This was an emotional roller coaster and I loved it! The best friend bond between Nate and Zach is incredibly sweet. I love how Zach is always patient with Nate and helps him through his struggles with anxiety. Nate is also there for Zach and helped him fully integrate with his new team, and makes sure that Zach knows how smart and special he is. They have such an intense and loving bond that I thought, well of course they'll see how much they love each other... right?! Ha! Unfortunately the path to true love is not easy, especially when you factor in Nate's anxiety and low self esteem and Zach's lack of confidence when it comes to romance and his self worth. *cue a lot of messy emotions that had me binge reading until midnight* I was rooting so hard for these guys - and for their team - and I was completely satisfied by the way everything was resolved. Most of the conflict is internal, and I liked that the characters come to realize that they can't just grin and bear it, that they need support from teammates and friends, and getting professional help. I love how this book builds on the strong start of the series (Game Misconduct) and continues to delve into the team dynamics, mental health, substance abuse, recovery, and more. This is the perfect hockey romance for fans of best friends to lovers!

Okay, I loved Ari’s debut, Game Misconduct. It’s in my favorite books of the year and I want to talk about it constantly. I know it had some content that wasn’t for everyone, but it was 100% absolutely for me, so this follow-up was highly anticipated. And I knew it was going to be different! You can’t make an enemies-to-lovers feel like a best friends-to-lovers no matter how you try, but if you read my review of GM, you know I was almost as fond of the writing style and choices as I was of the story itself, so that difference didn’t matter. Ari has this way of talking about some really, really tough issues that’s somehow beautifully delicate, but doesn’t shy away from how devastating the issues can be. GM looked at alcoholism and work-mandated violence, this one looks at anxiety, and to a certain extent drug use and antisemitism.

Reading both of Ari’s books (and the short stories you get if you sign up for their newsletter!), you can already notice some hallmarks, my favorite of which is how they write characters. ALL of the characters, even the smallest of side characters, feel developed and well-thought out, like if I could pester Ari about it, there would be so much additional information that couldn't make it in.

This helps them feel refreshingly consistent. I know we’ve all read characters where we just want to scream, ‘they would not do that!’ and while there are certainly things I wouldn’t do, or wish Nate and Zach wouldn’t do, it still always feels devastatingly in-character. One of the earliest things we read about Zach for example, is, “Zach didn’t know if doing it for himself was going to be enough, but he didn’t have the heart to tell Jammer that.” and that stays true, he decides to win the Cup for Nate and that's what motivates him throughout the book. Because a related hallmark of Ari’s writing is that the stories are much more character-driven than plot-driven. Again, this isn’t for everyone, but I’m OBSESSED with it. The characters don’t make these massive changes within the book, but the story is how they come to terms with it. One of the last lines in the book, after they’re together, is Nate saying, “Baby, I need so much fucking therapy.” The story is about getting to the point where he can acknowledge that, and that’s enough and honestly more poignant. We don’t need to see the full journey through therapy and healing, it’s not necessary.

I could go on and on about so much, I love how Nate takes care of everyone, I love the Jewish rep, I love the final sex scene where Zach is just showering Nate with love, I love how Ari does detailed descriptions of hockey scenes, I love the Mike cameo.

AND, I need it known that I have never been knocked on my ass more than when Zach calls Nate baby for the first time. I cannot even BEGIN to describe how the pining just bursts out of him. I set the book down then read it six more times then had to sleep before I kept reading.

TL;DR - 4.5-5 stars because the characters are crafted masterfully and Ari handles the topic of anxiety with so much care, but without shying away from it.

Delay of Game introduces us to Zach and Nate—the polar opposite teammates and best friends who have you rooting for them from the start. Set against the backdrop of a once hopeless team in the middle of a cautiously optimistic rebuild, it’s impossible not to cheer this motley bunch of players toward victory. If that’s not reason enough to pick this one up, the mental health representation is refreshingly honest and Nate’s Jewish heritage will have you missing your own family’s Hanukkah parties and latkes in no time at all.

I couldn’t be more in love with the way that the team’s overly anxious team captain and (somewhat) reformed playboy fit together, even when they’re so oblivious you wish you could communicate with them through the pages. Their relationship develops over the course of a season, with them somehow maintaining all of the best qualities of their friendship even as they turn into something more.

