A review by isalaur
Next Season by Lane Hayes

fast-paced

5.0

I thoroughly enjoyed this second book in The Elmwood Stories series, a small town/hockey romance series. In this second book, Riley, a professional hockey player comes to Elmwood to recover from a severe concussion at the invitation of his best friend and former team captain Vinny, a now retired hockey player. Riley had been in Elmwood the summer before to help at Vinny’s hockey camp which is where we first met him. (Vinny and Nolan are the MCs in book one in the series.) Riley, who is towards the end of his career, is in a rough place and when he is reacquainted with JC, the chef at the diner, he discovers he has an attraction to the grumpy chef. This rocks his world a bit more since Riley is straight. Or is he?

 

As their friendship turns into more, we get to watch the development of a new and sweet relationship. Of course we know that it won’t be a temporary bi curious experiment but it’s fun watching them figure that out. The friendship turned relationship turned love is sometimes a tricky trope to maneuver. Oftentimes it seems to come out of nowhere and and as a reader is sometimes hard to digest. Lane threads the needle expertly as she sets a good foundation for the trust and the ability for each man to be themselves around the other. JC figures he likes Riley and he’s more than happy to help him experiment because he’s getting good sex out of the deal but we can quickly see how it’s developing into more for him as well as for Riley. They believe they are keeping it on the down-low but of course small town and observant friends means not as secret as they think.

 

As the time for Riley’s return to Seattle to his team nears the author does a great job of ratcheting up the apprehension both men are experiencing. The crisis point is well written and is both heart wrenching and amusing. The ending is really sweet and probably the way most readers will have pictured things going. I am really looking forward to the third book in the series, a holiday novella featuring one of the town members we got to know in this book.

 

It’s not necessary to have read book one first but it will definitely make reading this book more enjoyable.

 

**I voluntarily read this ARC and this is my unbiased opinion.**