Reviewed by Sammy
TITLE: Game Changer
SERIES: Game Changers series
AUTHOR: Rachel Reid
NARRATOR: Tor Thom
PUBLISHER: Carina Press
LENGTH: 10 hrs and 15 mins
RELEASE DATE: October 22, 2018
BLURB: Scott Hunter is the superstar captain of the New York Admirals hockey team. He has lived his entire adult life in the spotlight—and in the closet. One day he stops at a smoothie shop after a run and is immediately charmed by the cute guy behind the counter.
That guy is Kip Grady, an underemployed college grad who would never in a million years think he had a shot with the rich and famous Scott Hunter. Scott returns to the smoothie shop every game day, telling Kip—and himself—that he likes to stick to routine when he’s playing well. The chemistry between them is immediate and undeniable, and finally Scott tells Kip he’s interested and invites him to his penthouse.
They begin a passionate relationship full of red-hot sex and sweet romance. But after weeks of barely leaving the confines of Scott’s penthouse, Kip isn’t sure how much longer he can be Scott’s secret. With the pressures of the playoffs upon him, Scott needs to decide how big a risk he’s willing to take for Kip—and himself.
REVIEW:
I found Game Changer by Rachel Reid to be quite good. I felt for both of these men and wanted nothing more than to see them get a happy ever after. However, the daunting and fearful task before Scott, to come out or potentially lose Kip, is huge and not easily navigated. Author Rachel Reid takes her time to develop this idea and while I understood the need for a slow developing story there were times when Scott’s indecision and reasoning were pretty aggravating. Seventy-five percent into this story I really had to dub Kip a saint for putting his own life on hold just to be with Scott.
Besides the sheer length of time it took for Scott to basically move forward with his life and pursue his own happiness as opposed to everyone else’s taking main stage, I also had some trouble with how long Kip had remained not only in his parent’s home but in a dead end job. He was a smart guy and the fact that he lived on the edge of poverty seemed a bit much. Since I assume he wasn’t paying rent, I felt he could and should have taken the time to decide on a future that would make him happy and yet he was so adrift throughout most of the novel. In many ways it felt as though both Kip and Scott enjoyed the misery they were both enduring and it took a relationship with each other to wake them up.
However, despite that, there were some really lovely moments in this story that stood out for me. I enjoyed their clandestine dates and the times where they actually talked and connected emotionally even though there was way too much sex to interrupt those fleeting encounters. In many ways I felt this novel would have really been served by a second good edit—toning down the sex, pushing Scott and Kip toward more decisive moments. Perhaps allowing them to really find a way to move forward together rather than forcing the issue and thrusting the burden of saving the relationship on to Scott and having him shoulder it on his own.
Audio: Two things I really liked about Tor Thom’s narration was his less than obvious choice to make Kip have the lower, gruffer voice as opposed to the hockey player, Scott. Often in audio I find that the physically bigger man is so often given the lower pitched tones and so it really is a nice change to see that shaken up a bit in this selection. The other thing I immediately took note of was the speed of Thom’s speech. He moved through the prose passages with great ease and a very nice pacing—one that felt a wee bit faster than the normal rate I am used to and it really benefited the narration nicely.
Unfortunately I can’t say that I thought the different voicings were the best of choices or even varied enough when it came to pitch. For instance, Elena was more manly than feminine and I am truly not sure what Thom even intended with Kip’s voice. I suspect the narrator might have been going for a rough New York accent but instead it actually made Kip’s voice very muddled and hard to understand at time. It also felt very forced—as if it was definitely an unnatural pitch for the narrator to use.
So this audio is a mixed bag for me. While I really appreciated the pacing and the use of voicings that were not the typical choice, I felt the overall variety of tone and pitch lacked something and didn’t do much to make the story stand out.
RATING: 
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