Reviewed by Larissa
TITLE: Gravity
AUTHOR: Tal Bauer
PUBLISHER: Self-published
LENGTH: 273 pages
RELEASE DATE: August 12, 2022
BLURB:
C’est cela l’amour, et tu es mon rêve…
Bryce:
Hockey is my life. This game pulled me from my tiny Quebec hometown all the way to the NHL, and now? I’m the number one player in the league. Team capitaine for the Montréal Étoiles. I’m shattering records and packing arenas every night, and I’ve promised my team: we’re going to win the Stanley Cup this year.
But I’m keeping big secrets. I’m thinking dangerous thoughts, and dreaming about impossible things. Like how a man’s lips might taste, or how his body might feel in my arms.
I can’t go there. I’ve got to focus. Team. Hockey. Cup. What my heart wants doesn’t matter.
So why am I falling head over heels at the NHL’s All-Star Weekend?
I can’t do this. I can’t fall for Hunter Lacey. He’s a hockey player. We’re both in the NHL. He’s on a different team. And, oh yeah, he’s straight.
Hunter:
I’m a middle-of-the-road, nothing-special hockey player. Good enough to be drafted into the NHL, and I’ve been on the roster for the past two years, but I’ll never make the Hall of Fame. I’m just trying to keep my head up and get through each day, until this wild ride comes to an end.
Deep thinking isn’t really my thing. Look inside myself? Lotta beer and burgers there.
I never thought I’d be invited to the All-Star Weekend, but here I am. And there’s my hero: Bryce Michel, league superstar.
Saying hello to Bryce turns into hours spent together on the ice, and then an invite to dinner, and then days at each other’s side. I’m in heaven. He’s my hero, and this is the coolest—
Then Bryce’s lips land on mine, and the world turns upside down.
**Gravity is an MM romance featuring bi/gay awakening, friends to lovers, team shenanigans, fast-paced hockey, ice-melting sizzle, and swoony Québécois love songs.**
REVIEW:
Few authors can wield a metaphor as descriptively and impactfully as Tal Bauer. Here, the title of Bauer’s latest work, Gravity, encapsulates the story he tells. Bryce Michel, considered the best and the brightest of the NHL and pegged as “the next Great One”, feels the pull of responsibility for his team’s success and the individual successes of each and every one of its players. They are the priorities. This is his family, and hockey is his life. But Bryce’s dreams, questions and fears – about wanting a life partner, about his sexuality, and about his responsibility to lead his team of brothers to a Stanley Cup victory – live in those black holes he sees when he stares into the overhead lights in the arena and then shuts his eyes to let his mind wander. It’s all the dreams that are within his grasp, but also those he keeps in his heart because they will always be out of reach. That is until Hunter Lacey proves they aren’t as impossible as Bryce thought.
Hunter sits at the center of Bryce’s black holes because he’s the love Bryce tries to resist but can’t because Hunter’s gravity is too strong. Hunter has his own discovery about himself and his sexuality, and about how the idolization of Bryce the hockey player translates to Bryce the man. The pull to Bryce is equally strong – inexplicable at first but undoubtedly irresistible.
Gravity is similar to Bauer’s other sports romances like The Jock and The Quarterback in some ways – the sports dynamic, the fear and struggle around hiding who you are for a sport you love and excel at, about denying yourself love because your love of the sport dictates it. But its differences exceed its similarities by a substantial margin.
Gravity features Bauer’s characteristic complex characters, but they lack the depth he typically develops in them. I liked Bryce and Hunter, but they came together so quickly that Hunter’s journey feels abrupt and not given appropriate exploration. Additionally, the things that typically fell me in Bauer’s books (and make me reach for the tissues) – Bauer’s well-crafted prose with thoughtful, sometimes flowery, often melodramatic description and introspection, and his twisty, layered plots – are either altogether absent or don’t work so well here.
Gravity is an ode to romance within the incongruous context of a violent, cutthroat, professional sport. The use of French language (which I generally found distracting), penned love songs, swoony declarations, and an overabundance of love, support, and cuddling between Bryce and Hunter all add up to a beautiful but saccharine tale of adoration and dedication. But it’s too much melodrama, tipping poignant, heart-felt scenes over into often cringe-worthy moments or scoff-inducing events. This is the least angsty Bauer romance I’ve read, which is ironic given the level of attempted heartstring-pulling. But perhaps that disconnect tells the tale.
In another ironic turn, the best part of Gravity is the found family of Bryce’s teammates. I wish more time was spent on that instead of histrionics and casual dismissal of the serious issues teed up at the beginning of the book. But alas, we get a cotton candy, tooth-rotting love story with strange pacing – building up and then stalling out. I (shockingly) almost felt bored with about 100 pages left. That’s unheard of for Bauer’s books. I’ve never experienced him allowing the engagement between the characters and the readers to wane, but here, oddly, he does. Bauer manages to get the plot going again, but it feels like he was trying too hard to create more story for two characters who didn’t have much story left to tell.
TL;DR: If you like Bauer’s writing, you’ll likely enjoy Gravity. I say “likely” because this strikes me as a polarizing book. For some die-hard, auto-buy Bauer readers, this story may be enjoyable, although disappointing. For others, it may provoke vehement frustration because of its departure from what we love about Bauer’s work. For me, I fall in the former camp.
I generally enjoyed Gravity, but couldn’t get too excited about any part of it (except the team dynamics). This is far from Bauer’s best work. While it contains most of the usual Bauer storytelling components, it’s either too much, too little, or out of balance. The heavy-handed imagery and OTT romantic overtures pull your attention away from the story with a force akin to the titular gravity the book promises. If melodrama is your thing, Gravity will be right in your wheelhouse. If not – well, you probably aren’t a Bauer fan to start with, and Gravity will almost certainly miss the mark. I found Gravity to be moderately enjoyable, but required less tissues and more eye rolling than a Bauer book typically inspires.
RATING: 
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