3.5⭐️ the Shots We Take is a LGBTQ second
chance hockey romances, friend to enemies to lovers. There is dealing with loss and grief and mental health.

Riley and Adam haven’t spoken in over a decade, but when Riley’s father passes away Adam decided to go to the funeral. Seeing Adam after all that time is too much for Riley especially after just losing his father he tells Adam to leave, but Adam stays he wants to help in anyway that he can.

Adam has returned divorced, retired and having finally figured out that he was gay. And now he is here to win Riley back. Riley had always been in love with Adam, but he’s feeling were always brushed off like they didn’t matter. Riley doesn’t want his heart broken again.

This was a great book, however I did have to keep reminding myself that these were grown men and not college students.

Reid’s stories always have the HEA with all the feels and this is no exception. Found family and supporting cast of characters round out this cozy read.

The absolutely perfect blend of sweet and spicy!!
At the end of the first chapter I was already excited for what was to come, I just knew it was going to be good!

I have always been firmly against second chance romances, but Rachel Reid has shown me the light and changed my mind, I was on the verge of tears at parts that probably weren't even meant to make you want to cry. There is so much emotion in this story and it really hit me hard. The writing is absolutely stunning. Had I not been in public while reading this, I no doubt would have been in tears, multiple times. There is so much angst!

I want to be friends with literally every one of Riley's friends.

The ending was perfect and I will for sure be reading more from Rachel Reid!

I've read a few Rachel Reid books before and enjoyed them, but this one was definitely my favorite! I was not sure I'd like it because second chance is not my favorite trope and I'm petty so I don't like when characters are too forgiving. I liked that Riley really made Adam work for forgiveness. This book had spice, feeling and was funny so for me it was one of the best romance novels I have read this year!

Where to begin?!? How do I even put into words what I'm feeling right now after finishing this beautiful heartfelt story.

Riley and Adam's story is beautiful. The ups and downs. The roller coaster of emotions I felt while reading this. I love a good happily ever after and it did not disappoint.

I'm a huge fan of Rachel Reid and I think The Shots You Take may just be my new favourite book of hers.

Thank you Netgally for the ARC. I truly enjoyed every moment of this book.

Second chance, small town, hockey romance. A lot of steam. A lot of emotions. I normally read romcoms, so this one was an emotional roller coaster for me.

Twelve years ago, Adam and Riley were friends, teammates, and more. You get to see some of their earlier story through flashbacks. In the present, Adam shows up to support Riley after the death of his father and every emotion bubbles up to the surface. Once some issues are settled and they start being honest with each other, we get to see their chemistry and how they could build a relationship.

Thanks to NetGalley for this ARC in exchange for my honest review. Watch for The Shots You Take to come out March 4, 2025.

Rachel Reid the woman that you are!!!! ♡

I saw this and immediately requested it. I read “Time to Shine” early last year and fell in love with Rachel’s writing and her characters. So I was super excited when I got approved, and I’m glad to report that this new standalone is another hit ❤️

The Shots You Take follows our two protagonists Adam and Riley, two hockey superstars whose chemistry on and off the ice lead to the destruction of their lifelong friendship twelve years before.

12 years later, Adam (A now recently divorced and retired NHL legend) and Riley (A now small town plant enthusiast and dog dad) cross paths again at Riley’s dad’s funeral. Riley gave Adam up years ago, completely uninterested in rekindling their friendship (….or anything more) But Adam, having done some serious soul searching in the years since, won’t let Riley slip away so easily.

WOW. This book was so damn good. Rachel Reid writes queer men in such a refreshing light. What really sets her apart from some of the other MM authors I’ve read is her deep explorations into self love and acceptance as a queer person and some of the struggles that gay men face. Especially older queer men.

I melt when reading her books every. single. time. Riley and Adam are some of the most lovable main characters I have read in a while. It was a nice change to read a romance about men in their forties and who have grown up and progressed into adulthood without one another. A particular theme in this story that I wish I saw more often was it’s never too late to claim and embrace yourself for all that you are. Whether that be as a parent or athlete or queer man. Both men really begin to push against the forces that held them back in the past and it was really sweet to follow them on that journey.

Whatever you do, please pick this one up. The Shots You Take is endearing, funny, and sexy. You will fall in love with these characters!

