Tristan Holt is nothing if not pragmatic. Despite a
flourishing career as a defenseman for the Atlanta Venom, Tristan knows he
can’t play hockey forever. One day he’ll retire — if an injury doesn’t force
him to hang up his skates first. His backup plan? Finishing his business
degree. But he doesn’t count on a very inappropriate attraction to his
standoffish sociology professor, Sebastian Cruz.
Sebastian is on the bottom rung of the Sociology Department at Georgia State.
He has his sights set on tenure, and he can’t afford to be distracted,
especially not by a sexy student with a body straight out of Sebastian’s
dreams. No matter how much Tristan tempts him, that’s one line Sebastian won’t
cross. At least not until summer classes end. After that, everything is fair
game.
But Sebastian lives loud and proud, and Tristan is terrified of being the first
out player in the NHL. Neither of them can afford to risk their hearts when
they can’t imagine a happily ever after. The problem is, unlike hockey, when it
comes to love, there are no rules.
Book 1
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Riptide Publishing
Reviews by the
Wicked Reads Review Team
Avid Reader –
☆☆☆☆
3.5 stars
M/M Sports Romance, undertones of power play
This was a sweet story about preconceived notions and fighting the urge to
hide. However, it is also very similar to a lot of other secretly gay, awesome
sports player stories.
Tristan is a great defense player for a national hockey team. He is also gay
and in the closet. He is working hard, despite being a full-time pro athlete,
to obtain a degree in case the worst should happen and he were to be unable to
play. I really liked his dedication to his education and his forward thinking
about his future. I think that was what made this book somewhat different from
the other stories that deal with closeted pro athletes.
Then you have Sebastian. He is a professor and wants to make sure that his
career is long. He tries to stay away from students in a romantic way, but when
he sees Tristan he is immediately intrigued. Of course, he also makes a very
poor first impression.
Despite their attraction and their obvious chemistry, Sebastian does not want
to be back in the closet and Tristan does not want to be the poster boy for gay
athletes.
Overall, it's a nice story about love and trust, accepting yourself, and hoping
for the best. I do hope that some of Tristan's teammates get their own story as
I thought that they were very helpful in progressing the story.
Sarah –
☆☆☆☆☆
This is pretty much the perfect romance for me. I loved the idea of an NHL
player finishing his degree during the off season and I loved the romance
between the brawny hockey player and his brainy professor even more.
Avon Gale is my absolute favourite hockey romance writer. I love the sense of
family that Tristan finds in his team and I love the irreverent banter between
teammates. However, this story is called
Off
the Ice for a reason. The focus of the book is Tristan’s life beyond
hockey. I loved his cautious approach to his wealth, his careful planning for
the future, and his struggle to balance a relationship and a career. He is an
intelligent and thoughtful character who feels much older than he is.
Sebastian is an equally brilliant character. I fell in love with him
immediately after his first “No shit, Sherlock” response to a paper he was
grading. He passionate and thoughtful – and clueless about hockey. I love that
he appreciates Tristan’s mind before he even knows who he is.
I really enjoyed the kink in Sebastian and Tristan’s relationship. This is a
sexy story and the D/s relationship is hot because the power exchange feels
natural and exciting for these two characters – without any of the tired tropes
used in most generic BDSM erotic romance.
This collaboration between Gale and Vaughn brings readers the best of both
authors and I really loved the story. I’m hoping this is the start of a new
series because there are several characters on the Venom team that I’d love to
get to know a whole lot better.
Angie –
☆☆☆☆
HOT for teacher! I am not sure how many more hockey books we can have with the
plot being "I am gay and play hockey" but this one worked for me. I
loved Sebastian and Tristan. They just worked for me. Not only was there hot
sex but they joked around, they had some things in common, and they both
brought something to the table. The age gap worked for me too, as well as the
kink factor; I am usually not into mild humiliation, but the authors made it
work for me. One of my favorite parts was when Tris was quizzing Seb over
hockey questions and his sexual rewards. Good book with not a lot of angst or
drama.
