Narrated by Cooper North
O. M. G. Prepare for a gushing review of a book I’ve already read twice and started listening to the moment it showed up in Audible. Yes, it’s that good. Yes, I loved it. Yes, this series is firmly ensconced in my top five all-time sports romance list. Don’t have one of those? You can start yours with the Game Changers series; it deserves a top spot.
As much as I love LOVE loved Heated Rivalry (book two), the Game Changers series is something of a mixed bag. Game Changer (book one) featured likeable principal characters in a ridiculous story, and because the set-up was so absurd, I almost didn’t read Heated Rivalry, the best book in the series. Tough Guy, book three, was enjoyable but slow moving. I loved the characters and the story arc, but it lacked the humor and quick pacing of the earlier books. The first three books are radically different from each other, and I wasn’t quite sure what to expect from Common Goal. Friends, it’s terrific and almost as good as Heated Rivalry. I’m still #ShaneLovesIlyaforever…but Eric and Kyle are coming in HOT.
Eric Bennett is 41 years old and he never forgets it – not on the ice, not in the locker room with his much younger teammates, not at home, and not when he’s admiring a much younger man he can’t seem to resist staring at (lusting over). Eric knows retirement is just around the corner and just the thought of life after hockey makes him sad. He loves his sport and his teammates (the fictional NY Admirals), but he’s lonely. Although his divorce a year ago was mostly painless, facing retirement – with no one to share it with – stings. He’s ready to finally start dating again, and this time, he’s determined to date a man. Unfortunately, the one he has his eyes on has his eyes on someone else. Besides, he’s much too young for Eric anyway. Ahem.
When Kyle Swift moved to NYC, his wealthy parents couldn’t get him out of their small Vermont hometown fast enough. A scandalous affair with a much older man threatened to ruin their carefully cultivated reputation, and they jettisoned Kyle with barely a backwards glance. Fortunately, their largesse (guilt money) provided Kyle with a comfortable apartment, tuition, and the ability to live without worrying about making ends meet. When Common Goal begins, he’s part way through a masters in Art History at Columbia University, and works alongside Kip Grady (Game Changer, Scott Hunter’s fiancé) – whom he not-so-secretly pines after. He knows there’s no hope of a relationship with Kip and is determined to get over him.
When Eric spots Kyle working the bar at Kip’s engagement party, he can’t help feeling a secret thrill. Kyle is hot, and he likes to flirt. Eric thinks there might be a mutual interest, but he isn’t sure how or what to do about it. Besides, Kyle seems to flirt with every man he meets. Unfortunately, he can’t seem to keep him off his mind, and learning that they have a shared interest in art and history only intensifies his attraction to the other man. But after finding increasingly creative ways to spend time with Kyle, he assumes Kyledoesn’t feel the same about him.
Yeah, right. Kyle is interested in Eric. Big time.
If Kyle had one weakness—and he didn’t; he had many—it was confident, attractive older men. Also, confident, attractive younger men. Also, men.
LOL. But when he spots him wearing a wedding ring, he reminds himself to keep his distance. He has a history of chasing after the wrong kinds of men, and he doesn’t plan to add Eric to his list of mistakes.
Oh friends, Ms. Reid does such a lovely job setting up these two lonely, wonderful men. Kyle eventually discovers Eric isn’t married, and then Eric confesses he’s bisexual, and…well, I’m not going to tell you. Suffice it to say, Eric is desperately attracted to Kyle, and way out of his depth navigating gay dating. When Kyle offers to help him in the bedroom and out of it, their “friendship” becomes something bigger and better than either man expected.
Common Goal is fun, funny and totally sexy. Eric and Kyle make a lovely couple, and their physical attraction to each other is off the charts. I loved every moment we get to spend with them, and it’s such a treat to watch them fall in love. Ms. Reid imbues each of their interactions with small kindnesses, vulnerability, laughter, and just terrific chemistry. Both men are supremely well realized. Eric, one of the best NHL goalies for eighteen years, struggles to reconcile the end of one life with the beginning of another. He’s up for the challenge, but the confidence and skills he brought to the ice can’t help him navigate what it feels like to fall passionately, wildly in love with someone he doesn’t think is “right” for him. He doesn’t like the loss of control or the age difference between him and Kyle, and he tries (in vain) to resist his lustful, loving feelings for him. Meanwhile, Kyle has been so far unlucky in love, and doubts his appeal. He knows what he wants (a hot, older man, JUST LIKE Eric), but doesn’t believe someone as mature, successful and amazing as Eric could want a person with Kyle’s past. Their age difference only increases Kyle’s desire for Eric, but the closer he grows to him, the more he knows he can’t teach Eric to be gay for someone else. Le sigh.
