Teammates, linemates, roommates even mates

Derek and Trevor were two hockey players who played so well as juniors that their Team Canada won the Gold Medal at the World Junior Championship and they both went on to the NHL.

Of course, that night after they won the gold they slept together but in the morning when Derek awoke he was alone. Trevor's gay panic and abandonment left a deeply wounded Derek. It's now 5 years later. Derek is playing hockey in L.A. and has been able to explore his sexuality a bit because hockey isn't really on anyone's radar out there.

But he's been traded to the league leading Detroit team where Trevor is playing (and dating the local weather girl). Detroit's coach wants to "reunite the wonder twins" but in a city where hockey players are famous, how will Derek deal with finding his place on this much better team, resolve his issues with his old flame and still be true to himself?

D.K. Dunn has done a great job here. The story is compelling, the hockey details are spot on, the Michigan setting is exactly right (even down to a casual mention of Euchre) and the two guys seem realistic and both are sympathetically drawn. This is one of the best M/M sports centered books I've encountered.

However don't go into this expecting anything too steamy. No one even gets laid in the first 15 chapters. This is a sweet tale of coming-out and redemption and of re-establishing a relationship that was ended prematurely. But don't ever forget, this is also a hockey story. The MC's may be athletes but with all the scrapes and bruises and brittle machismo attitudes that the sport is known for.

Michael Pauley does the narration here and does a great job of voicing Derek from whose POV the story is told. He gets the attitude as well and the pacing during key sports scenes works really well.

*** Note: I received a copy of this audiobook for free from the publisher in exchange for an honest and impartial review ***

1 person found this helpful

Great narration, not a great story

Derek is gay and plays for the NHL team in LA. He gets traded to Detroit for a chance at the Stanley cup. He should be psyched but he’s absolutely not because this will pit him head to head with the hit and run lover he had 5 years ago who left him all alone after a night of drunken sex.
Trevor, who is now 24, “can’t be gay” and play professional hockey – or so he tells himself. He continually pushes Derek away and claims that the night they spent together was a mistake.

As they Wonder Twins begin to work with one another to win the cup, they begin to form a somewhat stable friendship, or at least not openly hostile.

Trevor’s hot girl-friend – who is a total bitch – finally tires of playing second or third fiddle to hockey, the dogs and even Derek – and drops him. Trevor is forced to re-evaluate his life and realizes Derek has been right for him all along.

**

So… I wanted to like this. I like the idea of GFY/OFY, hot hockey players? – oh yeah; coming out stories – you bet! – enemies to lovers – awesome! This sounded like it had a bit of all that. Yeah, no.

It had a guy with his head in his a** the ENTIRE time, constant back and forth between the two MCs over the SAME ISSUE and only pne – count it – one sex scene at the very end of the book. It also had a long list of things that bugged me: making most of the women in their lives act like b*tches, making fun of being gay, no coming out for either character and a totally unbelievable “I love you” declaration that came from out in left field.

When we get to the end I have absolutely no belief that this relationship will work out and really I didn’t even care by that point. I sort of liked Derek, but never cared for Trevor at all. There was a LOT of hockey, a smidge of sexual tension, and very little romance.

Audio

Michael Pauley did a good job with this book. He tried to give all the various hockey guys a unique voice and even tried a little Canadian accent now and then –eh? At times he sounded almost out of breath and I can’t tell if it was because Trevor always was angry but his narration make him always sound that way.

I can’t really recommend this book, it didn’t do it for me on any level, but the narration wasn’t the problem.

3 people found this helpful

What a difference

It amazes me how much better Michael can narrate a story these days. his performance is not the best part of this story. its a good sports romance, characters are well defined and each has their own personality. worth the credit and your time to listen.

Well-written, very focused on hockey

So it seems a little redundant to point out that a book about two hockey players in love is very focused on hockey. But let's be honest, a lot of these sports romances are pretty interchangeable, typically formulaic love stories with the chosen sport as a backdrop. But not this one; D.K. Dunn seems to be a genuine hockey fan and you will get a LOT of hockey jargon (shouldn't be too confusing to newcomers, but I am a hockey fan so I can't say for sure) and a lot of focus on the games. I see this as a huge positive! It's not often a sports romance feels like a sports romance, or that the protagonists actually seem like athletes.

