August Miles has the world on a string professionally. Augie, as his friends and teammates call the unassuming young goaltender, is on the fast track to the pros. The starting goalie for the Cayuga Cougars, he has a year or two in Cayuga to hone his skills and all his career dreams will have come true. Pity his personal life isn’t riding the same high. He’s the only one among his group of friends … group of friends without that special someone to call his own.
Until he meets Salvatore Castenada at a lakeside party. The attraction is white-hot and more than a little wonderfully overwhelming for the romantically inexperienced goalie. August quickly discovers that Sal is everything he’s dreamed of in a man: mature, settled, sinfully handsome, and filled with gentle humor. Sal is also HIV positive.
Will Sal’s revelation about his status end this budding relationship before it can even begin? Or will the two men be able to handle the challenges life—and a championship run for the Cougars—throws at them?
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What I Think: The beginning of this tale had me scrambling to check if it was part of a series because a slew of wonderful characters with the most entangled relationships are mentioned. As a vampire, how do I resist undoing those knots? In the meantime, the tale continued. Augie is apparently so sweet and deep in the closet that I immediately go mother hen on him but something about Sal’s perceptive eyes and maturity makes me sense Augie is in good hands almost immediately. Their first conversation is simply adorable.
Augie is bumbling as usual while Sal and I couldn’t be more delighted. I don’t even think Augie sees himself as attractive which I have noticed seems to happen to some of the most beautiful people I know. He definitely sees Sal as a demi-god, which he is for his culinary skills alone (did I mention I love food?) but add in his looks, and damn right, he gets the stamp of demi-godhood. He is mature yet gentle and I hope he will take some time to teach Augie to have more faith and confidence in himself because he’s such a naturally lovable person and doesn’t even know it. Even his choice of a particular musician tells me how sweet my boy which is making me give Sal a stern side-eye only to get distracted when Sal hits him with news that would have sent anyone scrambling for the hills. Then, Augie’s inner strength shows and my heart just melted for the boy as I began to see the qualities that makes him a great goalie. His focus, assuredness, determination and big heart gives him all the tools he needs to handle things better than I could have imagined.
Only for Marcus to try and steal the Mother Hen role from me! I actually growled at my poor ereader because I just couldn’t believe that Marcus of all people would not only want Augie to slow down, but want him to do the ‘sow the royal oats’ thing. Yes, I took it way too personally because I’ve been told the same thing so many times that it’s beginning to poke my inner She-Hulk. Not everyone needs to do the sleep around thing (no slut shaming, promise, because I am so jealous of people who can take their pleasure wherever. I’m just too possessive and tooo shy) but it’s not for everyone and if Marcus can’t see that, my boy needs to handle it.
This tale is such a tease though. Throwing out information about the other tales in the series that’s making my curiosity peak only to come face to face with the price love sometimes exact. My heart ached with worry as I found myself crossing all crossable limbs that this wasn’t one of those romance novels where a partner dies and the other has to move on. Which of course meant I had to fight to control myself from reading the last page before continuing.
But the end was such a tidy clean up that I could imagine Mme. Locey sweeping off crumbs and dusting her hands because truths come to light, Augie finds out who his clan really are and gets the HFN he so very well deserves! (It is under duress that I admit to hopping off my bed with a cry of triumph as I read the ending again!)
Verdict: A realistic keeper of a tale that manages to tease even as it shows that love is perfect in its imperfections!
Just lovely <3 My favourite in this series.
The cover of this book shows exactly what this book is about. Two men who love and cherish each other through good and bad times. The softness you see in their faces is what you feel when reading their story.
Sal is a gorgeous older man, living with something that happened to him when he was just a young man. One drunken night, changed his life forever in one sense but didn’t change who is is at his core….a wonderfully loving and nurturing man. He is also extremely hot. Augie is a younger man, who knows who he is but is afraid of what his parents reaction will be to his truth. He is more than willing to let everyone know his secret for the love of Sal. Augie is also very hot. Both these men know that what they have is special and wonderful and well worth fighting for. I fell in love with both immediately. The fact that we get to see some of the great characters from the previous books connected to this is the icing on the cake. Yes there is amazing love making in this story but right away you realize just how much these men care for one another.
There are a few surprises in this book but I will leave them for you to discover.
Great story and in my opinion, a must read…if you like hot men, love, some problems, strength to get past them and hockey.
We met August in book one, a rookie that came out to Seamus in hopes that they could have a romance. After Seamus turned him down, the twos friendship was a bit rocky but they did work it out. Now, August is working up the nerve to find someone, but he has this problem with being shy and saying things he shouldn’t. When he meets Sal at a party, he is interested in the older man, but once again he is awkward and has no clue what to say, its not until Sal asks about hockey that August really opens up. The next step is a date, which to August’s dismay didn’t go too badly, but when Sal opens up about his HIV status in an attempt to be completely upfront and honest, August has no clue what to think, and needs time. Will August be willing to take the risks of dating someone that is positive? Worse will this affect his hockey career?
So, once again, I found this to just be an ok story. This did have a different aspect with the HIV factor, and I did feel this was done very well. There was a bit of drama, a few steamy bits, and we got to revisit Lila and Seamus from book one and thats always nice. I give this 3 stars.