REVIEWED by Jen B.

TITLE: First Season

SERIES: Harrisburg Railers #2

AUTHOR: R.J. Scott and V.L. Locey

PUBLISHER: Love Lane Books

LENGTH: 229 Pages

RELEASE DATE: September 27, 2017

BLURB:  Layton wants success, Adler wants family, how can love make both these things possible?

Layton Foxx works hard for what he has. The condo, the career, the chance to make his mark, is all down to the sacrifices he has made. With tragedy in his past, he doesn’t want or need love. Then he meets Adler Lockhart, the extroverted, sexy winger for the Harrisburg Railers and abruptly he can’t avoid love even if he wanted to.

Adler Lockhart has had everything handed to him his whole life. Cars, villas, cash, college tuition at the finest Ivy League schools. The only things he doesn’t have are parents who care or the love of a good man. Then Layton walks into his privileged life and shows him what real love can be like.

 I am really enjoying this series about a start-up pro hockey team based in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania.  It’s always fun to read a story that takes place somewhere familiar, and as I live in the are, I’m finding it even more interesting.  We learned about the makeup of the team in book 1, Changing Lines, where Ten and Mads made waves with their relationship as player and coach, but also with their coming out in terms of the sport.  First Season picks up where that left off, with the official “coming out” news conference.  I definitely recommend reading these in order, if for nothing else, you see what has happened up until now, but it was also a great story itself.

Layton has been hired to be the PC guru and social media smoother outer.  He coaches the players, staff, etc. on how to respond to issues and generally tries to help keep things from blowing too much out of proportion with the media.  He has a past he is still trying to overcome, and being around a bunch of beefy jocks puts added pressure on him, but he’s doing his best.

Adler is one of the players we met in the first book.  I loved his character!  He’s sweet, funny and just wants to be loved so badly.  Unfortunately, about the only things his parents give him is money, so he is severely lacking in the receiving love department.  He tries his darndest to win Layton over, trying first with gifts, relying on his belief that the gifts are what show you care.  This aspect of Adler broke my heart.  He was such a big sweetheart just looking to be good enough for someone to love.  Thankfully, little by little, he grew on Layton.  I loved that he noticed Layton’s tells and worked hard to control his usual over the topness and give Layton what he needed.  They were perfect for each other, each being patient or being there when the other needed it.

The bigger picture here is the aspect of closeted sports players.  With Ten and Mads’ coming out, even with the support of the team and organization, they still face a lot of people who aren’t on their side.  This brings out some guilt about putting pressure on other people and results in some injuries which add to that.  But they all stay the course, and it looks to be getting better.  The next story is set up nicely with Dieter having some issues of his own and what looks to be a slight enemies to lovers type of match coming his way with the star figure skater.  I am looking forward to seeing the other guys again and can’t wait to see their story play out.  This story is smooth and easy to read with just the right amount of hockey action to not overwhelm you with just enough angst to not be too much.  I definitely recommend it for hockey fans who like seeing these big guys finding their other halves.