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jess_is_always_reading 's review for:

Contract Season by Cait Nary
4.5
emotional hopeful

 
Thanks to the publisher & Netgalley for the complimentary ARC. All opinions provided are my own.

Cait Nary’s Contract Season started so hot you all, with a meeting of eyes across a wedding dance floor between a hunk of a singer named Seamus & a pro hockey player, Brody Kellerman, who’s a force on the ice.

When they meet alone, the magnetism between them takes over, leaving me saying *oh my.*

What follows is some fake dating & a sometimes awkward, stumbling way to a HEA between two people who just can’t get the other out of their head.

Complicating everything is the fact that neither Brody nor Sea is out yet & both work in fields—hockey & country music—where to come out publicly would likely not draw a lot of a support. Where instead they might draw ridicule and homophobia, etc.

Nary’s beautiful writing leaves such an emotional impact while reading. There were so many times I noticed how the author had phrased something & in general, it builds up the feelings between Brody & Sea so powerfully. The attraction between them feels electric to me & that’s because of how Nary writes.

Another thing Nary does so well is explore both of the leads’s vulnerabilities both between them—in their relationship—& in the narrative itself.

But I did wish for a little less back & forth in their relationship in general.

As far as writing talent is concerned I’m such a fan of Cait Nary’s work & I’m hoping for a more straightforward conflict arc in the next one!

4.5⭐️. Out 09/06.

CWs: Both leads are forcibly outed. Supposed Christians expose them. There’s some homophobia exhibited by Christians but also some support from other Christians. Moments of excessive drinking & recreational drug use.