Reviewed by Sadonna
TITLE: The Viking and the Drag Queen
SERIES: Campo Royale
AUTHOR: V.L. Locey
PUBLISHER: Self-published
LENGTH: 214 pages
RELEASE DATE: January 5, 2021
BLURB:
Who will emerge the victor on the battlefield of love?
Tyr Hemmingsen had his life mapped out at a young age. The only son of the late Danish hockey great, Elias Hemmingsen, Tyr has always done his best to follow the plans his father had laid out for him. Finish school, make it into the pros, become team captain, find a biddable young lady to marry, and win a championship so the Hemmingsen name lived on eternally on the side of a massive silver cup. Like the good son he is, Tyr has done as his father wished, no matter how it peeled away layers of his true self. Then, all the neatly placed supports that hold up his so-called life come crashing down during a night on the town. Tyr might be known as the “War God of Wilmington” on the ice, but there’s no battling the effect Gigi Patel LeBay has on him.
Elijah McBride lives for the spotlight. As Gigi, he bewitches and bedazzles the crowds at the Campo Royale Club. His vibrant stage persona is the face he presents to the world. Underneath the rouge, eyeliner, and lipstick is a young man who still feels the sting of his parents’ disapproval and rejection of the son who wears wigs and dates other men. With his drag family and older brother in his corner, he’s finally found peace in his life. Until the fateful night a massive hockey player shows up at the club. There’s a world of hurt in Tyr’s soft brown eyes, and Eli finds himself falling for the big man, despite all the barriers he’s built around his tender heart.
The Viking and the Drag Queen is an opposites attract gay romance with heavy checking, lipstick worship, an out and proud queen, a closeted athlete, family lost and found, twink/jock, a new beginning, and a well-cinched happy ending.
REVIEW:
V.L. Locey is well known for her hockey M/M books. This is a new twist of a closeted hockey player who becomes enamored of a drag queen. I absolutely loved Gigi/Eli. He’s been rejected by his family but made a new family with his drag family and his drag mother Sitka (reminded me fondly of the families in the FX series Pose in some ways). This family is there for him when his brother was away in the Marines. When Hank, Eli’s brother returns, he finds Eli and they have a good relationship.
Tyr is a closeted Danish hockey player on the local feeder pro-hockey team. He’s completely closeted and has a goal that as a young boy he promised his dying father that he’d achieve. Unfortunately that’s a little more daunting in his case, since he’s definitely not straight. His family sort of fell apart and he hasn’t had the support one would hope for. Bring along all the casual and not so casual homophobia of professional sports, and well he’s pretty tied up in knots.
When Tyr and his friends go into a drag club one night, Tyr spies Gigi and he is totally besotted. He is drawn to her like a moth to a flame. He knows she’s a man – and that’s what really does it for him. He’s beautiful and talented. But Tyr is closeted and that’s that. He’s torn between what his heart wants and the pressures of his family, career, teammates, etc. He doesn’t want to give up his hockey dreams but he really doesn’t want to give up Eli/Gigi either.
I adored this start to the series with these two sweet guys finding each other. The story is told from alternation POVs so we get Tyr and Eli/Gigi’s perspectives. Poor Tyr is so tied up in knots. Eli/Gigi is as well but I loved getting both characters inner dialogue and especially Eli/Gigi was super entertaining and funny. The supporting characters were particularly well written – especially Hank and Sitka. I was really rooting for these two to figure out how to make things work. There are plenty of sexy times too 😉 I haven’t read a lot of books set in the drag world, but I really really enjoyed this one and can’t wait for the next book in the series. Great new series start and highly recommended.
RATING:
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