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A review by fishreads
Winging It by Morgan James, Ashlyn Kane
challenging
emotional
lighthearted
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.0
(This is the review of 2015 edition as I was too silly to realize at the time I was reading the older version of the story. As there have been significant changes between older and newer edition I have decided to review each edition separately with probably some overlap between the reviews.)
Gabriel Martin is a 25 year old closeted hockey player, playing for the Quebec City Nordiques (also known as Dekes), the NHL expansion team playing in Quebec City. Gabe is not interested in coming out and being known as the gay hockey player, subjecting himself to still present homophobia in the league. He's out to two of his teammates and friends and despite not having much luck dating,his last casual relationship ending when it turned out that the guy he was seeing expected Gabe to be his sugar daddy (the ex, Pierre, was made into a bit of a comic book villain ex), Gabe is pretty okay with putting his romantic life on hold while playing hockey. The only wrinkle in Gabe's plan is his inconvenient crush on his teammate, last year's rookie, exuberant and straight 20 year old Dante Baltierra.
Unfortunately for Gabe, the universe has different plans for him, as first Dante walks in on Gabe mid road trip hook up, and then his shitty ex outs him in the media. The (majority of the) team and the management rally around Gabe and him and Dante grow even closer with Dante maybe even showing signs that Gabe's little crush might not be as one-sided as he thought. But with Dante possibly freaking out about his attraction to Gabe and Gabe being convinced he could be nothing but a short term fun for Dante the two have a long road in front of them.
I thought this was such a great read as it offered the perfect balance of romance and hockey. I really enjoyed Gabe and Dante's characterizations as the authors took the time to set up their characters and slowly but surely build a relationship between them. On the surface Gabe was exasperated with himself about his crush on his ridiculous younger teammate but underneath there was a genuine fear he might get his heart broken and also the inability to believe he actually deserved a genuine chance at love and happiness. On the other hand, once he embraced his sexuality, Dante was Gabe's complete opposite, unapologetically going after what he wanted. Even though the story was told only from Gabe's POV there was never a question about Dante's thoughts and feelings because Dante was never afraid of expressing himself.
Even though this was m/m hockey romance I felt that the story was realistic about still widely existing homophobia in sports. Considering the story setting in the real world NHL I thought the way the authors included homophobic players on other teams without naming the actual teams or shoehorning fictional players on those same teams was very cleverly done.
Themes: single POV, teammates to lovers, closeted character, bisexual awakening, outed characters, NHL, Stanley Cup playoffs
Gabriel Martin is a 25 year old closeted hockey player, playing for the Quebec City Nordiques (also known as Dekes), the NHL expansion team playing in Quebec City. Gabe is not interested in coming out and being known as the gay hockey player, subjecting himself to still present homophobia in the league. He's out to two of his teammates and friends and despite not having much luck dating,
Unfortunately for Gabe, the universe has different plans for him, as first Dante walks in on Gabe mid road trip hook up, and then his shitty ex outs him in the media. The (majority of the) team and the management rally around Gabe and him and Dante grow even closer with Dante maybe even showing signs that Gabe's little crush might not be as one-sided as he thought. But with Dante possibly freaking out about his attraction to Gabe and Gabe being convinced he could be nothing but a short term fun for Dante the two have a long road in front of them.
I thought this was such a great read as it offered the perfect balance of romance and hockey. I really enjoyed Gabe and Dante's characterizations as the authors took the time to set up their characters and slowly but surely build a relationship between them. On the surface Gabe was exasperated with himself about his crush on his ridiculous younger teammate but underneath there was a genuine fear he might get his heart broken and also the inability to believe he actually deserved a genuine chance at love and happiness. On the other hand, once he embraced his sexuality, Dante was Gabe's complete opposite, unapologetically going after what he wanted. Even though the story was told only from Gabe's POV there was never a question about Dante's thoughts and feelings because Dante was never afraid of expressing himself.
Even though this was m/m hockey romance I felt that the story was realistic about still widely existing homophobia in sports. Considering the story setting in the real world NHL I thought the way the authors included homophobic players on other teams without naming the actual teams or shoehorning fictional players on those same teams was very cleverly done.
Themes: single POV, teammates to lovers, closeted character, bisexual awakening, outed characters, NHL, Stanley Cup playoffs
Content Warnings
Graphic: Homophobia
Moderate: Injury/Injury detail
Minor: Religious bigotry