Though Nary's writing is strong in itself, I felt like the balance of this book was a bit off.
The beginning and ending didn't mesh with the middle, making the relationship feel like it took a backseat to the individual character development.

While I greatly appreciate both Sea and Brody as characters, I didn't get enough of them actually together.

The prose was effortless and thought provoking, I have an abundance of highlights for this one but I don't find myself revisiting this book.

5 stars!

I had low expectations going into Contract Season, as I had difficulty enjoying the first book in this series (Season's ChangeSeason's Change). I was hoping for part two of Benji and Olly's relationship because Nary didn't give us much of that in the first book. And a major part of the book was dedicated to lots of hockey which, as someone who is completely clueless about every sport imaginable, kinda took me out of the story.

Anyway, I decided to give book two a try, and I am so glad I did.

I can't express how much I loved the characters and the romance. If you've followed my reviews, you know that I am sucker for rock stars and will read just about any book with a musician MC. Sea is not a rock star but a country star. I grew up listening to country music (Johnny Cash, Charlie Pride, Willie Nelson, George Jones), I'm not much of a fan of contemporary country music. However, I found Sea utterly charming. I loved getting to know him: how he started as a small town, awkward teenager thrust into a life in front of cameras. How he managed his public persona and his private life. His sassiness, especially with his manager, and his stubbornness when it came to his music.

You would think the other MC, Brody, would have absolutely nothing in common with Sea. Brody is, of course, a hockey player, with a set life plan. Much different from Sea, who seems to go where the current takes him while struggling internally for his own life raft. Brody feels he needs to stay in the closet until he hits a certain milestone in his career and even a long-term boyfriend won't derail him. Sea is in a similar situation; the country music industry, historically, isn't queer-friendly, and he keeps his sexuality close to the vest in favor of advancing his career. Both are extremely career-driven.

The couple's initial meeting starts off with major sparks and leads to some complicated feelings. They each process the aftermath of their encounter in different ways that are so authentic to their characters. Brody focuses on hockey; Sea writes a song.

One of my other favorite tropes, the fake relationship, features in Contract Season. After getting caught in a compromising position, the characters' managers devise a plan to craft a fake relationship for the media and public. I love it when characters are fighting so hard not to fall for each other as they are forced to deal with their feelings head on.

The writing is amazing. Nary's talent for conveying emotion and the struggles of the characters is phenomenal. Her words grabbed me from the first paragraph and made it difficult to put the book down.

I'm so glad I gave this author a second chance. Brody and Sea came through, making Contract Season far exceed my expectations.

What to expect:
🦋 Fake Dating 🫣
🦋 Hockey Romance 🏒
🦋 Country Singing Heart Throb 🎤
🦋 Slow Burn 🔥
🦋 LGBTQ+ supportive friends & family🌈
🦋 Famous MC’s ✨

Hero rating: 4 ⭐️
S£xual tension rating: 4 ⭐️
S£x scenes rating: 3 ⭐️
S£x scenes frequency: 2 ⭐️
Plot rating: 4⭐️
*******************************
Overall rating: 3.75 ⭐️

Before I say anything about this book I need to make 1 thing very clear…

1. This was my first time reading a MM romance so it’s not my normal genre although I love all things romance. That being said, this book made me realize that I’ve seriously been missing out! 😩

Now that that’s out of the way, let me tell you what I LOVED about this book. 😍

Even if there are parts in a book that make me feel mad, I still appreciate that the author was able to make me FEEL something. Reading Sea & Brody’s story was an emotional roller coaster. There were even parts that made me actually tear up and stop reading for a moment because I could FEEL what these men were going through and I don’t say that lightly. 🙌🏻

Getting to see two men learn how to love openly while working in two industries that are historically not supportive to the LGBTQ+ community was so eye opening.👀

On top of that you have a Type A athlete and a “go with the flow & hope I don’t mess it up on the way” sexy country singer trying to figure out how to be together or if they even have what it takes to make a relationship work. ❤️‍🩹

Sea: “I know I can be a lot.”
Brody: “You’re the right amount.”

