**Thank you to Harlequin for this free digital review copy.**

This was everything I wanted from Rachel Reid after loving "Time to Shine" so much last year. Much like that novel, this one is full of spice, but it's also so much more than that! Reid makes it so easy to fall in love with her characters and imagine them being real people with real, relatively normal problems (I say relatively because they're still ex-NHL players, haha). I really enjoyed reading about a couple in their 40's for a change, both a little more established and a little more sure about what they want out of life. This book tackled loss and grief so gently and showed how vital it is to be present in the midst of terrible times, as well as the importance of community to keep hold of hope. I flew through it (and not only because I was skimming the spicier scenes) and think anyone who enjoys a sports romance will love this story.

The Shots You Take by Rachel Reid had me in a chokehold almost immediately. Riley Tuck’s grief is visceral to begin the story and I desperately wanted to reach into the book hug him. Reid did an impressive job of writing a romance that dealt with the crushing weight of loss while navigating intense heartbreak after 12 years of no contact by not centering the romance immediately. Because of Riley’s palpable grief I was glad to know he initially shrugged off Adam’s attempts to support him in order to protect his own heart. It feels so odd to root against the other half of the pairing in a romance, but that is undoubtedly a strength of this book, initially. Adam Sheppard bumbles his way through reconnecting with Riley while endearing himself to the reader. He puts Riley’s needs first when he had recently discovered so much about himself and considered mistakes he made in the past. I have read all Reid’s books and one of my favorite aspects of her writing is how she portrays athletes and former athletes who didn’t get everything from the game. Sometimes athletics are so toxic but within the sports romance world the focus can often be on the notoriety or wealth of athletes and gloss over everything else. I loved learning how Riley Tuck carved out a life after hockey that was so intentional and beautiful. This book explores grief, reconciliation, and self-discovery while balancing the joy of reconnecting with an old friend and partner. It is exceptional, and I will undoubtedly be reading it again soon.

Rachel Reid does it again! I love second chance romances and this is probably my favorite one ever! So raw and beautiful, sweet and sad, melancholic and joyful at the same time. I read it all in one sitting with an aching heart, immediately wanting to start over and re-read it all again! I know this is a book that will always have a special place in my heart.

Heated Rivalry is one of my favorite books ever, and Shane and Ilya will always live rent free in my heart. I never expected Rachel Reid to come up with a book that could match that, but Adam and Riley stole my heart and made me love them just as much as Shane and Ilya, which really shouldn’t be possible.

Compared to Rachel Reid’s other hockey romances this one is quieter, more melancholic, with less hockey and more emotional depth. The characters are a bit older and somewhat disillusioned, having been through some really difficult things but are learning to accept and love themselves again.

Riley and Adam were teammates and star NHL players about twenty years ago, but haven’t been in touch for over a decade since Adam broke Riley’s heart and made him leave his best friend and the whole hockey world behind. Now, a recovering alcoholic who has made peace with himself and found a good life in his hometown, Riley’s world is once again turned upside down when his beloved father dies and his former lover shows up for the funeral.

This was such a beautiful and emotional love story, but also a gripping story about mental health and grief. Rachel Reid does a marvelous job in describing the struggles with mental health and grief, the way we humans can lie to ourselves and the hardship in realizing what those lies have cost. It’s a raw and emotional story, but also very sweet, so honest and so full of longing and a love so deep that it’s lasted for decades even though both men have done their absolute best to try to bury their emotions.

“I could have helped you,” Adam said desperately. “Whatever you were going through, I could have helped.”
“You were what I was going through.”

The book takes place, more or less, over the course of a week after Adam shows up at Riley’s father’s funeral and stays on to offer his support and maybe get a chance of making amends and find out if there is even the slightest possibility that his emotions could be reciprocated. But through their conversations and through the timeline jumps to the past we learn how deep their love for each other is, how it started, how it ended and the pain it caused. I was so angry at young Adam at times, for the bad choices he made and for how badly he treated Riley and played with his emotions. But seeing present day Adam’s struggles and the compassionate way he was there for Riley now, it was easy to forgive him. The way we got to learn about Adam’s journey to explore and accept his sexuality, and his growth from scared, closeted and in denial, to mature, humble and in tune with himself, was so well done.

