I caught a cold last week so I spent a lot of time recuperating. Lucky for me, I had also caught “Heated Rivalry” madness after watching the show  in one sitting on New Year's Day. The show is a breakout hit based on book #2 of “Game Changers”, a rather explicit Hockey BL book series. As a Canadian fujoshi, the locally made show filled me with immense patriotism.

The Game Changers book series kept me busy while I was hacking and coughing without taking too much mental excursion. Over the course of the week I read the entire series. In order to make me feel like this was a productive activity I’m going to rank the books, write a few thoughts about each of them, and share some anecdotes about my limited hockey knowledge.

General Thoughts On the Series

I remember going to a panel at TCAF (the Toronto Comic Arts Festival) ages ago, where one of the panelists was the creator of  “Check, Please!”, a webcomic about a gay figureskater-turned-hockey player. At the time, I remember struggling to understand the appeal of writting hockey BL when most of the hockey players I knew in high school were openly homophobic, and could frankly be pretty mean.

After watching the show I came to understand how much appeal of the Hockey BL genre lies in how it creates a believable setting for a lot of forbidden love and yearning. Much like in the Regency Era romance genre, where characters experience conflict stemming from trying to balance marrying for desire vs financial comfort in a period where openly discussing sexuality would be inappropriate, imaginary gay hockey players need to figure out how to navigate love without sacrificing a lucrative career or becoming ostracised from their teammates.   

I think the “Game Changers” books generally did a good job of creating alluring scenarios for spicy scenes. I enjoyed how the author described the building tensions and athletic bodies. I also appreciated that the author didn’t shy away from addressing the organisational and cultural problems within hockey, mostly by personifying the problems with a few series villains. The books didn’t get as repetitive as they could have, as formulaic romance novels, but as a downside there were a few books where the conflicts and relationships weren’t as interesting/appealing to me. While most of the books worked as standalones, I like that the Ilya character had consistent cameos past book #2 where he would have a heart-to-heart with someone and then tell them to volunteer at his inclusive hockey camp.

My Reading Order

I did not actually expect myself to finish all of the books. I mostly wanted to know more about the characters from the show, so I read the books about the characters in the show first. I then went back and read the rest of the books. In the end, I read the books in the following order:

• Game Changer (Game Changers, #1) I read this first to get context for the universe
• Heated Rivalry (Game Changers, #2) 
• The Long Game (Game Changers, #6) I read this one third I knew this one was a more or less direct sequel to #2
• Tough Guy (Game Changers, #3)
• Common Goal (Game Changers, #4)
• Role Model (Game Changers, #5)

Rankings - Spoiler Warning 

My Favourite: The Long Game (Game Changers, #6)

This one is essentially a sequel to “Heated Rivalry”. The book follows Shane and Ilya as they make good on their plans laid out at the end of “Heated Rivalry” to start a hockey camp for charity together, and have Ilya move to Ottawa to be closer to Shane without revealing their relationship. Other characters from the previous books make cameos in this book, but my weird reading order didn’t affect my understanding of anything.  I think this book did a great job of maintaining the provocative appeal of Shane and Ilya’s relationship. The large-scale conflicts like the Commissioner of the league pressuring the couple to deny their relationship to keep the homophobic fans happy were really well done. The smaller-scale conflicts like Ilya struggling with his mental health while he’s experiencing a career low while being isolated in a new city were also handled really well, and in such a way that makes me want to put more effort into my own mental health.

The trophy room scene (I won’t describe it in detail since I don’t want to spoil it) was a spectacular blend of spicy, plot relevance and good character moments. The wording of this specific quote from the scene is so much like fan-fiction that I couldn’t help but laugh but I also just love it. I too say things bitchily all the time.

My Number 2: Heated Rivalry (Game Changers, #2) 

This is the Game Changers book that introduces Shane and Ilya, the only couple in the Game Changers universe where both of the love interests are professional hockey players. After the main characters Shane and Ilya miraculously identify their shared attraction early on in their careers, they continue to hookup casually over the course of several years while trying not to let it develop into anything emotional or getting caught. Ironically they go so far to to keep it secret and casual that it loops around to being pretty high-effort and serious. Shane goes as far as buying a building and renovating just the top floor so he has a private place to hook up with Ilya. They are also two of the best players in the league and have a very public rivalry. (some might even say a HEATED RIVALRY)

Meanwhile, over the years, each of the guys experience separate internal conflicts. Shane, due to his fears about what it would mean to be a gay hockey player, doesn’t want to believe he is exclusively attracted to men. This is despite how bad his sexual experiences with women have been, and how he has been hooking regularly with Ilya. He eventually meets and quickly becomes close with famous actress Rose Landry. When he tries dating her, he finds not even she does it for him sexually, despite their intense connection as friends and the fact she's canonically the most attractive woman in the Game Changers universe. At that point he accepts that he is gay.

