Heart in Hand has a ton of potential, but damn, does someone needs to kill her darlings! In my eyes, the author lacked a little intuition here. This book is 300 pages long and would have been much more compelling if, let’s say, one third had been cut out. But apparently, missing teeth are all in the game and a token of toughness. See how clueless I am? I thought the poor dude had suffered from a bad childhood case of malnutrition. That’s NOT a gap-toothed grin! It’s like someone got a bazooka and blew half his teeth out! Still, I wish I hadn’t googled that Russian ice hockey player with ‘shaggy hair and gap-toothed grin’. I didn’t care either way, none of these names rang a bell for me.

So, Heart in Hand: the author mentioned being taken aback with the popularity of her work outside the fandom, and as a result changed the names of the two MCs, famous ice hockey players, to fictional names. After nibbling from Merthur and Sterek for a bit, I decided it was time to give another popular source of inspiration for fanfic a go: ice hockey! I mean, sharing my love for these fantastic free reads with you guys. Hi! Completely clueless ice hockey virgin here!Įver since I fell down that fanfiction rabbit hole, I enjoy preach. This may have been fan-fic/slash, but it is on my list of best books I have read this year. Wanted to see the fallout from the next day after the end of the book, wanted to see the guys together moving forward, but that's because I'm greedy. The plot-mover of this book is a misunderstanding, but in this context it is wholly believable and you'll only want to kick both guys a little bit. Sid in his tentative awakening and uncertainty is wonderful, but it is Alex, with his humor and silliness and great heart who will make you fall in love. The relationships of the guys with each other, their teammates and family and the wider world, are the centerpieces of this story. The hockey background is very well done - enough emphasis to be central to the story of two professional players but not too much. The characters are perfect, the plot is clean (although the initiating episode gave me a little pause.) The story becomes wonderfully angsty, believable and painful enough to put an ache in your chest. This story just displaced Tigers and Devils as my favorite sport-centered M/M book.

Heart in Hand by salifiable