With this author’s first book, I felt she was a good writer but I was also frustrated by what I perceived as flaws in the book.

I was able to read an ARC of Contract Season. This book I think is much stronger as I don’t really have any notes. I think that often with romance, especially contemporary romance, the obstacles seem fake. Just get together already! But in this book there was quite a realistic reason why they weren’t just going immediately to the HEA without passing Go. The story was quite gripping which is a very good sign.

I liked the mix of the music industry and hockey. I liked that they were each a newcomer to the other’s world. The side characters were fun. Definitely looking forward to the next work from Cait Nary!

This was a book that at times grabbed me and at others left me more frustrated. I had read and very much enjoyed Cait Nary's previous book and do was very hopeful for this, but unfortunately it didn't quite work out as well for me, especially with regards to pacing and the weighting of various plot points.

Sea (short for Seamus so pronounced as Shay, but Brody uses the wave emoji for him, which seemed like something that only worked on paper but ymmv!) was a really intriguing character, and I liked a lot of how Nary portrayed him. His mix of internalised femmephobia, struggles with dealing with his religious small-town upbringing, conflicted attitudes to his fairly recent 'glow-up', and how he grew and developed through this was all really interesting and compelling. I found him a great POV character and both rooted and winced for him. His complicated family feels were also well portrayed. Bridy by contrast was harder at times to feel for, and I struggled at times with the lack of development he seemed to have compared to Sea.

I did enjoy a lot of their interactions, especially early on, where they managed to fall into a kind of natural chemistry, and their magnetic push and pull felt both real and fun to read. I also loved a lot of the minor characters- Party was the kind of well-intentioned bro who like Benji in the first book is a delight to read, while Raz and Lila-Rose were real sweethearts that deserve their own book.

However I had some major issues, especially as the book went on, with elements that were not addressed as much or as seriously as I felt was needed.

The first point us very much a ymmv issue- that is about the amount (of lack thereof) of hockey in the story. I can imagine a lot of people for whom this is irrelevant, however one of the major reasons I pick up a sports romance is to capture some of the elements of professional sport interacting with the characters and their relationships. Specifically, professional sports offer the opportunity for looking at a character who has long periods of monotonous training and diet alongside brief spurts of high adrenaline and attention; a lot of long distance travel with the subsequent impact on relationships; the family (or not) nature of a team especially when under pressure; the nature of having your body and its achievements judged by an often unsympathetic public, and so on. However almost all of these aspects were absent here - for the first half of the book Brody could have had almost any job as long as he was vaguely recognisable. Later hockey took a bit more of a role but we saw very few teammates, I didn't have any sense of him within any kind of team and whether he was liked or not, and overall hockey was very much a bit part to the whole thing. So probably a good sports romance if you don't much like sports on the page!

Secondly,the issues with pacing and glossing over important issues at the end (some minor spoilers in this section of the review) Throughout the book there is a lot of attention given to Sea's attitudes to sex. When he and Brody first meet they have a drunken hookup. We see this from Brody's perspective, and only later do we find out that it was Sea's first 'serious' hookup and his first time having penetrative sex, which is of great importance to him. It has such an impact that the next time they hookup, Sea has a panic attack and pushes (a still unaware) Brody away. Sea spends the majority of the book thinking about his past, his inexperience compared to Brody, his shame and doubt, and his assumption of himself as 'bad as sex'. He half tells Brody some of this at about 75% of the book, and tells him more- namely that it had been his first time having penetrative sex but not really the full impact- very near the end. Brody's attitude is just to say oh okay. And then at the epilogue they are just happily have sex with a brief comment from Sea that now they have loads of great sex. For me this didn't work as there's been 90% of the book with Sea stressing about it, freaking out before they gave sex again, judging himself etc. To keep from that to everything is great, sexually speaking, with not even one proper conversation seemed to be missing a lot of necessary development. Similarly, Sea has a constant undercurrent of problem drinking which comes to a head very near the end when he tells his manager that he worries he might have a problem and his manager agrees. Again this sort of drifts of with a minor mention of a therapist later but no significant change or impact. I was left feeling a bit short-changed, and also frustrated by these issues, which had made up a major part of Sea's character development in the bulk of the book then shrugged off.

