Starting Line

For Puck's Sake, Book 2

By: Crea Reitan

Narrated by: Shawn K. Jain, Simon Dornet, Zachary Zaba

Length: 9 hrs and 38 mins

Publisher's summary

Every game begins with a good starting line.

Ethan

I've been secretly married for eight years. Why is it a secret? Because having an open marriage splashed all over headlines isn't a good look. We'd constantly be under the spotlight, our lives and relationships judged. That's not the kind of hockey player I want to be known for, especially because we play for different teams.

Although most of my relationships outside of my marriage are passing, I've been pining over my best friend and teammate for years. Years! Just as I decide that maybe it's time to see where this leads, management throws an unexpected play in our faces.

It might be over before it begins, and I'm not sure what to do about it.

Creed

Since the day I was swapped to Buffalo, I've been in love with Ethan Wilder. He's an intense player, breaking records every year. But he's also fun, sweet, thoughtful, and gorgeous. He's everyone's perfect dream.

When he tells me he wants to be more than friends, I almost jump him right there in the locker room. Things between us heat up quickly, and I've never been happier. Everything is perfect.

Except for our starting line. We've been through four right wingers in the last three seasons, but no matter who management brings on board, they just don't gel with me and Ethan. Now they've thrown us a trick play that I'm not sure we're going to be able to work around—on the ice or off.

It's not just the starting line we need to worry about. This complication could put the entire team—and our new relationship—on ice.

This is an LGBT+ (MMM) story intended for mature listeners.

©2023 Amber Reitan writing as Crea Reitan (P)2024 Podium Audio

Less than I was hoping for

For me, I’m being generous with three stars. There was enough action and story to keep me interested, but the narrators were the best part. I came in thinking this would be a hockey story, but the hockey part soon disappeared completely. This entire story was a big ol’ Fairy Tale with an over abundance of repetitive dialog; everyone and everything was just too good to be true. Very little character background for us to understand how these three came to be who they are. The biggest part of the story line initially was finding a third offensive player who had chemistry with the first two and when that man came along, there was one short, single scene of them working together on the ice. In fact, there weren’t any scenes on the ice at all; just brief references after the games. We got almost none of the anticipated excitement of seeing them play together.

Spoilers incoming:

One of the biggest build-ups was Creed and Jakob finally having their big physically intimate moment, but when it actually happened, the scene lasted about thirty seconds.

Jakob was so utterly perfect, he had not a single flaw and was not a believable character, as likable as he was. He was arguably the most important MC of the book, but his name wasn’t even mentioned in the synopsis, so I’m guessing how his name is spelled.

Until the epilogue, I was happy enough to give this three stars, and then I got bashed in the face with a long discussion and fantasies of mpreg. I know that’s some people’s thing, but not mine. If I’d heard this scene earlier in the book, I would’ve noped out.