And for fans of Game Misconduct, the glimpse into Mike and Danny’s future still has me smiling just thinking about it.

Another great addition to the Penalty Box series and an Instant recommendation for anyone in their hockey romance era or fans of two affectionate idiots finding their way from friends to lovers.

The long sex scene near the end of <i>Delay of Game,</i> during which Zach lists all the things that make Nate beautiful, hot, and lovable, is itself so beautiful, hot, and lovable that it compensates for some significant problems in structure and characterization.

Structure: There's an awkward little prologue with Zach finding out in the middle of getting blown in a toilet that he's being traded, basically because he's a too-hard-partying PITA and (so one gathers) not only has he made the gossip sites a dozen too many times but also his play is suffering. The blowie goes by the board but Zach goes on an epic bender; next thing we know he's meeting his new team's captain, Nate, and finding Nate just so earnest that no matter how mad Zach is about being traded he can't hate him. And the next thing we know after that is that two years have passed and they're best friends. Also, Zach is a reformed character.

This whole bit is either too short or too long, I'm not sure which. Too short, because Zach's flameout takes up so little book space that the stakes don't feel high enough, and because we don't see the development of his friendship with Nate or, for that matter, of the changes in his behavior. The latter just sort of happens because he resolves that it will -- there's no emotional process involved.

Alternatively, maybe this bit is too long in that it should have been cut out altogether, so that we start with Zach and Nate already close and see their history (separately and together) in flashbacks.

Either way, it's a stumble that the book never quite recovers from; it's as if, having started out this way, Ari Baran can't stop telling instead of showing. Not that telling is always the wrong approach, but some aspects of the story have, or should have, an emotional weight that telling can't convey. Here's where characterization problems arise. Early on, for instance, Nate is in the middle of the off-season week he allows himself to spend blasted on reefer: it's "the only way he could deal with the crushing anxiety and responsibility that weighed him down during the year." That's the kind of thing we need to see a character actually experiencing if it's to have emotional impact.

Nate again: "there was a part of him that just always expected the worst, no matter what life actually had to show him, no matter the fact that you truly had to go into the season expecting to win if you wanted to have any actual, real hope of winning."

I could go on, but there's no need to belabor the point. The upshot is that <i>Delay of Game</i> just doesn't have the urgency and emotional impact that made <i>Game Misconduct</i> so compelling -- that book is still haunting me, nearly six months after I read it. And yet ... though this isn't an "erotic romance," the sex scenes really carry it. That connection between Nate and Zach is credible and moving and makes me round 3.5 stars up to 4.

Thanks to NetGalley and Carina Adores for the ARC. I forgot to add, in Notes to the Publisher, that whoever's copyediting and proofreading there needs to learn that it's not "off of," but just "off." Please.

4.5 Stars! (rounded up)

I've heard amazing things about this series and was so excited to dive in! We met Reed + Singer briefly in Game Misconduct, so getting to learn more about them was so enlightening and I truly just loved the two of them, separately and, of course, together!

2 years ago Zach messed up and got himself traded to the Philly team - one of the worst in the leagues. He moved to Philly wanting to prove himself, and ultimately did so and found a best friend in the Captain, Nate. Now they've played together for 2 years and Zach is ready to win Nate the Cup. He ends his vacation early and stumbles upon Nate during his one week he allows himself to let go. Crossfaded, Nate ends up kissing?? shotgunning?? Zach. All is forgotten until a drunken night.

But then they end their losing streak and they do it again and they win. Could this be good luck? Neither of them want to look too closely, but if it's what needs to be done for the team...

I absolutely adored both Nate and Zach and getting to see them together. The duo is half anxious half "reformed" bad boy and they just make sense. They've been attached at each other's hips for the past couple of years, and it only seems natural for it to continue.

Friends to lovers is one of my favorite tropes but I also really love idiots and lovers and that is so fitting here! So many amazing things I loved about this novel: the Jewish rep, the realistic anxiety rep, Philly!!, and some found family.

I devoured this book and wanted more and more of both Nate and Zach. Getting to see inside both of their heads - Nate who was always anxious and usually self deprecating but like lowkey, and Zach who was self deprecating highkey and trying to figure out how to handle feelings - was a wonderful experience to really dive in and see the intricacies of each of them and their relationship (of any sort) to each other.

