The Games We Play Book 5: Cherry Picking by Rikki Leighton

 

The Games We Play Book 5

RILEY 

My last relationship couldn't survive the secrecy of being queer in the PHL. 

Sure, the league isn't outright hostile to out players anymore, but you never know if a bad apple runs in your circle. From town to town and then team to team, you learn to hold those cards close to your chest. 

That’s how I’ve lived the last thirty years of my life until Griffin Foster comes barreling in like the hotheaded goalie he is. He’s young, reckless, and makes me want a life I’ve never been convinced I can have. 

He lights a fire under me to be a better player, to tackle the ghosts haunting my past. But when I push too hard and an old injury flares up, all that ambition goes up in flames. 

Face to face with the love of my life, can I open myself up to give him what he deserves, or will I lose him for good? 

GRIFFIN 

I’ve always been out and proud and not willing to compromise for anyone—until I lock eyes with defenseman Riley Easton in the weight room mirror after being traded to the Hornets. One look and my resolve flies out the window. 

What harm is a closet when you’ve got the flickering flame of a star-crossed passion to keep you company? 

When Riley goes down on that ice and is given a career death sentence, there’s no pretending what we are is fun and indulgent anymore. 

Riley has given me a home, not just with the team, but within himself, and I'm not willing to let that go. 

I just need to convince him that we’re worth fighting for, even if the person he has to fight is himself. 

Cherry Picking is an emotion-packed, teammates to lovers, secret relationship romance between a goalie who’s used to getting what he wants and a defenseman who won’t let himself believe he deserves it. 

The Games We Playis a multi-author minor league hockey romance series. All titles run concurrently through the same hockey season and the books can be read in any order, so jump in anywhere.

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/211810248-cherry-picking

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My Review: 5/5 Stars

What an emotional rollercoaster! Riley and Griffin deserve their happy ending and boy does it take them a bit to get there. The story starts with Griffin being traded to yet a new team. He’s used to it. It’s happened a dozen times before and is never surprised. But at least this time it brings him home and to his best friend.  He hopes for the best on this new team and hopes even more that they can accept an out gay man. Luckily they do. But he doesn’t expect Riley. The D-Man who instantly captures Griffin’s attention. And the moment these guys meet, everything changes. Especially when they end up as roommates. Riley has been in the closet for a long time. There is just something in him that is too afraid to tell anyone his truth. Not even his family or teammates where he has seen they are accepting. So afraid to tell anyone, he lost his first boyfriend, Matty, and has never really gotten over the what ifs and that his fear cost him something good in his life. But Griffin wakes up a part of him that wants to take risk again. And so begins their secret relationship. Starting off as just hook ups but for the next two years is clearly something more. Though neither seem ready to say it or want to rock the boat. But things change when Riley is hurt on the ice again and this time his career looks like it is done. The two of them will have to face what they are together. Griffin knows what he wants. He loves Riley and will fight for him. Even when Riley won’t fight himself. And Riley. He has a lot of baggage to unpack and he knows if he doesn’t figure himself out, he could lose Griffin. The man he loves more than anything else. He wants to fight for him but can he figure out how? Oh man, like I said this was an emotional rollercoaster. You just wanna shake Riley to make him realize that everything he wants is right in front of him. That if he just lets go of the past, he can have a future. And Griffin is just so sweet and understanding but also a fighter. Because he won’t give up on Riley. Never. Adored these two even as they kept breaking and repairing my heart over and over! You definitely don’t want to miss this story from this series!

I received an ARC in exchange for an honest review.