UGH if that didn’t make me SWOON 💫🥹

I honestly didn’t like Brody until halfway through the book but I appreciated his journey and grew to love him and his need for control and focus. 🧐

Sea is a naturally charismatic and lovable character which is so crazy considering how low his self-esteem often was. 🥺

While I’m not a fan of the miscommunication trope (and that’s definitely sprinkled in here) for once, it made sense. All their hesitations, their fears, and their issues were all valid and realistic. 🙌🏻

ALSO, can we talk about the best friend Alex & buddy Party?! Everyone, and I mean everyone, needs a friend like Alex. Someone to pick you up and carry you when you can’t walk on your own. Party carried his weight in a different way. He was so supportive and served as the comedic relief that was needed. 🤣

Overall this read did drag for me in the beginning but I did love theses characters and needed to see it through. I’m also interested to go back and read book 1 of this series since I’m apparently in love with Alex 🤣

How to make this a 5 ⭐️ Read :

🚨Spoilers Ahead🚨

🌟The first 60% of the book dragged. Either I was missing more interaction between the 2 MC’s or maybe it was too music focused and not sports focused considering it’s advertised as a sports romance. It took me 3 weeks to get through the first portion of the book (and I’m a binge reader typically) once I hit 60% I was hooked finally and finished it in a day.

🌟 Sea definitely has a party problem and this is brushed on but we don’t get to see full closure there. We just have to assume he progresses with his new therapist that we never meet for hear about again. This is an obvious coping mechanism and I felt it played a huge role in Brody’s hesitations with pursuing a relationship with him

🌟 The insecurities while understandable we’re beyond frustrating considering the miscommunication trope took over at least 40% of this book. I would’ve preferred if they had more dialogue and slowly broke this down vs. one conversation at the end which a handful of sentences.

TW🖤

⚡️Talk of or implied Homophobia
⚡️ Forced Outting

🦋I received an advance review copy for free from NetGalley and Carina Press, and I am leaving this honest review voluntarily.🦋

Contract Season is the second book in the Trade Season series by Cait Nary. Hockey player, Brody Kellerman is on the heels of a breakup when he meets the up-and-coming country music star, Seamus Murry at a wedding. A fierce flirtation leads to a hot one-night stand before they part ways. But with a rising start comes unwanted attention, and when a video of them together hits the newsfeed, their lives change forever.

Neither one of them ever imagined being out while they were still in the spotlight, but when their best solution is to fake being in a relationship, they're forced to spend more time with each other than they ever considered before. And with every new interaction, they slowly chip away at the others walls until their fake relationship leads to some very real emotions.

The first book in this series was magical and tugged on my heartstrings, and while this one didn't have quite as strong an impact, it was still a really beautiful story of love and taking chances.

Brody's steady consistency is something that has always been lacking in Sea's life and Sea's charm and passion is something that Brody really needs in his controlled life. They're opposites who clash one too many times before finally finding that they very much need the other in their life.

With an angsty, passionate, slow burn, this romance is less a romance and more a journey of finding oneself and their place in life while also finding their person. It's frustrating, hard and painful at times, but when they click and flow, it leads to something truly wonderful.

Cait Nary writes a lovely story mixing the hockey world with the glitzy country music world and puts two people together who are complete opposites in a situation where they just might get the exact change they need. I look forward to seeing what else this author comes up with next!

Although Contract Season is book two in Cait Nary’s Trade Season series, it can be read as a standalone; the principals from book one, Season’s Change, make a brief cameo appearance, but you don’t need to have read their story to understand this one. Like that book, this one gets off to a good start and I was quickly pulled into the story, but infortunately, and also like that book, things become repetitive, important issues are not dealt with and the pacing is wildly off because (once again) the HEA isn’t given time to embed; there’s so much build up and so little pay-off that it makes for a very disappointing ending.

