Role Model

By: Rachel Reid

Narrated by: Cooper North

USA TODAY bestselling author Rachel Reid's next Game Changers hockey romance sees a grumpy professional hockey player meet his match in an out-and-proud social media manager…

The hits just keep coming for Troy Barrett. Traded to the worst team in the league would be bad enough, but coming on the heels of a messy breakup and a recent scandal… Troy just wants to play hockey and be left alone. He definitely doesn’t want to “work on his online presence” with the team’s peppy social media manager.

Harris Drover can tell standoffish Troy isn’t happy about the trade, but Harris doesn’t give up on people easily. Even when he’s developing a crush he’s sure is one-sided. And when he sees Troy’s smile finally crack through his grumpy exterior… That’s a man Harris couldn’t turn his back on if he wanted to.

Suddenly, Troy’s move to the new team feels like an opportunity—for Troy to embrace his true self, and for both men to explore their growing attraction. But being together behind closed doors is one thing, and for Troy, being in a public relationship with Harris will mean facing off with his fears, once and for all.

Need more Reid? Don't miss The Shots You Take—a sweet and sexy hockey romance about two ex-best friends with benefits who are about to discover whether you can ever really have a second chance. Coming March 4, 2025!

Game Changers

• Book 1: Game Changer
• Book 2: Heated Rivalry
• Book 3: Tough Guy
• Book 4: Common Goal
• Book 5: Role Model
• Book 6: The Long Game

MM Hockey Romance

This series is just the best. I have loved them all. I truly believe this is my second favorite, as Ilya and Shane have my heart, but this was just as good. Troy is so real and so raw. He was wonderful, and broken and had such an amazing redemption arc with the help of the best hockey team ever. I adored Ottawa and loved that we got to see this team. I also really enjoyed the aspect of Kent and how that all played a huge part in this. Harris was so fun and he fit in so well with Ottawa and I loved his backstory and just story in general. This was just a great hockey romance with all the feels. I found myself misty eyed several times and just felt all the feels in this one. Cooper North did this audio narration and did a fantastic job! Cannot wait for the Long Game!!

I love this series

I’ve loved every single book in this series, the way Rachel Reid weaves everyone’s story into a new beautiful love makes it one of my favorites. Now I can’t wait for Roz and Shane to get there coming out!!

So far the best of the series!

This book was charming, full of love, support and respect. How the world is changing. Thirty years ago - I never thought that we would get here. So happy for the young people of today. For the author: thank you for the gift of this book!

Good story. Great narration.

This was a good read that covered some serious topics. I had a bit of trouble connecting Troy's character in this book with how he was portrayed earlier in the series. His friendship with Dallas was hard to disconnect, but the author did a good job of showing Troy's vulnerabilities which might have been the reason he befriended Dallas originally.

I enjoyed seeing glimpses of characters from previous series, and I am looking forward to the next book and hopefully another audiobook narrated by Cooper North whose performance made me believe Troy was really a good guy.

Love this story

This is one of my favorite comfort reads, I have listened to it so many times. I love Troy’s redemption story, how he and Harris are so amazingly sweet together. I love all the scenes featuring Ilya in particular, my all-time favorite character. He’s the best. All the scenes with Chiron the puppy are my favorites too. And Cooper North somehow manages to make this already fantastic book ten times better. I can’t recommend it enough!

MUCH BETTER…than Book 4…

…since Book 3 was a bit disappointing.

This one…fabulous! I loved the two main characters and their story and, of course, ILYA!

Cooper did a great job narrating, and I was pleasantly surprised by his much-improved ILYA voice. 😌

This series is wonderful, and I can’t wait for the next book!

Enjoy!💖

Just delightful!

This book is a great addition to the series. The main characters are multi-dimensional and interesting and as usual, the hockey feels like the author actually knows what she’s talking about, and we see (and enjoy!) characters from past books. I can hardly wait for the next book.

Gets better and better!

Cooper North is such a rockstar with this audiobook. Harris and Troy are my favorite couple, just barely inching above Fabian and Ryan, but well below Ilya and Shane.

Their story is simply wonderful and makes me cry every time. But still…Shane and Ilya forever.

Loved!

I read this book awhile ago and don’t remember crying this many happy tears. Cooper did such a great job expressing the different emotions through his voice. Harris and Troy are such a great couple.

Cuddly hockey romance & apple pie

After being traded to a less toxic pro hockey team, Todd starts crushing on the social media manager. It takes a while for this to manifest and I didn’t pick up on as much tension from suppressed longing as I think I was supposed to. This is my first foray into the series so I don’t know if Todd’s toxic past had been seen on page, but he makes an honest effort to stop being a jerk & apologize here. Harris is a cheerful guy who should probably get a raise.

Aside from the slower than slow simmer (not quire a slow burn for me), the season & relationships progressed nicely, the toxicity was stomped sown to a large degree, and this coming out in pro sports had one of the kindest, well supported rollouts, so I’d recommend Role Model to people wanting a low trauma coming out. There’s even a nice bit on consent when visiting kids in the hospital. It’s a pleasant group of people to spend time with, even if it took me a while to connect emotionally with the main characters. Todd grows a lot. Harris just hits a jackpot, but kinda didn’t need moral growth as much.

Steam: Medium. late start, but M/M details make the grade and make it on page. Genuine caring during cuddling also included.

Narration: Pretty well done. Varied regional accents were attempted. I sometimes mixed up whose POV we were in when the MCs shared a scene, but it would up not being critical. (Harris’s coworker,Jen, is voices similarly to Luc’s mom in Boyfriend Material, I spent half the book trying to figure that out 😜)