Tal Bauer - The Rest of the Story

Let me earn it.
I keep things simple. I’m a classic one-night wonder. Relationships? Are you out of your mind? No. No way. Not interested. My heart is vulcanized rubber, puck hard, and that’s the way I like it.
Then I'm traded to the absolute worst team in the NHL, the Rocky Mountain Outlaws, and I’m hit with a one-two punch.
First: I’m asked to step up and lead the team, which is every kind of bad idea you can imagine. I'm a head-down, mind-my-business kind of guy. Mr. Uninvolved, Mr. No, Not Me, Mr. Find Someone Else. But these players have been through a mess of hell, and someone thinks I can help pull them together.
The Outlaws are made up of jaded veterans and wide-eyed rookies, and we have no business whatsoever succeeding. We are scrappy and plucky and built out of spit and duct-tape… and whatever we’re doing, it’s working.
Second: The first day I’m in Boulder, I go over the boards and come face-to-face with a pair of blue eyes and lose my heart. Boy, howdy: meet my new co-captain, Shea Darling.
He’s way, way off-limits. It's a stratospherically terrible idea to want or crave him. This crush, this infatuation, is going nowhere fast.
Yeah, right. I’m gone for Shea. I’m head over heels, and I’m all tangled up in something I can’t understand or control. This isn’t me. I don’t fall in love. And there’s nothing simple about Shea, or about the Outlaws. This team is finally putting up the wins, and we are making something of ourselves. Falling for my co-captain while we’re on a Cinderella run could jeopardize everything we’re striving for.
But then there’s this one night.
And this one kiss. And everything changes. Eighty-two games in a season. Twenty men hungry for redemption. One co-captain who could be my forever.
This is the rest of the story.

Comment: This is the third book I read by this author, the second one featuring hockey players. I feel confident already to say I can have a good read on the author's formula and while it's readable and addictive for the most part, his style is also rather cheesy...

Morgan is a veteran hockey player, meaning he is in his early 30s, and he has had a pretty good career but not remarkable despite having won a Stanley Cup once. He feels he might be ready for retirement when his agent calls to say he has been traded to the Outlaws, the worst team on the league. He is reluctant but after contacting a friend in that team, he is told something is going on and the Outlaws need his help. When he arrives, he finds something no one would imagine and he can't truly ignore he needs to help his new teammates. He isn't prepared, though, to find such a quick connection with Shea, his new co-captain, and that he also seems to reciprocate the interest. The focus has to be the team and to bring everyone together as such, but is there hope for Morgan and Shea to be more than just teammates?

As it had happened when I read the other two books by this author, I've found everything to be addictive and compelling for a while, from the start of the book until a certain point. Then, things start to become a little mushy, a little sugary, but I didn't particularly mind, I suppose one gets used to it. My issue is that, just like in the other books, closer to the end, something dramatic! happens and the plot turns into melodramatics. I really think the stories would gain more by not having such highlight on this tactic.

The plot is seemingly simple: Morgan arrives at the Outlaws with the reputation of being a easygoing guy, who does make waves, but he has the experience and confidence to do the opposite, something his friend Gavin is betting on. We soon learn the Outlaws' captain is being authoritarian and the coaches are complicit of this. I never understood why, perhaps laziness, not caring? Anyway, Morgan arrives and very quickly everything changes. The other players, who until now have been psychologically manipulated, suddenly start to work as a team and Morgan seems to be the "father" figure", the real captain the team should have had.

I was actually feeling the vibe of this in a very entertaining way, you know, this fantasy idea that someone is that special, and then, of course, the management of the team changes and all the pieces start to work out. I will repeat the word fantasy, because from a certain point on, that is what this story feels like, even though things don't get magically solved, it still feels as the plot moves on to a very fluid state of things, the puzzle pieces fit in well.

