Title: The Long Game
Author: Rachel Reid
Series: Game Changers #6
Pages: 453
After reading Ilya and Shane’s first book, I will admit I was a bit apprehensive about starting this one because I didn’t love it. But this book surprised me and I was hooked on Shane and Ilya’s relationship.
This book had a lot of the things that I thought the first book was missing. It had very emotional and romantic scenes between these two. It had wonderful character development, especially from Ilya who I struggled with because I didn’t love his asshole personality. Also, we got to see these two actually together as a couple throughout the whole book and they discussed their relationship and future together. So basically for me, this book was so much better and I ended up really enjoying this couple, which is surprising since before this book they were my least favorite.
This book focused heavily on Ilya and his struggle with hiding their relationship, his mental health, and his lack of friends. I really loved his character development in this and that we see him actually seeking help with a therapist for his depression. I do wish he had discussed it with Shane, but at the same time, I understood why he struggled to do that with how their relationship had been. Also, Ilya continues to be a surprisingly fantastic captain for the Ottawa team and I loved how he took care of his teammates as they dealt with their own relationships and came out. The found family he has with this team is just fantastic and I loved it.
Shane’s change is not as big as Ilya’s but we do see him actually open his eyes to the reality of their relationship. There were some tense moments in this between Ilya and Shane, but in the end we see them come out as a stronger couple for it. Also, I really liked that when shit hit the fan, Shane stood by Ilya and not hockey.
This relationship has been 10 years of secrecy and yet they had so much work to do on being a successful couple, and I am extremely glad we got to see that work happening. These two really really like they will have their HEA and continue to change the world of hockey with their acceptance and queerness. Like I said, I just ended up really enjoying how much character and relationship development we saw in this.
Overall, this was a fantastic sequel for this couple. I have really enjoyed this series and would totally read more books if Reid ever wrote them.
TW: homomisia; depression; suicide of a parent mentioned; toxic parent mentioned; lots of food and diet discussions; on page airplane trouble and emergency landing; public outing that was accidental;
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Previous books and reviews for the series:
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