Thirdly, Brody frustrated and annoyed me in his lack of development and self-awareness at times. He begins very angry at his ex London for having split up with him. London had originally agreed to that Brody would remain largely closeted but dumped him when he could no longer handle this. Brody's anger at the start was one of those things that was understandable (no-one should be forced to come out!), albeit rather self-centered in a way which was understandable too. However I was waiting for him to come to some recognition that London was also fair to have tried to be in a closeted relationship and then discover that he couldn't do it after all. But Brody never reaches that understanding and never seems to look at London's perspective at all, even much later on. This would have been a very minor, if frustrating for me, issue, but this seemed to be part of a wider aspect of Brody's personality. When Sea bails from their second hookup, obviously having some kind of panicked reaction, Brody is confused and often annoyed. He regularly says that 'of course it's fine and right' for Sea to stop when he needed to, but he also often thinks how frustrating and annoying it was gor him (Brody), how he didn't understand why when he had thought everything was going well, and sometimes even snipes about it a bit to Sea. And doesn't seem at any point to think 'wow I hope he's okay because that was an abrupt halt to our encounter'. Like it's only about how Brody felt and not about how Sea was, even much much later when Sea explains a bit. So this combined with his inability to consider London's perspective, seem more of a Brody lack of development issue, which I did really assume was going to be raised and explored as the book went on.

Essentially most of my negative feelings and issues here are things that I feel could have been dealt with, if the book had had a shortened middle section and allowed a longer third act of actually talking and working through their respective issues, rather than either skipping over the development straight into happy uncomplicated sex in the epilogue or just ignoring them.

Despite these aspects I will look for the next Cait Nary book because I enjoyed the first book so much, and the parts of this book that highlighted the bits of teammate banter or Sea and Brody flirting were great fun, I just wish that the editing had sorted out the pacing and allowed a more fulfilling development and a satisfactory end.

Thanks to NetGalley and Carina Press for the ARC.

I was worried when I started reading Contract Season if I had made a mistake. I hadn’t loved the first book, Season’s Change and thought for a split second that this would be a repeat. I was so pleasantly surprised. Author Cait Nary has definitely grown as an author and you can see that not only from book one to book two but from the beginning to end of this book.
I loved the character development of both Sea and Brody and the realness of their struggles. Sea being hung up on sex because he’s 23 and feels like he should know what he’s doing is so real. The discussion of the social construct of virginity is nothing something you see in romance novels every day. I absolutely love that Brody is more than willing to get on Sea’s level. While Sea seems like the text book hot mess, Brody also doesn’t have his stuff together. I love his friends for calling him out for being a hockey robot.
I will definitely continue to read this series and author in the future.

Contract Season by Cait Nary is the second book in the Trade Season series. Brody Kellerman always has a set plan and follows it to the letter. He doesn’t plan on meeting Seamus “Sea” Murray and their instant attraction and resulting hook up. Both men have high profile careers and aren’t ready to come out so they go their separate ways with minimal intention of seeking each other out again. After a second run in causes a media storm the two are forced into a relationship to protect the future of their jobs. Lines start to blur as the relationship struggles and the two men are forced to acknowledge that maybe it’s not all that fake.


Brody Kellerman is so focused on trying to make up for the bad ending to his season before that he doesn’t realize how short and rude he came off to Sea initially. When he manages to try and make it up to the man, Sea struggles to trust that Brody isn’t just doing damage control under the guise of their fake relationship. That being said I would say that more than ¾ of the book is spent with the two men questioning each other’s motives and no communication at all. Instead Sea drowns himself in booze and can only face talking to Brody drunk and Brody just pretends everything is fake to focus on his game. This became frustrating at half way and then by the 75% mark you started to not see a happy ending in sight for the two or if you even want one. That was kind of the kiss of death for me for this book because I am usually the MCs number one cheerleader for a HEA and I definitely didn’t feel this way with this book.

2 stars for Brody and Sea tolling away to see if there’s any truth in their fake relationship.

cait nary’s writing continues to really, really work for me. there’s something about the way she puts words together that hits just right and really makes me feel all those big confusing feelings her characters are grappling with.

the journey to where these two characters end up isn’t an easy one, and yeah, sometimes a frustrating one. “just talk to each other!” is an easy thing to yell at my kindle at 1am but often a lot harder thing to do when we’re in the middle of figuring things out. in that way i sometimes find the miscommunication trope to be pretty (painfully) realistic. it’s hurts here in contract season but it hurts in that really good please figure it out because i’m here for the HEA way.

a note to say: the front porch light. the FRONT PORCH LIGHT. that’s exactly the sort of thing cait nary does that hooks me and keeps me fully invested ’til the end.

also, very nice seeing benji and olly again. just made me miss and love them even more.

can’t wait for the next book!

