Reviewed by Sadonna
TITLE: Hearts on Ice
SERIES: Games We Play: Season 2
AUTHOR: Denver Shaw
PUBLISHER: Shaw’s Sweetheart Books
LENGTH: 304 Pages
RELEASE DATE: November 14, 2025
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Drew Mackenzie is a hockey coach who was a major league player who had his knee blown out with a career ending injury and while he’s trying to recover from that, he loses his wife and young daughter in a plane crash. Six years on, he’s been coaching the minor league team, the Grizzlies and putting one foot in front of the other. He still attends a grief support group and he finds it very hard to do much other than work and get through the day. His life is very quiet and very isolated.
Miguel Rodriguez is the goalie of the Grizzlies. He’s good at his role and also in helping guide the other players on the ice. Coach appreciates they way he plays and encourages him to be a more vocal leader on the ice. This seems to be working well for the team. Miguel appreciates the Coach’s message and he ends up stopping by his place to tell him so. This opens a different kind of communication for them.
Drew is relying on Miguel to help the team – which he is. He also encourages Miguel to keep reaching for his dreams of the getting the call. They communicate pretty easily as the season gets into full swing. They share more and Drew is sharing his past and his current life more than he has in the past six years. Miguel is a good listener and also has a good head on his shoulders.
As they grow closer, things change. Coming out or being found out isn’t really the biggest driver of them hiding their relationship. This isn’t a world where homophobia is a thing in hockey. And Miguel’s family is accepting as well. There is a slight ripple, but in the end, they find their way.
I enjoyed this story SO much! This is a new to me author and I don’t know why I haven’t read any of her books before, but I’ll be rectifying this and checking out the backlist. This really is a slow burn story of two men who work together – one the coach and one the goalie of a farm hockey team. They have worked together for a while, but this year is different. Drew counts on Miguel and his leadership from the ice and Miguel appreciates the faith in him that coach is showing. They become friends outside of the daily grind of the hockey season. Both believe they are straight. But the pull and connection between them grows stronger. They become lovers without a lot of drama or angst. There doesn’t seem to be any homophobia. They just are finding what they need and want in an completely unexpected way. I loved Miguel’s family and their acceptance and the sharing of their culture and language. I appreciated the consideration of Drew’s wife and daughter and how profoundly their loss has affected him. They aren’t left behind or ignored. The grief recovery is really important here. Miguel’s life is slightly less dramatic, but he does have his own family matters to deal with. The pacing of this story also just totally worked for me. They slow build to recognizing that this wasn’t just friendship and professional admiration. The dual bi-awakening is handled very well here in what can be a tricky trope. The age gap is also written very sensitively. And for the hockey fans, there is enough hockey content and context – particularly as this is a farm team and players do have the goal of getting to the next level – to keep them engaged. There isn’t a lot of conflict here until kind of close to the end, but the other elements of the story kept things moving along. I am no fan of the 3rd act breakup and there is none here. Honestly I just really loved this story. I feel like it will show up in my best of year list. Well done and highly recommended.
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