City Boy

Hot Off the Ice, Book 1

By: A. E. Wasp

Narrated by: Michael Pauley

Length: 9 hrs and 36 mins

Publisher's Summary

Follow the money or follow your heart? Either way, you lose.

When a blown tire leads directly to mind-blowing sex with a white knight named Dakota, pro-hockey player Bryce Lowery discovers he is most definitely gay.

Being with Dakota opens up a whole new world. Bryce can’t imagine life without him. But he refuses to be Bryce's dirty little secret. If he wants to keep Dakota, he's either going to have to come out publicly or retire and walk away from millions of dollars.

Bryce Lowery feels like the answer to all of Dakota's prayers. But is Dakota willing to leave the only life he's ever known only to be thrust into the spotlight as the boyfriend of the first out gay hockey player? Would their relationship even survive it?

He'll lose Bryce if he doesn’t, because Bryce will leave eventually. No one would turn down millions of dollars for a nobody with nothing.

City Boy is a first-time gay, fish-out-of-water, May/December love story with a happy ending. It features snarky siblings, a dirty-talking farmer, lots of food, and big choices. (No poultry was harmed in the making of this book.)

©2016 A. E. Wasp (P)2018 A. E. Wasp

Tepid at best

I'm all for hot M/M romance. I love hockey and that's the problem. The sport could have been anything. Nothing set it apart in so far as the sport of hockey being a good motor to drive the thing. It could have been golf or basketball or bowling. The narration tone was great, but the over-the-top sexual banter tone was off-putting, a lot, a real lot. That the and sex is way too vanilla for that kind of overblown enthusiasm and that despite the hockey player was a neophyte. It came too easy and I had to stop listening. It just didn't work for me. There are other hockey based M/M romances out there, I'll move on.

3.5 Stars

Sexy, fun, adorable, sweet...I love a good fish out of water story and when combined with an age gap between partners, great side and secondary characters, and a happy ending I'm a very happy camper. City Boy offered not only romance, but some twists and turns that kept the story flowing well and me interested throughout.

I enjoyed Michael Pauley's narration overall and thought he did a good job bringing the story to life and giving the character's personalities a chance to shine.

Note for sticklers: Michael Pauley's tone and inflection sometimes gets a bit too breathy and he slipped out of the character voice for Dakota a few times. Enough that during dialogue portions I sometimes had to rewind to listen to a section and listen again to understand what was happening.

Perfect hockey romance

Amazing story, perfectly read! This is a great story for anyone into M/M romance, hockey romance, or especially both! The narrator did a wonderful job bringing the story to life, and every single character in it feels so realistic between the writing and the way they're voiced. Don't miss this book!

City Boy 040218

City Boy Book 1 after thoughts: this book was a good read! The story was easy with some nice touches of unforeseen twist & turns. Loved that the story didn’t focus or place a protagonist character here & just let the story build its own momentum with the major characters develop a drama set with their relationships with their family & friends and self discovery. Some minor flaws in the storyline which I can fault to my own experiences but overall the story flowed well & enjoyed the journey. Thank you!

Very Enjoyable!

There is little to do with sports in this book, but that's fine by me. This is an enjoyable and original story with likable characters. Perfectly narrated. Highly recommend!

Excellent Book

I love the story. I could not stop listening 🎧 until the end. Give this book a chance you won't regret it

Not about hockey

I like my hockey romance to include hockey. This has the characters going to see a game, but it’s not about hockey. The lingo used for hockey structure wasn’t quite right, the thoughts that a NHL player would have about going to an ECHL game didn’t jive - it was a romantic story that I enjoyed enough to finish listening, but I had to take a many months break to get over the lack of hockey knowledge displayed. Again, the love story worked well, but not as a hockey love story.

Freebie Arc

#mm #sports #hockey #hotathletes

Was my first time reading/listening to this author and won it on a giveaway post so had nothing to lose but I'll still give an honest review.

As a Canadian it's always nice to see Canadian references in books. That doesn't happen too often.

Lovable characters

I’m having a hard time knowing how to rate this one. I liked it so, so much but at the same time there was a lot of things that I didn’t really like.

Bryce and Dakota was amazing characters. Like really, amazing. To be honest all of the characters were amazing. I’m going to miss all of them. I love insta love stories and this is one of the best ones I’ve read so far.

However.

I wasnt 100% sure of the writing. Something about one chapter ending and the other starting right the second after felt weird to me.

I read a lot of reviews about this being low on angst but I don’t agree. Dakota was so much in his head freaking out. And the way he freaked out when Bryce finally came out, it didn’t work for me.

Sweet story!

I loved read this story when it first came out. I just love Bryce and Dakota. So hear Michael Pauley narrating this story made me so happy. He just brings the characters to life and had me fall in love with them again. I just absolutely love listening to this story.

Very good overall

Who doesn't like a good GFY, hockey romance - especially when it's accompanied with good narration? It's a sweet story. Bryce, a hockey player who's out with an injury meets Dakota, a farmer. Bryce is beginning to suspect that he's not entirely straight and when he meets Dakota, that point is very obvious judging by the attraction Bryce feels for the younger man.
Michael Pauley is a really good choice of narrator - he distinguished between the characters well - but, there were times that he sort of 'lost' Dakota's voice (he sounded a bit off). Overall, I enjoyed the story and narration. I would recommend 😊
I received a copy of the audio from the author, however, my opinion/review are my own.