Defenceman Brody Kellerman is known for his professionalism, his incredibly strong work ethic, his attention to detail and his intense focus. At the beginning of Contract Season, he’s recently ended a three-year relationship after his boyfriend finally got tired of hiding in the closet from all but Brody’s closest family and friends, and Brody blames his poor performance in that year’s playoffs on being distracted because of the breakup.

Seamus Murray is an up-and-coming country music star who arrived on the scene as a teenager when he appeared on an Pop Idol type TV show. Having been an awkward, gangly kid with zits and a face that took him a while to grow into, he struggles with the gap between his self image (of someone who was never particularly noticeable) and people’s expectations of him – which are based on his looks (at twenty-three, he’s seriously hot), his talent, his charm and the confidence he projects. He’s never had a relationship and he’s deeply embarrassed by his lack of sexual experience, believing he’s missed the window where it’s okay to be bad at sex and exploring. And as country music is “the one segment of the North American entertainment industry that was less queer-friendly than the Big Four sports”, Seamus – whose name is very annoyingly shortened to “Sea” – isn’t out to anyone other than his sister.

Brody and Sea meet at the wedding of two mutual friends. There’s an immediate and intense spark of attraction between them; they hook up later that night and exchange numbers before they part – but Brody, who is determined to avoid any distractions that might affect his performance on the ice, decides not to use it and ghosts Sea for months.

In the intervening time, Sea writes and records a smash-hit song about being ghosted, and Brody is traded to the Nashville Bucks – and moves to Sea’s home town. They meet again at a fundraiser and despite Sea’s hurt and Brody’s guilt over the ghosting, the attraction between them burns as hot as it did the first time and they head back to Sea’s house to hook up again. This time, it doesn’t go well and Sea – fearing he will somehow reveal his inexperience – kicks Brody out. They both think that’s that – until a couple of suggestive photographs of them taken at the fundraiser are leaked, followed shortly afterwards by footage (from the neighbour’s security camera) of them kissing outside Sea’s house. Their management teams immediately go into damage control mode, and suggest that Brody and Sea should pretend to date, the thinking being that two guys in a committed relationship may be more acceptable to the… conservative sports and country fans than two guys who were just hooking up.

A lot of this early part of the book works really well. The chemistry between Brody and Sea sizzles, the forced outing is handled sensitively, and I appreciated the attention given to the reservations both men have about being ‘the first openly gay hockey player/country singer’. I also liked that the author addresses the point that although the reactions from teammates and other artists are largely positive, Brody and Sea are never quite sure if that support is genuine or simply a way of avoiding being savaged on social media.

Brody and Sea are talented, hard-working individuals at the top of their game; they’re likeable and their connection is believable. But on the downside, Brody has practically no personality; all we really know of him is his tendency to single-mindedly focus on perfection to the exclusion of all else. The author tells us he’s understanding and amazing and well-balanced, but some of the things he says and does are very inconsiderate, and honestly, there were several points at which I thought Sea should just move on. There’s more depth to Sea, who is struggling with his professional image vs. his self-image and possibly an element of imposter syndrome, but he’s guilty of giving off a lot of mixed signals.

As I’ve said, the story starts strongly, but the more I read, the more I realised I was basically in the middle of one very loooooong Big Mis in which the characters would meet, connect and admit that they liked each other – and then one would say something dumb and hurtful, the other would bring the shutters down, they’d mutually ignore each other for a bit while obsessing over each other and thinking about how the relationship was doomed from the start because they’re so inexperienced/can’t afford any distractions – rinse and repeat. It goes like this for practically the entire book, so that by the time I was just getting into the second half, I was already mentally screaming at them to just TALK TO EACH OTHER. By two-thirds of the way through, I was thinking that they were so bad at communicating and so dysfunctional that any relationship between them was destined for disaster and that they probably shouldn’t be in one. Of course, this is a romance novel so they DO get together – but not until 93% into the story, when they have a single conversation about how they’re finally ready to give a relationship a try, they have sex and then BAM! it’s the epilogue set several months later in which they appear to have worked out all their problems and are in love. Er… what? After pages and pages of mixed signals, miscommunication and non-communication – I’m asked to believe these two are in it for the long haul without seeing them work through ANY of their issues or even saying “I love you” for the first time?

