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The Understatement of the Year
Blurb
What happened in high school stayed in high school. Until now.
Five years ago, Michael Graham betrayed the only person who ever really knew him. Since then, he's made an art of hiding his sexual orientation from everyone. Including himself.
So it's a shock when his past strolls right into the Harkness College locker room, sporting a bag of hockey gear and the same slow smile that had always rendered Graham defenseless. For Graham, there is only one possible reaction: total, debilitating panic. With one loose word, the team's new left wing could destroy Graham's life as he knows it.
John Rikker is stuck being the new guy. Again. And it's worse than usual, because the media has latched onto the story of the only "out" player in Division One hockey. As the satellite trucks line the sidewalk outside the rink, his new teammates are not amused.
And one player in particular looks sick every time he enters the room.
Rikker didn't exactly expect a warm welcome from Graham. But the guy won't even meet his eyes. From the looks of it, his former... best friend / boyfriend / whatever isn't doing so well. He drinks too much and can't focus during practice.
Either the two loneliest guys on the team will self destruct from all the new pressures in their lives, or they can navigate the pain to find a way back to one another. To say that it won't be easy is the Understatement of the Year.
Warning: unlike the other books in this series, this heartbreaking love story is about two guys. Contains sexual situations, dance music, snarky t-shirts and a poker-playing grandmother.
Member Reviews Write your own review
Skyril
I honestly don't know where to start... Understatement of the Year is a story that connects you so deeply with its characters that I haven't yet let them go. I really... don't want to. Since reading it, I have heard "Moves Like Jagger" by Maroon 5 on my playlist three times. Each time the first notes struck the chord of recognition in my mind, I felt a rush of too many things to name, images of Rik and G on that guerilla night in that bar in Vermont flashing through my mind, a mix of feelings that belonged to /them/ along with all the eagerness of a woman desperately flipping pages to find what might happen next filling up my chest. I can't tell you what it's like being so connected to a book and its characters that you're instantly thrown back inside it every time you hear a song. Maybe it's a cliche, but the best word I can think of is... Magical. All of this is to say that the story and the journey Rik and G take was simply beautiful, and if you're considering taking this book up, do so. My only, small, disappointment was that the sex between them, particularly the penetrative sex, was skipped over, moving from hot and stripped to post-cuddling. As I am thirsty for /every/ detail, I missed getting to read each second of these intimate moments for myself. However, the story was so desperately good, so extremely well-written, the characters so shatteringly vivid, that in the end, I hardly missed it. In the end, Understatement of the Year is a FAVORITE. 5/5 stars from me 100% recommend. If you're looking for a good book to sink into, you've found it.
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