I will be (not so) patiently waiting for Rachel Reids next book :)
A massive thanks to the author, NetGalley, & Harlequin for sending me the ARC in exchange for my honest review ♡

What a beautiful book! If you love Shane and Ilya, then you are going to fall head over heels for Adam and Riley. This is a story about love, grief, sadness, mental health, healing, first loves, and second chances. While hockey plays more of a backseat role in this romance, it's still a a prominent in fixture in both of their lives. This book is so bingeable and I finished it in one sitting! It had me that glued from start to finish. I just love the way Rachel Reid writes, how she weaves such an interesting plot with lovely but flawed characters, and still maintains a level of humor, banter, and spice that make the story so amazing. I definitely recommend this book to everyone! Thank you to NetGalley, Rachel Reid, and Harlequin for the ARC of this book.

I loved both Riley and Adam, I was rooting for them from the beginning. You can feel the love and longing from both characters. Rachel did a good job of giving us the flashbacks to the big moments in their relationship. The angst was there and I liked how their relationship progressed once they were reunited. It took Riley time to trust Adam again and that is realistic to me. This is a 4.5 read, I did feel the ending was a bit abrupt but the epilogue did a good job of wrapping up the story and giving us the HEA updates. I also loved that the MMCs were in their forties, it's refreshing to have characters that were older and not in college or first years of the NHL.

The Shots You Take is my second Rachel Reid book and I loved it. I don’t read a lot of ‘second chance’ romances so I was excited to give this one a go.

I love Riley and Adam and I enjoyed that this takes place while they are in their 40s but we get flashbacks of when they were younger.

I flew through this one pretty quickly and will pretty much read anything Rachel Reid writes.

•second chance
•best friends to secret lovers to best friends to strangers to friends to lovers
•comp het
•mental illness
•grief after father’s death

Adam and Riley haven’t spoken in over a decade. Not after the disaster night they won the Cup together that finally tipped Riley over the edge and he requested a trade. Not long after, Riley retired from hockey, returning to his hometown of Avery River. Adam had his captaincy, his wife, and his 2 kids, but he no longer had Riley.

A decade later and Adam arrives in Avery River, divorced, retired, and missing Riley, to attend Riley’s dad’s funeral - a man who was a father figure to himself in early adulthood. Riley wants nothing to do with him, wants him out of Avery River, wants to not be hurt again. But Adam stays. He wants to be there for Riley in every way he can.

In just over a week they go through so many stages, so many discussions they’ve been holding off. They grow and see if there can be a future. One that Riley had always wanted. One that Adam has always been scared of.

This story opens at a funeral, so yeah, it had me crying from page one. Riley is the true heart of this story. He’s been through so much and you’re rooting for his happiness the whole time. Meanwhile, Adam really did Riley dirty in the past, so he had a lot of redemption to earn. By the end, though, I felt for Adam too. 4.5⭐️rounded down.

Rachel Reid always delivers! Her hockey romances are among the most emotionally real in the genre. Usually she is writing about active players, but here she introduces us to two men who are past their NHL careers. The way they handle their very different retirements sets up a lovely, rich, and gripping story.

This is a super sweet and tender second chance romance between two retired NHL hockey players, one of whom is in the middle of deep grief due to the recent loss of his father. The book jumps back and forth in terms of the timeline from their early relationship to the current one. I loved both of these characters, the exploration of loneliness and coming out as a an older person, as well as mental illness and queer community in small towns. Rachel Reid is a brilliant writer and this is another great book from her.

This is my first Rachel Reid book, you’re telling me this is what I’ve been missing the whole time?

There’s something really special about Riley’s and Adam’s story, unrequited love between best friend is always super painful and Riley definitely went through a lot while being friends with Adam.

Adam on the other hand loved Riley as much as he could while being terrified of his own feelings. The difference between Adam in the past and present Adam is astronomical. He loves Riley so much even when he denied it even to himself.

The family dynamic was beautiful, Riley had so many people who cared about him, the small town vibes were beautiful. It was great to see Adam be accepted so easily.

I definitely recommend this book to those who like to read friends to lovers, sweet but kinda painful stories.

Thank you to NetGalley, the publisher and the author for this ARC copy.

4.5/5. It's Rachel Reid. You know it's going to be good! And as always, she did not disappoint. I love Riley. He's gruff and grumpy (I mean, rightfully so) and quiet, but he cares so much about other people and his dad's store and his plants and, of course Adam. Adam took me a minute to warm up to, mostly because we started with Riley's perspective, *spoiler* but also because of the whole laughing at him when Riley said he loved him thing. *end spoiler* I understand that young Adam was scared and confused, and I don't fault him for that, but that one thing I do. And the official break of their relationship... that I kind of blame Adam for, too.