I recommend this to anyone who is looking for a hockey romance, or any of the associated tropes! I loved seeing hockey as a main theme in this book and not just a small part of the characters - actually getting to experience them in practice and games and planning. So enjoyable!

In my ideal world this book would be the last third of the *actual* book about these two characters. As it is it’s fine, it’s serviceable, but I wish the characters had been pushed a lot further. Instead, at one point I went and looked up the book’s length expecting say 530 pages and was shocked to see it’s apparently just 308. For book with almost no plot or character development, that’s not ideal. (Idk look here’s my disclaimer that I love a book with plot, the just-vibes lifestyle is uh not typically my personal preference. If you do like vibes-and-sex-scenes-only with hockey interstitials, you know what, go with God! …God also likes vibes-and-sex-scenes-only with hockey interstitials, is I guess what I’m saying.)

The thing is, because of the way the timeline works in this book, there are basically no stakes. Other than a very brief prologue, the entire book takes place three years into these characters’ relationship. (Codependent-best-friendship? Everything-but-the-sex-ship?) So when their relationship “changes” near the beginning of the book bc they start sleeping together - it’s not a change for the reader. It’s just the default, and it’s a default that will remain for pretty much the rest of the book.

The only history we are given for these characters and for their relationship are “remember when” expositional asides. I found myself constantly wishing for flashbacks, at least - because again, prologue aside, these characters are pretty much hive mind from day 1, as far as the story on the page tells it (and I offer as proof the multiple times I got confused about whose POV I was reading), so I found myself just not *buying* any of the emotional uncertainty/inability to communicate/insecurity about the status of the relationship/confusion about what the other one wants.

Now I may not have bought the relationship conflict/growth/evolution - but there was no *character* development at all. To a frustrating extent, because the possibility was there, glimmering just under the surface! (For example, there’s a particular scene near the end of the book from Nate’s POV with Gags and Zach which…. That should’ve been unpacked over the entire book! Why were there so many scenes of Nate mentally comparing Zach to his ex when there could have been scenes about that!) But I think by specifically committing to being a book about how these two characters’ relationship (emotionally/sexually) changes over the course of a hockey season, no more/no less, lots of other (imo much more interesting) stuff fell by the wayside.

Look, yes, I personally prefer my hockey romance to be a) bombastic, exquisite, dark as fuck (speaking of which, I should reread Game Misconduct), or b) deeply soothing, the equivalent of a really satisfying nap, The Sun Also Rises but in a good way. This book was b (nothing happens, there are no surprises, frankly no one changes or grows) but kinda wanted to be a (emotionally overwrought, characters have real struggles and they overcome them, joyful conclusion earned through the ups and downs that have come before) which meant it aced neither.

It’s like - this book was fine. I don’t want to undersell it, like there were definitely good qualities. But it was frustrating to read because I was constantly thinking of ways it could have been better. Because it could have been better! That scene with Nate and Gags and Zach I mentioned, I did really like the Zach’s-a-trainwreck stuff in the prologue and would have loved to see the nitty-gritty of how that changed, Nate’s inner darkness and body issues were really fascinating and could have gone a lot further…. Not to mentioned the power of writing a scene where a character is smoking pot, and it’s hot to me somehow?? And also that scene had depth and was pivotal?? Could *never* have predicted it.

I am really wavering on the star rating tbh because I read through like 68% and then was like “I’m liking this less the more I read, I gotta take a break” and when I picked it up again I liked it a lot more! ….and then the ending went long for my personal tastes. I can tell this is a whole fully fleshed out universe - so it’s frustrating that so few of the interesting parts made it into the book!

Hi I LOVED this book. I'm truly in my sports romance era right now (I can't seem to get through anything else) and this book was no exception. I was deeply emotionally invested in the characters and the ways in which they acted and reacted to each other felt so emotionally real I could not put the book down. Can't wait to recommend this to everyone I chat with!

The spice 🔥 🌶️ was so good, and it was just everything I wanted in a hockey romance. I loved the characters and the lgbtqia2s+ representation is always so needed. I love to support books like this and highly recommend you do too!

