Role Model

By: Rachel Reid

Narrated by: Cooper North

THE SERIES THAT INSPIRED HEATED RIVALRY • NOW A #1 STREAMING SHOW

Enter the world of Game Changers, the series behind the epic enemies-to-lovers hockey romance Heated Rivalry, streaming on Crave in Canada and on HBO Max in the U.S.

A grumpy hockey player meets his match in a sunny, out-and-proud social media manager, by New York Times and USA TODAY bestselling author Rachel Reid.

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.

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

Need more Rachel Reid?! Check out these other standalones from your favorite MM hockey romance writer:

• Time to Shine
• The Shots You Take

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!💖

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 😜)

i love this series

I always end up with tears of happiness at the end. hope to read more from the author