The team becomes stronger, the friendship bonds reveal they are all great guys and that the terrible state of things before Morgan arrived is now firmly behind them. It was a little too fairy tale like, which I've come to conclude is the author's style. Tal Bauer simple needs to write about good people having their HEA while stuff around them happens positively. I cannot say I dislike this but then, it's as if the struggles are just props to force the characters to move a certain way and to, obviously, set up a comparison with the negative aspects when things go wrong.

What happens here to add drama isn't that unlikely to believe, but it's also too much and the guys'reactions seem exaggerated, no matter how much they care about each other as friends and as a team. I have accepted that if I am to enjoy the author's romances, and I do plan on trying others one day, this is just the way things are and if knowing drama will happen, along with sugary romance, then the book would never work. I prefer to think about the "good vibes".

I won't write about the romance between Morgan and Shea, it's too sugary, too easy, too cute, just like the others I've read. Yes, I always feel happy for them, but it's fantasy romance, nor truly realistic.

Nevertheless the issues I could keep criticizing that might fit my personal taste, I still had a good time reading the book, it entertained me, it motivated me to read more by the author and more m/m stories with the themes (hockey+romance), so positive is was.

Grade: 7/10

Mini-Comments

In order to finish the year with correct personal registers, this post and the next will feature mini comments with the last books of 2024.

Never Lie by Freida McFadden was my first try with this author's work. I got this book at the library because I knew many friends had enjoyed the author's work. It's the story of Ethan and Tricia, a couple who stumbles on a house which was supposed to be ready for them to visit. The previous owner was a famous psychiatrist who went missing, and Tricia doesn't feel well staying in, but the snow won't allow them to leave, plus there is no network. 

In terms of vibe and atmosphere, this was certainly an intriguing novel, and the short chapters made the reading experience very easy. I can see why readers like the books if they are all this way. However, I must say that, to me, the plot was presented in a way that was a miss because some things probably would have required more development, a more established process. Beside, something I keep criticizing in romance novels, and which in mysteries isn't as negative, ended up being so here: this story makes no sense and even feels poorly executed because it's in first person. It should not be.

Grade: 5/10

Gravity by Tal Bauer seems to be a single title about two hockey players who meet at the all star weekend that often takes place in the North American league, featuring players from the Us and Canada (if I got that right). Brice and Hunter play for very different teams, had never played together before, but somehow mesh perfectly and are the unsurpassed stars of the weekend.
The fact they are attracted to one another certainly helps in making their connection a smooth one and there's a very slow build up to them expressing precisely that. Well, Brice does and Hunter is so surprised he can't react, and this seems to affect them more than it should. When they go back to their teams, their performance isn't as great and Brice's team, a lot better financially, decides to hire Hunter, to get their "magic" once more. Of course, things can't be that easy if they like one another and should not admit it, but I liked how the author played this out. 
This is the second book I try and I think the formula is this: things start slowly and beautifully, and after a certain point it feels as if everything descends into cheesiness. This means it's mostly good but could be so much better.
Grade: 8/10

Tal Bauer - You & Me

We're a puzzle made of two pieces.
Landon Larsen is the envy of all the dads in Last Waters, Texas. He's cool, confident, and put together. He and his son—the high school's all-star quarterback—have the perfect father-son relationship. He’s such a Super Dad, it's almost sickening.
I'm not cool, or confident, and my relationship with my son couldn't be worse. He's barely speaking to me, and a year after my wife died, we're both clinging to the wreckage of our family.
Landon's son and mine are best friends and—of course—Landon is the football Team Dad. And though I know nothing about football, Landon convinces me to volunteer to be closer to my son. Volunteering might give him and me a chance to rebuild what's broken between us. Now I'm spending all my free time with the team—and with Landon—and the more we're together, the deeper our friendship grows. My son is opening up, too, little by little. I think I’m getting him back.
There's just one giant problem.
I'm head over heels for Landon.
I've never been attracted to men in my life… until him. Landon draws me in without even trying, and the harder I fight this, the deeper I fall.
Crushing on my son's best friend's father must be my biggest parenting failure ever, but I can't get enough of Landon. Falling for him puts each fragile moment I've rebuilt with my son at risk. What would he think if he knew I craved his best friend's dad? I'm playing with fire, but I can't turn off these feelings Landon has unlocked inside of me.
Of course, a guy like Landon could never fall for someone like me. It's pointless to even imagine we could be something together.
So why did I just kiss him?

