Rating: 4🌈

The Blame Game is the finale story in 

Brigham Vaughn’s wonderful Relationship Goals series.  

Vaughn ends the series with line center Dominic Olson, who came out to two of his teammates in the last story. The Blame Game picks up with those events,  giving the reader insight into exactly how secretive Dom is about his private life, his sexuality and how shut off he’s become from his those around him.

Determined to keep his interactions with others at a superficial level, dramatic moments at the beginning of The Blame Game start to implode this mentality of his.  It begins with his relationship with Sawyer Barnett aka Shea, the man he’s been paying to be his stylist as well as his escort.  

Only Shea has his own secrets, plus a new sports physiotherapist day job. He’s got his own decisions to make.

I admit I found this relationship and story a bit frustrating and long.  As a finale book I’m sure the author wanted to bring in all the other couples (and did), tie up loose arc plot threads, and give this team a rousing send off. Yes to that ending, absolutely. That takes a certain amount of length to execute the plot and characters.

But that long slog to an acknowledged relationship, outside of the fake boyfriend scenario, just wasn’t as satisfying as the other couples that came before. It’s a 2 person POV so we get that it’s a lopsided affair from the start. Shea has always loved him, even when it’s been a transactional relationship. 

Maybe it’s that Dom is just written as spectacularly closed off and damaged but the reasons behind it are so to be revealed and his own actions in the narrative make it hard to connect with him. 

Bright spots will always be Dustin and Charlie from The Husband Game, my favorite of the series.  I love seeing them together and the important roles they play here. Actually it fantastic seeing all of the couples come together to share their experiences to support Dom and Shea through this process of finding a HEA.

For me, all of them were the best and that last game was everything!

This maybe leaving this team but another is set to arrive!  I’m definitely looking forward for this series and that relationship which is set up here. Should be drama on the ice!

Great series, good story. A definite winner.

Buy link

        The Blame Game: An M/M Hockey Romance (Relationship Goals Book 5)

    

Blurb 

Fiery Rescue: Fisher Cats Player Heating Up the Sheets with Handsome Stranger?

Fourth line center, Dominic Olson, was spotted with an unidentified man following a fire at the High Park Towers building in Liberty Village late last night.

The fire was contained to the fifth floor where—according to firefighters from Toronto Fire Station 346—it began in one of the condo’s kitchens. Thankfully, only minor injuries were reported.

After being treated by paramedics, Olson escorted the mystery man to a black SUV and helped him inside. Although they left together, their destination is also unknown.

Traded to Toronto from the Los Angeles Suns, Olson was a major player in the team’s 2013 Stanley Cup win.

However, it’s become obvious in recent years that the aging forward is no longer the superstar he once was.

But what exactly was Olson doing at High Park Towers in the wee hours of the morning with a strange man? “Just friends,” or something more?

Though Olson has been notoriously tight-lipped about his personal life, rarely choosing to attend events with a plus one, we all know the old adage: where there’s smoke, there’s fire.

CONTENT/TRIGGER WARNINGS:

The Blame Game contains scenes with an apartment fire, parental neglect/estrangement, mild internalized homophobia, accidental mixing of medication leading to a health scare, and two short scenes with sexual harassment from a side character.

This romance also includes found family, fake relationship, out for you, and he falls first/he falls harder tropes, along with a positive attitude toward escort work as a career (MCs are only with each other in the book).

• Publisher: Two Peninsulas Press (August 30, 2024)
• Publication date: August 30, 2024
• Language: English
• Print length: 649 pages