in their writing. Though I’m still avoiding Fifteenth Minute based on all the reviews here.
I really liked how they avoided a lot of the angst and how quickly Jamie just accepted that he was bi. I can see why he felt he couldn’t be honest with Holly initially, but am glad that he didn’t spend a lot of time lying to her or his family about his relationship with Wes once it was clear that it was more than just a summer fling. This was a lot more fun than Understatement of the Year, which was frankly a bit too angsty and melodramatic for me. Based on this, I should probably downgrade that book half a star.
a. I love Understatement of the Year despite the angst.
b. I LOVED it when Jamie decided, “I guess I’m bi.”
a. I still like Understatement of the Year, I just like this a lot more.
b. Probably my favourite thing about this entire book was Jamie’s really very easy acceptance of his bi-sexuality.
I don’t know why you like sport romances, or why I do, because I don’t like sports, either. Maybe it’s the same reason I love sports movies so much, even though I don’t like sports themselves. I’m still trying to figure out what that reason is, though, so not much help here. Sorry.
To be fair, it’s not the sports parts that I find hot. I tend to skim those.
I don’t mind the sports part because at least it justifies the physiques. I have a harder time overlooking my prejudices regarding the entitlement tendencies I assume the athletes often have, especially the football players. Somehow hockey, being less glamourous, avoids that.