Comment: This book was released this year but I haven't had it long in the pile, unlike so many others. I let myself be convinced by some positive reviews and now had the opportunity to just get to it.

In this story we meet melancholic Luke, a single father raising his teenager son but their relationship hasn't been the same since he was a boy, and even worse so since his mother Riley - and Luke's ex - died in a car accident. Luke feels something has to happen and the day he receives a letter addressed to Riley, way after her death, about being part of the volunteer group which assists the guy's football games, he goes there to explain and to, perhaps, watch his son's practice, something he hasn't done yet, as that was more Riley's thing. He meets Landon, another single father, who helps him that day and makes him want to be more of an active participant, since his is so friendly. However, the longer they are friends and the closer they become, even trusting their disappointments in life, the more Luke feels Landon isn't only a friend to him. He learns Landon is gay but he never thought himself that way.. is there any chance this is just his loneliness speaking? Or is he truly falling in love with Landon?

This is the first story by Tal Bauer I try. I've seen several of his books mentioned by other readers whose opinions I follow but somehow I've never felt tempted to try, until this book, which has been positively reviewed by the majority and the elements commented on seemed to be something I'd like to read about, namely that the fathers are both single and raising teenage sons. I felt curious on how the dynamics would be portrayed.

I would divide this story into two parts: the setting up and the burgeoning tension between the two protagonists until half way, more or less, and then the way they deal with their attraction and feelings after they admit they have them. I would say the second part is very high on the sweetness and I confess I feel it was over the top. Until they admit things, they are friends who become closer and closer and share a lot of their pasts - but not everything, as proven by some final truths revealed when the story is almost done - as well as the bond they have over the similarities between their sons, who are in the football team.

The first half of the story felt cute and I liked how slow burn the relationship was, they talked a lot, did things together and were solid friends before other types of feelings existed. Sometimes it simply feels nice to read about friends being able to be close to one another. Landon is gay and Luke knows about it from very early on, which is not an issue between them. I liked how the author portrayed Landon, he used to be part of a religious faith and being gay isn't acceptable so he left and took his son so he could have better odds in football. I liked how we got to know Landon well and he is often described as too good to be true, which sometimes it feels like exactly so, to be fair.

This story is only narrated by Luke, in the first person, so any ideas we have on him are because of how he describes things and through dialogue with others. I like him enough and apart from some issues, which obviously have to exist so the plot moves forward, nothing huge about him is out there, his personality pretty bland most of the time. He comments on his past love for arts and how he changed when he and his ex had a son, but I thought this would play a bigger role in the story, but it didn't.

Since Luke is narrator, as soon as the feelings between him and Landon increase and become something else, I just couldn't help but cringe a little at how sappy and cheesy some of Luke's thoughts were regarding his love and so on. He and Landon started behaving like teenagers which, I suppose I can accept considering the facts (Landon still had religious beliefs, Luke never had a gay relationship) but their personalities were too perfect together, too easy. Again, I bet this was the intention, to showcase how wonderful they could be, and so relatively easily accepted by everyone else, but.. I wish the initial tension had been maintained well into their admitted attraction.

I can say this is a very good romance, true, but sometimes I wish the characters had behaved a little less like this was a soap opera. I can't pinpoint exactly what I'd change but perhaps having dual narrators here could have helped. I liked how the kids seemed to so easily accept and defend them, despite the worries both dads had over this fact and of course I loved how the HEA was so solid, but from a certain point on, the dynamics were a bit too easy, too easygoing. Nevertheless, it was a nice introduction to the author's work, I think.

Grade: 7/10