While I did really enjoy this, as I write this review the morning after finishing it, I find that I remember hardly any of it. I guess that means it'd make for a good reread?

I rarely rate books with low ratings but this book was the exception. I can’t get over how the author just glosses over some really difficult topics. There was a TW post at the beginning of the book so I knew what I was getting into. What I didn’t know is how poorly the author would do at properly addressing the issues.

I was given an Advanced Reader Copy by NetGalley for an honest review.

Binge read this within days of getting approved by Netgalley.

Contract Season tells the story of NHL player Brody and Seamus (Sea). Brody has just broken up with a long term boyfriend and he’s attending the wedding of his team mate Alex to musician Josette. Josette has a young protégée Sea play at the wedding, and Sea only has eyes for Brody. After an inauspicious first night together they catch up again, and though neither are out - they are inadvertently outed on social media. The result - their managers negotiate for them to fake date.

Contract season has all the angst, joy and sadness you want in a romance. Sea isn’t experienced in many ways, and he struggles to communicate unless it’s through his songs. Brody is routine oriented and likes to control his environment - and though he’s open to a relationship, he doesn’t expect to be at sixes and sevens with how Sea makes him feel and the challenges their circumstances present. The focus is on then navigating the relationship, Sea figuring his own wants and needs, and their reactions to and from their respective communities, and the general public.

I enjoy the dynamics detailed in these books. The sensitivity, the verbalisation of characters experiences, the recognition things will be different for different people, and depend on their support systems.

In essence I just love these books.

Hockey player & country music star - MM romance

It was never meant to be more than a one night stand but when a video of them goes viral, their managers think a fake relationship is best to contain the situation. Brody only has hockey on the brain, he certainly doesn’t have time for a relationship and he’s sticking to it. Seamus knew it was only a hookup but never expected to be ghosted so of course he’s not a big fan of Brody. He tells himself he’s only pretending until he no longer has to. When they get closer as time goes on, will they be able to make a real relationship work?

Cute m/m romance! I felt like it dragged on for a bit and I didn’t like the miscommunication trope but I’m happy they figured things out in their own way. I liked seeing how they handled being outed to the world - amazingly well I must say. Loved Brody’s cat Kiwi. 😍

Thanks #netgalley for the e-ARC in exchange for an honest review. I was looking forward to getting a chance to read this book, the second by Cait Nary. Last year I read book one in the Trade Season series, Season's Change, and I remember loving it. I will say this story started out pretty strong, and I thought I was in for the same. This time, not as much. I will say that I did really enjoy the characters in this book, mostly. Act 1 was really good at acquainting us with our MCs, we really understood what drove them and why they made the decisions they did. Act 2.. was about 3/4 of the book and honestly I felt like it went on too long without much movement. It felt repetitive and I started to lose some of the sparks I felt for the MCs. Miscommunication is a trope that is heavily favored in the romance genre, and the set up for this trope was done really well in the first part of this book. The second act really dragged out that miscommunication to a point where it was bordering on contrived. The resolution to the book, brief as it was, was good and I just wish we had spent some more time there. Overall a 3-star read for me. I will continue to read this author and look forward to book 3, if and when it comes!

Once again Cait has created not only two main characters, but a whole supporting cast, that I fell into and which felt real from page 1.

The sex at the beginning and end of the book was great! The instant spark of attraction between the main characters brought to life so well by the author.

Each of their obstacles (perceived and real) towards actually getting together after their hookup, both before and after the forced outing, we’re feasible, realistic, concerns and didn’t feel fabricated for the sake of the story, and balanced between the two characters rather than one flawed individual and one suffering without any of the blame lying with them, but there was a time in the middle where I did feel like they were both falling into a slightly frustrating (to me) self-sabotaging, going round and round in the same circles, sort of holding pattern. Which is perhaps a realistic representation of how this would go down if it were to actually happen, but I wish I had got to spend more time seeing the way the two of them would interact in a relationship deliberately rather than accidentally.

