Rating: 4.5🌈

Family First feels like the final chapter in the Harrisburg Railers series, at least for the original characters and teammates. The teammates have found their own journeys to HEA, with partners and families, some no longer playing.

One of the series favorites has been Russian goalie Stanislav “Stan” Lyamin. Stan of the Elvis obsession, his cat, speaking to his pipes, and eventual love of and marriage to teammate, Erik Gunnarsson (Poke Check). We watch them grow, stumble, laugh, form a family that includes Erik’s son, kids from Russia, Stan’s Mama, his sister and more. It’s been a fabulous and heartwarming experience and a joyful journey.

Now, both men are older, their children growing up. Their bodies are now more prone to the effects of age and the stress that their profession brings on them. Stan suffers a debilitating hit on the ice, the ramifications of which go beyond the physical impact of major injuries and a year off the ice.

Scott and Locey have always been able to get the mindset of a hockey player, no matter where they are in their career, newly acquired, a journeyman, or a star player with unbelievable skills or the ability to pull a team together. To be the head or the heart of the team.

Stan is one of those.

So when he’s sidelined by injuries, surgery, and age, the author’s skillfully show the readers just how much a sea change in his mental and emotional state this is.

For the reader who has followed the series, this isn’t the character we come to love and care for, and that’s makes it even more realistic.

As Erik and Stan are having their issues, their son, Noah, is suddenly diagnosed with a lifelong illness. This changes everything.

Scott and Locey take this serious element of a child and parents, who overnight, have their lives forever altered, and they handle this in a very responsible and sensitive manner. It feels medically well researched yet any details and medical care flows smoothly through the narrative.

Erik too has his own personal decisions to make and follow through with, and those are important for the family and his relationship with Stan. It’s just different and harder for the authors to give Erik’s story as much time as the other threads. There’s not enough page time, and Stan and Noah have the more dramatic moments.

If I have a small quibble, it’s with the Epilogue. I understand why the authors chose to do the timeline they did. However, for me, by moving it ahead so many years, you have effectively eliminated that challenges, growth and change that Stan and Erik (and Noah) had to deal with. It’s a narrative Cliffs Notes. And I don’t find those completely satisfying as they shortchange the characters and readers on so many levels. What does it do? Sets Noah up for his book which is up next.

So I found the ending expedient and sort of satisfying.

I think I could have used more of how the household, all the family members, not just Stan, Erik, and Noah, moved forward with all the changes in their lives after that last scene when Stan retires. And before the epilogue.

Oh well. Family First: A Railers Christmas Novella (Harrisburg Railers Series Book 13) by R. J. Scott and V. L. Locey is one I’m recommending to all fans of the series and their authors. It’s a lovely book and way to bid goodbye to two of the original team of the Railers.

Harrisburg Railers:

✓ Changing Lines #1

✓ First Season #2

✓ Deep Edge #3

✓ Poke Check #4

✓ Last Defense #5

✓ Goal Line #6

✓ Neutral Zone #7

✓ Hat Trick #8

✓ Save The Date #9

✓ Baby Makes Three #10

✓ Rivals #11

✓ Perfect Gifts #12

✓ Family First #13

Buy Link:

Family First: A Railers Christmas Novella (Harrisburg Railers Series Book 13)

Blurb:

An injury threatens to end Stan’s career. Will he choose to fight for his beloved hockey, or put his family first?

Few goalies are as dedicated as Stan Lyamin, known for his resilience on the ice, talking to his pipes, and his love of Elvis. Add in his adoration of his family and his life has been filled with all the things that bring him joy. However, after a heart-wrenching game ends with a disastrous hip injury, Stan faces the most challenging obstacle of his career: surgery, an extensive recovery, and the looming threat of retirement. It’s now that he has to decide which path to take: the one that will lead him back to the game he adores or the one that will see his jersey lifted to the rafters.

Erik and Stan, once invincible with the Railers, have always skated through life’s challenges hand in hand. Their love story, cemented by a shared passion for hockey and the joy of raising their children, has been their shield against the world. But when their son Noah’s life is changed forever by a medical diagnosis, this forever love is put to the test. Erik turns to his husband for support, but Stan is consumed with guilt, overwhelmed by decisions, and retreats into himself when his family needs him the most.

• Publisher: Love Lane Books Ltd; 1st edition (December 8, 2023)

• Publication date: December 8, 2023

• Print length: 116 pages