Rating: 4 stars out of 5
Can Tennant show Jared that age is just a number, and that love is all that matters?
The Rowe Brothers are famous hockey hotshots, but as the youngest of the trio, Tennant has always had to play against his brothers’ reputations. To get out of their shadows, and against their advice, he accepts a trade to the Harrisburg Railers, where he runs into Jared Madsen. Mads is an old family friend and his brother’s one-time teammate. Mads is Tennant’s new coach. And Mads is the sexiest thing he’s ever laid eyes on.
Jared Madsen’s hockey career was cut short by a fault in his heart, but coaching keeps him close to the game. When Ten is traded to the team, his carefully organized world is thrown into chaos. Nine years his junior and his best friend’s brother, he knows Ten is strictly off-limits, but as soon as he sees Ten’s moves, on and off the ice, he knows that his heart could get him into trouble again.
What a great writing team RJ Scott and VL Locey make! Throw in the players and game of hockey and you have all the makings of a great series and a wonderful novel. Like football, hockey tends to run in families, and the authors create the famous Rowe Brothers, men who strike across some of the greatest teams in the NHL. Then there is their youngest brother trying to find his own place, and with Ten, the readers find a character we can immediately understand and connect with. He’s the underdog, the one fighting to shine and we need him to succeed.
Jared is a terrific romantic foil, older, known to the family, loyal to the team and now to Ten. Yep, fell in love with Jared too. Combine all the wonderful hockey elements that Locey does so well, the family aspects of the team as well as the real Rowe family, and Changing Lines has so much heart to it that you’ll want to pull on some skates yourself.
Changing Lines also starts the series arc of a NHL player coming out officially and what that might mean to the player, teammates and team. This is dealt with seriously and the issues taken apart at all levels from the corporate on down. More so in the next novel. I was really happy with the way the authors are have the characters deal with this issue, working it through between themselves as well as their families, teammates and organization.
In short, I love everything about this book and the characters we are getting to know. This looks to be a wonderful ensemble series with teammates getting their own romances as well this couple continuing to move forward with their romance and overall storythread. I can’t wait for more.
Cover art by Meredith Russell is great. I love the depiction of the characters.
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Book Details:
ebook, 233 pages
Published July 12th 2017 by Love Lane Books Limited
Series Harrisburg Railers #1
Harrisburg Railers:
Scattered Thoughts and Rogue Words 