Changing Lines

Harrisburg Railers Hockey, Book 1

By: RJ Scott, V.L. Locey

Narrated by: Sean Crisden

Length: 5 hrs and 10 mins

Publisher's summary

Can Tennant show Jared that age is just a number and that love is all that matters? 

The Rowe brothers are famous hockey hotshots, but as the youngest of the trio, Tennant has always had to play against his brothers’ reputations. To get out of their shadows, and against their advice, he accepts a trade to the Harrisburg Railers, where he runs into Jared Madsen. Mads is an old family friend and his brother’s one-time teammate. Mads is Tennant’s new coach. And Mads is the sexiest thing on which he’s ever laid eyes.

Jared Madsen’s hockey career was cut short by a fault in his heart, but coaching keeps him close to the game. When Ten is traded to the team, his carefully organized world is thrown into chaos. Nine years his junior and his best friend’s brother, he knows Ten is strictly off-limits, but as soon as he sees Ten’s moves, on and off the ice, he knows his heart could get him into trouble again.

©2017 RJ Scott & VL Locey (P)2018 RJ Scott & VL Locey

Great story, great audio performance.

I read this book back in July 2017 when it was first published; a copy of that review is shown below. The only thing I want to add here is how wonderful I thought that Sean Crisden's audio performance was. He conveyed all of the right emotions and made the story come alive for me again. He had me sobbing in places (that means I loved a story and it affected me deeply). I will certainly be listening to the other books in this series as they become available.

Begin original review:
I've read a lot of books by RJ Scott but this is the first one for me by V.L. Locey. Just what I need, another great author to follow – lol.

Age gap stories are not something I look for, but if a favorite author writes one I will certainly read it. Actually, Tennant (Ten) and Jared (Mads) are only 9 years apart; to me this isn't really much of an age gap given that both MCs are over 21. One of the tropes I do love though, is falling for a sibling's best friend; so, even if I didn't already love RJ Scott's work, this is a story I would totally go for. Jared is the best friend of Tennant's oldest brother.

Tennant is the youngest of three brothers – all of them professional hockey players. He loves his brothers but he also has felt a bit stifled because of always being compared to them. He accepts a trade to an expansion team and his oldest brother thinks it's a mistake.

Jared's a coach on Tennant's new team and he hasn't seen Ten in years. The two of them quickly realize their attraction for each other but Ten isn't out and their relationship could jeopardize his career.

This story is told from alternating points of view by Jared and Tennant; it was full of feels for me. Jared has a 17-year-old son and seeing him do all he can to protect him touched my heart. Ten has to deal with coming out to his team and his family and how all of that went down moved me to tears. I won't tell you if they were happy or sad tears, you'll have to read the story to find out for yourself.

Changing Lines is also full of hockey jargon and it was kind of a weird thing for me…. I'm not a fan of any sports but hockey would definitely be one that I know next to nothing about. But, none of that meant a thing to me when I read this story. To me the jargon was secondary to the story and the fact that I didn't totally understand all of it didn't make a bit of difference. I'm sure I'll learn and understand a lot more about hockey before this series ends.

I loved the epilogue for Jared and Ten's story and the teaser for book 2 that followed. I just know that Railers Hockey is going to be a great series.

Great start to the series

Having read the book last year I was excited to hear the audio version narrated by Sean Crisden as he was a new narrator for me. I thought Sean was a great match for the story as he had a really smooth and emotive voice, almost comforting and he did a great job distinguishing between different characters, it just seemed to work me. I find some narrators can grate a little after listening to them through a whole book but with Sean’s narration, I would have been happy to listen to the whole book in one session if that was possible! One highlight worth noting was the berry scene, which was white hot.

This book is a great start to the Harrisburg Railers series, I love a good book set in the ice hockey world and I could tell this series was gonna be a favourite one. We’re introduced to characters who all have an interesting back-story with lots of depth and there’s a lot going on to hold your attention straight from the get-go. I loved Mads’ hesitancy at the beginning; over Tennant’s age and the fact that they’re with the same team, but the lust and the deepening feelings override this and they find that this is more than just a hook-up. Here we have a May to December relationship between a Coach (who’s a single father to boot) and a player, so this pulled me in straightaway, and their slow start with no full-on sex told the UST and chemistry at it’s best. Ten coming out to his Mum and Dad was so well written, and I adored the great relationship that Ten had with Mads’ son Ryker. There’s a boat load of heartfelt interaction here, seriously, if you blink you’ll miss it, not just from the MC’s but the whole cast of characters and props to the authors for weaving the tale of the romance, the hockey, the team interaction and the family so beautifully. A great start to the series which just amps up the anticipation for more.

Fun, Sweet, and SEXY!!

Everything you could possibly want in a M/M Hockey Romance..., right?? Whatever! I found this series because of scoping out anything narrated by Sean Crisden's beautiful, sexy deep voice. I'd pay good money to hear him read the dictionary!!

R.J. Scott was a familiar name, but V.L. Locey was a new author to me, but I wasn't disappointed. Together they wrote a sweet, mildly steamy story that I found very enjoyable and it held my interest. Enough so that I purchased book 2 and, upon finishing that, ordered book 3 from Kindle. I expect I'll gobble up volumes 4-10 as well. Who knew hockey could be so alluring!!

Sean Crisden was truly the selling point, and I hope they'll select his talents for future enhancement of the other books. Did I mention his voice is absolutely delicious??? Just sayin'!