I wanted to love this as much as I loved Season’s Change - and I did love love love the very brief overlap between the two…”bi coconut water” made me smile so much - but for me it came up a little short on a bar I’d probably set very high.

I still binge read this book in the space of a weekend so it’s not that I completely didn’t enjoy it, but I came away more invested in the individual characters than their combined relationship. I would have loved to see more of both Brody and Sea (especially Sea tbh) work on the issues they’ve acknowledged in themselves by the end of the book, and maybe the inclusion of this and the really juicy test of their relationship it would likely bring, rather than just the decision that the relationship is worth trying for, would have given me a more genuine faith in their future happiness together.

Overall I definitely enjoyed this, and will probably come back to it again.

This is book two in a M/M hockey romance series (but can be read as a standalone) and has the added benefit of a rising country music star as one of the heroes. Brody plays professional hockey and meets country musician Seamus at a wedding, and although sparks fly, they just cannot seem to get things in sync. When they are unexpectedly "outed", something neither wanted to happen, they enter into a fake dating relationship for the sake of their careers. Although they each face a multitude of pressures in their jobs and are extremely different in their natures, the spark just will not go away, and I really enjoyed their journey.

Contract Season is a book that cements Cait Nary as one of my favourite romance authors. If I absolutely had to choose, I think I’d pick Season’s Change as my favourite of the two, admittedly, but this is a very solid sequel, and makes me excited to see what Cait Nary has to come.

In this book, we see Brody, a very bit-part player in the first book, and Sea’s story. After meeting (and hooking up) at a wedding, they happen to meet again at another party and, unable to help themselves, attempt a repeat. However, it doesn’t all go to plan, leaving them with a bitter parting. And that’s the end of it, they think, until footage from a porch camera is posted online, outing them and, for plot relevant reasons, leading them to faking a relationship.

As with the previous book, what makes this book stand out is the slowburning tension of it. You might think, given that the main characters hook up in the first few chapters, that the book would have lost what tension it might have (or at least, I would. I always find tension dissipates once characters get together). But that’s not the case here because, once they’ve hooked up once, it reverts back to being an incremental slowburn in the best kind of way.

I think it helps that the focus is on developing the characters over simply putting them into a trope-filled plot. That is, the characters come first. Yes, so they’re put into a fake dating scenario, but from that point, what happens does so if it feels right to the characters’ journey. That’s what I like most about Cait Nary’s books, how natural the progression of events feels. It’s not about putting characters into the plot, but letting the plot happen because of what characters do. If any of that makes sense.

If I had any criticisms whatsoever, it was that Brody and Sea do feel just the slightest bit too similar to Benji and Ollie for me. I say slightest, because it really was very slight. Just about noticeable to me but it helped also that they had a different story by far.

And, in the end, that hardly impacted on my enjoyment. Cait Nary is definitely an author I’ll be coming back to.

Without a doubt I'm an absolute sucker for any types of hockey romances and Contract season was no exception. It was so easy to fall in love with our two main characters because they were uniquely their own and had so much personality throughout the entirety of their story. Contract Season has one of my favourite tropes, like fake dating, which makes it so much sweeter when we all know it's soooo much more than fake dating. I couldn't put this book down! I'm obsessed & I'm in desperate need of more from Cait Nary!

This was a fantastic addition to the Trade Season series by Cait Nary. I really enjoyed the dynamic between the main couple and enjoyed seeing them grow. Sometimes in romance series you can get recycling of traits and it feels like the same couple over and over with different names, but definitely not here.

I ended up DNFing book one so I’m happy to say I enjoyed Contract Season. I liked the opposites attract vibes and just how kind and sweet Brody is. After he toned down his laser focus on hockey anyways. Fun pairing as well with a professional hockey player and a non traditional country singer.

Thank you Carina Press and NetGalley for the ARC!

I really enjoyed this book. It was fun and the characters were very well developed. They both had their own lives and worlds outside of each other. I mean, one is a country music artist and the other is a hockey player so it's too be expected, but it's so easy for romance books to forget about the rest of the characters lives and only focus on them together. I appreciated the book allowing both characters to develop as separate people. And even with this, the story still focused on them and the slow burn relationship development.

