#max lockhart

From the looks of it, that realization hit like a six-five defenseman twelve inches from the boards. Armstrong flushed an unfortunately attractive red from the apples of his cheeks down to his collarbones, lovingly displayed in the slutty V-neck T-shirt he was wearing. Damn, he’d dressed to impress in that shirt—Max wanted to put his hands all over him. Mouth too, if Armstrong was amenable.

Unrivaled - Ashlyn Kane & Morgan James (Hockey Ever After #3)

Read March 2023, after finishing Scoring Position, the second book in the series. M/M.

Unrivaled follows Max Lockhart and Grady Armstrong, hockey players for fictitious NHL teams NJ Monsters and Philly Firebirds (later Piranha and Condors). They are rivals—Max is particularly successful in goading Grady on the ice, costing Grady awards in fair play. Rivalries led to a Grindr hookup led to fake dates led to feelings™️ to working on a relationship.

This is a cozy read (🌶️) and not much angst. Grady thought Max spilled their hookup to his teammate which led to Grady blocking Max’s text messages and Max blocking Grady on Instagram. One of their teams was eliminated earlier in contention of the Stanley Cup and they had to navigate dealing with their team losing in the league. Cameos from earlier characters in the series, particularly Dante Baltierra/Baller from book one and passing mentions of Nico Kirschbaum from book two.

A Goodreads reviewer for book two mentions how she didn’t like that the NHL teams were fictitious because why would she root for a losing fictitious team but because I know zilch about pro hockey it makes no difference to me. Now that this is my sixth? seventh? m/m hockey book that I read I am starting to see how mid-season trades are used for plot points (sounds exhausting and players are expected to uproot their entire lives to a wholly new team in a different city at mere moments’ notice?). If I actually cared about hockey leagues the Stanley Cup thing would’ve upped the ante for me but because I don’t, I get it’s an important thing but had no particular significance for me. In one of the fake dates they went to an American Ninja Warrior gym and I thought it’s interesting that the authors went to describe the details at length and I wonder how well it will age if/when ANW fell out of popularity. Matching tattoos: a 🦞 and a lobster cracker.