Enjoyable

Solid purchase that I would recommend. I found the narrators voice fit well. well written with good characters.

So sweet

This remains my favorite RJ Scott novel. A lot of their works are good or very good, but something about Tennant and Mads stays with me long after other couples have faded from memory.

This book was adorable.

I enjoy hockey books when they are with older guys. I enjoyed that there an age gap and they were friends prior. Just adorable.

Really good!

This audiobook is really good. It has a nice story with lovable characters, funny moments, hot moments and lots of love. The narrator too did an amazing job. I greatly enjoyed this audiobook!

I loved this series

I loved this book. There was absolutely nothing that I disliked about it. Two hot hockey players, okay Mads was retired, due to health reasons, falling in love with little to no drama was the best. Ten’s family accepting him being gay and accepting their relationship. Okay Bradly initially didn’t take it very well but I think it was more because he didn’t want to see him get hurt. Mads’ son accepted him and the relationship. And the team did as well. This was all a breath of fresh air. And this is the way it should be in real life! Acceptance!!!! I can’t wait to continue with this series.

So glad this came out in audio!

enjoyable listen, mostly.

Independent reviewer for Archaeolibrarian, I was gifted the audio version of this book.
I came across this pair of authors when asked to read the Owatonna U Hockey series. THIS series is before that series, and so I know some of what happens here ahead of time.
Tennant is the youngest brother of three, and they are all hockey players. Tennant wants to do his own thing, so bucks against what his brothers want him to do and joins the Harrisburg Railers. Jared is one of the coaches to the team and Ten’s big brother’s best friend. Jared also pushes all of Ten’s buttons and is 9 years his senior. Jared can’t touch Ten, can he?
For the most part, I did enjoy this book. Like I said, I knew there was a happy ever after and I knew what would happen to Jared’s son, Ryker (book one, Owatonna U Hockey, who is 17 here) so it was more a matter of HOW they got there, rather than if.
I liked that Jared made Ten wait, and that boy did struggle in the beginning with that, but once he saw WHY Jared wanted to make him wait, he saw, he really did, the beauty of that.
Both Jared and Ten have a say, in the first person. Each voice is distinctive enough to know who is speaking if left mid chapter, but I have something to say about the narration in a little bit.
I would have liked more conflict, I think! Ten is in the closet and NO one knows, not even his parents. Coming out to Jared changes things for Jared, cos he thought Ten straight. The conflict I think I wanted was with the team, and the aftermath of his coming out and what that meant to ten and Jared. There is SOME fall out, with the team’s bosses and what they do after, but when Ten was musing over things I was expecting MORE, you know??
Sean Crisden narrates.
I have listened to his work a couple of times before, and I think I prefer his work when only a single character has a voice. Here’s why.
Doing two voices alternately has to be difficult. Ten is far younger than Jared and has a higher voice that I had no trouble with. Switching then to Jared’s voice, which is low and deep? HIS voice is the one I struggled with. Crisden dips his voice when Jared is thinking, and is emotional, and I struggled, with my dodgy hearing to keep up. I missed some of Jared’s musings because of that.
There was also some long drawn out, detailed descriptions of hockey matches and I kinda tuned out at those points. Had I been reading, I would have skipped ahead, but you can’t do that when listening. Sorry, but great details about sports is really not my thing, even if stories about the sports players is.
4 solid stars for the book
3.5 for the narration
Rounded up to 4 stars overall
**same worded review will appear elsewhere**

Great read/Listen

The characters in this series have been well developed. The universe/setting is pretty good, Good story development it is a shame that the story is not fleshed out more. It could be so much better.,

Difficult life in sport

To be out and proud in sport can be difficult and you can only hope your team accept you, Things have got better lets hope they get more so. Good sports story well narrated.

Loved it

This is the first book in RJ Scott and VL Locey’s hockey series about a NHL team, the Harrisburg Railers.

Tennant Rowe is the youngest of a trio of hockey playing brothers. He’s starting at a newly formed team, much to his brothers’ disgust. He’s also deep in the closet.

Jared ‘Mads’ Maddison is a friend of Tennant’s older brother. He’s an ex-hockey player and coach at Tennant’s new team. And he’s bi-sexual.

When the two meet the attraction is instantaneous. However the age gap, coach/player relationship, Tennant’s closet, and Mad’s teenage son stop them from acting on their attraction.

Mads is the level head in this relationship, taking things slow and being considerate of Tennant’s situation. Despite being in the closet there isn’t much denial or reluctance about Tennant. Once he realises he’s in it for the long haul, he embraces the relationship and, slowly comes out to various people.

I normally say that I prefer one character to another but in this case I liked both characters equally. They really complemented each other.

The hockey content wasn’t overwhelming (as a non-hockey watcher) and there were some great secondary characters (I adored Stan).

The ending is a solid HFN but it does end at a point just before a situation that could put pressure on a new relationship. I hope we see how the couple cope with the fallout in one of the future books.

The audio is narrated by Sean Crisden. If you follow my reviews you’ll know that I love Sean’s work. I never worry when picking up one of Sean’s audios. And here is no exception. It’s not always easy when you have lots of family in one scene, especially with same sex siblings.

All in all, this is a well written and fun book with an excellent narrator.

Fabulous!

I loved hearing Ten and Jared brought to life by the fabulous Sean Crisden. Can't wait to hear the rest of the series.