BUT that being said, Adam does redeem himself. He's a kind and thoughtful man who doesn't give up when he knows what he wants. I appreciate that he came back for Riley's father's funeral, especially once we see just how much he meant to Adam as a stand in for his own terrible father. I enjoyed the time jumps back and forth between then and now. I also love the friends to enemies to lovers situation we had going on. I thought both men had such a strong connection because of that friendship and everything they shared. Oh and Riley's family and dog was amazing. <spoiler>Adam leaving that little snail shell at Riley's dad's grave was precious. </spoiler> I thought the conflict was realistic, as was the solution. Riley had been so heartbroken so many times that he was right to go slow and cautious. I also appreciate Riley's mental health struggles and how open he is with them.

✨ Review ✨ The Shots You Take by Rachel Reid

Thanks to Harlequin - Romance | Carina Adores and #netgalley for the gifted advanced copy/ies of this book!

As a Rachel Reid stan, I believe that she can do no wrong, and this book proves that yet again. Getting a review copy of this made me literally drop everything to pick this baby up.

The book starts at the funeral of Riley's dad, where he sees his long ago teammate and best friend, Adam, for the first time in many years. As Riley is grieving his dad, Adam tries to find a way back into his life, to offer comfort and support. The book alternates between the present day and periods in the past, where we quickly see that they had a bffs/roommates with benefits sort of situation...but one in which they had developed feelings for each other.

I really loved that the characters were in their 40s, and that they had retired from hockey, and were dealing with midlife stuff -- divorce, death, career changes, changing family dynamics, etc. I found that to make the story feel extra full of love and empathy and wisdom.

I enjoyed the small town setting of this book and seeing how Riley was able to carve out space for himself as a queer man and develop a really rich, small life, surrounded by people and things he loved (the description of his house sounds incredible! cozy and vibrant!)

This is yet another smash hit from Reid, and I'm so glad I get to be among the first to shout this out!

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Genre: contemporary m/m romance, hockey
Setting: small town Nova Scotia
Pub Date: Mar 04 2025

Read this if you like:
⭕️ small town romances
⭕️ m/m hockey player love
⭕️ cinnamon rolls (the pastry and the men)
⭕️ stories centering midlife characters

Rachel Reid, queen of hockey.

Also queen of: books that are bingeable in one sitting, respectfully written female characters, sensitively handling heavy topics, characters whose actions are understandable even when misguided, pining over multi-year spans

This one has a sadder tone than Rachel Reid’s other books, in part because it involves a main character in the thick of grieving and in part because a second chance romance means the romance didn’t work out the first time around. There’s a lot of sadness and hurt for the characters to work through. Unsurprisingly, Rachel Reid writes this journey carefully and beautifully. I particularly appreciated the care taken with Adam’s journey of self-acceptance and growth.

I will read anything Rachel Reid writes. I’m so grateful to have gotten an ARC so I didn’t spontaneously combust from desperate impatience!

Gosh that was just such a nice book about adults learning to communicate their feelings!! To be clear, that is among my most favorite genres of books, so this is actually an unironic "gosh that was so nice." My heart-eyes are kind of having heart-eyes. The only thing I do kinda need to ding this for is that while lip service was paid to Adam and Riley both playing a part in their disastrous past, I don't actually know that we got enough on-screen about Riley's mental health problems in the past OUTSIDE of Adam's disastrous handling of his feelings. I mean, don't get me wrong, I adore the bits that we did get in present times, the themes of grieving while being mentally ill brought tears to my eyes about how real some of this felt. But like. What we saw in the past was Riley being basically fine except for Adam being a dick, which, uh, doesn't QUITE fit with a narrative of at least some of this being on Riley, and I would have liked that theme teased out a bit more. But seriously, such a small thing that, overall, did NOT stop me from having my face hurt from smiling during the last third of this book. <3 <3 <3

I've clearly been missing out having not read anything from Rachel Reid yet because WOW. I'm a big fan of hockey romances and MM romances, so this was definitely on target, but the emotion was top notch. This book is very well written, I know because I have read some clunkers in the past. The story of Adam and Riley is just beautiful, the pain and love were well defined throughout the book. Adam had a lot of explaining and making up to do to Riley. Riley has his heart broken over and over again and thought he had moved on, but obviously hadn't. The loss of his father was almost too much to bear, but Adam's reappearance in Riley's life was both a blessing and a curse. The story is solid, although I wouldn't have minded a bit more toward to end with how Adam's kids handled things, but it's still good.