Winging It Hockey Ever After Book #1
MM Romance, LGBTQ Romance, Sports Romance
Dreamspinner Press
Oct 18, 2022
Kindle
386
Amazon
Hockey is Gabe Martin's life. Dante Baltierra just wants to have some fun on his way to the Hockey Hall of Fame. Falling for a teammate isn't in either game plan.
But plans change.
When Gabe gets outed, it turns his careful life upside-down. The chaos messes with his game and sends his team headlong into a losing streak. The last person he expects to pull him through it is Dante.
This season isn’t going the way Dante thought it would. Gabe’s sexuality doesn’t faze him, but his own does. Dante’s always been a “what you see is what you get” kind of guy, and having to hide his attraction to Gabe sucks. But so does losing, and his teammate needs him, so he puts in the effort to snap Gabe out of his funk.
He doesn’t mean to fall in love with the guy.
Getting involved with a teammate is a bad idea, but Dante is shameless, funny, and brilliant at hockey. Gabe can’t resist. Unfortunately, he struggles to share part of himself that he’s hidden for years, and Dante chafes at hiding their relationship. Can they find their feet before the ice slips out from under them?
Winging It is the first book in the hot, hilarious, heartfelt Hockey Ever After series. If you like witty banter, friends to lovers, and sports romance, you’ll love Winging It.
Reviewed by Linda Tonis
Member of the Paranormal Romance Guild Review Team
Gabe Martin is a hockey player with the Dekes, gay and in the closet. For ten years he has kept his sexuality a secret but the day before training camp he and his boyfriend Pierre broke up and Pierre decided to announce to the world that the Deke’s star player was gay. He didn’t just announce it he sent a photograph and the media jumped on the story. Gabe decided to tell his team in person and he was surprised that their biggest complaint was that he didn’t tell them sooner.
Dante “Baller” Baltierra has always looked up to Gabe as his hero and has made it his purpose to fight anyone who has any homophobic comments to make. Dante knew before anyone else that Gabe was gay since they were rooming together and he walked in on him kissing a man. Unfortunately, Dante’s date ended early and he and Gabe were both surprised but Dante did not look down on him.
Dante and Gabe became friends and that friendship woke Dante up to a truth about himself, he was bi and was attracted to Gabe. Before long, their friendship turns into a relationship, a secret relationship since no one knows that Dante is bi and Gabe is not ready for it to be revealed. Gabe is just beginning to adjust to the fact that his sexuality is now common knowledge so having everyone know about Dante one of his teammates is something he is not ready for.
Gabe and the rest of the team are focused on making it to the Stanley Cup and although I have no knowledge of hockey, and have never ever had a desire to watch a game I did find the descriptions of how difficult the game is and how easy it is for players to be injured exciting. Now I have an interest in watching since I think I have learned a lot from reading this book.
There were times I found myself angry with Gabe since he seemed to still be in the closet only this time, he took Dante with him. I have no doubt that anyone who loves hockey would definitely love this book but that wasn’t what held my interest, it was Dante. Dante is the most amazing character, a character who is open and honest about who he is and is always the life of the party.
This book was filled with wonderful characters in addition to a lot of information about what goes on off the ice, injuries, trades and a look at what the players go through.
Review by Ulysses Dietz
It’s interesting how much I like sports-themed gay romances. You see, I’m not a sports fan, and in fact tend not to like athletes. Hockey stands out in two particulars: its physical complexity is, to me, like the playing of a violin. It seems impossible. So there’s an automatic respect there. Secondly, when I was in prep school in the early 1970s, there were three French-Canadian hockey jocks in my school, and they were all the nicest guys of all the jocks. (My prep school had TWO indoor hockey rinks
Whatever it is that attracted me to this book, I was held by the two authors’ gift at making their hockey-jock characters vulnerable and likeable and genuinely compassionate guys. I loved that the authors gave the Nordiques (aka Dekes) a woman coach (who’s pregnant by the end of the book, no less!); and I loved that Dante Baltierra (Baller) is an adopted Mexican-American boy from Louisiana who finds his passion in hockey. The personal stories within the larger romance narrative are important in making this an emotionally fulfilling and engagingly human book.
The authors provide just enough of the essential detail of playing hockey to really drive home the complicated physics and physical skill required for a successful team. They do this by describing the action in such a way that it becomes cinematic. It’s exciting—and this from someone who, generally speaking, doesn’t care. Well done.
Another detail I loved was the fact that, with just a seven-year age difference, Baller and Gabe have two very different approaches to their sexuality. Gabe is closeted and uptight, while Dante is surprisingly (but believably) sanguine about the discover that, yes, he is attracted to the man who was his childhood hero and has become his mentor and friend. It is that psychological difference between the two twenty-somethings the is the lynchpin of the entire romantic arc.
All of the secondary characters are significant and necessary for the rich background the authors give us. Likewise, the role of family is important, something that always matters to me. I’ll be reading this whole series, and I am looking forward to it.