Sorry Ms. Nary – your readers deserve better than that.

In addition, I was really bothered by the way Sea’s drinking problem is glossed over. It’s clear he uses alcohol as a way of avoiding things, and that he frequently drinks heavily and often to the point of blacking out; the way it’s written, his relationship with alcohol is clearly poised to become a serious disorder. Near the end he confides in his manager about it and asks for help. (That he has other mental health issues is kind of hinted at but never really explored.) We’re told his manager gives him the names of some therapists, and later, that Sea is seeing one of them – yet he still knocks back two neat whiskies before he and Brody have their badly needed conversation! It’s great that he realises he has a problem and needs help, but because this happens so late, we never see him putting in any of the work to sort himself out and never see Brody getting to be a supportive partner.

There is so much the author could have done with this story. Brody and Sea both have incredibly demanding, high-profile, high stress careers that involve a lot of travel and time apart and they both have baggage they need to unpack, but instead of addressing those issues and having them working on communicating better and on how to make a relationship work, all we get is a continual cycle of misunderstandings, hurt feelings and ignoring one another until the next time.

One last thing that (probably disproportionately) annoyed me – the shortening of “Seamus” to “Sea”. The author has him explain that it’s pronounced “Shay” – so why not spell it like that? I know literally no one who shortens “Seamus” to “Sea”; a quick Google search found that Seamus is usually shortened to “Shay” or “Shae”or “Shea” as, presumably, anyone who spelled it “Sea” would get fed up with people calling them “see”. I can only guess it’s so Brody could enter Sea’s phone number using a wave emoji… which has no relevance to the plot whatsoever.

I looked back at my review of Season’s Change while I was writing this, and unfortunately, most of the things I criticised there are still present here; unresolved issues, poor pacing, repetitiveness and the really flimsy and unsatisfying HEA. I do still think Ms. Nary is a good writer, but there is too much reliance on issues at the expense of the development of the characters and their relationship – and when those issues aren’t even explored or dealt with properly, then it’s another nail in the book’s coffin. Contract Season is a second middling experience with this author (and earns an even lower grade than her début), so I’m not sure if I’ll be picking up her next book.

So, I really wanted to love Contract Season. But a few things made it impossible – weird, considering I enjoyed Season’s Change.

First, it really reads like a Queer Country Music Romance – which isn’t bad, but confusing why it’s marked as a Hockey romance. So I got into it expecting way more… IceHockey? Cait Nary’s Acknowledgements mirror that to be honest because inspiration struck when Carrie Underwood married a member of the Nashville Predators hockey team. See how the focus is on the country music star?

Anyway, that was weird and a little bit disappointing because I expected a different vibe. I’d still would have enjoyed this book if I could have connected to the characters or got caught up in their romance. Both didn’t happen.

I usually love my fake relationship trope and can’t wait for the characters to recognize and then acknowledge they are in love for real. Seamus and Brody couldn’t convince me of their relationship. A huge part of this is probably due to the being told instead of shown and I was somewhat bothered by Seamus’s weird obsession with his virginity.

I also felt uncomfortable with how heavily they relied on alcohol and drugs. At least Seamus got called out on his problem with alcohol and I actually liked that part. As well as the shout-out to Aromance and Asexuality.

Weirdly enough I still read Contract Season instead of DNF-ing it and that is 100% due to Cait Nary’s Writing style itself. Somehow I got caught up in that while being bothered by said telling not showing. Don’t ask me how she accomplished that but she did.

How do you have a fake relationship with the one-night stand who ghosted you and who ends up being caught in the same video that outs you to the world? That's the question that Cait Nary tries to answer in Contract Season.

This book is a different take on the fake dating trope, fraught with traps from both Brody and Seamus' pasts and their own history together... plus Sea hates sports and Brody doesn't really like country music...

This book was hot off the mark and then stopped dead in it's tracks to start a true slow burn that lasts a while... and for me it kind of threw off the pacing just a bit. There are a lot of angsty moments, some good introspection and a slow conversational build... the side characters, particularly the rescue cat, Princess Kiwi, are strong and well developed and you see how the characters truly interact in their worlds.

Contract Season was a good solid read and showed a good blend of Nashville's music and hockey scenes

I was a big fan of Nary's previous work, so I was very excited to see that her second book had come out. While the writing is just as good and the side characters just as fun as the first book (Party!!!), this one didn't work as well for me, unfortunately.

Some of it was definitely that I was the wrong reader for many of the aspects of the book, for sure, which isn't a fault of the book. I prefer player/player romances, and I generally do not care for musician books. Misunderstanding makes me tear my hair out. I prefer sports romances to be focused more on the sport, and in this one it definitely felt like hockey took a backseat to Sea's music career. That's to be expected since this isn't just a hockey book, of course.

Even aside from that, it felt like Sea's story was the one we followed more closely. We spend a lot of time getting to know him, his friends, and his family, but I didn't feel we got nearly that amount of time with Brody. Hockey aside, it felt like most of Brody's on-page time was spent thinking about Sea and how he couldn't afford to be distracted and about his ex. He did get a cat though! Loved Kiwi!

In general, I'd say this was a good romance book! I'd recommend it to people that love country music books, and especially anyone with a soft-spot for Nashville.

I enjoyed the first book in this series, but this one just didn't flow well. Both characters are part of worlds that are not especially gay friendly (professional hockey and country music) and both are in the closet. They meet at the wedding of mutual friends and have a night, a night that means a great deal to one but the other doesn't realize it. There was a lot of not communicating in this book something that I really detest and while I feel this book could have been really good the execution felt off. I never connected full with either character, they weren't written in a way to let the reader in, nor was I all that invested in their story because they spent so much time apart or being in a "fake relaitonship" (because they were forced out) that one didn't want the and the other wanted to be real. Honestly it was just all over the place and at times I wasn't sure I would finish it but something would happen and I kept going. Overall, Contract Season was a bit of a disappointment.

Thanks to the publisher & Netgalley for the complimentary ARC. All opinions provided are my own.

Cait Nary’s Contract Season started so hot you all, with a meeting of eyes across a wedding dance floor between a hunk of a singer named Seamus & a pro hockey player, Brody Kellerman, who’s a force on the ice.

When they meet alone, the magnetism between them takes over, leaving me saying *oh my.*

What follows is some fake dating & a sometimes awkward, stumbling way to a HEA between two people who just can’t get the other out of their head.

Complicating everything is the fact that neither Brody nor Sea is out yet & both work in fields—hockey & country music—where to come out publicly would likely not draw a lot of a support. Where instead they might draw ridicule and homophobia, etc.

Nary’s beautiful writing leaves such an emotional impact while reading. There were so many times I noticed how the author had phrased something & in general, it builds up the feelings between Brody & Sea so powerfully. The attraction between them feels electric to me & that’s because of how Nary writes.

Another thing Nary does so well is explore both of the leads’s vulnerabilities both between them—in their relationship—& in the narrative itself.

But I did wish for a little less back & forth in their relationship in general.

As far as writing talent is concerned I’m such a fan of Cait Nary’s work & I’m hoping for a more straightforward conflict arc in the next one!

4.5⭐️. Out 09/06.

CWs: Both leads are forcibly outed. Supposed Christians expose them. There’s some homophobia exhibited by Christians but also some support from other Christians. Moments of excessive drinking & recreational drug use.

ID: a white woman wearing multicolored sandals, jeans, & a bright green sweater sits in a field holding the ebook.

2.5 Stars. I don’t think Cait’s books are for me. This is the second book from her that has just been meh for me and considering she’s only published two books, that’s a 100%. I was excited for this book and loved the setup. A hockey player and a rising country star hookup at a wedding and months later meet up at a party and have a disastrous round two, but instead of being able to go their separate ways, someone snaps a photo and the pair are forced to fake date to keep the press at bay. I was expecting a fun book with a twist on the fake dating trope. What I got was endless miscommunication and whining that was sort of resolved in the last 10 pages but didn’t have any sort of satisfying ending.

This book had a big problem with telling rather than showing. They way the characters described the two main characters was nothing like they acted. Additionally both Sea (pronounced like Shay, which is a stupid abbreviation for Seamus) and Brody were so in their heads the whole time that nothing happened. I was also surprised to find that this book was so focused on Sea’s music career rather than Brody’s hockey, especially given the fact that this was advertised as a hockey romance. Like with the first book, I think about 1/3 of this book could have been trimmed out without losing anything emotionally or plot-wise. This read more like fic than a novel, which would be fine if I was reading a fic, but I picked up a hockey romance and that’s what I expected so I’m disappointed.

Thank you to NetGalley and Carina Press for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Contract Season is the second in Cait Nary’s Trade Season m/m hockey series and it is just as excellent as her debut, Season’s Change.

Contract Season is a one-and-a-half night stand, forced outing, fake relationship story with defenseman Brody Kellerman and rising country music singer Seamus Murry. Brody’s got a plan, one that includes getting over his ex and keeping his focus firmly on improving his game. It absolutely doesn’t include coming out as the league’s first openly gay player or on being completely distracted by his one-night-stand-turned-fake-boyfriend.

For his part, Sea never envisioned being in the headlines as a gay singer in a business that isn’t exactly welcoming to those not falling into the traditional heteronormative expectations. But there’s something about Brody that keeps him thinking that he might very much like the fake dating to be…more.

Cait Nary’s characterizations are beautifully done, and Sea and Brody captured my full attention with their very real hopes and fears. Ms Nary had me smiling at Brody and Sea’s conversations with each other and their friends, as well as nodding in understanding as they slowly learned to let their walls down with each other.

While Brody and Sea clearly share some serious mutual attraction, they don’t have the easiest time finding their way to being together in a genuine relationship. Sea isn’t very experienced despite feeling intense pressure to seem to be the put-together, sexy star, and his anxiety over his perceived shortcomings can get the better of him. And while Brody may have a bit more experience, he’s not used to being under such public scrutiny, and knows he isn’t the most open person either.

Ms Nary portrays their journey unflinchingly, from their missteps to their stumbling progress. While they basically leapt straight into the fray, their connection actually takes time and effort to build, which Ms Nary writes movingly.

Contract Season is a fantastic read, and I cannot wait for more from the talented Ms Nary.

The book had everything in theory to make it a good book, the writing was good, the passing of the book was great and it had everything to keep me as a reading interested, except that I couldn't believe the relationship of the characters, for some reason i couldn't believe it and that made me so sad because the book had everything, the characters i enjoy them on their own but once they were together it just didn't work for me,.

'Contract Season' is Cait Nary's second book in the Trade Season series. Not a direct sequel, it follows two new characters, Brody and Sea, who get caught in a compromising position after having a few "one" night stands. Brody is a well enough known professional hockey player, while Sea is a rising star in country music. To preserve their image, they start to fake date which inevitably leads to them falling in love for real. I really enjoyed this because it relied on classic tropes that went deeper emotionally. Cait Nary is very good at adding layers to characters, tropes, and plot overall. There's a lot of misunderstandings, big and small, but I think it works for the characters.