Lee’Anne –
☆☆☆☆
I’m giving the story 4 stars, but I’d definitely give the steam in this book a
solid 5 stars! Sebastian and Tristan really heat the pages up!
Tristan is an up and coming hockey player who knows that hockey won’t last
forever. He’s decided to go back to school and finish his degree so that he has
a backup plan after his career with Venom ends. Tristan knows his Sociology
class is going to be tough, but he has no idea how tough until his super hot
professor walks in. Though Sebastian teaches about not judging by the way
someone looks he’s very quick to judge Tristan as a know-it-all athlete who is
trying to breeze through his class, even if he is pretty on the eyes. When one
of Tristan’s papers is plagiarized, Sebastian is quick to lay the blame on
Tristan assuming he’s the one to have done the plagiarizing… and so begins
their intense relationship. Though the attraction is seriously intense, the two
know that they have to wait until the class is complete before they can pursue
anything – so the day that class ends, the two are all over one another.
I really enjoyed that this book felt like it had two plots – there was Tristan
in school getting with Sebastian and then his battle with coming out as gay in
the NHL world. It made the book that much harder to put down. Tristan and
Sebastian’s story is powerful and inspiring. I look forward to more from these
authors!
Ruthie –
☆☆☆☆
I really enjoyed this sports romance with a touch of academia thrown in. It
introduces a new series, which I think will be a winner – and I am looking forward
to the next one already!
I read a lot of this genre, and keep thinking there is a limited life on the
being the first to come out in a sport, but it is done well, and with the
second angle of the student-professor relationship, the issue is not
overplayed. The kink is absolutely delicious and made the story much richer, as
well as being super hot.
RJ was a great foil for Seb and his issues and concerns, and clearly a good
friend, and huge hockey fan. We also got to meet a number of other hockey
players, with a few hints as to who might get their story told next.
If you are a hockey fan, like a bit of D/s, and the frisson of a professor-student
attraction, then you will enjoy this.
Avon Gale
AVON GALE wrote her first story at the age of seven, about a “Space Hat”
hanging on a rack and waiting for that special person to come along and
purchase it—even if it was a bit weirder than the other hats. Like all of
Avon’s characters, the space hat did get its happily ever after—though she’s
pretty sure it was with a unicorn. She likes to think her vocabulary has
improved since then, but the theme of quirky people waiting for their perfect
match is still one of her favorites.
Avon grew up in the southern United States and now lives with her very patient
husband in a liberal Midwestern college town. By day, Avon is a hair stylist
who loves her job, her clients, and the opportunity to spend her time being
creative and making people feel happy and look fabulous.
When she’s not writing, she’s either doing some kind of craft project that
makes a huge mess, reading, watching horror movies, listening to music, or
yelling at her favorite hockey team to get it together already. Avon is always
up for a road trip, adores Kentucky bourbon, thinks nothing is as stress
relieving as a good rock concert, and will never say no to candy.
At one point, Avon was the mayor of both Jazzercise and Lollicup on Foursquare.
This tells you basically all you need to know about her as a person.
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Piper Vaughn
Romance author, tea drinker, book junkie, tattoo enthusiast, typewriter
collector, flirt. Lover of hedgehogs, piercings, tattoos, and hockey.
Piper Vaughn wrote her first love story at eleven and never looked back. Since
then, she’s known that writing in some form was exactly what she wanted to do.
A reader at the core, Piper loves nothing more than getting lost in a great
book—fantasy, young adult, romance, she loves them all (and has a
two-thousand-book library to prove it!). She grew up in Chicago, in an
ethnically diverse neighborhood, and loves to put faces and characters of every
ethnicity in her stories, so her fictional worlds are as colorful as the real
one. Above all, she believes that everyone needs a little true love in their life…even
if it’s only in a book.
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Piper
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Reviewers on the Wicked Reads Review Team were provided
a free copy of Off the Ice (Hat Trick #1) by Avon Gale & Piper Vaughn to
read and review.
