Portland Evergreens Book 1: Melting the Ice by Beth Bolden

 

Portland Evergreens Book 1

Brody’s got enough on his plate.

Recovering from a knee injury he hopes won’t keep him off the ice. His team, the Portland University Evergreens, have a brand new coach, and he’s hoping to impress the legendary leader. Plus, he's got to make a decision once and for all about playing professional hockey or using his love of science to go a totally different direction.

The last thing he needs is a sexual awakening at the large, calloused hands of his football player roommate.

Dean is big and brawny and taciturn, but he doesn’t need words to woo Brody. He wants Dean, even if he thought he was straight. And Dean? Doesn’t matter that he’s never hooked up with a guy before, either.

They’re discovering new pleasures every night, while pretending during the day that they’re just roommates.

Except the heat burns so hot between them, it doesn’t just melt all the ice on Brody’s rink, it melts all his beliefs about who he is and what he wants.

But even more, it destroys the lie that he can’t fall hard for a guy. Because Brody is falling hard for Dean, and he discovers he’s not alone.

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/215538460-melting-the-ice

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My Review: 5/5 Stars

I’ve been looking forward to Beth writing a hockey series and she did not disappoint! But not only do we have a hockey player main character, but a football one as well! With a few surprising cameos you will love if you keep up with Beth’s books. So this story follows Brody and Dean. College athletes thrown together as roommates and both on track to play professionally in their respected sports. Well at least Dean, our football player is. Dean has always been focused on his goal to make it to the NFL. Growing up with no dad and a mother who just isn’t around, Dean has learned to rely on only himself. Something that reflects a bit in his football skills and when it comes to making friends. For Brody, he has always had a love for science and the idea of going to med school to become a doctor and to play for the NHL. He was drafted already but after an injury his previous season, he comes back to this new season with all kinds of doubts. Like what his future should actually be. And if that wasn’t enough to think about, his best friend throws Brody a new roommate rather than himself. Though Brody at first is mad at his friend, that melts away when he meets Dean. The two of them just click and get one another in a way they don’t really do with others. And it’s only a matter of time before that slowly shifts to something more. Neither have ever felt this way about a person, let alone another guy, but I loved as they two slowly tried to figure it out. Both of them are so caring and sweet, and the two of them were adorable as they fell in love yet were too scared to actually tell the other. It makes it so satisfying when they finally take the leap of admitting their feelings! This was a great book to kick the series off with! Our main guys were great and we met a lot of other interesting characters who will be getting their own books soon. I can’t wait to read them all!

I received an ARC in exchange for an honest review.