Breakaway

Yay!!! This was all the fun my friends promised. And it's sexy. And it's a hockey story from someone who knows hockey, by which I mean that the hockey angle is not just some window dressing or back drop to the story but kind of integral to the story and to who these guys are. I really loved it.In many ways I'd read a version of this story from Avon herself, [b:Let the Wrong Light In 26175543 Let the Wrong Light In Avon Gale https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1440690562s/26175543.jpg 46140277] and if your a fan of Bull Durham all the sports mania and banter is here except in the hockey world and gay. Avery & Malin from LTWLI are a template for Lane & Jared. LTWLI is a darker and at times heavier story, though still funny and one of my favorites. Period. The similarities lie in an older guy finding love with a younger man who is still defining himself as a human being but who nonetheless brings back a sense of what life is about and how to live with joy just by existing in a state of utter guilelessness. Oh and also the verbal diarrhea. I'd venture to say that Lane may be somewhere on the Asperger's spectrum because he is so clueless about subtle emotions, how to express himself, or how others perceive him but he is such a good guy that it's impossible to not love him and Jared does. I loved that this was not a coming out story to parents or the world at large. That is almost irrelevant. This is the story of a relationship from inception until the MCs are well on their way to a HEA with personal and professional growth along the way but what I loved about it was that the bumps along the way were not about how the guys felt about each other. Lane and Jared were pretty up front with themselves and each other about their feelings early on. There were a couple of hiccups that lasted a few minutes mostly because of Lane's communication inadequacies but those moments were really negligible. Jared makes some rather epic life changing decisions but we never venture into soap opera territory or do the guys suddenly become Hallmark card writers. They continue to be guys, hockey players and in the case of Lane weird. However both guys had let how they thought others perceived them, for either being gay or hockey players, color how they behaved to the world at large. So basically sometimes maybe we are projecting our biases onto others. Maybe. I was glad that in the end both sets of parents were good people, weird in their now way, but good people.I'll definitely continue this series because I can say that [a:Avon Gale 14237686 Avon Gale https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1493225826p2/14237686.jpg] is becoming a favorite author and I was more than intrigued by Riley. I'm still keeping the 5 stars for LTWLI because I have love Avery.

I don't know why I didn't read this book when it was first released in 2015 (other than the fact that I'm not a big hockey fan), but it found me at just the right time in early 2021. Very low angst, funny, sexy, with a romance that doesn't need Big Misunderstandings or 3rd act breakups to be engaging. The two MCs, although very different, bring out the best in each other, even if Lane has a unique way of thinking and speaking. And while Lane's professional dreams are more straightforward as a young, promising hockey star, Jared realizes that it's not too late to have ambitions; even if they are more moderate than Lane's, they are even more rewarding and poignant because they are so hard fought.

So I'm late to the Avon Gale bandwagon, but I'm jumping on enthusiastically, ready to take on the rest of this series and learn more about hockey than I ever wanted to know.

Não há nada de errado com o livro, mas, de alguma forma, não me o adorei e não me prendeu.

A história é boa, eu adoro os personagens - tanto o Shore quando o Lane são bons personagens -, adoro a evolução deles (mesmo que tenha acontecido tudo um pouco depressa demais no início) e gosto dos arcos de redenção. E (muitos) pontos extra pelas referências aos Leafs (eu? biased? de forma nenhuma).

Ainda assim, não foi das minhas favoritas e estou um pouco hesitante em ler mais histórias da série. Se bem que estou curiosa quanto ao Riley... hum, logo decido se leio.

A questão é: tem tudo para ser um dos meus livros favoritos do género (romance desportivo m/m), mas não é. E nem consigo explicar porquê, mas simplesmente não estou impressionada. Talvez falte um pouco de profundidade em tudo - faltam sentimentos, faltam pensamentos, falta um pouco mais de introspeção em geral por parte dos personagens.

Recomendo, sim, mas ao mesmo tempo, não está no topo da minha lista de recomendações.