The best parts of this novel are the ones with Eric and Kyle falling in love with each other, but cameos from Scott, Kip, Ilya and Shane are equally awesome. Ilya is THE BEST character in the series, and when he shows up at Kingfisher’s (the bar where Kip and Kyle work) and orders a Scott Hunter for himself and a virgin Scott Hunter for Eric…well, it’s priceless. He has no filter, is totally onto Eric and his Kyle-crush right from the get-go and loves to give Scott shit. OMG. I love him. The secondary characters and old man jokes are the best.
I want to tell you the audio version is equally good, but I can’t. I like Mr. North as Kyle. His tone and range are perfect for the younger man, and he captures Kyle’s temperament and feelings much as I read them. Unfortunately, he’s much, much less successful voicing Eric Bennett. In fact, I had a hard time detecting any difference between the principal characters aside from their characterization by Reid in the text. His performance lacks the nuance and gravitas I expected from this older, wiser, more mature character, and I just kept wishing the voice in my head matched the one I was listening to. He totally fails to perform Eric as he reads on page. He’s similarly ill-suited to the secondary characters dotted throughout the story – Kip and Scott sound like immature teenagers, and Maria (Kyle’s roommate and friend) loses all her teasing, tender affection, and sounds instead like a snarky teenager.
Common Goal is sexy, funny, and romantic. It’s one of the best romances of the year, but this narration isn’t nearly as good as the book.
Em
Buy Common Goal by Rachel Reid on Amazon
Great review, Em. I pretty much agree with everything you’ve written.
I read Heated Rivalry first, went on to read Tough Guy as it came out, then went back to Game Changers which, I agree, is a lesser book.
I listened to the audios in the same order – Heated Rivalry was actually the first non-HR audio that I bought and I really enjoyed the narration that was so different from the usual Kate Reading/Rosalyn Landor/Alex Wyndham narrations that I listened to. I loved listening to Heated Rivalry and Tough Guy but loathed Game Changer as I hated the way the narrator voiced Kip – he sounded like a miserable old man and not at all how I’d imagined him. These three books were narrated by Tor Thom and, after a few conversations with Caz, I can hear some shortcomings in his narrations apart from Kip’s voice – e.g. he doesn’t seem to worry much about keeping to the punctuation. But, IMO his voice for Ilya is superb and, as Ilya is the catalyst for so much in these books, this matters.
I thought Cooper North’s narration of Common Goal was okay when he was narrating the story – he did pay more attention to the punctuation – but, like you, I struggled to differentiate the characters. I liked his voice for Kip in the scenes he was in though. But, and this is a really big BUT, I thought that his voice for Ilya was really weak. Where is his awesomeness and sexiness? Massive fail IMO and it needs sorting out before Shane and Ilya’s sequel story.
Wendy, have you heard Greg Boudreaux’s turn as Alexei in Hailey Turner’s Metahumans books? THAT is how to voice a sexy Russian ;)
No, but I’ve just bought Tinderbox by Rachel Grant narrated by Greg Tremblay – any Russians in that?
That’s a terrific series and Greg is brilliant. (Kaetrin and I have reviewed all the books here.) I think there’s a Russian character in the next book (a cameo appearance from a popular character in her Evidence series) – although it’s been a while so I’m not sure. There are plenty of other accents though and he’s pretty good at all of them!
So would you recommend the books in print rather than audio? And do you need to read all the books,or can I skip the weaker entries? Since I have a limited number of audiobooks I can check out through my library each month, I’m trying to save my checkouts and Audible credits for the best.
Carrie, I REALLY dislike Tor Thom – I’ve reviewed him twice here and given him low grades, and I tried to listen to Heated Rivalry because I love it so much, but I thought his portrayal of Ilya was terrible – sorry, Wendy. So I’d stay stick to print for books 1-3. I do like Cooper North, but haven’t had a chance to listen to this yet. And you can read them as standalones.
Hah, at least this proves that we’re not clones!
Carrie, I’d also recommend that you stick to print, but start with Heated Rivalry and take it from there.
Indeed it does! The world would be a boring place if we all liked the same things…
I finally listened to this one – I’d have given the narration a B+ (at least).
I’ve finally got around to listening to this and I have to say that I really enjoyed the narration; I thought the deeper, gravelly tone used for Eric was just right, and that his character really came through. I agree the female voices were a bit weaker, but I didn’t have any problems with the differentiation of the male characters. I’d have given the narration a B+.