While Ilya is comfortably bisexual, he is struggling with his strained relationship with his family in Russia who only value him for his income. He wants more emotional intimacy in his life, but as he’s developing feelings for Shane, he knows won’t be getting the emotional intimacy where he wants it.

I loved that while the premise of the book was pretty over-the-top, both of the love interests are very well developed and you can really appreciate their yearning while their relationship develops emotionally.

My Number 3: Game Changer (Game Changers, #1)

This one is about Kip, an openly gay smoothie barista with a history degree who’s trying to figure his life out, and Scott, a privately gay professional hockey player who is on a losing streak. After Scott comes into Kip’s place of work for a smoothie and they flirt a little, Scott breaks his losing streak . Scott continues coming back to the smoothie shop to see Kip, and their relationship develops quickly from there. The relationship continues to make Scott amazing at hockey.

Kip worries about Scott’s career overshadowing his own career goals, and he doesn’t like that since Scott is closeted he needs to lie about the relationship to the people close to him. They briefly break up. When they get back together Scott slowly starts coming out to a few people, and then comes out all at once to everyone when he makes out with Kip immediately after winning the Stanley Cup.

 This one was a bit too rom-com tropey for my tastes with the very short timeline, the meet-cute and the big public declaration of love at the end, so it wasn’t my favourite in the series. I still loved the characters, the romance and the realistic-feeling conflicts in the book. I think it served as a great introduction to the Game Changers universe.

My Number 4: Tough Guy (Game Changers, #3)

I read this one immediately after “The Long Game”. The two love interests in this book are very different from one another. This worked well as a contrast to Shane and Ilya who are virtually two sides of the same coin all things considered. 

The hockey-playing love interest in this book is a huge ginger named Ryan, who plays the role of “enforcer”, which I learned is an unofficial hockey position that designates which player is in charge of beating the shit out of anyone on the opposing team who tries to mess with the star players. He has severe anxiety, worsening back issues and he’s not enjoying beating people up for a living. He’s not closeted about being gay, but he’s not loud about it either, which is something he’s trying to work on at the beginning of the book.

The other love interest is named Fabian. He’s an up and coming ethereal violin soundscape musician, with a femme, somewhat eclectic fashion sense and great makeup skills. He grew up in a family that idolized hockey players, and he’s got a distaste for the sport as a result. 

It’s explained that the two love-interests originally met in their last year of high school when Ryan lived with Fabian’s family while playing juniors (or something I don’t know how youth hockey works). They had romantic tension at the time, but never acted on it. 

At the beginning of the book, they reconnect when Ryan is traded to the Toronto team and he starts spending a lot of time in the Toronto village. They pretty quickly start a relationship. Fabian starts struggling with seeing his boyfriend beating people up/getting beat up on television, and breaks it off with him. Ryan starts thinking a bit harder about why he even plays hockey when he doesn’t enjoy it anymore. After attending the funeral of another pro hockey player, who has died alone of a drug overdose, Ryan decides to quit hockey to prevent experiencing the same fate. He goes to Fabian’s release show and they get back together. 

I am definitely biased in favour of this book because a lot of it takes place in the Toronto village, which I live just on the outskirts of. I love going to see experimental soundscape musicians mess around with effect pedals like Fabian does. That said, I did get distracted while reading because the descriptions of the area didn’t always make sense. For instance, if I remember correctly, it describes Ryan’s fancy hockey-player apartment as being slightly south of the gay club area, but in real life all the condos south of the clubs are kinda shitty TMU student places. This reminded me of a barely related memory about where hockey players live in Toronto. When I first moved to Toronto, a few of my friends were splitting a penthouse in the City Place neighbourhood (it was cheaper to split a three bedroom penthouse than to each rent shitty studios). While I was visiting one time, one of my friends pointed out that in the adjacent condo building there was a whole stack of condos with toilets right next to the floor to ceiling windows. A lot of people living in those condos just didn’t use blinds so you had a full view of people pooping from my friend’s bedroom. Supposedly, two NHL players lived in the top condo in that stack and so my friend would occasionally see them poop.

I sketched it out quickly from memory, the view looked something like this:

When I first read this book I didn’t buy the idea of somebody accidentally falling into the role of enforcer and then quitting his career as a hockey player altogether at the first push. Then I talked to my Dad about how I just learned what an “enforcer” is and he told me that when he used to watch the Oilers play back in the Wayne Gretzky era, there was an enforcer on the team called Marty McSorley who could barely skate. So maybe this situation isn’t as implausible as I thought? 

