Reviewed by Sadonna
TITLE: Two for Holding
SERIES: Minor Penalties
AUTHOR: S.B. Barnes
PUBLISHER: NineStar Press
LENGTH: 330 pages
RELEASE DATE: October 28, 2025
BLURB:
Tom Crowler has been captain of the San Francisco Sea Lions for a decade of failures. With no cups or trophies to show for his time in the NHL, Tom retreated into himself a long time ago, and that’s exactly where he intends to stay until he retires. But when he catches the new team superstar, Jaxon Grant, in a compromising position, Tom finds it impossible to continue hiding his deepest secret behind a bland, pleasant mask.
Jax is everything Tom isn’t: loud, flashy, the winner of multiple NHL Awards, and—oh, yeah—gay enough to get traded to San Francisco because of a potential PR scandal with his old team. At first, he thinks Tom catching him means the next trade, the next rejection for being just a little too much for other people to take. When it turns out the two of them have more in common than talent on the ice, though, Jax finds himself drawn in by pulling Tom out.
As animosity gives way to a partnership neither of them saw coming, Tom and Jax are left facing new challenges. Will Jax’s impulsive nature put Tom’s deeply valued privacy at risk? Or will Tom’s reticence force Jax into pretending to be someone he isn’t? And if they can’t even figure each other out, how can they save a struggling NHL team from bad coaching and internal division?
REVIEW:
Tom Crowler is the captain of the San Francisco professional hockey team. He’s been there for a decade and was made captain at age 22, so he’s been the leader of the team. That said, he doesn’t exactly welcome Jaxon Grant, his newest teammate who was recently traded from Philadelphia. Jaxon hasn’t asked for the trade and his old team is pissed off thinking he did and his new team isn’t sure why he was traded so late. Tom isn’t the friendliest guy and kind of leaves the intros to other guys on the team.
Tom has been playing for a while and he’s starting to feel his age. But his whole life has been hockey and he’s not ready for that. Then he discovers that Jax is gay. This upends his world because he has never admitted to anyone that he’s gay. After a terrible game, Tom checks in with Jax trying to figure out what happened. And Jax has to tell him what happened with his old team. UGH! In an impulsive moment, Tom confesses his truth. Jax feels terrible because he’s accused Tom of being homophobic and clearly he’s got a lot going on.
Once the truth is shared between them, their relationship changes. Tom is not comfortable with anything outside of hockey though, so it takes him a bit to feel comfortable with Jax and sharing more. Tom has never been with a guy – he’s literally just focused on hockey his entire adult life. Jax wants to be out, but he also likes his career and he likes being able to help his family. He fantasizes about being an out player, but there is a LOT going on with this team. He likes his teammates and especially his captain 😉
There are a lot of issues with the team. They aren’t gelling and it’s going to take a lot of Tom to get this team to come together to make the playoff. There are some players who are not great. There are also issues with the coaching staff. And of course Jax is chafing under continuing to be in the closet. Tom on the other hand is terrified of anyone finding out about him. With the season playing out, they need to keep their guys under control and their eyes on the prize. But feelings are being caught!
Hmmmm. This was interesting. This is a new author to me and I read a LOT of hockey books it seems lately. I would say this was a little bit uneven for me, but overall I enjoyed the story. The beginning was a little bit slow and it takes a while to figure out what’s up with Tom. Being from Chicago and seeing Captain Serious for so long, that didn’t actually seem out of character for me 😉 I really liked Jax and his family and I didn’t like how he felt like he could not be himself. There is a lot of stuff around locker rooms and homophobia and other stupid stuff that young guys seem to think and say and Jax and Tom working together had some affect on the atmosphere that is positive. That being said, there isn’t a whole lot of resolution in this story, so I’m hoping that we will get more in the next book. There is a whole cast of characters in this team, the coaching staff, and the team management so I’m interested to see what comes next. I think this is a promising start – we’ll see what happens in book 2!
RATING: 
BUY LINKS:
