”I thought goalies saw everything. I’m fucking bananas about you, Stacks."

For Landon Stackhouse, being called up from the Calgary team is exciting and terrifying, even if, as the backup goalie, he rarely leaves the bench. As a tall, intimating, quiet loner by nature, Landon gives off strong "don't talk to me" vibes. The only player who doesn't seem to notice is Calgary's superstar young winger, Casey Hicks. He's endlessly charming and completely laid-back in a way that Landon can't relate to. They couldn't have less in common, but Landon needs a place to live that's not a hotel room, and Casey has just bought a massive house—and hates being alone. Spending the holidays together only intensifies their bromance-turned-romance. But as the new year approaches, the countdown to the end of Landon's time in Calgary is on.

As you can tell from the lack of shirtless men on the cover, this book is very different from the Game Changer series. I think everyone knows by now how obsessed I am with that series (specifically, Shane Hollander and Ilya Rozanov), so I was a little anxious going into this one, not because I thought I wasn't going to like it, but because it's something a little different from Rachel Reid. There's always that feeling going into a new book by a favorite author, of what if I hate it?

However, I shouldn't have worried. Because, to quote Mike's Mic, Rachel Reid really said would you rather never slay again or slay so hard every day that slay loses all meaning?

Time to Shine was a delight. I'm surprised by HOW different it feels to Game Changers, despite both being hockey romances. I saw some reviews saying that it reads YA, which I really disagree with because the characters are 23/24, and Ilya & Shane are younger than that when Heated Rivalry starts soo?? It does have a very different feel, and that's mostly because of it being low angst.

I'm usually not a big fan of low-angst romances (because I love to suffer), but Casey & Landon just stole my heart.

They're so sweet and supportive of one another, I can't!! They are also oblivious idiots, which is always a plus in my book!!

Like the last few Game Changer books, this one also focuses on mental health, primarily with a character processing his grief of losing a loved one and another processing his anxiety. Oh, and also, Landon is on the ace spectrum!! It isn't said by him, but it is very explicit in the text, which is great to see!!

This was just such a sweet read, and thankfully!! It wasn't as Christmas-y as I thought it would be (I don't love holiday books. I kind of only like them in November/December 🫣). Again, this is very different from Game Changers, but I think if you LOVE Role Model, you'll probably love this one too ;)

I'm a huge fan of Reid's Game Changer series so I was really excited to see her release a book outside of that universe.

In many ways, Landon and Casey are opposites. Landon is an AHL players sent to play as the backup goalie for the NHL Calgary team. Casey is a superstar player and son of a hall of famer.

I really liked both of these characters. Casey particularly was what I would call a lonely character. He lives in a big house and this is what prompts him to invite Landon to stay with him. I love stories where characters find solace in each other. This book made me so excited to see more from Reid. She truly is a masterful romance writer.

Good news? This book is the wonderful does of sweetness and sunshine/grumpiness you need in your life. Bad News? You'll have a massive book hangover when its over.

Landon and Casey are the best. Casey is the most sunshiny, happy-go-lucky, golden retriever of a hockey player you could eve imagine. He is definitely a people person and very much an antidote for toxic masculinity. Landon is pretty much the opposite of Casey - and really you just want to give the guy a hug at almost every turn throughout the book. The hurdles they go through and the concerns of the characters are beautifully written. I love how Rachel Reid writes her hockey players as such a diverse group of people - not just a group of one-dimensional jocks.

I also really enjoyed this imagined world where homophobia wasn't the overarching theme of the book. Casey is beautifully up-front about being pansexual and out. Landon is more closed off - but fear of how the public will respond to him not being straight is never a concern for him.

Overall this was a fantastic book and I highly recommend it.

I received it via NetGalley as an ARC, but these opinions are all my own.