Both characters struggle with what it means to be gay and out in very realistic ways, particularly Sea. He's twenty-three, only two years younger than Brody, but he feels so far behind when it comes to sex and romance in relationships, which I think is very real, especially for those who aren't out. At the beginning of the story Sea is only out to four people total, two of which are for work and one is his sister. Going from that to publicly being in a relationship, especially while being famous? It's very real to me that he struggles with communicating and contributes to the misunderstandings a bit more than Brody. I felt very close to his character.

I'm excited to read more from Cait Nary, I think she has such a good way of writing characters.

Thank you to NetGalley and Carina Press & Carina Adores (Harlequin) for the eARC in exchange for an honest review.

Everyone always has their own checklist that needs to be all filled out for a book to be considered a good romance. That’s why it is so difficult to be at all objective when rating romance novels: everyone will find something else romantic. And well written.

For me that list goes as follows: fleshed out, likeable characters; amazing chemistry between the leads; a lot of pining (no pain, no gain, my lads!!); ridiculous set-up but in a cool, ‘might actually happen, maybe’ way. Contract Season checks all of those, and more!

I really thought Nary’s debut novel would be my favourite romance forever, and then she went and outdid herself with this one! Every single thing about this book is tailored perfectly to my taste (and I dare say a lot of other people who grew up reading fan fiction.) (Yes, I keep bringing up fics every time I review a romance, but that’s only because I’m aware that good fan fiction is actually the pinnacle of romance to which all published romances should aspire.)

Contract Season takes the premise of fake dating and brings to life all its best features. It understood the assignment. If you need one book to explain to someone what the fake dating trope is all about, you should just use Contract Season. Because despite what some readers think, it’s not enough for the two people to pretend to date. Especially when they were strangers beforehand, which seems to be a common trope recently. There needs to be tension! It needs to be completely unbearable for the characters that they can touch the other in public, but not in private. It needs to be soulcrushing for them that they can kiss their ‘partner’ while on a date somewhere, but not do anything else when no one is looking.

In this particular case it’s even better: the sexual tension manages to remain unresolved, despite the fact that the couple does sleep with each other in the first chapter. That’s the magic of fake dating, though! Whatever propelled you to have sex for real at first clearly doesn’t count anymore, because now you’re just pretending to be into them for the public. It makes sense in their minds! And it’s a testament to how talented a writer Nary is that it does.

The thing is, Nary’s writing might seem simple at first glance, but it’s that simplicity that’s brilliant. Because it allows her to pierce you right through the heart with a single line you were absolutely not expecting. It’s extremely detail oriented and focused on the smallest changes in emotions. The (gay) devil truly is in the details.

Contract Season is undoubtedly one of the best romances of recent years, and it’s fascinating to think what Nary might gift us next. Whether you know a single thing about hockey or not, this has to be on your radar. You can thank me later.

There is definitely a lot of push and pull in this story between the MC. Brody is grounded and just trying to get to retirement without being outed. Seamus definitely has some growing up to do and figuring out healthy communication. It's a bit of a slow burn after an initial combustible meeting. A fake dating situation that gradually leads to more. I enjoyed the read though I sometimes found Seamus frustrating. Love the series and looking forward to more.

Unfortunately I could not get into this book. I felt like the relationship between Brody & Sea was forced. Sea was so immature I didn’t see what Brody saw in him. I didn’t get a good grip on who Brody was as a character either.

I loved the first book in this series so I will definitely read this author again. I missed the hockey that the first book had.

ARC provided via NetGalley for review

This book features a romance of sorts between hockey player Brody and country music star Seamus (Sea) "Camp" Murray.

For a romance between a hockey player and a country music star, little time is spent in either venue. There is talk about Brody's conditioning and regime and perhaps one scene set in the hockey arena, but we never really get any on-the-ice action. In the same way, Sea talks a lot about the music industry, award shows and recording, yet we never get any lyrics of his songs, although his songs are supposed to be extraordinary. Each man is supposedly passionate about their craft, yet often we are told rather than shown.

