Talon can’t figure what’s wrong, but when Miller is injured and facing the possible end of his career, Talon refuses to let go of their dream of winning the Super Bowl together just as much as he refuses to let go of the friend who’s burrowed so deep in his heart that he moved to Chicago instead of winning another ring with his old team. When they’re on the same team again years later, Talon seems to think everything is just fine, but revisiting their old group sexcapades proves it’s really not. If you love a book where the LI uses a different name than everybody else, look no further! Miller’s been low-key in love with Talon since they were in college together. Seeing what Weston is willing to do for him makes Anson realize not only what he’s willing to do in return for Weston, but for himself as well. Weston knows that love alone won’t make the secret relationship last, but he’s braced for heartbreak. Then their friendship becomes physical, and everything changes. Weston’s extremely conservative parents sent him to conversion therapy camp as a teen, so even though he’s a successful out and proud senator now, he understands that Anson needs a friend and keeps reaching out to let Anson know he’s not alone, even after Anson shoots him down. It’s extremely taxing on his emotional health.

Anson is carrying a lot of internalized homophobia and is living a lie, sleeping with women so no one suspects his secret.

I kid! But it is a sports coming out story. The lovely thing is, they never doubt their love for each other this is a story that illustrates that love doesn’t magically make everything perfect, but it does provide support and safety when the world is scary and decisions are tough. The close narrative focus on Scott and Kip helps create the sense of isolation that the relationship has created for the protagonists. At first, Kip is happy just to be falling in love, and Scott can’t believe he’s so lucky as to have what he never thought he would, but before long the pressure of keeping the relationship a secret wears on the couple. (I will note that because of the very small number of out queer players in professional sports, a lot of these narratives (in general) involve secret relationships, internalized homophobia, and coming out stories.)Īt the time of publication, there were no out professional hockey players in the NHL, so Scott’s story is a what-if exploration of big feels.

This week Erin’s spotlighting some of the M/M sports romance that she’s read but hasn’t reviewed for the blog: Our Smashdown can’t be limited to only 8 duels and a few other reviews! In order to showcase some more lovely sports romance, we need listicles!

The Endgame by Riley Hart