Review: An impressive trilogy with a little something for everyone - and this entry is all MM
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 02 26, 2014
The PremiseThe second in the Hat Trick series, Garrick LeBlanc is counting down the days until he can join his girlfriend Savannah, a trainer for the Bruins, in Boston.  He’s wrapping up his EHL career and embarking on a new life as part owner of the Moncton Ice Cats, the team he’s played with for 12 years.  As he tries to finish out the season, getting up to speed on running the team as well as playing with teammates whose careers he now has control over, Garrick is frustrated and missing Savannah.  Knowing that Garrick is bi, she suggests that he take a lover, as long as he’s male and he tells her all about it.  once the idea is out there, Garrick starts acknowledging long suppressed desires, and starts seeing other men in a different way - in particular one man, Rhian Savage, his friend and teammate.  Rhian has one goal - to play for the NHL, but feelings he’s long ignored make him realize that there’s a new tension between him and Garrick…The GoodI picked up the first book as a freebie on amazon and was completely sucked into this world.  M/M romances, and MMF menages are not for everyone, but when done well, the sex is secondary to the characters and the emotional relationship.  Garrick and Savannah had their own special heat in the first book, but this book explores Garrick’s bisexuality and his own romance with Rhian.  Garrick and Rhian’s relationship starts off explosively, but the emotional vulnerability of Rhian is the real hook here.  Rhian’s been left behind his entire life.  He’s had no one to care about him and I was completely absorbed in his journey to believing that someone could love him.  Garrick was hot in the first place, and so comfortable with his sexuality that I can’t help but admire that.  He’s beta everywhere but the bedroom and I will not play down the titillation factor - this is a genre that I didn’t believe I’d have an interest in, but at the end of the day, it’s still a romance and as long as it’s done well, the physical parts are just another facet.That each book has its own resolution, a HFN ending and is developing every angle of this triad, has been a welcome relief from serial cliffhanger series.  Too often, I have complained about a story that is broken apart into separate books that can’t sustain themselves, and it feels like a money grab.  I think these are books that could conceivably stand on their own, but the full series just enriches the storytelling.  I’m very impressed by that.The Not as GoodThe secondary plot revolving an old foster “brother” of Rhian’s isn’t as strong, and really only a plot device to drive Rhian and Garrick together.  The villains in this series have also been pretty one dimensional.  It’s also hard to strike the right balance between too much sex and too little.  I also struggled with believing that a kid in foster care was able to play hockey, since at least in the States, it’s not as common a sport and the likelihood that a family would be able to afford the gear, training, and time to take a kid that by all accounts was ignored to the rink to play was a bit of a stretch for me.The Bottom LineThis series may not be for everyone, but I think it’s written well, with an emphasis on the emotional connections and still very sexy.