I was so pleasantly surprised to be approved for this book. But even more surprised at just how much I enjoyed it! Time To Shine follows Casey, A well known (and beloved) Canadian hockey superstar and Landon Stackhouse, An up and coming hockey goalie with big dreams and a troubled past. When the Outlaws lose their backup goalie temporarily from an injury on the ice, Landon is called to take his place. He meets Casey Hicks, the teams charming left winger, and is thrown not only into the spotlight of the NHL, but a budding romance as well.

I couldn’t put this book down.

The characters in this novel were so lovable. From the beginning you can get a pretty good idea of who each of the two protagonists are and what they are like. Casey is charming, witty, and personable. He loves his team and does whatever he can to lighten the mood and get laughs. Landon is very reserved, goal oriented and quite standoffish. Someone who isn’t there to make friends. Throughout the book you begin to fall in love with the leads, as well as the side characters. This book was a slow burn in the best way. It is emotional, sexy, and incredibly endearing. As a queer man myself, I could really relate to some of the obstacles that particularly Landon has to jump through. With self discovery and acceptance as well as healing from past traumas and complicated family dynamics. I had never read a Rachel Reid book, but I am so grateful I was fortunate enough to pick this one up. It has become a quick favorite!

Unfortunately the writing style of this author was not for me. I couldn’t get into the story much with its third person pov, I felt at times it would switch from Landon to Casey, but I couldn’t pinpoint where the switch was and it got confusing. But- Landon and Casey’s love story is adorable, and there’s a lot of people who will love this

Rachel Reid has such a gift for writing characters with so much heart, so much human complexity, so much sweetness that they feel like you really know them after you spend a book with them. Time to Shine is no exception! Our main characters are grappling with big feelings- grief, being the new guy, figuring out who they are and who they love, the weight of expectations, and deep anxiety- and it was a joy to watch them unfold and see Landon and Casey come together in the process. The pair act as really good balanced foils for each other and their relationship was so easy to cheer on as they make their way toward understanding each other. If you like your holiday romance lightly festive with all the hockey and heart, then Rachel Reid is here to light up your lamp!

Reid writes her characters in a way that you can't help fall in love with them. Landon and Casey are no exception, and I found myself smiling and silently rooting for them from page one.

Although touted as a holiday romance, the holiday doesn't play too large of a role in the story. It gives the perfect amount for our characters to be soft and merry together, while still focusing on them and their relationship.

Reid always crushes the found family aspect of their stories, and what better found family than a hockey team? The relationship between the players are always some of my favorites to read.

Casey and Landon, though. They're precious. The grief Landon faces is handled well, and I really enjoyed seeing him process that with his family and on his own. Casey is a whole golden retriever who has never met someone that isn't his best friend, and their dynamic together is everything. The criticizing of Casey's intelligence toward the beginning of the book really bothered me, so it was nice to see it addressed a bit further on.

Time to Shine is another hit from Rachel Reid and hockey and romance fans alike will be tapping their sticks for more!

4.5 rounded down

I was really curious to read something from Rachel Reid outside of her Game Changers series, and I really quite enjoyed this one!

It's ostensibly a holiday read, but the holiday aspect is light, which was perfectly to my taste. If you want a lot of holiday activities, you may be disappointed, but if you enjoy a lighter touch with the holiday aspect, then I think this would be right up your alley!

I really liked both of the main characters, Landon & Casey, and thought they felt very distinct. Their connection and the build between them was really lovely, and I thought there was a good balance of external characters and relationships as well. Relatively low-angst, but not without the tension that I think is necessary to make for a compelling read, and the obstacles all felt quite authentic and not over-blown. It's a hockey romance, but I didn't find the hockey to be overly technical, though it was definitely present--a good balance!

A couple of things I don't see a lot of which is that Landon is a virgin at 24, and seems to possibly be on the grey-sexuality spectrum, though it's never explicitly named, and that he's not interested in anal sex. I did feel the conversation they have about this felt a little odd--he says he isn't interested in anal, but the way he phrases things makes it sound like he's specifically not interested in being penetrated, but at no point is Casey like--okay, just to clarify, are you not into it at all, or just not into being fucked? They both sort of just assume the former, and there's even a scene of Casey fucking himself with a dildo while Landon watches. I appreciated the representation on a theoretical level, and I do think, for the most part, it was well handled, I just personally find MM romances with penetration to be more satisfying for me--absolutely personal preference, and YMMV.

