Mike knew he was making a mistake when he let the rookie climb into bed with him. He just didn’t know it’d be a mistake that would follow him for the rest of his life.
Right up front: This is NOT technically a genre romance. One of the heroes is dealing with the long-term effects of multiple concussions sustained during his hockey career, and his neurological decline is part of the story (and its ending). BUT it’s an incredible love story. Enforcer Mike Brouwer narrates all chapters but the final one, and his voice is… just amazing. I’m writing this after rereading this book, and I was willing to have my heart broken a second time just to read his words. Things to love: Mike is a grumpy loner, a big guy with a secret soft center, and a good cook. His partner Liam is much younger, really gregarious, fiercely protective, and absolutely dedicated. With content warnings for sports violence, physical injury, neurological damage, and no official HEA, I highly recommend this book. 🙂
Author
marialisademora
2 years ago
This age-gap, MM, hockey love story tore me up, shredded my heart in all the right ways
In the beginning of this book, the author writes that it’s a love story, not a romance. The book definitely lives up to that description, wending it’s way through more than a decade and a half of the kind of push-pull, hero-complex relationship I adore reading. Even as the story firmed up, showed the markers for where the author was taking us, even as I cried through the last three chapters, the writing never ceased to hold my attention. This is a book that will leave the collar of your shirt wet through with salty tears, and you’re going to love every hard, painful, joyous moment of discovery.
5-Stars / HIGHLY recommend / Not fluff, not a bit of it
Author
kajeharper
2 years ago
(ASIN B07LCR5B9Y)
I stayed up late reading this one, and just started an immediate reread. The main character’s narrative voice is spot on, and the story rolls along with a glorious inevitability. I was captured, from the moment Mike, big, thirty-year-old defenseman enforcer on the Oilers, thinks “No, bad rookie!” at Liam, eighteen-year-old five-foot-eight talented center who is making it clear that what he wants most off the ice is Mike. There is humor and heat, understated love and pain, from the first meeting of veteran and rookie to the slow, wonderful, bittersweet ending.
Mike knows that Liam isn’t right for him – too young, too innocent, too enthusiastic, and too talented to stay for long. Mike shouldn’t put his hands on him. But Liam pushes and wheedles and pouts, and Mike doesn’t actually want to say no. He’s twice Liam’s size. If he wanted to make his No stick, he could. Instead, he’ll take what he can get, for however long it lasts, but he won’t let Liam turn it into more than it is. No more than two guys having a good time together. Even if he hasn’t looked at anyone else since the brash rookie walked into his personal space and refused to go.
This book follows these two men over many years, over Mike’s fumbling attempts to do the right thing, and the slow build of a relationship that will last. Over Liam’s journey from enthusiastic teenager to a strong adult man. Over the highs and lows of a life in professional sports. There are joys, and there is real sadness, all vivid despite (or perhaps because of) Mike’s expletive-laden stoic understatement.
And as we reach the end, we’re also asked to think about the toll that sports can take on the people who play them for our entertainment. It’s not an easy topic to get a grip on, and of course it sits amid a wider topic of what responsibility we have to those who make our lives easier. From the slave and child labor that produces much of our big-brand chocolate, to the boxers whose job it is to entertain us by getting repeated, concussive head injuries, our fun comes on the back of risk and trauma to others.
So how do we mitigate harm? How far should we go? Football players get post-traumatic brain injury disorders at a high rate, with sometimes devastating consequences. We could make football into flag-football and eliminate almost all head trauma, at the price of changing the sport, and probably causing unemployment for 95% of today’s players as the talent needed changes. We could outlaw quad jumps in figure skating and significantly reduce compression spinal fractures in male skaters.
Who makes that call? Should the players themselves decide on safety rules? If safety rules change the talent needed to succeed (eg. fast football players instead of big football players) would current players ever vote themselves out of a job? At the pro level, our male major sports stars are well paid for the risks they take – is that enough justification, or does the lure of a lift out of poverty induce kids at the lower levels to take on risks they shouldn’t face, grabbing for that gold ring?
You don’t have to work through those philosophical issues to enjoy this story. You can just take this slow ride along with Mike, loving the man and the way he faces the good and the bad as it comes to him. You can take the little fist to the heart at the end, and come out saying the love was worth the pain.
But the book ends with that difficult question, and it’s worth some thought.
Author
loann
2 years ago
IMPACTFULY HEARTBREAKING
This Read has been a blur with all the tears I shed.
The utter emotion that was put into it was everything.
I can tell you one thing with certainty, I will never forget Mike & Liam. Never.
This was such an impactful read.
Truly appreciate this authors talent and the importance of this story.
I saw it coming, and yet was never ready.
Thank you
Author
nickyjames
2 years ago
This book gets all the stars. This is hands-down my top read of 2020. This love story tore me apart and left me with such an ache in my heart. I’m a huge fan of emotionally devastating books. This one packed a serious punch. For those who want an epic love story that will stay with you forever, this is the book.
Author
kathy
2 years ago
As an avid reader you know you have discovered a gem when you go to bed thinking of these characters and wake up still thinking of them. Mike and Liam are such characters. They are such richly written, ever evolving men that will grab you by the heart and not let go.
I loved watching the evolution of their relationship. The good and the bad. The beautiful and the ugly. Warts and all. Liam grows from hyper, smart mouthed puppy to a deeply feeling, loving partner. Mike grows into the relationship on a slower, more painful level but equally as invested.
