Season's Change

Trade Season, Book 1

De: Cait Nary

Narrado por: Simon Dornet, Lance West

A veteran hockey player and a rookie can't get away from each other—or their own desires—in this sexy, heartfelt opposites-attract hockey romance.

Olly Järvinen has a long way to go. He's got a fresh start playing for a new team, but getting his hockey career back on track is going to take more than a change of scenery. He's got to shut his past out and focus. On the game, not on his rookie roommate and his annoyingly sunny disposition—and annoyingly distracting good looks.

All Benji Bryzinski ever wanted was to play in the big leagues, and he's not going to waste one single second of his rookie season. Yoga, kale smoothies, and guided meditation help keep his head in the game. But his roommate keeps knocking him off track. Maybe it's just that Olly is a grumpy bastard. Or maybe it's something else, something Benji doesn't have a name for yet.

Olly and Benji spend all their time together—on the ice, in the locker room, in their apartment—and ignoring their unspoken feelings isn't making them go away. Acting on attraction is one thing, but turning a season's fling into forever would mean facing the past—and redefining the future.

Contains mature themes.

©2022 Cait Nary (P)2023 Tantor

so much more than just another romance novel

absolutely loved this book, with depth and complexity, and draws along the story and keeps it moving organically.

Slow burn… great story

I loved both characters and their depth. Couldn’t stop listening to them. Can’t wait to read the next in the series .

AHHH!!!

I so love this book, these characters, the writing style and this audiobook! I’m so freaking glad we got this audiobook and can’t wait for the next one.

Amazing performances! Relationship goals, indeed, with Benji and Olli.

I'll be listening to this again in the future

I don't always re-listen to the books I download, but this is definitely one I'll be listening to again. It's one of the better hockey related mm romances I've read, particularly because of how natural the flow of the relationship feels. The relationship develops first as a friendship, and gradually grows into something more over the course of time. There's also a healthy mix of realism based on trauma in how one of the MCs feels others might treat him, including his family. Overall, I really adore the way the MCs grow close and their relationship develops. The writing and the narration are also pretty good. I would recommend this book.

Heartfelt Hockey Romance

If you like Heated Rivalry you will probably like this. It’s a quality story with material differences to HR, being a teammates situationship that needs clarification. It’s heartfelt and funny in a good mix.

Both Ollie & Benji are fairly young. (The cover makes Ollie seem ancient. He’s an old soul but only a few years older than Benji.) They make some refreshingly adult choices, mostly, to deal with the collision of high stress physical jobs and past struggles. Ollie throws up rather a lot. (aka there is trauma that causes distress but it’s largely in flashbacks.) The environment is as safe as the author could make it, if you need to prioritize comfort reads in these trying times, I think this counts. The plot is largely about how to make life even safer by bringing in allied friends and relatives to help. Also yoga. And hockey. Hockey and life is easier when people are on your side.

Minor quibble that I think the first 2/3 flowed better than the last 1/3 but I can’t be more specific without spoilers. I just hope we see these guys managing relationship crises together in future books, if they have relationship crises.

Narration: Competent and pleasant but I often lost track of which character’s POV was happening because they sounded very similar in pitch & pacing to me. That &/or my short term memory is still on the struggle bus.