Blurb:

Zach

Since I was six years old, my world has revolved around two things: Carter Lockwood and hockey.

We made a pact in college before we turned pro to always put each other first. To make each other our priority, but being in love with your straight best friend can make that hard, especially when you have to watch them fall in love with someone else.

I don’t want to break my best friend’s heart to save my own, but I need to put some space between us to save our friendship.

Only this time, it’s not just the defensive zone I’m protecting, but also my heart.

Carter

From the moment I met Zach Reid, we were inseparable.

Nobody really understands why I always wanted to be with him. Our relationship is what some people call codependent, but he’s been my favorite person for over two decades, and life is always calmer when he’s around.

But something changed between us over the summer, and I started to see him in a different way.

Then the pact we made in college started to fall apart, along with my football career.

I don’t know what happened or how to make it right, but there’s one thing I know for certain.

I’m lost without him.

Defensive Zone is a childhood best friends to lovers sports romance featuring a hockey player and football player. It includes unrequited love, a bi-awakening, mutual pining and all the Thunder found family vibes.

It is book three in the Chicago Thunder series and can be read as a standalone.

Buy Link:

https://mybook.to/DefensiveZoneThunder3

Available in KU

*****

Review:

My heart just broke for Zach as he goes through years of a secret love for his best friend. All the girlfriends, the months spent together without being able to show his true feelings … I can’t imagine. We know it works out for them but that’s decades of heartache.

Carter may be late to the party but once he figures things out he throws his whole self into their new relationship. He’s sweet, caring, and adventurous. He never lets Zach think he’s not all in.

Pretty much all the angst, the little bit that there is, is centered around their friendship and the issues that lead up to Carter understanding exactly what’s going on between them. After they get together we are treated to Nick and Carter settling into their new relationship, discovering the “benefits’ that come with those changes, and figuring out what their futures are going to look like. It’s sweet, steamy, and fun.

The believability rating for this one is low but the enjoyability is pretty darn high. The author does state before the book starts that to keep the book low angst that she made it easier for them. We could only hope that Zach and Carter’s relationship could develop the same way in the real world but we have a long way to go.

*****

Author Info:

Jodi Oliver is a British author who writes MM romance, happily ever after guaranteed. She loves donuts, dogs and ice hockey, and when she hasn’t got her head in a book or hiding in the writing cave, you can find her at an ice hockey game.

She lives in England but dreams of living in the Canadian countryside, with some highland cows and otters.

You can find her on Instagram @JodiOliverAuthor or in her Facebook reader group ‘Jodi Oliver’s Sin Bin’

Connect with Jodi Oliver:

https://www.jodioliver.com/links

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