Overall, I really enjoyed reading this one, and I'll definitely be looking out for Rachel Reid's next release!

ALL of the stars. All of them.

I’m glad Rachel Reid is writing hockey romance again. It feels like it was FOREVER since the Game Changers series, then last year we got the follow-up to Heated Rivalry (The Long Game). Now she’s BACK with this new book (with a much better cover - sorry abs and undies fellas on the Game Changers covers!) and it’s FANTABULOUS.

I don’t even know where to start with gushing about this book. I started reading it while deep in the depths of a book slump, after DNFing three books in a row, and I was sort of afraid this would go the same way. Instead, I read it entirely in one big gulp (I am not good at pacing myself, lol) - I literally took off work because I started this on my lunch break and didn’t want to put it down to go back to work, haha! Time to Shine is so good it totally broke my reading slump and I managed to get back into the swing of reading again. Phew!

When I started the book with Landon’s (third person) POV, he interacts with so many people on his new team when he’s sent up from the farm team to the NHL team that I had to go look at the book blurb to check who his love interest is. Landon took me a bit to warm up to, which is sort of fitting just for who he is as a person. He’s very private and closed off - and as he’d tell you himself, kind of boring.

Then in blasts Casey. Oh Casey, my heart, my twin soul. I can’t recall if it’s specifically called out that Casey has ADHD, but my man totes does, and I love every scrap of his over-enthusiastic, too-loud, too-much self. I love the way Casey and Landon’s personalities are so different but reflect off each other and play together so well. Casey is all exuberant puppy, and Landon is definitely sitting over there like Grumpy Cat, and they both help bring some (much needed) balance to the other. They both have baggage and fears they bring to the table, and it helps make them so real. I am consistently awed by how Rachel Reid manages to write people who are so REAL and complete (and that I totally want to be friends with!)

I don’t want to spoil anything, but I love the team’s reactions at the Christmas party. That’s all I’m gonna say there. ;)

OK, friends, I am taking you on a journey. A journey called “expectations management.” Join me!

I was over the moon getting an ARC for this new hockey romance standalone. The Game Changers series is one of my all-time favorites – not just for sports romance, but for all romance – and to say I was excited to get Rachel Reid’s newest is an under-statement. I dove into this book and read it in one extended go. And then I sat on it a couple of days before launching a re-read. And only then did I feel I could write a proper review.

First off: I liked this book the first time around! There is a lot to like here. But I liked it way more the second time around. Way more. And that’s because on the first read it was hard to separate my expectations from my experience of reading it. The second time around, when my expectations were properly calibrated, I was able to more thoroughly enjoy what was going on, rather than mentally and – given that the blurb is clear that this is a standalone in a different universe – unfairly comparing it to GC.

So: if you are going into this tabula rasa, feel free to skip down to the part where I gush about the good stuff. But if your tabula is . . . un-rasa’ed, hopefully this will enable you to go in with more helpful expectations.

The main point to remember is that this is not Game Changers!!! (Here I mean the series as a whole, not just the first book.) Of course, I knew that going in, but – knowing it and separating it from my experience of reading TtS are two separate things. This is a low-angst, fluffy hock-rom. By which I mean – it’s not just not GC in terms of characters and the wider universe: it has an entirely different feel and tone to it.

Put simply, Landon and – especially – Casey read much younger than the GC characters. They are younger: Landon is 24 and Casey 23, whereas the GC guys tend to be a bit more mature. My first read-around, I thought this had more of a YA vibe (with blowies). I think it does read younger than RR’s other stuff, but it only struck me so forcefully because I was contrasting it in my head with the more grown-up tone of GC. The second read-around, the tonal difference was still there, but it didn’t activate the same YA-response as before. Mostly because I keyed more into the differences between Landon and Casey’s POV: Casey, our filter-free sunshine, is written like the puppyish hockey himbro he is, while Landon, our not-really-grumpy-just-overthinking introvert, has a somewhat more mature (if afflicted by doubt and guilt) feel.

Time to Shine is also, as noted above, pretty low angst. It’s briskly paced enough to keep things moving forward – I’m not using low angst as synonym for boring – but again, in terms of the GC comparison, it’s significantly more chill than most of those installments. Something to keep in mind if you like your hockey hotties to suffer. (There is some suffering in this book. But it’s fairly quickly resolved.)

Once I managed to stop implicitly comparing this with GC, I was better able to appreciate all the good stuff. So here it is!

A non-exhaustive list of the good stuff

The tropes! Not just not-grumpy-but-overthinking/ sunshine, but a fun twist on only one bed that, ngl, raised some definitional questions. Call the trope police!

The way Landon’s sexuality is handled, and particularly Casey’s openness and enthusiastic acceptance of something he doesn’t necessarily relate to, but is compassionate about and eager to understand.

Morin! Really lovely how that dynamic was handled.

The total lack of on-page homophobia and the fact that Casey is living openly as bi man, including going on dates and hooking up with men without being worried about being outed on social media or the like. This is a non-issue for the team and the two MCs, and it’s really wonderful to see RR characters who aren’t closeted and/or where coming out isn’t a major theme in the story.

The humor – Rachel Reid always serves good laughs, and while I wouldn't count this as the funniest of her books, it's still funnier than 90 percent of the stuff out there.

The Landon-Casey bond and how it develops on the basis of mutual liking and respect and taking each other seriously and being honest and vulnerable with each other and communicating and, yeah, they think the other is scorching hot, but the work is definitely done in making us see why these two are into each other.

So why am I not 5-starring? Mostly because I think it was too pat or facile in some parts. Particularly in Landon’s relationship with his parents, which was resolved too easily. Landon carried around some heavy, debilitating emotions for years; and while I thought the scene where this was hashed out was well done, I would have liked to see more follow-through in terms of, for example, Landon seeking therapy or taking other steps to work on his mental health, especially his anxiety and intrusive emotions. Landon’s family arc lacked the depth that would have made it more resonant and emotional, and there was some magic wand-waving here that didn’t fully serve the story.

But all in all: this was a fun, quick read that left me feeling satisfied, especially once I managed to separate it from all my GC-related expectations and feelings. Definitely going on the re-read shelf!

Thank you Netgalley and the publisher for the ARC.

I loved this book so much. Rachel is the queen of MM romance. This is my third book by her and she did not disappoint.

Casey and London were absolutely amazing delightful characters. I enjoyed reading their story so much. There was so much tension and chemistry between these two. The slow burn romance was absolutely incredible. I love them.

Loved everything about this book. Their parents and teammates were great side characters. They added so much value to the story and to London and Casey’s love story development.

I’m so glad Rachel wrote this book. I’ll read anything she writes.

4.5 stars. I have been wanting to read this book since Rachel started teasing it so I was thrilled when it showed up on my Kindle. While still set in the world of hockey, this book is a departure from the Game Changers series. Landon arrives in Calgary as the backup goalie when the team’s regular goalie is injured and becomes roommates with Casey. Landon and Casey are opposites. Landon is quiet and reserved where Casey is the enthusiastic life of the party. The pair develop a friendship that leads to feelings which leads to a relationship but the threat of Landon being sent back to his home team is always a looming threat that can tear them apart physically.

This book was a wonderful little escape. The book starts in mid-fall and goes through Christmas so it can technically be considered a holiday read. While I knew this was a stand alone, I still found myself looking for the familiar names of the Game Changers but they were not to be found. I found both Landon and Casey to both be charming while being compete opposites from one another. I liked that both were not only respectful of the other’s boundaries but they were enthusiastic about them. As with all of Rachel’s books there is found family amongst the teammates. I liked that the team was excited when Casey and Landon got together rather than having the two deal with homophobia. Overall this book just made me happy and that’s about the highest compliment i can give the books I read.

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

Any queer sports romance has got my attention immediately. It made me so happy to see demisexual representation too! Where I feel this fell a bit short is in the differences between Landon and Casey. By that, I mean that Landon's character felt very fully developed, between his sexuality and his family trauma. Meanwhile, I felt like it was emphasized that Casey was "stupid" and I think that characterization made the author fail to give an equal amount of attention to Casey's character. I felt like Casey's perspectives read as much younger than Landon's, although I think they are supposed to be about the same age?

I still loved this book overall, and I loved reading about Casey and Landon's relationship. Thank you to Netgalley and Carina Press & Carina Adores for the ARC!

If Rachel Reid is writing a queer hockey romance, I'm dropping everything to read it. This latest sunshine star winger / grumpy, shy goalie romance was everything a queer hockey fan could want. Reid perfectly balances a story that is sweet, sexy, silly, and sincere--touching on serious mental health topics without losing the charm of a Christmas time romance. Stick taps all around!

This book was amazing! I haven’t loved a book this much in quite a while. The way the author approaches sexuality, death, and the decisions the characters need to make through out the book felt so incredibly real to me. I really felt connected to the characters and represented in a way I don’t often see.

4.5 stars

I really enjoyed this book. It definitely has a different feel than the Game Changers books, but it is still 100% Rachel Reid. I really liked both characters, Casey and Landon. They each has some stuff in their pasts that they needed to work on, and while it didn't magically go away when they got together, they helped each other deal with it.

There are some things about Landon's identity that aren't really spelled out and labeled, but I actually kind of liked that. And on the whole, I think Reid did a good job writing a character with that identity. Some aspects may have been a bit stereotypical, but then everyone experiences things differently, and just because it can be a stereotype, doesn't mean it's not necessarily true? Trying to careful work my way around this without actually saying anything, as I don't want to spoil it for anyone.

Throughout the book, though, Casey is always calling himself dumb, and while Reid did try to counter that, I don't feel like it was done quite as successfully as it could have been. But then maybe that's just me?

What I especially loved about this book is that there really isn't any homophobia. Which, being a fictional version of the NHL, is pretty fantastic, because hockey is a pretty homophobic sport.

And one of the reasons that I will read pretty much anything Rachel Reid writes is that SHE GETS THE HOCKEY RIGHT. I have read a few other authors who have written hockey romance, and they truly just don't get anywhere near to as accurate as she does (I'm sorry Tal!!!). Being a big hockey fan for all of my life, playing hockey, coaching hockey, etc, it is always really clear to me when the author doesn't actually know hockey, and it completely pulls me out of the story. So, thank you Rachel, for writing a sport you know.

Very much enjoyed this book and look forward to any other hockey romances she wants to write for us!

DNF @ 40%.

This whole marketing package for this book is a bit deceiving. We've got a cartoon/illustrated cover and the blurb calls it "merry and bright". I was expecting a fun little Christmas romance and there is that. BUT. This book is also wildly depressing. While, yes, the NetGalley page and the ARC itself has a content note, it is very much a part of one character's story and I just felt myself getting more and more depressed while reading this book. I know that there's a happy ending and I trust Rachel Reid to give that to her readers, but the journey there shouldn't make me feel this miserable, should it?

And look. I love the characters. I think Landon and Casey are great and a good match for each other. They have their own anxieties and fears that they're trying to deal with on their own and they FEEL so human. I love them and I want to find out what happens to them. They have great banter with one another and they're just really lovely characters. I really like what I've seen so far of the demisexual rep (Landon).

I even like the secondary characters. I know the author said she wrote this purposefully to be a standalone and so there shouldn't be characters where you'd root to get their own book, but I don't know about that. I wouldn't mind books with a few characters, if the author wrote m/f.