Sea's hair is firmly established as a secondary character here - its curls, the length and texture and styling are referenced to often, as well as when Sea tosses his curls, shakes his head, pushes the hair back from his face, gathers it up and ties it back, ad nauseum.

At 375 pages, there's too much hair, and not enough page time given to developing either Brody or Sea's personalities or back stories. And that's a shame, because in between all the award shows and hair, there's the bones of a good story. After getting about halfway through this book, I actually went back to the beginning and tried to read it without obsessing about Sea's hair, etc. I did appreciate how the author gives us some rationale for how Sea has a hard time coping with his sudden stardom but it is threaded through so much talk of afore-mentioned shows, industry events, etc.

Finally, there is just a few sex scenes here - basically one in the beginning and one at the end - and the whole sex thing is .... convoluted. Sea makes it more complicated than it needs to be, and again at 375 pages, after Sea's third or fourth tortured internal monologue, it all became a bit too much for me personally. 3 "did not really work for me" stars.

Review to come on Smexy Books

Contract Season is the second book by Cait Nary, whose debut, Season’s Change, came out earlier this year. This novel expands the universe of her Trade Season series by including not just the world of professional hockey, but also country music. Brody Kellerman is trying to get over the end of his three-year relationship when the novel starts. His boyfriend broke up with him because he wouldn’t invite him to his friend’s wedding (between a professional hockey player and a country super star). It was too public for Brody, who was only out to his family and closest friends. His boyfriend dumps him, which is seemingly a surprise to Brody. Determined to develop tunnel vision and focus on only hockey and his career, Brody is interested in a little distracting fling at the wedding. He meets the charismatic Seamus or Sea (Shay) Murry, whose country career began in earnest when he was only 18.

Sea has a lot of issues that stem from the early start of his career, including a lack of experience with other men. One of the things that I appreciated about this narrative was the handling of his apprehension and shame. Sea and Brody have awkward sex at the hotel, made even worse by Sea’s poor communication and Brody’s tunnel vision. There’s enough amazing sex in romance novels that I found the candor of this and subsequent scenes affecting. I recently read a historical romance where the FMC had two orgasms her first night with the hero, and she didn’t even know what she was experiencing, so I suppose I was primed for a convincing less than perfect sex scene. It’s nice to read a scenario that acknowledges that just because you’re an attractive gay man, doesn’t mean you’re automatically going to relax in bed.

Early on the novel turns to a fake dating trope after a forced outing that threatens their careers in their respective industries. There needed to be something to bring the two guys back together after their inauspicious beginning, so fake dating works in that regard and provides a timeline for both their fake and real relationship. Unfortunately, it dragged a bit, even given the structure of the fake dates, and then in rapid succession, a lot happens at the very end. I felt conflicted about how homophobia in hockey and country music was built up to be such a threat, but turned out to be fairly limited. On the one hand, the support of the hockey teams, players, country stars, and organizations is what I absolutely want to see in the world. On the other hand, the potential for homophobia is such an important part of the narrative tension that leads to the fake dating that it seemed wishful thinking for it to go relatively well.

Sea’s character development was consistent throughout, but Brody’s felt like it was stuck in second gear for the first three quarters of the book. Part of that is Brody’s desire to stay in control of his career and his heart. We do get more eventually, largely thanks to discussions with his roommate Party, his friend Nick, but also Benji and Olly, hockey players from the first book. To me, though, Sea felt like the main character, and I cared more about his happiness than I did about Brody.

I ended up DNF'ing this book after trying many times to get through it. I loved the initial setup and concept but I felt like the author wrote this assuming the reader would be invested in the characters without doing any actual work to make that happen. I never connected with Brody or Sea, and I felt the pacing was off. I'm also not the biggest fan of miscommunication if it's used throughout a book as was the case here so I eventually had to DNF.