Empty Net

Scoring Chances, Book 4

By: Avon Gale

Narrated by: Scott R. Smith

Spartanburg Spitfires' goalie and captain, Isaac Drake, ended last season with an unexpected trip to the playoffs. He's found a home and a family with his coach and mentor, Misha Samarin, and he's looking forward to making a serious run for the Kelly Cup. But things take an interesting turn when Isaac's arch-nemesis, Laurent St. Savoy, is traded to the Spitfires. After Laurent's despicable behavior in the playoffs last year, Isaac wants nothing to do with him - no matter how gorgeous he is. But that changes when Isaac discovers the reason for Laurent's attitude.

Laurent St. Savoy grew up the only son of a legendary NHL goalie in a household rife with abuse. He was constantly treated like a disappointment, on and off the ice. When a desperate attempt to escape his father's tyranny sends him to the Spitfires, the last thing Laurent wants is to make friends. But there's something about Isaac Drake that he can't resist. Laurent has an opportunity to explore his sexuality for the first time, but he's cracking under end-of-the-season pressures. When facing the playoffs and a rivalry turned personal vendetta, Isaac's not sure he's enough to hold on to Laurent - or their relationship.

©2016 Avon Gale (P)2016 Dreamspinner Press

Love this book!

Any additional comments?

I think this may be my favorite of Scott R. Smith’s performances for the Scoring Chances series. I loved how he portrayed the tone of the story with its more emotional nuances, the passion and the humor, and how he showcased the different character voices.

Scott’s narration continues to get better with each story.

Smith captures Laurent’s inner turmoil so well in his tone and pacing, and does such a wonderful job bring Isaac to life. I wanted to hug this audio.

The hurt/comfort here is so good. I love the story. This series either in print or audio just flat out does it for me.

This entire series is a hit

Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?

You know when you find a series and you just want it to go on forever? Well this is one of those for me. If you enjoy MM romance with the perfect amount of plot, strong characters, emotion, and story telling you should read this book. I do recommend reading them in order but only because the books are just so great.

What does Scott R. Smith bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?

This narrator is very talented. I don't know that I've listened to him or not but the way he connects with our characters is amazing. I would pick up more books that he narrates.

A rating...

My Review:
Overall: 4.5
Performance: 4.5
Story: 4.75

I do love this series, but wow...this installment surpassed my high expectations. It was such a good story.

Laurent is a character that we've known (and hated) from one of the other books. He was traded to the Spitfires after an awful ending to their game last year where he spit in Isaac's face. But as it is with the most angst-filled characters...there are very good reasons for his actions, even if they are still unforgivable. Laurent had an incredible character arc in this book. My heart broke for him as his story unfolded, but I love that Isaac gave him a chance, when he really shouldn't have.

And that brings us to Isaac, who is an incredible character. I challenge you to not fall in love with him. He's just such a good guy and I love how he handles Laurent. Laurent has tons of serious issues, but Isaac handles him with patience and empathy. He sees when Laurent is about to do or say something stupid and always manages to pull him back from that edge beautifully.

I loved this story so, so much. I loved how big of a part coaches, Max and Misha, played in the story as I truly love them and how they take care of their team. It was simply a great audiobook. I highly recommend it.

Beautiful story and great narration

Although I would like the book to go deeper in to the character's personal development and their bonds, this was a great story.
I have enjoyed it very much and would recommend!

Avon Gale

I do not usually review books, although I am an avid reader. I am thoroughly impressed with Avon Gale's writing. I admit I am a hockey romance junky. I like the author taking time to explain how the various leagues work. He ability to write about homophobia and how it affects individuals is awe inspiring. I have enjoyed the series and look forward to reading all of Gale's books.
Narrator was entertaining.

loved it!

this is by far my favorite book in the series! The characters are absolutely loveable and flawed. Actually, the flaws only make them more interesting. I recommend it.

I LOVE IT❤️

I re-read this book countless times and listening to it is just as good ;)
It's about hockey and two goalies who are vastly different but find love and healing together.
Parts are funny, parts heartbreakingly sad but all parts are just really really great!

❤️‍🩹 healing and loving

Love all the hurt/comfort plot and the narrator perform Drake very well, highly recommended.

Another great addition, moving and funny both

There’s a little teaser story that Avon Published called : Overtime you can get for free off her site that is sort of a prequel to this story. You don’t need to read it, but it gives a little bit of foreshadowing to this story.

Technically you don’t have to have read any of the other books but… well… you’d miss SO MUCH and… those books are awesome so… just go read them and then come back to this ;)

Of course, after book three, we all want to see Drake find his HEA. And, he does. But with Laurent? Here’s an anti-hero if you ever saw one. He’s a total d-bag to Drake and his team, he never talks, doesn’t seem to care about anything and he’s a big jerk. Until one day Drake sees him in a different light and then it’s like a switch is flipped and suddenly it all makes sense.

Without giving away too much – from the blurb we can tell that Laurent has some “issues” and they’re pretty big. Only someone as relatively self-assured as Drake has a chance at cracking this guy open.

It was lovely to see more of Max and Misha. GAH! I love those two so much! Misha as the father figure seriously tugs at every one of my heartstrings.

There’s a lot of hockey in this book, maybe a bit less physically… not sure, but it didn’t stand out as it had in the others as much. Probably because of all the feels surrounding Laurent and his pain.


Avon is just one of those authors that hits all my buttons. Her dry sense of humor tickles my funny bone and when I read her books my husband has to tell me “no giggling” as I read in bed! (He’s kidding ☺ ) Despite the common theme of hockey and being gay in a very masculine sport she manages to come up with something new in each story and a way to make her characters even more interesting/funny/sweet/inspiring…

I really think that the relationship between Drake and Misha was almost as touching as the one Drake finds with Laurent and I was – of course – so satisfied by the way Laurent dealt with his own father.

This is another winner and highly recommended to fans of the series, the author, the sport, mm romance and laughter.

5 of 5 stars

Audio

(The teaser is a free audio you can find on Avon's site. It’s narrated by Scott Smith, too.)

What makes the teaser fun, is part of what makes this audio so much fun- Misha! They are probably two of my all time favorite MCs – Max and Misha. Though I love Lane and Jared a ton, too… hard to choose!

In any case, we’ve met Drake before and he’s got a fairly decent Southern accent. I’m not sure what I was expecting for Laurent, maybe someone with more of a French accent – but as he tells everyone repeatedly, he’s American, so he has a flat American accent.

Laurent’s father has a vague French accent and it’s pretty good.

I guess Scott is growing on me. I love this series so much that I’ve listened to the entire thing over and over despite the fact that I’m not really enthralled with the narrator. He tries hard with the accents, but he places weird emphasis on words sometimes that makes it seems like he doesn’t understand what he’s saying. But… he is otherwise easy to listen to and for that I’m grateful.

I have come to ADORE his version of Misha and we get a lot of Misha in this story. (When Misha and Drake argue with one another and Misha gets all riled up – MAN did I love that!) Max is also wonderful and he’s there a bunch, too.

I think this is a great way to experience this, the continuity is nice – having the same narrator for the entire series – and it’s a fantastic story. Highly Recommended!
4.5 of 5 stars for the Audio

Overall 4.75 (rounded to 5 ) of 5 stars

Better and better

Any additional comments?

This is a niche series but I think even if you aren't into the hockey guys the building relationships from one book to the next are so fun. The books totally stand alone but share enough to be fun to follow. I enjoy both the story and the performer. Looking forward to more.