The Long Season

Title: The Long Season
Author: Michael Vance Gurley
Publisher: Bold Strokes Books
Release Date: June 14, 2016
Genre(s): MM Romance, Historical, Sport
Page Count: 312
Reviewed by: LenaRibka
Heat Level: 1 flames out of 5
Rating: 2 stars out of 5
Blurb:

In Roaring Twenties Chicago, eighteen-year-old farm boy and hockey hopeful Brett Bennet is drafted to the big leagues of the city’s first ever team. His deepest secret catches fire when he meets the dashing but reclusive goalie, Jean-Paul Moreau. As they circle one another finding out who they truly are, their lives are changed in ways neither can control.

Brett will need the help of freewheeling flapper Margret to find a way to break through Jean-Paul’s ice, and to navigate the high stakes world of professional sports from the opening game through to the championship. Only together do they have a hope of facing the deadly threat of a man who can bring it all down with one word.

I have to be honest, I didn’t finished it. I read only the first 74% then I went to the end and read the last 2 chapters. I could have skimmed the last 25%, the result would have been the same: I didn’t like this book.

And I was so certain, I would like this novel!

Brett Bennet and his best friend and partner on ice Mickey MacKay are chosen as the best players of a province small hockey team in Delavan, Wisconsin, to join a new ice hockey team in Chicago.
They are high motivated and ambitious to become the best players in their new team.

But it is not Mickey, who will play an important role in Brett’s life, but his team buddy, a goalie Jean-Paul Moreau, who differs from all other players, who is always by himself, and whom Brett feels magically drawn to. Soon he finds out what secrets is hidden behind Jean-Paul’s coolness. He’s like Brett. He likes men. But while Brett is inexperienced and unsure in his sexuality and his feelings, Jean-Paul knows exactly what he wants and where he can get it, leading a double life and satisfying his sexual needs in the numerous underground clubs of Chicago. Margret, his best friend, a rich girl of the high society of Chicago, herewith makes a perfect cover for his double life.

It is Jean-Paul who introduces Brett to the night life of the big city, and it is Jean-Paul with whom he’ll fall in love. Unfortunately Jean-Paul, a famous heart breaker in a gay underground world of Chicago, is not a relationship type. He isn’t interested in a serious relationship and even less in any commitment. But Brett is sure that Jean-Paul is a love of his life and he decides not to give up so easily, he will fight for it. The method he chooses is doubtful for my taste, but who dares to question it, if it seems to work? Yes, it is a MM Romance, and of course you will have a HEA at the end. It is not a spoiler.

This novel has everything I COULD enjoy:

1. I love ice hockey.
2. I love historical novels.
3. I love the settings – Chicago in the 1920th!

Unfortunately what I got, was just a boring romance, with unappealing characters, without any sexual tension. Maybe it is not a plot itself, though I have some serious complaints about unrealistic behavior of some characters, some sudden strange flashlights in the plot- eye roll pure, and too many night clubs and booze, but my biggest problem was the writing with its flat dialogues. I couldn’t warm up with it. I was bored to death with this novel, and I struggled through the whole book, until I decided to give up at 74%, after more than one week suffering.

What a disappointment!