I also liked that neither of the main characters in this book were sex-gods. Ryan has difficulty finishing due to his anxiety meds, and Fabian is described as having a hairline trigger. Their smut scenes were very playful and fantasy-driven, which made them fun to read.

My Number 5: Role Model (Game Changers, #5)

This book was about Troy, who at the opening of the book has recently been dumped by his secret boyfriend and been traded to the Ottawa team after calling out the star Toronto player/his ex-bestfriend for being a sex pest, and about Harris who’s the Ottawa team's social media manager. 

It’s explained that Troy grew up with a judgemental, macho father, and on his past hockey teams he’s been surrounded by a toxic-macho culture that he’s mostly just gone along with in order to not become a target.  Over the course of the book he goes on a self improvement arc where he learns to stand up for causes he believes in and be a good role model. This arc was satisfying to read. I definitely knew those types of hockey players in high school, who certainly knew better than to be blatantly homophobic, but would never correct their friends who were.

Harris was a bit of a boring character to me. He grew up on an idyllic apple orchard and he’s beloved by everyone. As the Ottawa hockey team’s social media manager, he’s something of a professional fanboy. He's also seemingly always surronded by at least one adorable puppy. His one flaw is that he was born with a congenital heart defect so he’s attractive in more of a soft teddy bear way then a professional athlete way. 

The romance between the two leads felt a bit flat for me. It kinda felt like Troy was into Harris since he was a nice, openly gay guy with whom he was in close proximity, and it kinda felt like as a hockey fanboy Harris might have been into any hockey player if he thought he had a chance.

My Number 6: Common Goal (Game Changers, #4)

This book follows Eric, who’s a goaltender on Scott (from book #1)’s team and Kyle who’s a bartender who works with Kip (also from book #1) at a gay bar. 

Eric is 41, which I understand is old as balls for a hockey player, so this season will be his last before retirement. He’s also always known he’s bisexual, but he got married to a woman young, so he’s never been with a man. Now that he’s been divorced for a bit over a year he’s decided he wants to at least experiment with men so his bisexuality feels less theoretical to himself. Since he often accompanies his teammate Scott to the gay bar, he keeps running into Kyle and he starts developing an attraction to him.

Kyle is 25, he is into older men, but when he was 18 he was caught hooking with his boss who was married with children. As such, he is wary about age gap relationships. Kyle comes from generational wealth, and while he is slowly working on a master’s degree, he mostly likes working in the hospitality industry.

The “being a queer hockey player” thing doesn’t really present any conflict in this book since Eric wasn’t romantically involved with any men during his career because he was in a monogamous relationship with a woman, he’s currently on a team whose star player is openly gay, and he’s retiring in a few months anyway. Instead, most of the conflict in the book stems from both of the lead characters having circular internal struggles deciding whether their age gap is inherently problematic. Eventually, they each come to the conclusion and communicate with each other that there’s nothing inherently wrong with age gaps, as long both participants are consenting adults, and neither one of them is in a position of authority over the other. This makes it weird when near the end of the book Eric buys Kyle's place of work effectively making himself Kyle’s boss, and nobody bats an eye? 

Eric’s desire to validate his own sexuality to himself by experimenting with a same-sex partner reminds me of a time in university when my classmates and I were bored in the computer lab so we were taking turns filling out an “am I gay” quiz. When I took the quiz, it told me my result was invalid. After messing around a bit with different answer patterns we discovered that if you answered that you had some attraction to members of your own gender, but you also answered another question saying that you would be okay with it if you died before you had a chance to experiment with that gender, your sexuality was invalid. I’m not sure I agree with that result, but I’ve never published an “am I gay” quiz so I might not have the authority to say. 

Conclusions

The “Game Changers” series was an enjoyable read throughout. They might be the most sexually explicit series of books I’ve ever read, but they somehow still managed to gracefully address the organizational issues that are present in team sports. If you just want to read about the characters from the show, reading books #1, #2, and #6 is a perfectly fine place to start. From there you can decide if you’re hungry to read more. 

I’m nervously looking forward the newly announced book #7 in the series. I understand this one will also follow Shane and Ilya. I often find the longer a romance series goes, the less romantic it is. Eventually a couple has enough conflicts that I stop believing they should actually be together, and I stop rooting for them. That said, I think “The Long Game” ended in a place where there’s still room for more story. There’s the possibility for some interesting challenges while Shane and Ilya learn how to work together now that they’re on the same team. I think those challenges can be explored without making either character seem dislikeable. 

I also wouldn’t mind it if in the book the Ottawa Centaurs, now that they’ve got the two best players in the league, just annihilate every other team, homophobia is obliterated forever through the power of love, and then Shane and Ilya making out is described in excruciating detail for 300 pages. That might not make for a very compelling story for a general audience though.