Time to Shine

By: Rachel Reid

Narrated by: Cooper North

Length: 11 hrs and 20 mins

Publisher's summary

"Rachel Reid's hockey heroes are sexy, hot, and passionate!"—#1 New York Times bestselling author Lauren Blakely

From the USA TODAY bestselling author of the Game Changers series comes a merry and bright hockey romance about finding your place, finding your people and finding your way back to the one you love the most.

For Landon Stackhouse, being called up from the Calgary farm team is exciting and terrifying, even if, as the backup goalie, he rarely leaves the bench. A quiet loner by nature, Landon knows he gives off strong “don’t talk to me” vibes. The only player who doesn’t seem to notice is Calgary’s superstar young winger, Casey Hicks.

Casey treats Landon like an old friend, even though they’ve only interacted briefly in the past. He’s endlessly charming and completely laid-back in a way that Landon absolutely can’t relate to. They couldn’t have less in common, but Landon needs a place to live that’s not a hotel room and Casey has just bought a massive house—and hates being alone.

As roommates, Casey refuses to be defeated by Landon’s one-word answers. As friends, Landon comes to notice a few things about Casey, like his wide, easy smile and sparkling green-blue eyes. Spending the holidays together only intensifies their bromance-turned-romance. But as the new year approaches, the countdown to the end of Landon’s time in Calgary is on.

©2023 Rachel Reid (P)2023 Harlequin Enterprises, Limited

Beautiful Story

Firstly, there isn't a story by Rachel Reid that I won't devour the moment it becomes available. This was beautifully written and the MC both relatable and likable. This is the perfect example that intimacy in romance comes in all forms.
Secondly, the narrator did a very good job giving the multitude of characters their own accent/tone.
Well worth the credit and I know I'll be listening to it again in the future.

MM Sports Romance

Very well done bi awakening sports romance between two players on the same team. Casey is the charismatic poster boy for the team. He is always with people and has someone in his bed to keep him company. It seems to be when he wakes up that he finds himself lonely and wanting a roommate. Enter Landon- his new temporary teammate covering for the injured goalie. Landon needs a place to stay and Casey wants him to move in. Things start to happen in the cutest and best paced way. When it's time for Landon to go back, they have to ask themselves what's next?

Love a good queer romance story

Story and narration was superb. Love the holiday tie in as it’s the season at the moment.

Very sweet grumpy sunshine romance

The narration was excellent. The story was pretty good. Maybe needed a little editing but overall sweet romance and some good spicy moments.

Obsessed

Love this story! Basically will read anything Rachel writes so there you have it. Cooper North does a fantastic job narrating this one.

Wonderful narration, sweek and steamy

LOVED the narration by Cooper North, he really got the tone of each character and scene.
The story was sweet, funny and very enjoyable!

Stacks and Hicks!

Oh, how I love Rachael Reid and her wonderful cast of characters. Shane and Ilya, then Landon and Casey! Good, great stuff. Love their story and truly enjoyed Cooper North’s narration.

Juvenile version of a M/M romance.

I’ve really enjoyed previous books by this author but this one is so juvenile I has to stop halfway in. In the 1000+ audiobooks I’ve listened to there are maybe 10-12 that I could not finish. The MC’s problems are built up as secret and I’m sorry but a grown male NHL player being afraid of the dark for no reason is not worth mentioning let alone being built up as trauma. A Virgin 25 y/o AHL player is written as if he were the herioine in an Jane Austen novel. Also I’m not into romances where one MC hooks up multiple times in full view of their love interest for 60% of the book. Just a big No to this installment from this author. Sucks cause I’m a huge fan of prior books and Calgary is my fave NHL team:( Skip this one.

It didn’t work for me

I’m gonna be 100% honest right now, if you haven’t read Rachel’s Game Changers series and this is your first book from her I HIGHLY RECOMMEND not reading this books and reading that series first. The simple reason is that after reading the pure GOLD that is that series, you can check this one out and make your own decisions, but the thought of you missing on GC’s series because you don’t like this one kills me.

Now onto the actual book. I had been waiting on this new release for a while and I’m sad to say it completely missed the mark for me.

I absolutely adore my hockey boys and the golden retriever/grumpy couple trope absolutely makes me swoon but I think this is a case where it was just too much.

We have Landon, our grumpy goalie that gets a chance at the big leagues. I felt a little confused about his grief about his sister and the relationship with his parents, it didn’t feel heartfelt, I just felt disconnected from the pain, it just didn’t transmit to me. He also makes decisions that were extremely weird to me and our characters with his behavior.

Then we have Casey, our golden retriever sunshine, I did adore him at times, but his personality was just too much, even in the beginning it would have appeared as if no one could stand him -but apparently everyone adored him too? It made no sense to me. I also hated that -even though they weren’t together- Casey kept having one night stands, even when his started liking Landon a lot, that was extremely uncomfortable for me. I didn’t like that at all.

There was just a lot. It was a lot. And it just didn’t come together for me. It had a lot of sweet moments. I liked a lot of the secondary characters. And the epilogue was adorable and made me feel happy. But that was it. So please if you felt the same, don’t let this shy away from this authors’ other books.

Audio was pretty great 5/5 on narration.

Wanted to Love it …..

I loved all of the author’s previous books but this one just didn’t make the cut. I didn’t believe the characters or their issues. It was like they were 16 and not 26. It was also long and tended to ramble on. Cooper North was an amazing narrator (as he was on her other books).