Rating: 4.5🌈
I’ve loved getting to know the latest of author V. L. Locey’s hockey team , the Watkins Glen Gladiators, and their various journeys into HEA.
Reading the Play actually involves two teams and players from each team, an old misunderstanding, and a white hot chemistry. On the ice, on skates with mad skills.
All of which, Locey does so beautifully.
The characters of competing ice hockey players, Watkins Glen Gladiators goalie Baskoro Huda and Comets goalie Marcus Newley are so good. Fleshed out, with personalities that have depth that makes them feel believable and interesting, these men make it easy to connect with each of their lives and situations.
The enemies to lovers trope and element here is one that is nicely resolved so that the storyline can move forward with the major thread, that of two men from opposing teams who are finding themselves in love with each other .
Each has complications that they bring into play with this dynamic. A daughter, a as yet to be announced sexuality, and much more. How everything is pulled together, and, along with introducing new characters, and giving the readers glimpses inside a troubled mind of another teammate, Locey carefully balances all the narrative needs of her characters and book to come up with another winner!
Baskoro Huda and Marcus Newley prove that goalies are indeed special, never more so than on their own path to love and family. I loved them.
More please.
I’m highly recommending this and the entire series
Watkins Glen Gladiators:
✓ Between The Pipes #1
✓ Defending The House #2
✓ Dump and Chase #3
✓ Taking The Body #4
✓ Reading The Play #5
Buy Link:
Reading the Play (Watkins Glen Gladiators 5)
Blurb:
Will there be kissing and making up or will Baskoro and Marcus be dropping the gloves?
A new season is about to kick off and Baskoro Huda is ready to win it all. As one half of the Watkins Glen Gladiators two-man tandem goalkeeping duo, Basky, as his teammates call him, is on track to deliver a winning season and everything is going his way. His summer training is paying off, his family and friends are warm and supportive, and his new nephew is the cutest thing ever. He’s even had a few casual dates. The only downside to this upcoming amazing season is the fact that he has to face goalie Marcus Newley and the Comets several times. To say there is no love lost between the two men would be an understatement. Granted, Marcus is incredibly handsome and skilled, but those qualities are overshadowed by the man’s ego. The tension between the two goalies has been percolating since senior year of college and one more pithy comment from Basky’s rival might just be all it takes for a reckoning that’s been a long time coming.
Marcus Newley has come a long way in a short time. He’s clawed his way to the top of the Comets roster and is now within reach of his dream: winning that championship cup and securing his chances for a call-up to the pros. The brass ring is within reach, and he is not about to let someone like Baskoro Huda and his team stand in his way. He’s got one very important person counting on him to make those dreams a reality. Unsure of what he ever did to twist the pretty but irritable Gladiators goalie’s shorts into such a tight knot, all he can do is fire back when the verbal barbs are launched from the other end of the ice. The time to focus on hockey is now, and he refuses to let Baskoro take up any more time in his head. It’s an all-out war as far as Marcus is concerned and nothing but complete surrender from Baskoro will satisfy those—and perhaps not so hidden—passions.
Reading the Play is a low angst, enemies-to-lovers, doting uncle and single dad queer hockey romance with two goalies who snipe at each other endlessly, one old misunderstanding, far too many sci-fi/fantasy TV show and movie references, several teammates trying to keep the peace, one goaltending coach who sees what all the others seem to be missing, and a hard won but oh-so gratifying happy ending.
• Publication date: April 18, 2024
• Language: English
• Print length: 189 pages
Scattered Thoughts and Rogue Words 