Derek is a (closeted) gay hockey player who has just been traded to a better team. Great news, right? Except one of his new teammates is another closeted hockey player whom Derek had a fleeting encounter with years ago. And though they're both closeted, Trevor (the new teammate) is so closeted he's actually in denial of his sexuality and isn't at all happy to see Derek again. Can these two crazy kids put aside their differences and become a couple? Probably, but life is about the journey. And this journey is super fun, filled with great secondary characters, exciting hockey games, and pretty good pacing, such that it's shot to the top of my list of favorite M/M sports romances (one of my favorite subgenres).

Trevor has a girlfriend acting as a beard who is pretty awful, but I'm still surprised that other reviewers are taking issue with Trevor's character and saying they didn't WANT the two of them to get together. If anyone comes out looking a little bad here, it's Derek, who is SUPER pushy with someone who is obviously going through a sexuality crisis. Something that's interesting to me is that even though Derek is jealous of Trevor's girlfriend and other girls, there isn't a single time when Derek questions if Trevor might be bisexual, probably a good indication that this book was written in 2015, a couple years before romance writers everywhere seemed to get the impression that 80% of the LGBT community is composed of the "B" portion. I'm not complaining--the book works better with Trevor being gay and not bi--it's just an observation. Less forgivable from a character standpoint is Derek's constant nagging and poking at Trevor for not coming to terms with his sexuality. It's not a flaw in the BOOK per se, but it's definitely a character flaw. And it's good that some characters have flaws, even 1st person protagonists! Neither character here is perfect, and that, for me, is a reason to recommend it.

Michael Pauley (aka Michael Dean) is hit or miss for me, but he was definitely a hit here. I thought his narration was excellent. Pauley is always a reliable narrator who sort of gets a little TOO into it sometimes, particularly during sex scenes. Luckily this book has very few sex scenes, so if that's what you're looking for, look elsewhere.

There exists a sequel to this book, on Kindle, that came out in 2018, which is sadly not available on audiobook and, even more sadly, appears to be the only other thing this author has written, at least that I could find. It's really a shame because the sequel is very good (told from Trevor's point of view), and both books have excellent writing. Linemates is perfectly serviceable as a standalone but there are a couple things you may expect to happen in this book which don't happen until the next book.

Amazing love story

I’m not usually a fan of sports-related books so I’m not sure how this one ended up in my queue but I’m glad I gave it a shot. Linemates was an awesome romance between two hard headed and perfectly matched men.

Hockey player Derek LaVigne is both excited and nervous when he is traded to the Detroit Wheels. It’s the team he’s always wanted to play on since he was young but one of his teammates is ex-lover—Trevor Ladouceur. Years back Derek and Trevor had some hot and heavy sex and Derek in love right away. However, Trevor took off and never contacted him again.

I’m a big fan of sexual tension between characters and that’s what most of this book is about. There’s a push and pull between Trevor and Derek that had me hanging on every word. I couldn’t wait to plug in my earphones and find out what was going to happen next.

Because of the mostly unrealized sexual tension there is a lack of actual romance in the book. In fact there is no sex until the very end. That’s something some readers might see as a negative, but not me. I thought it was perfect because any sooner it wouldn’t have been realistic. Both Derek and Trevor had growing to do, mostly Trevor.

One thing that some readers might take offense to is the homophobic remarks made by Trevor’s and Derek’s teammates. Yes, they were offensive but they were also authentic. Anyone that’s been in a men’s locker room or worked in a mostly male environment know that that kind of conversation is commonplace.

One of my complaints is that there weren’t many positive female characters. Trevor’s girlfriend is written as such a stereotypical bitch that it was hard to see any reason whatsoever Trevor would want to be with her. Yeah, he was using her as a beard but she’d still need to be a decent enough person he’d want to spend time with her.

Overall, an enjoyable story I would recommend highly.

Michael Pauley did an amazing job with this book. He absolutely nailed Derek, whose POV the story is written in. There are a lot of supporting characters in the book, mainly Trevor and Derek’s teammates, and Pauley did a good job making them all distinct. I will definitely listen to anything by him in the future.

DNF

I was really excited that there was a book that has hockey elements to it, but man I could not finish. Four hours in, and I found myself actively hoping that the main characters DIDN'T get together.

Also, I didn't care for the narrator. All of his secondary characters sounded the same, and his female voices were TERRIBLE.

Good coming out story - Sports

Another in closet gay professional sports romance. I listen and read a lot of these stories, this one I liked a lot. The read was good. It was still a little distant when it comes to character development, but it kept my interest to the very end.

I wish it went a little further than it did. The sex was good, wasn't what I consider over focus.