The fake relationship was excellent too. It wasn't a super typical set up like for a high school reunion or because a great grandpa required the recipient to be married to get the money or whatever which made it interesting. The build up from the initial hook up, to them being outed, to using the contractual fake relationship to protect their careers seemed wild and felt very real at the same time. The romance developed very slowly through the fake dating and had a lot of domestic slow burn vibes.

Some other thoughts:

- Kiwi the cat was super cute and I loved a romance book character with a CAT instead of a dog.

- Absolutely zero on-page poetry or lyrics were present in this book. A+ work author would read your lack of lyrics again.

- Sea should have been shortened to Shea or Shay in the book. If it was Shea there was an opportunity for his contact name to be a stick of butter emoji in Brody's phone. Still cute inside jokey but easier for my brain to read the name correctly.

- Sea was a total drama babby approximately five times too many but he's a musician so being dramatique is what they're all about. I do wish some of the repetitive internal monologue was cut out but it didn't bother me much in the full scope of the book.

- Not too much on-page hockey! Reading hockey game play by plays in a book can get super boring and this book stayed away from it.

- Again, a pet CAT. Named KIWI!

- If you've read the first book you are aware there is a lot of on-page barfing. I am happy to report there is no on-page barfing here. Just a lot of casual mentions of throwing up.

Overall, a very enjoyable slow burn romance that had a very wild and unrealistic premise that still felt very real. Also, a pet cat!

thank you netgalley for this arc, i also just realized i haven't read the 1st book in this series? So maybe this is why my experience wasn't very enjoyable? I didn't hate this because it's got some fake dating and god knows that's like drugs here and it was kind of? new? not reused but again? i didn't feel the chemistry, at all. Idk if it's just me but it was hard to get through

first things first, i really do love how cait nary writes - i think where i differ from some people in these reviews is that these are definitely the kind of romance novels i enjoy (because i have read a lot of fic and these read like those!) i am also a big fan of hockey (less so of country music) so these were always going to be up my alley. i also enjoy angst and the miscommunication trope, when it is played right.

however, i felt like though i enjoy that trope, even i found myself getting a little tired of it in this book. it felt like sea and brody had an intense meet-cute, then miscommunicated and angsted in solo for 3/4ths of the book, before having a happy ever after. i didn't feel like i really got enough interaction between them in the middle, and when they did finally talk to each other it always ended up going wrong in some way or the other. i appreciated the ending, but still felt a little cheated out of some cuter moments between sea and brody. i also found myself getting annoyed that they would keep repeating the same insecurities they had but not talking about them to any of the other characters (if not to each other!) until very near the end.

that being said, i will definitely read other books in this series if they happen as i do love these books!!! ALSO!! i loved seeing benji and olly again my darlings ♥︎

Thank you to Carina Press and Netgalley for the arc!

I went into this skeptical because the reviews were not glowing so far but I must say I think a lot of the reviews were unfair. This was exactly what I thought it would be. A mindless romance novel that sufficiently distracted me from my own life as I read it.

Brody and Sea’s meet cute was sexy and sizzling from the start. Meeting at the wedding and the kiss after Brody spilled champagne on Sea. It was a great meetcute! And their first sex was steamy and emotional and I love that it was from Brody’s pov so you learn later from Sea’s pov why it went the way it did.

I rarely read forced outing works but this was handled well. In the day of social media it is often how it goes. A grainy photo spread across the internet forcing a celeb to either come out or ignore it. Sadly! But I thought it was fun how this got spun into a fake dating scenario. Brody the famous hockey player and Sea the up and coming country music star needing to spin it as a relationship vs a one night stand for their respective industries.

I also understood their miscommunication. Sea was withholding a key fact about himself that explained a lot of his hot and cold nature. I kept wanting sea to just talk to Brody but bother of them were just impossible lol. I think the pacing was good with their fake dates and the burgeoning feelings between both of them. And when they finally communicated to each other it was good! Especially after the awards show which I kind of wish there had been more of? But when they finally cleared the air it was obvious that they did really like one another and in a weird way could work. And I appreciated the epilogue! I always like seeing a couple together post the initial getting together scene.

All in all this was a steamy romance novel (despite only 3 sex scenes) and it handled the plot as well as it could within that context. Some things could’ve been handled differently but I enjoyed the various characters and also was rooting for Sea and Brody to figure their shit out. Which is the entire point of reading a book. Maybe I’m the odd one here but I rate books on if I enjoy them despite some fumblings from the author.