I received Save of the Game from the author through the Don’t Buy My Love program for an honest and unbiased review. This story is told through the eyes of two hockey players, Riley Hunter and Ethan Kennedy.



This is the second book in the Scoring Chances series. I didn’t read the first book and most of the time I didn’t feel lost, but when two characters from the first book entered the story, I did feel like I was missing the information I needed to follow along on their relationship with each other and the MCs in this book. But you could get away with not reading the first book if you wanted.

In this story, Riley and Ethan are supposedly both bi, at least that’s the way the author wanted to portray them. For instance Ethan has on page sex with a woman. I don’t want women bits and sex in my M/M books. If there is, then warn it with tags or in the blurb, which it wasn't. I'd rather if a character is bi that the opposite sex relationship took place before he met the other MC or off page, but I absolutely do not want to read on page heterosexual sex. That right off the bat, along with the constant smoking by Ethan which I didn't care for, pretty much sent the story downhill for me. I understand the use of the smoking as a plot device that affects Ethan's hockey career, but my strong dislike of real life smoking translates to dislike of smoking in the book, any book, not just this one, especially right before sex, which makes the story even less likeable.

Anyway, back to what I was talking about. I disliked how the characters kept bringing up sex with females. For example, Ethan asks Riley three quarters of the way through the book if he’d fuck Zoe, and Riley says ‘Yeah. Her tattoos are hot.’ Before that when Riley meets Ethan’s family he thinks to himself how hot Britt, Ethan’s sister is. It’s clear if he wasn’t with Ethan, he’d go after Britt. I don’t want to hear about the MC’s desire to have sex with a woman or continue to read about it in M/M books. It ruins the story for me and I took stars off for it because this is supposed to be an M/M story, not a story about heterosexual guys experimenting with each other and talking about sex with women. If I wanted to read a het story I would, but I don’t. Nowhere in the blurb is it mentioned that the guys are bi. If it was I would have had second thoughts about reading this. The author may have written the guys as bi, but for me they came across as heterosexual f*** buddies. Also with the way the MCs kept talking about wanting to either f*** other woman or the other MC’s sister and the lack of intense emotion between the two, I felt they were more like buddies that enjoyed taking the edge off with each other. I didn’t feel the love between them. I think that all comes down to the author constantly letting the readers know that the MCs are bi, they aren’t gay.

The author did however write the two MCs with distinctly different personalities which came across well. I did however keep thinking that Ethan seemed a bit on the slow side. I don’t know if that was the author’s intention or not but that's how Ethan came across besides having a temper and being edgy in a nervous way. The author also did a very good job of the gradual same sex discoveries the two made together. I think it was pretty realistic with the MCs emotional reactions and behavior. However, I feel like there was something missing in terms of the relationship, it felt flat.

As usual I can’t keep my beta reading glasses off when I read stories and I found this on page 97 of my Nook. Ethan’s sister asks about Riley, “Does he have a brother?” Ethan responds, “Yeah, but he’s boring. And he has a sister,” Why is she asking Ethan again if Riley has a brother? This is an inconsistency because back on page 92 when Riley and Ethan first arrive at Ethan’s family’s home with Ethan’s sisters Britt and Kelsey present, Ethan’s mother asked, “Do you have siblings, Riley?” He answers “Yeah. I have an older brother and a younger sister.” It really takes me out of a story when a consistency issue is missed like this. The question Britt asked Ethan on page 97 should not have happened since she was already present when Riley answered the question and she knew the answer.

My final thoughts are: the blurb is misleading in that it implies M/M rather than a bi romance. I didn't have trouble finishing the book mostly because the experimentation between the two guys was written well. But if anyone dislikes female bits and heterosexual on page sex in your MM, then this book might not be for you. I didn’t get the feeling that Riley and Ethan were in love, probably because of their constant talk of their willingness to jump other women’s bones. To me that made it sound like they were just into having sex with each other but would rather be with a woman. It made the ‘love’ they supposedly felt for each other unbelievable. The author did a good job of the growth of the two characters's homosexual experience.

I wanted more romantic feels between the guys and I didn’t get it, I got buddies instead. I was also disappointed with the on page sex with a woman, and the constant reminders of sex with women in the story. That’s not what I want to read in my MM romance books. I’m not likely to read any future books by this author if she writes them all like this. I can only give this book 3 Stars.




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4.5 rtc ( )

This was a re-read for me and I remember it being my favorite book in the series the first time I read the whole thing. It took me a while to read because RL sucks, so maybe that's why I felt it lost its zing this time around.
I loved Riley and Ethan though. I like how the book managed to avoid all the now almost cliche themes of an athlete m/m romance - no big public coming out to your team-mates, no homophobia inside the team (which I realize is exceptionally unrealistic), no internalized homophobia or a lot of drama about new-found bisexuality. It was a really easy and no-stress read and I really appreciate that. ( )

5 stars



I loved it.

Riley and Ethan- a match made in hockey heavens. Loved their romance and the sex was so Hawt!





July 2016
wooow! this was a great read. I loved Riley and Ethan and enjoyed their relationship, their Kinky side was hooot. i loved their was low angst and more communication. ( )

Super unbalanced book on the whole, but just cute and funny enough to continue. I'm not sure if I think that the secondary characters being so "cool" with newfound identities and sexuality that it feels dismissive and mocking at times. (And it feels literally mocking of actual issues at times)

I did like the mains here and thought she the initial 50% the humor was much better. I might try one more to see if that overall tone carries.

Ohhh... And I almost DNFed this for reasons that I forgot to relate. There's an instance of domestic abuse in this book. In fact, I feel like there's often a physical altercation in these between the heroes? I'm not sure what to make of that, as if "those rules don't apply because hockey & men?"

Also: Jameson. If you have Jameson, you're having a Jameson. Not a Jameson's.