Reviewed by Sadonna
TITLE: Home and Away 
AUTHOR: Samantha Wayland
NARRATOR: Michael Ferraiuolo
PUBLISHER: Self-published
LENGTH: 12 hours and 12 minutes
RELEASE DATE: March 16, 2021
BLURB:
You can build a team, but you have to find your home.
Rupert Smythe is fond of many things. Callum Morrison isn’t one of them.
Rupert is a quiet, thoughtful business man and, sadly, a total wimp. Maybe not the ideal candidate to run a professional hockey team, but he signed on to do it anyway. As his life has reminded him on an almost daily basis since, this isn’t the most brilliant idea he’s ever had. And that was before Callum showed up.
Being in the spotlight is just part of being a professional athlete, but Callum needs a break. He arrives in Moncton unannounced, determined to help grow the team he just bought, and under the assumption he’d be welcome. Possibly he should have tried to make a better first impression.
Callum figures he can push through the rest of the summer, never expecting two kids, a host of friends, and his growing feelings for Rupert to derail everything he has ever believed about what he wanted, and what he could have.
REVIEW:
Note: While not technically part of any series, this novel does sort of share a number of crossover characters from two of the author’s previous series, Crashing and Hat Trick. As such, there are major spoilers for those series here, but it works perfectly well as a stand alone story.
Rupert is the manager of the Moncton Ice Cats hockey team. It might seem rather strange that the British man who had grown up in London would end up in Canada running a professional ice hockey team, but here he lands as a favor to his best friend Rhys who is the majority owner of the team. And he’s damn good at it. But he’s got his hands a bit full with Callum Morrison, a hockey player turned minority owner of the Ice Cats.
During the off season, he shows up in Moncton from his team’s home in Denver and throws a bit of a monkey wrench into Rupert’s schedule. There is a very large construction project going on at the arena and while Jack, the project manager is working with another of the minority owners, Garrick LeBlanc. But then, Callum barges in and takes over in the wake of an emergency. He decides to insert himself into said plans as a replacement of sorts for Garrick, much to Rupert’s consternation. Callum realizes he’s started things off badly when he sees that he has actually scared Rupert with his temper and physical posturing.
Needless to say, things don’t start off too well with Callum and Rupert. They feel like they have nothing in common. But when an emergency comes up with Rupert’s family in England and he has to rush off to London to deal with his much younger brother, surprisingly it’s Callum who comes to the rescue. It’s a shock to realize that Callum really is good in a crisis and he totally has Rupert’s back. He also can’t help be attracted to Rupert. But Callum is so deep in the closet he can see Narnia. While his family knows and his best friend/fake girlfriend know, nobody else does. It comes as a complete shock to Rupert. Finding out the Callum is a natural with small children is also a complete surprise 🙂
After returning to Canada with Oliver, Rupert’s 4 year old brother, things change complete. Oliver feels safe with Callum and so Rupert ends up moving to the same residence hotel where Calum is staying so that he has some stability, something that has been sorely lacking in his life up to this point. Bupert’s life has been completely upended between now being responsible for a child and this burgeoning “relationship” with Callum. He’s also quite busy with the team and he’s spread rather thing.
In addition to his work with the team, Rupert ends up taking on a commitment for another player working with some kids at the ice rink. While the majority of the kids only play hockey, one young man is a figure skater and a hockey player. Things have been rough for him since his mother died recently and his father is not at all supportive of his desire to figure skate. It’s at this point that we discover that Rupert is something of a dark horse and he is the perfect person to deal with this – albeit with Callum’s support. This young man, Christian, needs some support and Callum and Rupert are the ones to assist. With the help of Jack, his RCMP friend Grady, Mike and Alexei – other Moncton Ice Cats, Callum and Rupert are able to assemble some sort of a family. However, there is the little issue of Callum’s sexuality, which is still a secret to most outside his inner circle 🙂
This was a really enjoyable story! I don’t agree with the blurb description of Rupert as a total wimp. While he does have a bit of PTSD due to bullying and homophobia from his younger years, when the chips are down he is a fierce defender of both himself and others. I really liked Callum and his journey to sharing his truth. His whole family ends up being pretty amazing. There are a host of supprting characters that are just great – Mike and Alexei, whose story is cover in the Crashing series in particular. I would also love to know more about Jack’s story 🙂 While there is some turmoil and the situation with these children was probably more easily resolved here than in real life, I loved the family they made. As usual Michael Ferraiuolo does a superb job with all of the voices and accents. Another tour de force! Recommended!
RATING: 
BUY LINKS:
Audible