This story has a lot of hockey because the characters are hockey players. I don't think there's actually that much hockey playing time in this book that I would've liked to see but that's just a personal preference because I don't think most hockey romance readers feel the same way. I think what's included/excluded will be enough for most readers.

What's next is a bit of a spoiler for what ultimately caused me to DNF this otherwise wonderful book. [Landon is dealing with a lot of grief from his sister, Erin's, death 8 years previous. This death is not on the page and happens before the book starts. He was 16, she was 18 and ready to head off to college. Landon had just gotten an opportunity to join a junior hockey team (I think that's what happened) and he took that opportunity to leave and bury himself with hockey and not having to deal with what happened with Erin. He feels a lot of guilt for leaving his parents when he's their only surviving child. He hasn't talked about any of this with anyone, and it sounds like his parents haven't seen any grief counselors either. Every interaction between Landon and his parents (so far only over the phone or text) has been filled with so much sadness and grief. (hide spoiler)].

All of this was just a LOT to read about and I truly just was NOT prepared for how emotional and devastating this story was going to be and what it would do to me mentally? I just started feeling depressed every time I tried to pick up this book to read, and I just have to call it quits. I want romance books that make me happy, you know? I don't want to read a book that starts wrecking my mental health.

And I'm sure not everyone is going to feel this way about the book. It looks like other early reviewers have really enjoyed this book. And I do want to say this book does have it's funny laugh-out-loud moments.

It was just everything else that started killing me and I just cannot finish this book.

***Thanks so much to the publisher for providing me an ARC of this book on NetGalley***

I never thought I'd love another Rachel Reid book - or any book - more than I loved Heated Rivalry, but this book did it! It was an absolute delight from start to finish. I stayed up way past my bedtime reading it. I ADORED both Landon and Casey. The dialogue was snappy and adorable, there was just the right amount of tension and angst without being overpowering. There was demisexual representation!! Which I cheered for! I'd give this ten stars if I could.

Mein Leseerlebnis

Auf die neue m/m sports romance von Rachel Reid habe ich mich sehr gefreut, denn ich liebe alle ihre bisherigen Liebesromane. Glücklicherweise konnte mich auch das neue Buch der Autorin begeistern. “Time to shine” enthält eine schöne, humorvolle und größtenteils süße Liebesgeschichte zwischen zwei Helden, die ich beim Lesen ins Herz geschlossen habe.

In Bezug auf die beiden Helden ist es sehr spannend, dass Casey und Landon recht unterschiedlich sind. Sie gehen ihr Leben und vor allem zwischenmenschliche Beziehungen ganz unterschiedlich an, gleich sympathisch waren mir beide interessanterweise von Anfang an. Es war faszinierend zu sehen, wie sie zunächst als Freunde und später als Paar zusammengekommen sind und ihre Unterschiede überwinden konnten.

Das Buch ist genauso einnehmend geschrieben wie die anderen Liebesromane der Autorin und es brachte mich oft zum Lachen und Lächeln. Zusätzlich konnte mich die Beziehung berühren, da ich die Gefühle zwischen den Helden spüren konnte.

Der Grundton in der Liebesgeschichte ist größtenteils locker und leicht. Es werden allerdings auch ernste Themen angesprochen, diese liegen aber nicht wie eine dunkle Wolke über dem Roman. Das hat für mich sehr gut gepasst.

Am Ende des Buches hätte ich gerne noch mehr über das Leben der beiden Helden als Paar gelesen und vor allem mehr von ihnen in ihrem Alltag gesehen. Einen längeren Epilog hätte ich daher super gefunden. Davon abgesehen hatte ich mit der Geschichte eine schöne Zeit.

🖤🖤🖤🖤1/4

Für wen?

Wer schöne, eher ruhige Liebesromane mag, in denen sich Menschen mit ziemlich unterschiedlichen Charakteren ineinander verlieben, sollte sich das Buch unbedingt näher anschauen.

Soooo cute! Omg this was so fun! i love a sports romance and this one delivered! It was wholesome and the characters were easy to love. I really like Rachel Reid's writing as well!