This was another perfect, compelling, heart-stopping read from Ari Baran and I am officially a fan! Now I'm just gonna cry for a bit because there are no physical copies of these books yet and I so want to add them to my shelves ahh!!

In Delay of Game we follow Nate and Zach, teammates and friends extraordinaire, who do everything together and have done so for three years since Zach has joined Nate's home Philly team. But when the first awkward kiss leads to another, the two realize that they are unbeatable on the ice after a hookup. But these hookups soon grow into something more - can the two guys finally admit to themselves and to one another that they might've been in love since that first season together? Or will their doubts and insecurities cost them everything?

THIS WAS EVERYTHING! I was an inconsolable mess as soon as Delay of Game, a friends to lovers hockey romance was announced and Ari absolutely knocked it out of the park. From the awkwardness that derives from these two being such close friends first, to hidden feelings that keep growing stronger and stronger, the angst of believing the other doesn't feel the same. It all hit so hard and I loved it so much and this is definitely joining my hall of fame of best hockey books. Now, please, Carina Press, get me that PHYSICAL COPY!!
Also can we talk about these two men?? Nate, a stellar but super anxious cinnamon roll who would do anything for his teammates? Zach, a goofball with a troubled past, a himbo supreme, and so lovable I wanted to weep. Just?? Can I get five more books just like this one, please and thank you!

You need to read Delay of Game if you adore...
- queer hockey romance
- best friends to lovers stories
- himboooos! Zach was the softest himbo and I stan.
- angst deriving from the "ohh no, they don't love me back" insecurities
- slow realizations of love. *whispers* so soft!!

All in all, another Ari Baran win, they are a powerful new voice in this queer hockey romance authors community and I am so happy about that. <3

I am sorry to say, I was not a fan of this one. I'd been eager to read it because I greatly enjoyed the previous book, Game Misconduct, but this one felt like a chore to read through. The story could have benefited from more patience, more time sitting with it, more development, and more editing. I still feel like I hardly know or like the main characters, and found the side couples (Mike and Danny, Bee and Makela) infinitely more interesting. This one is more in the vicinity of 2.5 stars for me. .

I will say, though, that the story started off okay enough before these faults became apparent. I am still interested in Ari Baran's work and will pick up another book of theirs in future.

Many thanks to Netgalley and the publishers for sending me an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I enjoyed this hockey romance! As it's a digital title, I selected "no" for suggesting my store buy & stock this title, but I can definitely see myself recommending this to customers who enjoy queer sports romances.

Was this a sweet story? Yes!

Did it pack an emotional punch a couple of times? Yes!

Was this my favorite hockey romance? No, but it is up there.

I love the characters and their individual traits that the author did a good job of writing. You really feel for them and their cluelessness. Nate's anxiety and the way he overthinks was written well. I even liked how he was sometimes kind of clueless.

The story skips time a lot to move the story forward, which isn't something I generally like. It's done well, though. And the author is very wordy in some scenes and I found myself trying to skim. I love long novels, the longer the better honestly. Sometimes individual sections get to wordy though. But this is a personal preference and I'm sure others will absolutely appreciate it.

Overall this is a wonderful gay hockey romance and I look forward to seeing what else the author writes in the future and checking out past novels.

Thank you Netgalley for offering this wonderful book for me to read!

I really enjoyed this book. I do like the friends-to-lovers trope, but very often it can be a bit too much and the obliviousness too unrealistic. Here it was well done I think, there also is huge miscommunication going on, but it is explainable especially by Nate's anxiety. The side characters were great, and it was nice to see the couple from book 1 again. The one small thing I didn't like that much was the superstition thing, The story would have worked perfectly fine also without this.

But overall, if you like gay hockey romance, I definitely recommend this series!

Delay of Game is book 2 in the Penalty Box series. It can be read as a standalone but reading book one will give some insight. This book follows Nate and Zach who are best friends on a hockey team that is undergoing a big restructure. Nate is the team captain who carries the weight of the world on his shoulders. Zach gets traded to the Cons after some not so favorable actions were posted in the media.

Flash forward to 3 years of Zach being on the team he and Nate are best friends. Best friends to the point where they are a package deal. Zach is determined to win the Stanley Cup for Nate. Nate is determined not to let anyone down.

Their relationship takes a turn and becomes physical when Zach tries to take Nate out to get laid. Spoiler Nate does. After their time together Nate has a crisis that he has slept with his best friend and does not want to ruin that relationship. Meanwhile Zach sees it as a game day superstition where he suggests they sleep together for the team when they win. Of course like with any good story they begin to fall for each other. Nate and Zach falling for each other was the cute nerve wrecking feeling you hope for in a book.

I enjoyed the character development but there were something I did not enjoy. What I’d call jock speak, made me lose interest sometimes. Nate’s realization that he needed therapy was amazing and I loved every second. Zach stepping up and try to be a role model for rookies and teaching them from his past discretions. At the end there was a situation that involved substance use, was not handled properly.

I'm not sure what it was about this story, I liked it, but I didn't love it.

Thank you to Carina Press and NetGalley for letting me read Delay of Game. All thought are mine and mine alone.

This was a wonderful book! Nate and Zach were so different—Nate was inside his head almost all the time and Zach hardly used his head at all—but they made the most perfect and delightful couple. There were a lot of words in this book, but I loved the many views inside the main characters’ heads and all the extra stuff like their interactions with their teammates and families. I was hooked on this book as soon as I started reading it and picked it back up every chance I got until it was over. If I had a complaint, it was that giving both main characters one-syllable common names sometimes made it difficult for me to remember who was who until I really got into it. That’s just nitpicking though—this is definitely a book I’ll reread, and I’m immediately going back to read Game Misconduct because Ari Baran is an author who writes my kind of books.

There was more angst than my dumb little heart could take at some points, but I KNEW the inevitable happy ending would be worth it. Despite what screaming at my screen while reading might suggest, I loved seeing Nate and Zach’s relationship evolve and getting to meet some of the great side characters like Mike and Bee.

Delay of game
By: Ari Baran

📚💕⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️💕📚

Great friends to forever?

In the second book in the series we get Nate and Zach’s book and omg so worth the read. These two have serious chemistry. The authors writing flawless and the words are so captivating, the plot had so many twists and turns and none that I was expecting, and many shockingly intimate I have become a huge fan of this author. The author writes with so much intensity and emotion pulled from each book it’s felt page after page. Some are quick witted story lines are so perfect and lets you believe you have a front row seat. So being able to read this love story didn’t disappoint. The authors ability to have two separate individuals struggling in their everyday life and try to navigate someone else’s thoughts, needs and desires was intense and gives all the fills.

Authors Blurb: Nate Singer is one of the good guys.

As team captain, Nate’s whole deal is sticking to the playbook, supporting his team and keeping his own issues buried. Especially since the team is finally winning, due in no small part to his chemistry with one particular hotshot teammate.

Zach Reed has a bad boy reputation.

And it’s cost him. Zach’s past exploits landed him on the worst team in the league. But that also gave him the best friend he’s ever had. For three years, his friendship with Nate has grown, making them an intimidating duo on the ice—and forming an intense bond off of it as well.

When the team hits a skid, Zach and Nate go out with one thing in mind: finding someone for a quick roll in the sheets to get back to their winning ways. Only they end up in each other’s arms and each other’s heart.

And realize that could be exactly what they’ve always needed to win it all.  

This book has everything I love in a book. Then you add that it's beautifully written and believable. It is easily a five star read. Written in dual POV my personal favorite this story flows so incredibly well that the next thing you know your 80% into the book and loving every second of it. The believable way the characters interact is perfect. Run, Hop, Jump or use your (1 click) finger to do whatever you have to do and get this amazing book. It'll break your heart, you'll want to scream with frustration and it'll let you discover that love just might conquer all. The chemistry is steamy and sweet and oh so romantic.

Thanks Netgally for letting me read and review.📚💕

A nice romance between two hockey players that were best friends. This was a second book in a series. Which I wished I’ve known about beforehand. Otherwise it was okay.



Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for my ARC in exchange for my review.

Ari Baran’s debut novel, Game Misconduct, was a mixed bag for me: there was a lot to like, but also a lot I struggled with and was low-key triggered by. This one is much more my speed. Which is to say: soft hockeybros doing soft things softly. The anti-Game Misconduct, if you will.

