Off the Ice by Avon Gale and Piper Vaughn + Giveaway

Posted October 31, 2017 by shooting in Book Review, Giveaway / 21 Comments

Thanks for joining Avon Gale and Piper Vaughn on the OFF THE ICE blog tour. In the Hat Trick series, love and hockey collide—and create enough heat to melt the ice. Join the players as they chase both the Stanley Cup and their own personal happily ever afters.

About Off the Ice

Tristan Holt is nothing if not pragmatic. Despite a flourishing career as a defenseman for the Atlanta Venom, Tristan knows he can’t play hockey forever. One day he’ll retire—if an injury doesn’t force him to hang up his skates first. His backup plan? Finishing his business degree. But he doesn’t count on a very inappropriate attraction to his standoffish sociology professor, Sebastian Cruz.

Sebastian is on the bottom rung of the Sociology Department at Georgia State. He has his sights set on tenure, and he can’t afford to be distracted, especially not by a sexy student with a body straight out of Sebastian’s dreams. No matter how much Tristan tempts him, that’s one line Sebastian won’t cross. At least not until summer classes end. After that, everything is fair game.

But Sebastian lives loud and proud, and Tristan is terrified of being the first out player in the NHL. Neither of them can afford to risk their hearts when they can’t imagine a happily ever after. The problem is, unlike hockey, when it comes to love, there are no rules.

source: copy from publisher/Netgalley; all opinions are my own

Review (add on Goodreads): Oh, I loved this one! I actually didn’t realize that I’d read another book by this duo – Permanent Ink – and that I’d loved that one too. This is definitely a writing duo that I will keep reading. Both Permanent Ink and Off the Ice deal with an age gap romance. For Off the Ice, that includes Tristan Holt – professional hockey player who has gone back to college to finish his degree. He wants to have a back-up in place in case something happens and he can no longer play hockey. Sebastian Cruz is a sociology professor who talks about people having preconceived notions – and then he goes and judges Tristan before he’s ever been talked to him, believing him to be a lazy, trust fund kid.

Eventually the two work it out and their mutual attraction to each other is acted upon once Tristan is no longer a student of Sebastian. The two are good together – and they give each other what they both need. For Tristan, he knows he’s gay but he’s not out to anyone, but being with Sebastian makes him want to open up. However, he’s afraid of doing so because there are no out NHL players and he doesn’t know if it will implode his career or not. Sebastian understands and he’d never tell someone to come out if they aren’t ready, but at the same time, he can’t personally go back in the closet for someone. Starting out they know that things are going to get complicated, but they have definitely fallen for each other when that moment fully arrives and both of them have to make tough decisions.

I think Gale and Vaughn work really well together. I love the relationship between Tristan and Sebastian and how they complement each other in different ways. I also really like the various secondary characters – Sebastian’s friend and co-worker and Tristan’s family and teammates. Since Off the Ice is only the first in the new Hat Trick series, I can’t wait to see who will be featured in the second book. It could be one of two based on Off the Ice.

Highly recommend if you’re at all intrigued!

Available now from Riptide Publishing. http://www.riptidepublishing.com/titles/off-the-ice

About Avon Gale

Avon grew up in the southern United States, and now lives with her very patient husband in a liberal Midwestern college town. When she’s not writing, she’s either doing some kind of craft project that makes a huge mess, reading, watching horror movies, listening to music or yelling at her favorite hockey team to get it together, already. Avon is always up for a road trip, adores Kentucky bourbon, thinks nothing is as stress relieving as a good rock concert, and will never say no to candy.

At one point, Avon was the mayor of both Jazzercise and Lollicup on Foursquare. This tells you basically all you need to know about her as a person.

Connect with Avon:

About Piper Vaughn

Piper Vaughn wrote her first love story at eleven and never looked back. Since then, she’s known that writing in some form was exactly what she wanted to do. A reader at the core, Piper loves nothing more than getting lost in a great book—fantasy, young adult, romance, sci-fi, she loves them all (and has an over-two-thousand-book library to prove it!). She’s an avid tea drinker, a hockey fanatic, a vintage typewriter collector, and loves to travel so much she has “wanderlust” tattooed on her ankle and dozens of countries on her bucket list. Recently, she discovered the world of nail art and realized she’s pretty handy with a paintbrush—as long as it’s a miniature one.

As a bisexual and Latinx person, Piper takes great pride in her heritage. She grew up in an ethnically diverse neighborhood and strives to put faces and characters of every ethnicity in her stories, so her fictional worlds are as colorful as the real one. She currently resides in the suburbs of Chicago with her husband, son, and a cat that has Piper wrapped around her little paw. Above all, she believes that everyone needs a little true love in their life … even if it’s only in a book.

Connect with Piper:

Giveaway

To celebrate the release of Off the Ice, one lucky winner will receive a Venom t-shirt in their size and Venom notebook! Leave a comment with your contact info to enter the contest. Entries close at midnight, Eastern time, on November 4, 2017. Thanks for following the tour, and don’t forget to leave your contact info!

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21 responses to “Off the Ice by Avon Gale and Piper Vaughn + Giveaway

  1. danielle hammelef

    Hockey is the best sport to watch in person and on TV. I love the nonstop action and stick and skating skills of these athletes. Put love and hockey together and I want to read this book. dhammelef(at)yahoo(dot)com

  2. Raine

    I really like the sports romance stories. This is new to me and definitely going on my tbr pile. buzzyngabe at yahoo dot com @buzzyngabe on Twitter. Thank you. Tweeted also.

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