Their love story is told so beautifully over the years. From beginning til end you will be as lost in them as I was. I know this book will stay with me. This is one of the most beautiful love stories I have ever read.
Right up front: This is NOT technically a genre romance. One of the heroes is dealing with the long-term effects of multiple concussions sustained during his hockey career, and his neurological decline is part of the story (and its ending). BUT it’s an incredible love story. Enforcer Mike Brouwer narrates all chapters but the final one, and his voice is… just amazing. I’m writing this after rereading this book, and I was willing to have my heart broken a second time just to read his words. Things to love: Mike is a grumpy loner, a big guy with a secret soft center, and a good cook. His partner Liam is much younger, really gregarious, fiercely protective, and absolutely dedicated. With content warnings for sports violence, physical injury, neurological damage, and no official HEA, I highly recommend this book. 🙂
This age-gap, MM, hockey love story tore me up, shredded my heart in all the right ways
In the beginning of this book, the author writes that it’s a love story, not a romance. The book definitely lives up to that description, wending it’s way through more than a decade and a half of the kind of push-pull, hero-complex relationship I adore reading. Even as the story firmed up, showed the markers for where the author was taking us, even as I cried through the last three chapters, the writing never ceased to hold my attention. This is a book that will leave the collar of your shirt wet through with salty tears, and you’re going to love every hard, painful, joyous moment of discovery.
5-Stars / HIGHLY recommend / Not fluff, not a bit of it
(ASIN B07LCR5B9Y)
I stayed up late reading this one, and just started an immediate reread. The main character’s narrative voice is spot on, and the story rolls along with a glorious inevitability. I was captured, from the moment Mike, big, thirty-year-old defenseman enforcer on the Oilers, thinks “No, bad rookie!” at Liam, eighteen-year-old five-foot-eight talented center who is making it clear that what he wants most off the ice is Mike. There is humor and heat, understated love and pain, from the first meeting of veteran and rookie to the slow, wonderful, bittersweet ending.
Mike knows that Liam isn’t right for him – too young, too innocent, too enthusiastic, and too talented to stay for long. Mike shouldn’t put his hands on him. But Liam pushes and wheedles and pouts, and Mike doesn’t actually want to say no. He’s twice Liam’s size. If he wanted to make his No stick, he could. Instead, he’ll take what he can get, for however long it lasts, but he won’t let Liam turn it into more than it is. No more than two guys having a good time together. Even if he hasn’t looked at anyone else since the brash rookie walked into his personal space and refused to go.
This book follows these two men over many years, over Mike’s fumbling attempts to do the right thing, and the slow build of a relationship that will last. Over Liam’s journey from enthusiastic teenager to a strong adult man. Over the highs and lows of a life in professional sports. There are joys, and there is real sadness, all vivid despite (or perhaps because of) Mike’s expletive-laden stoic understatement.
And as we reach the end, we’re also asked to think about the toll that sports can take on the people who play them for our entertainment. It’s not an easy topic to get a grip on, and of course it sits amid a wider topic of what responsibility we have to those who make our lives easier. From the slave and child labor that produces much of our big-brand chocolate, to the boxers whose job it is to entertain us by getting repeated, concussive head injuries, our fun comes on the back of risk and trauma to others.
So how do we mitigate harm? How far should we go? Football players get post-traumatic brain injury disorders at a high rate, with sometimes devastating consequences. We could make football into flag-football and eliminate almost all head trauma, at the price of changing the sport, and probably causing unemployment for 95% of today’s players as the talent needed changes. We could outlaw quad jumps in figure skating and significantly reduce compression spinal fractures in male skaters.
Who makes that call? Should the players themselves decide on safety rules? If safety rules change the talent needed to succeed (eg. fast football players instead of big football players) would current players ever vote themselves out of a job? At the pro level, our male major sports stars are well paid for the risks they take – is that enough justification, or does the lure of a lift out of poverty induce kids at the lower levels to take on risks they shouldn’t face, grabbing for that gold ring?
You don’t have to work through those philosophical issues to enjoy this story. You can just take this slow ride along with Mike, loving the man and the way he faces the good and the bad as it comes to him. You can take the little fist to the heart at the end, and come out saying the love was worth the pain.
But the book ends with that difficult question, and it’s worth some thought.
IMPACTFULY HEARTBREAKING
This Read has been a blur with all the tears I shed.
The utter emotion that was put into it was everything.
I can tell you one thing with certainty, I will never forget Mike & Liam. Never.
This was such an impactful read.
Truly appreciate this authors talent and the importance of this story.
I saw it coming, and yet was never ready.
Thank you
This book gets all the stars. This is hands-down my top read of 2020. This love story tore me apart and left me with such an ache in my heart. I’m a huge fan of emotionally devastating books. This one packed a serious punch. For those who want an epic love story that will stay with you forever, this is the book.
As an avid reader you know you have discovered a gem when you go to bed thinking of these characters and wake up still thinking of them. Mike and Liam are such characters. They are such richly written, ever evolving men that will grab you by the heart and not let go.
I loved watching the evolution of their relationship. The good and the bad. The beautiful and the ugly. Warts and all. Liam grows from hyper, smart mouthed puppy to a deeply feeling, loving partner. Mike grows into the relationship on a slower, more painful level but equally as invested.
Their love story is told so beautifully over the years. From beginning til end you will be as lost in them as I was. I know this book will stay with me. This is one of the most beautiful love stories I have ever read.