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A review by ericawrites
Delay of Game by Ari Baran
3.0
Delay of Game starts in the wrong place. I was listening to it on audiobook, and I thought I had spaced off when the book jumps three years and immediately gives us the best friends relationship between Nate and Zach. It was so jarring. It also made all of Zach's growth from a very good hockey player, yet a disaster bisexual party boy, to a responsible team member who wants to be a model player and win his captain the Stanley Cup. I spent too much time also trying to figure out the timeline and how it worked with the first book Game Misconduct, given that Nate and Zach are on the same team as Mike. (Since I didn't read these back-to-back, I wasn't keeping track of side characters that well.)
The second half of Delay of Game lived up to the quality of the first book, but it never shook the rocky start. This seemed like something a developmental editor would've worked through with Baran.
There's a really great long sex scene that functions so perfectly to show how Zach has learned to love Nate and give him what he doesn't even know how to ask for. Nate's anxiety problems and his pressure on himself were well-done.
While there is some homophobia, anti-Jewish slurs, and racism used as "insults" on the ice during games, this version of the NHL is more progressive than the real one. It is interesting that our now 4 queer players are open with their teams, but not out in the greater world, and that it doesn't slip out. Every industry has "open secrets" (looks at Hollywood), but that also makes fodder for tabloids and outsiders.
I was glad the guysdidn't kiss and thus out themselves when they won the Stanley Cup, as that's become a bit of a trope in hockey romances. I am looking forward to reading the 3rd book in this series that comes out in June.
The second half of Delay of Game lived up to the quality of the first book, but it never shook the rocky start. This seemed like something a developmental editor would've worked through with Baran.
There's a really great long sex scene that functions so perfectly to show how Zach has learned to love Nate and give him what he doesn't even know how to ask for. Nate's anxiety problems and his pressure on himself were well-done.
While there is some homophobia, anti-Jewish slurs, and racism used as "insults" on the ice during games, this version of the NHL is more progressive than the real one. It is interesting that our now 4 queer players are open with their teams, but not out in the greater world, and that it doesn't slip out. Every industry has "open secrets" (looks at Hollywood), but that also makes fodder for tabloids and outsiders.
I was glad the guys