Changing Lines

Harrisburg Railers Hockey, Book 1

By: RJ Scott, V.L. Locey

Narrated by: Sean Crisden

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

Enjoyable

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

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!

An alright book!!

The Story: 3.5 Pants Off

Tennant Rowe is a superstar in the making and when he decides on an up and coming team a few eyebrows were raised. Of course he could have gone with superstar teams most likely to win the Stanley Cup but Ten decides on the Railers with big disapproval from his family, but Ten is a big boy and he’s making his own decisions. While the Railers aren’t cloaked in history it’s the team he wants to join and the upside is that the team has Jared Madsen. An old family friend and someone Ten is looking to get up close and personal with. Yeh, they have history and Mads is a bit older but age ain’t nothing but a number after-all.

Downside, you can’t be gay in hockey. So when Ten finds himself telling his coaches that he’s gay he’s expecting the worst but what it gets him is a secret relationship with Mads and things are almost perfect. All that’s left is coming out to his family and maybe one day even publicly. Ten’s got hockey, love, and Mads, what more could he even want?!

First, things moved pretty fast from the get go. Ten is the new to the team and next things he’s sharing he’s gay, and professing his attraction to Mads. Their relationship moves pretty fast, and most of their loving happens off page so I sort of felt like I was filling things in. The hockey was too much of the story, and the romance felt like a backdrop but again I have no particular feelings for hockey. Ten spent most of his time dwelling on his brothers, and everyone else on the fact that he plays for a unknown team.

Throw in some conflict involving Mads and that pretty much made the entirety of the story. I was a bit more interested in a few side characters actually, so the rest of the series is peaking my interest.

Overall, an alright read. I can’t call it sexy or amazing but I can say I found it sweet. I enjoyed Ten a lot more than I did Mads. There’s still so much of the story that I feel needs to be explored, and I wasn’t a fan of how it ended. Changing Lines wasn’t horrible but I fear that it’s quite easily forgettable for me.

The Narration: 4 Pants Off

Sean Crisden did an amazing job bringing the characters to life. I’m in love with his take on Tennant, listening to his voice was far more enjoyable than the story and because of his narration I enjoyed it more. I’m positive if I’d read Changing Lines instead of listening I wouldn’t have liked it at all.

Sean was dramatic where he needed to be and sweet in others, definitely enjoyed that. Also brought a new voice to each character which strongly made them individuals. Sean Criden does an amazing job with whatever story you give him.

Great narration, funny characters, but felt incomplete

Sean Crisden was 100% as always! Tenant is probably the most fun character I’ve met in a story in a long time. His wit and banter was hilarious, especially the scene after Thanksgiving dinner. The only reason I didn’t give the story 5* is because the ending felt incomplete. I wish there had been just one or two more chapters so we could see the reaction from the big decision at the end.

Changing Lines

5 Stars, Book & Narration

I did not want this book to end. I think that this book was put together well, and if this is what we have to look forward to in the rest of the series, I won’t hesitate to get my hands on the next several books. I think the collaboration between RJ Scott and VL Locey is a definite mark in the win column, this book turned out great and I was sucked in from the first few lines.

Oh, and then add in the fantastic narration by Sean Crisden and this book was basically perfect. Sean gave us a great performance (again), making sure the main characters and even the minor hockey players and family members were all given the correct voices and accents depending on where they were from. Sean even gives us some good Boston and Ukrainian/Russian accents too, it was awesome. This was another really solid narration from him. Sean is still one of my favorite narrators no matter how many books I’ve heard because he is always so consistent with what he gives us.

I was happy to see that not only do we get a great book and personal story for these two men, Tennant “Ten” and Jared “Mads”, but *gasp* we actually got see and learn about some hockey in this book as well. Sometimes with sports books we don’t actually get to see the sports being played or written in on-page and that was so not the case here. We got to see these characters put their hearts and souls into their sport as well as each other. Tennant is an upcoming hockey star on the new Harrisburg Railers team, and Mads is the defensive line coach. It was great to hear that Ten and Mads grew up together, that they had that background even though they fell out of touch. They get a second chance at getting to know each other again now they are both adults. The two of them together is seriously steamy H.O.T. and there are a few scenes that were pretty sexy, but I would have loved to see more of them getting personal together. There just wasn’t enough time in this book for them to get really in-depth, strengthen their dynamic and create enough chemistry and tension.

This book was really low angst and had virtually no drama. Ten and his brothers have an interesting dynamic though, all three of them being pro hockey players and getting competitive when their teams collide in a match. Ten is still the baby of the family and his brothers are consistently treating him as such throughout the book, always questioning his decisions.

Mads is the perfect older “hot” dad to a teenage boy Ryker. One thing I had issue with was how Mads always made himself out to be “old” but he was really only mid-thirties and Ten really wasn’t that much younger like 10-13yrs difference in age. I thought that the deal with Mads’s ex father in law, Ryker's grandpa, was an interesting situation all around. I didn’t get how they just let him act the way he did, almost like they were all afraid to stand up to him and put their foot down. He was the main drama piece in this book and I hated him each time he surfaced.

Omg, and the hockey players all playing Pokémon Go and creating their own Pokémon team was hilarious, I thought that was a really fun addition to this book, and made them see all that much more real to me. This book was really great. I would also like to add that Mads's son Ryker is younger like 17 or so in this one. But I would love to see him a few years down the line as the main character of his own book.

Recognition

Sean Crisden is rapidly becoming one of my favorite voice actors, more than a story narrator.  The reader/listener will soon forget that he is reading the story to you and fall into the pages of the book.  His characters are realistic and there is nothing that pulls your attention from the story which, to me, is the mark of an expert voice actor/narrator.
The cover designed by @MeredithRAuthor is perfect and I absolutely recognize Mads and Ten!

Sports romance is hot, a favorite of mine and authors Scott and Locey are well known for their mastery of sports/hockey stories.  Add in the age gap, the dynamic of older brother's best friend and the taboo nature of a relationship between a hockey player and the coach and you have the recipe for a great story.
This story has meat with multi-generational complex family dynamics involving both main characters.  Tennant has always been compared or at least compared himself to his pro hockey star brothers so his move to an expansion team was a big one and not favored by his family.  He needed to spread his wings and not just in his sport.  Coach Jared Madsen is raising a teenage son and his attention is split between his team and his son's development as a young man and a hockey player in the family tradition.  He has no time to devote to more than a coach-player relationship with his former teammate's brother although his mind and heart return to Ten.
This was a great start to the Harrisburg Railers series and the characters we meet here are interesting and a bit fun as well.  This, again, left me wanting much more.

The sizzle rating is 'hot' - "4 out of 5"
My rating for the narrator is 4.5, exceptional!
The story 4.5 stars - a top pick!

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'!

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.,

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.

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.