REVIEWED by Jen B.
TITLE: Scott
SERIES: Owatonna U Hockey
AUTHORS: R.J. Scott and V.L. Locey
PUBLISHER: Love Lane Books
LENGTH: 178 Pages Pages
RELEASE DATE: March 27, 2019
BLURB:
What happens when you try to fix the past and end up threatening your future?
Scott is struggling. Grieving the loss of his brother, carrying the weight of his father’s expectations, and getting his ass kicked in the rink, he’s in a downward spiral. He needs a solution and fast, but when his steroid use is exposed, he’s close to losing his place at Owatonna and more importantly, on the Eagles Hockey team. Thrown out of his house, with nowhere to go and no future in sight, he only has one choice; agree to mandatory counseling, random drug tests, and get his act together. Only then will he have a chance at normal. Meeting Hayne, a senior connected to the world through his art, is a shock to the system. Moving in with him is his only option, but falling for the shy artist leaves Scott in an impossible situation, and one he can’t escape.
Hayne has always been that quiet, creative kid who sat in the back of class drawing instead of listening to the teacher. A talented artist, the shy and sensitive young man is struggling with the loss of his childhood friend. Seeing his sadness reflected in his usually colorful paintings, he decides to attend grief counseling and meets Scott, a lost soul in desperate need of light and color in his life. Taking in a homeless hockey player certainly was never part of his carefully orchestrated ten-year plan. But now that Scott is in his life, he’s discovering the joy of this man’s loving smile and tender touch is one of the most beautiful palettes on earth.
I knew Scott had some major issues, but I wasn’t expecting them to be quite so difficult. His troubles go back to the loss of his brother, from which he still feels an enormous about of guilt and grief. Add to that are his useless parents who Scott can do nothing to please. They blame him, wish he was the one who died and treat Scott horribly. At least his father does. His mother just turns a blind eye to it all. Under all the pressure, he turns to steroids to make his game better in an effort to hopefully make his father proud. It backfires, of course, and his father, not surprisingly, turns his back on him and kicks him out. Lucky for him, he runs into Hayne while at a mandatory counseling session.
Hayne is the total opposite of Scott. A reclusive artist who doesn’t have any friends and basically lets people walk all over him, including his tenants, who bully him and generally treat him horribly. Those guys really needed to be shown some things about how to be a human being. He, too, is struggling with grief over the loss of his best friend which puts him in the same grief counseling session as Scott. So, total opposites, but they have some things in common, and luckily, Scott sees and holds on to a good thing and takes advantage of and returns the kindness that Hayne shows him from the start. It doesn’t take long for the attraction to grow, and while Scott isn’t gay, he has no issues whatsoever with his attraction to Hayne.
Also luckily for Scott, he has some great friends on his team who don’t let him push him away for too long. I loved seeing those guys again. Scott’s family does come around, but I was not as easy to forgive them as Scott was. This was not my favorite story in this spinoff series, but I enjoyed it all the same. There were a lot of issues being dealt with, and none of them every seemed to fully flesh out for me. And there are so many characters to not like. Perhaps it is due to the younger aged characters in this series. I’m still looking forward to the next installment. However, if you are a hockey fan, I highly recommend you give the Harrisburg Railers series a try. It has some fabulous characters and will give you a solid start into the characters in this one.
RATING: 
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