The slow burn and the character growth is amazing. The way Rachel Reid weaves the fact that Adam and Riley have spent half of their lives apart and use their experiences to grow together is pure perfection. She made us love them both not despite their flaws but because of them.

So, what can I say other than that I absolutely love this book and that I can’t wait for it to be out in the world for everyone else to read it too? It’s such a gem, so honest and real, sweet and emotional, sad and hopeful. This story pulled me in from the very first page and I know for sure that I will keep coming back to it over and over again.

Thank you so much Carina Adores and NetGalley for the opportunity to read this book in advance! All opinions are my own and I am leaving my honest review voluntarily.

Not that I'm surprised in the least, but Rachel Reid's newest book is OUTRAGEOUSLY good. As always, it was just the right combination of charming, funny, and absolutely gutwrenching (but in a way that feels so good). I've been really into second chance romance right now, and this is a fine example of that trope at its best. I loved the characters (even though I wanted to strangle Adam at times if I'm being totally honest), and I understood their motivations. They had hurdles to overcome that made sense, and the resolution was oh so satisfied. All in all, and excellent read that I will be recommending around town for sure!

I honestly think this might be my new favorite Rachel Reid book. The way she wrote the longing and grief and deep rooted love felt by both Riley and Adam was just so beautiful.

The story starts out with the funeral of Riley's beloved father, where Adam (Riley's old teammate and ex-best friend) has shown up after over a decade of not seeing each other. We get kind of thrown right into the mix of emotions that brings up for them both and slowly as the story evolves we get to see their back story and how they got to the point they are at. Two 40 something year olds who are hopelessly in love with each other.

I loved the exploration of grief and how it's manifested. The struggles on mental health issues. I loved the pure longing both characters express and the fear of getting it wrong again. The all-encompassing love these two men feel for each other, have always felt for each other is so clear on the page. I also just loved the journey Adam takes to understand his sexuality. Although we don't see it in real time, we get to feel all those emotions right along with him. This book made me cry and I don't cry easily. After I finished I started crying again just thinking about the whole story.

I know this will be a reread for me and since I read it before the cover was even released, I'm absolutely dying to see what it looks like! All I know is I will definitely be buying a copy to keep on my shelf.

I am actually sick to my stomach over how much I loved this book. The perfect combination of grief, unrequited longing, late-in-life gay awakenings, and second chance romance. I could scream. If you're looking for a pure hockey romance, this isn't quite it - both MCs are since retired (one for a while, one more recently), but you get enough references to the game and their time together as teammates to satisfy a fan of the genre.

I have liked a lot of Rachel Reid’s books but this one takes the cake. I read it in a single sitting. It’s almost midnight and I literally NEVER stay up this late I cannot stress how much I loved this book. It might be because I'm older myself, but it's just such a beautiful, heartbreaking romance. And funny! And spicy! It's firing on all cylinders and has something for everyone.

10/10, five stars, no notes. Highly recommend this one. Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC.

This heartfelt gay romance is a beautiful and moving meditation on grief and second chances. Two retired hockey players - former teammates, best friends, and sometimes lovers-on-the-sly - reunite at a funeral in a small town in Nova Scotia, and try to find a way to heal the harm they've done each other. I was deeply moved.

"I'd like to live a small life, I think."


I really love these sad hockey players. This was so much quieter than Rachel Reid's previous books, with minimal hockey, but I think that was exactly right for this story and these characters. I actually loved just how quiet it was, with most of the book taking place over the course of a week in a small town in Nova Scotia.

I'm convinced Rachel Reid is a wizard that uses her powers to make me emotionally invested in sad fictional hockey players and their love lives. I hope she never stops.

I love a second chance romance, and one with this much of a time gap between the two protagonists? I ate it up. So much growth and grief happened while they were apart, and watching both Riley and Adam try to process that and grow together? God, it's so GOOD.

Reid has such a way of weaving so many different emotions and important topics into her stories, it hooks you from the first page and THE SHOTS YOU TAKE is no different. I was rooting for these two idiots in their twenties just as much as in their forties.

Another aspect I super appreciated about this is the fact that both characters are older. They've lived a good deal of their lives apart, and using all that world experience to reconnect and fall in love (again) just made the story that much richer.

Honestly, I will drop everything for a Rachel Reid book, and I'm so glad I scooped this one up as quickly as I did. Stick taps for days.