Thanks for joining Avon Gale and Piper Vaughn on the OFF THE ICE blog tour. In the Hat Trick series, love and hockey collide—and create enough heat to melt the ice. Join the players as they chase both the Stanley Cup and their own personal happily ever afters.
About Off the Ice
Tristan Holt is nothing if not pragmatic. Despite a flourishing career as a defenseman for the Atlanta Venom, Tristan knows he can’t play hockey forever. One day he’ll retire—if an injury doesn’t force him to hang up his skates first. His backup plan? Finishing his business degree. But he doesn’t count on a very inappropriate attraction to his standoffish sociology professor, Sebastian Cruz.
Sebastian is on the bottom rung of the Sociology Department at Georgia State. He has his sights set on tenure, and he can’t afford to be distracted, especially not by a sexy student with a body straight out of Sebastian’s dreams. No matter how much Tristan tempts him, that’s one line Sebastian won’t cross. At least not until summer classes end. After that, everything is fair game.
But Sebastian lives loud and proud, and Tristan is terrified of being the first out player in the NHL. Neither of them can afford to risk their hearts when they can’t imagine a happily ever after. The problem is, unlike hockey, when it comes to love, there are no rules.
Available now from Riptide Publishing. http://www.riptidepublishing.com/titles/off-the-ice
5 out of 5 stars
Off The Ice is the first book in a new contemporary M/M hockey based trilogy. A trilogy that happens to be written by two of my favorite, hockey addicted authors. Can I get a HELL YES!!!! To top it off..they mentioned one of my favorite local team players in their acknowledgements.
This book completely and utterly worked perfectly. Yes, I adore the two authors who wrote Off The Ice, but the story that they created for Sebastian and Tristan was spot on. This was one of those books that I sat down to read a few chapters and then finished the book 3 hours later. It features both the hockey theme that's one of my favorites, along with the May-December romance. For those that aren't hockey fans, Sebastian is right there with you and the authors have other characters explain the game to him throughout the book.
Sebastian is the hottie sociology professor we all wanted to have in college. He's out and proud, which has caused issues with his traditional Puerto Rican family. He's slightly jaded about the students he teaches as so many don't care about what they're learning. And into his summer class walks Tristan, looking just like all the rest of those students. Sebastian immediately thinks of him as a rich kid who won't be motivated or care about the class. Even though he's wildly attracted to Tristan his impression of him tempers that attraction, at first. Plus the fact that he's one of his students, well that right there stops anything he'd consider. For the moment anyway...
Tristan is an up and coming young NHL defensemen who realizes that he needs a backup plan in case anything happens to his hockey career. So he signs up for some additional classes to finish his degree. He's immediately attracted to the grumpy hottie sociology professor...even if he's a bit of an ass at first. Tristan is gay but is not out to his family or his team, let alone the hockey league. Knowing the issues professional players can face, he's very hesitant to share this with his team, and he also doesn't want to be the first to come out in the league. Tristan knows that he won't be able to hide it forever but since he's not seeing anyone (well not to start) it's okay to not share it. However, Sebastian has totally carved out a place in Tristan's fantasies and he really wants to see what his professor would be like outside of class. He just plans to wait until the course is over and he is no longer Sebastian's student.
Off The Ice was at times fun, at times serious, and very, very sexy...along with totally a hockey romance. Considering both authors are hockey fans, I loved how well they incorporated the sport as a part of the story. I've read other hockey books where one or both of the MCs plays hockey and yet they never step foot on the ice or in a rink or stadium. This book incorporated as much hockey time as fit the storyline, which was a great balance for this reader. The secondary characters were a seamless fit in this story, as well. I really loved Ryu, and hope that he's going to be in one of the other books in the series as an MC. Oh and did I mention there a bit of kink added into the storyline? That was a steamy HOT part of the relationship build with Sebastian and Tristan.
All in all this was a fantastic trilogy starter that ends in a solid HFN for Sebastian and Tristan. I highly recommend grabbing this book, especially if you are a hockey fan. Regardless you should grab this book once it's available, you won't be disappointed!
About Avon Gale
Avon grew up in the southern United States, and now lives with her very patient husband in a liberal Midwestern college town. When she’s not writing, she’s either doing some kind of craft project that makes a huge mess, reading, watching horror movies, listening to music or yelling at her favorite hockey team to get it together, already. Avon is always up for a road trip, adores Kentucky bourbon, thinks nothing is as stress relieving as a good rock concert, and will never say no to candy.
At one point, Avon was the mayor of both Jazzercise and Lollicup on Foursquare. This tells you basically all you need to know about her as a person.
Connect with Avon:
- Website: www.avongalewrites.com
- Facebook: www.facebook.com/avongalewrites
- Twitter: @avongalewrites
- Pinterest: www.pinterest.com/avongalewrites/
- Instagram: www.instagram.com/avongale/
About Piper Vaughn
Piper Vaughn wrote her first love story at eleven and never looked back. Since then, she’s known that writing in some form was exactly what she wanted to do. A reader at the core, Piper loves nothing more than getting lost in a great book—fantasy, young adult, romance, sci-fi, she loves them all (and has an over-two-thousand-book library to prove it!). She’s an avid tea drinker, a hockey fanatic, a vintage typewriter collector, and loves to travel so much she has “wanderlust” tattooed on her ankle and dozens of countries on her bucket list. Recently, she discovered the world of nail art and realized she’s pretty handy with a paintbrush—as long as it’s a miniature one.
As a bisexual and Latinx person, Piper takes great pride in her heritage. She grew up in an ethnically diverse neighborhood and strives to put faces and characters of every ethnicity in her stories, so her fictional worlds are as colorful as the real one. She currently resides in the suburbs of Chicago with her husband, son, and a cat that has Piper wrapped around her little paw. Above all, she believes that everyone needs a little true love in their life … even if it’s only in a book.
Connect with Piper:
- Website: http://pipervaughn.com/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pipervaughn
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/pipervaughn
- Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/pipervaughn7/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/piper.vaughn/
Giveaway
To celebrate the release of Off the Ice, one lucky winner will receive a Venom t-shirt in their size and Venom notebook! Leave a comment with your contact info to enter the contest. Entries close at midnight, Eastern time, on November 4, 2017. Thanks for following the tour, and don’t forget to leave your contact info!
Loved it, and I hope Ryu gets a book next!
ReplyDeletevitajex(at)Aol(Dot)com
Loved Avon's other hockey books, am excited about this one.
ReplyDeletebellabarratt @ yahoo.ca
Thanks for the review!
ReplyDeletelegacylandlisa at gmail dot com