C+

Common Goal

Eric is a 40-year-old hockey player with the New York Admirals. He eats clean, is deeply invested in daily yoga workouts and doesn’t drink. Kyle is a 25-year-old trust fund kid studying an MA in art history, but really, what he wants is to be a bartender. An unlikely pairing? Yup. But life pushes them together. They meet through mutual friends just as Eric is ready to admit to himself and others that he is bisexual. He and Kyle engage in some friends-with-benefits action that quickly crosses the border into the territory of the heart. But are the two prepared to give up their respective baggage in order to be together?

We all know that Kyle and Eric are going to end up together. If I didn’t know that, I wouldn’t pick up the book, but it is their unique journey towards that togetherness that would make their story interesting. This book has mixed results for me on this front. Their journey is not that unique or interesting. In fact, I could see the happily-ever-after dangling in front of them for most of the book and it was frustrating that it took them so long to see it. The conflict, which rested mostly on their age difference, was rather forced and thus not that interesting for me as a reader.

I did find myself genuinely caring about Eric and Kyle and their future happiness. So that’s something in the book’s favour: a genuinely likeable pair of main characters. Both Eric and Kyle are kind, open-hearted people. The kind of people with whom, for the most part, I don’t mind spending 83000 words. The secondary characters are plentiful, but colourful. While they don’t have arcs of their own, they are complex enough to be interesting to spend time with. I will say that while the sheer number of secondary characters was initially a little overwhelming, they quickly fell into place with enough context/reminders given each time so that I was able to place them.

Another potential stumbling block for me…the age gap. This was my very first May-December romance and I was a little nervous about being squicked out by the age difference, but that did not prove to be the case. While it is clearly the primary source of conflict between the two, there is ALL the consent during any of their sexual and non-sexual interactions which erases any possible feeling of ickiness.

So how did I get to a C+? In its favour, the chemistry between the two main characters is palpable and they’re both genuine, lovely people. On the downside, the conflict was flimsy to start with and grew more tiresome towards the end of the book. I found myself shouting at the characters to get a move on. And in the end (literally – snort-laugh), the resolution was too quick. It made their refusal to be together seem even more ridiculous. So it sits at a C+ for me.

– Lara

New York Admirals goalie Eric never thought his friends-with-benefits arrangement with much-younger Kyle would leave them both wanting more…

Veteran goaltender Eric Bennett has faced down some of the toughest shooters on the ice, but nothing prepared him for his latest challenge—life after hockey. It’s time to make some big changes, starting with finally dating men for the first time.

Graduate student Kyle Swift moved to New York nursing a broken heart. He’d sworn to find someone his own age to crush on (for once). Until he meets a gorgeous, distinguished silver fox hockey player. Despite their intense physical attraction, Kyle has no intention of getting emotionally involved. He’ll teach Eric a few tricks, have some mutually consensual fun, then walk away.

Eric is more than happy to learn anything Kyle brings to the table. And Kyle never expected their friends-with-benefits arrangement to leave him wanting more. Happily-ever-after might be staring them in the face, but it won’t happen if they’re too stubborn to come clean about their feelings.

Everything they both want is within reach… They just have to be brave enough to grab it.