This is friends-to-lovers, drunken hookup, bi-awakened whose main reaction is "this explains so much", superstition-shagging, and “didn’t know we were boyfriends”. It’s also essence-of-fake-dating, in that the excuse they use to keep the shagging going – that they snap their losing streak after they’ve banged – functions in the same way fake-dating pacts function: an external reason to be together, with an assumed expiration date that they both panic about but never mention because, hey, why be adult about things? Trope-tastic, in other words. I liked a lot of what Ari Baran was putting down here, although the 3rd act crisis – featuring one of my least favorite tropes, mis/non-communication – dragged out too long. My dudes, use your words.

Ari Baran writes with a deft hand, though the editing could have been a bit tighter – someone really wanted us to remember how many seasons they’ve played together, which seemed a bit nagging for a book where the timeline is both extremely straightforward and literally does not matter, but whatever. Oh, and if “plot” is something important to you . . . well. Thoughts and prayers. Although I suppose all hockroms have more-or-less the same plot anyway (skate-fuck-breakup-skate-HEA). But if you’re looking for hockeybros doing hockeybro things hockeybro-ily (and softly!), with their little hearts in the right place (and their little brains going AWOL), then you’re in luck.

Which is to say: if you liked the sharp edges, trauma, and self-destructiveness of Game Misconduct, then this will not scratch that itch. Nate struggles with untreated anxiety, low self-esteem, body dysmorphia, and eating issues that approach orthorexia (these CWs, minus orthorexia, are noted in the front material); Zach is trying to shake his previous (deserved) reputation as an irresponsible party boy. But the overall tone is sunnier, and – while not making light of Nate’s struggles – their issues and the way they are handled are not as scary-bad-stressful as in Game Misconduct. This was a better fit for me personally, but it also makes Delay of Game a more standard hockrom, without the hardcore elements that made Game Misconduct such a standout (for better or worse) sports story.

Coincidentally, just after I finished this, the author sent an interesting newsletter going into the real-life hockey bullshit that informed the characters – mostly to do with how mental health struggles are (not) dealt with by players, teams, and the league; how analysts and commentators and scouts and fans talk about hockey bodies as if they’re trying to give all these guys eating disorders; and the play-hard, party-hard behavior that is encouraged until it’s not. There was even a proper bibliography, she swoons nerdily. A great supplement to the book, but mystifyingly not publicly available on the author’s website. Missed opportunity, if you ask me.

I’ve made my peace with Bee. You go, girl. Do your highly implausible things, you she-ro.

All in all: a brisk, satisfying hockrom that did what it set out to do.

ETA: I am pleased to report that there are references to game-day suits in this book. I am taking full responsibility for this development. Let me have this victory, friends.

I cannot express how excited I was when I got the notification from NetGalley that this book was in my inbox waiting for a review. I loved Game Misconduct so I knew this was going to be good.

This story starts with Zach getting traded to Philly after a couple of scandals too many and then there’s an immediate time skip to two years later. I loved this choice. The author could’ve chosen to give us the background of the character but instead there was a “show, don’t tell” moment that I really appreciated.

The first thing I noticed, and I felt the same with the first book, is that the characters are so freaking fun. None of them are particularly bright, especially when it comes to emotional intelligence, but they feel so real and so relatable. Even the background characters that don’t show up that much. They’re still fun to read about and you can tell that the author put a lot of thought into them too (I hate when the other characters are so bland that they become indistinguishable in my head).

I loved the way they got together. It seemed like the natural progression of what they were doing but it was still so exciting and nerve racking. They’re both so dumb in completely different ways, I loved it.

Oh I loved getting to seeing Mike and Garcia. I expected them to maybe be mentioned once or twice but I was glad that Mike was an important character in Zach and Nate’s story too. (I loved Zach and Mike’s talk, when Zach first comes over, it made me tear up 🥺)

The only thing I didn’t love was the resolution of the main conflict. All that build up and it got fixed in a couple of sentences? A bit anti-climatic. From that point until almost the end I was feeling a bit meh about the story, mainly because I had been loving it so much until that point, but then the end made me love it again. The article at the end made me actually laugh out loud haha

And I’ve seen that the author is planning more works for this series, I can’t wait! They have a very particular way of writing that is so satisfying to read and they never miss with the characters.

Big thanks to NetGalley and Carina Press for the early review copy, I was so excited for this book and I’m glad I didn’t have to wait until November to read it.