Rating: 4.75🌈

Taking The Body just became my favorite of this series . I laughed so hard so much of the time when reading it, mostly due to the outrageous family tales related to various people by the main character, hockey player, Phil Greco. He’s such an entertaining and highly engaging person. Irish/Italian from Queens, New York, once he appears on the page, he’s got the reader’s total attention.

Locey must have had such an incredible time writing this man and his unique voice. He had me in stitches but he was also such a believable person, grounded in family and a recognizable location such as Flushing.

Frenchman Henri Gaudion, of Gaudion Winery, and his wonderful found family of staff, that includes his butler, Barnaby, is a well defined character and great match for gregarious Phil. His character is also a very poignant person. Locey has created in Henri such a relatable person and backstory. Henri’s background is one of loss, constant inter-family fighting over the winery and his sexuality, and finally, the ways in which Henri has isolated himself due to the fears caused by his illness and approaching blindness. His emotional walls are those of fear and experience.

Watching Phil moving through that previously ordered and quiet existence as seen and heard through both men’s perspectives is such a joy and utter blissful experience.

And that Locey wove The Nanny and Fran Drescher into this? Priceless!

The only thing that keeps the story from a total 5 rating is that the ending came about rather quickly. It feels too abrupt. Had that been extended to go into a little longer explanation of the situation, and not leaving that other renter hanging, then this would have been a 5+ story.

As it is, Taking the Body (Watkins Glen Gladiators #4) by V.L. Locey is my favorite of a lovely series. I hope to see more of this couple in the stories to come.

Watkins Glen Gladiators:

✓ Between The Pipes #1

✓ Defending The House #2

✓ Dump and Chase #3

✓ Taking The Body #4

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One’s from Flushing, New York, the other from Ambroise, France. Worlds, wit, and passions are about to collide!

Phil Greco is that player that every opponent and their fanbase hates but secretly wishes played for their team. Greck is a mouthy guy, high-spirited, and able to tweak nerves with relative ease. Having grown up with a large family he’d learned early that you had to fight for what you wanted. This is how a short, undrafted guy from Flushing made it as far as he had. It had taken no small amount of bull&*#*, grit, and plenty of wit. Generally that wit and grit was enough to get him on the top of the pileup but that’s not the case with Henri Gaudion, owner of Gaudion Winery. Ever since they’d met sparks have flown, and for the life of him, Phil cannot understand what it is about the suave, well-dressed, handsome French vintner that makes him so edgy. They have nothing in common aside from a love of Watkins Glen, so why does he keep finding himself so drawn to the lean man with the rapier wit? Sure, he was pretty, and did keep him on his toes, but Phil’s not the kind of fella to be drawn to such a fancy pants rich boy. How stupid would it be to think that a hoodlum like him could ever catch a man like Henri? Not that he wanted to catch the stuck-up winemaker…

Henri Gaudion has no time for shenanigans or those who engage in them, especially boorish braggarts on skates. Yes, he enjoys the game of hockey and having the Gladiators hockey team and the local gentry at his chalet overlooking Seneca Lake every Sunday for brunch, but that’s solely for keeping up appearances. Since the death of his father, he has devoted his life to ensuring the lands bequeathed to him produce the finest wines and champagne in the Finger Lakes district. Henri is a lonely, heartbroken man when the blinds are drawn and the erudite mask is dropped. He also has no room in his life for rowdy little men with bright smiles, cheeky winks, and heavily accented, fanciful tales about his large Italian family back in, of all places, Flushing. The pull that he’s feeling for Phil Greco must be some sort of glitch, or perhaps he’s been spending too much time in the tasting rooms. Whatever the reason, he is not about to let his attraction to Phil grow. It would be impossible for two such incompatible men to fall in love. Wouldn’t it?

Taking the Body is a low-angst, opposites attract queer hockey romance with a mouthy hockey player, a refined vintner, a whole lot of forced proximity, on-ice action, evenings spent sipping wine, a nosy butler, even nosier teammates, a large loving family, and a perfectly aged happy ending.

• Publication date: January 5, 2024

• Print length: 193 pages