GAME CHANGER by Rachel Reid (2020)

★ ★ ★ ★ .75 - After a slowish start, I did end up falling in love with Kip & Scott & their cute relationship dynamic. However the main reason to read this is so you can get the most out of book two…

Mar 07, 2025

∙ Paid

“When I was a kid, I mean, hockey was my whole life. And, in that world, being gay—that was the worst insult. The lowest thing you could be. I can’t even tell you how many times I had to hear. . . well, every homophobic comment imaginable. It was pretty relentless.”
“Aimed at you?”
“At me, at everyone. It was just what you said if you wanted to get under a guy’s skin. Or if you were mad. And everyone accepted that. But when I started to realize that I might be that thing that my teammates all considered so repulsive. . .”

title: Game Changer

series: Game Changers, book one

author: Rachel Reid

published: 2018

publisher: Carina Press

genre/subgenre: gay hockey romance

setting: New York City

main themes/subjects: in-the-closet for his career as a professional athlete (hockey player), mid-20’s life crisis (*eye twitch*)—but it was relatable to this mid-30-yo so I didn’t mind it 😂, new york city life

representation: closeted gay hockey player, out gay historian working —temporarily—at a smoothie shop

tropes: secret lovers: one is closeted (manly gay)—one is out (pretty boy), grumpy sunshine kinda…

summary/blurbs/premise: “[Closeted superstar hockey-player] Scott needs Kip in his life, but with playoff season approaching, the spotlight on him is suddenly brighter than ever. He can’t afford to do anything that might derail his career. . . like introducing the world to his boyfriend. Kip is ready to go all-in with Scott—but how much longer will he have to remain a secret?”

“Rozanov stumbled backward, then moved like he was going to shove Scott right back. The referee, Hal Coleman, stepped in. “Come on, guys. Rozanov, stop being a dick. Hunter, stop listening to Rozanov.”
“How many minutes would I get if I just killed him?” Scott grumbled as he watched Rozanov skate away.
“I’d have to give you at least ten,” Hal said dryly. “Not worth it in the playoffs.””

my thoughts:

So about 100 pages into this book I was kind of thinking about DNFing because I realized pretty early on that I prefer sports romances to have both of the love interests be athletes, however by some miracle—possibly just my innate laziness—I stuck with it & wowww am I glad I did. Mostly because, while I did end up falling in love with Kip & Scott & find their relationship to be devastatingly cute, I think it’s super worth it to read this book before moving on to Heated Rivalry, which, as pretty much everyone agrees, & I can confirm, is the best book of this series.

Ok quick Pros & Cons for this book, though—

Pros:

• the texting was adorable

• the phone seks scene was ~amazing~ —Usually I find this stuff a bit cringe on paper for some reason but whew. This one was excellent.

• my head-casting was *flawless*:

(Kip & Scott, respectively 😙👌🏻 —sorry I don’t actually know who these people are I just scrolled on Pinterest until I was like, “them” 🤣)

I related a lot to Kip—his reasons for majoring & being interested in history / art history were almost word-for-word what I wrote in my entrance application essay to major in archaeology at George Washington University in 2006. 😂
The hockey knowledge & references were all ace.

Cons:

• the names… “Kip” is such a weird name? idk… it’s short for Christopher, which I love, but my preferred nickname for Christopher is “Kit” so… idk… “Kip” sounds like a dog’s name…? & “Scott” is the name of my nesting partner who is unfortunately entirely straight so… *sigh* the names were just all a bit distracting for me personally tbh…

• I still think I prefer hockey romances where both the MCs are hockey-players like my last two hockey romance reads were but Kip & Scott’s dynamic did really grow on me…

• I gotta be honest… I didn’t have as much sympathy for Scott as I wanted to have—especially considering his background—I just felt like he was kind of a dick to Kip in the middle of the book & it was frustrating. But he fixed it by the end so that… that was good. By book two I’m firmly #TeamIlya though so my dislike of Scott is actually appropriately compatible with my overall love for the series.

i would recommend this book to readers who want to read book 2 in this series—what is truly a queer classic. I mean… Heated Rivalry is one of the most precious queer love stories I have ever, ever read & you gotta read Game Changer first. Yes, Heated Rivalry is the superior book (it’s basically perfect) but, *that scene* in Game Changer happens in Heated Rivalry & a) knowing that scene is coming while the majority of Heated Rivalry is happening, & b) seeing the MCs of Heated Rivalry react to that scene from Game Changer is… well let’s just say it makes reading Game Changer first 1000% worth it. this book is best read… before reading Heated Rivalry. Just want to emphasize that.

“You think you’re the only gay guy in the NHL?
No. Scott was sure that he wasn’t. But he felt like he was. All the time. It was a lonely, horrible feeling. And those other secretly gay players must be feeling it too.
Maybe he could change all that. Maybe he could make it easier for them, as well as for himself.”

final note: I am SERIOUSLY begging my hockey community folks to PLEASE get SUPER COOL about folks being gay ASAP so we can have out gay hockey players in the NHL because it’s SO DUMB how heteronormative men’s sports are—like SO so SO so dumb—& I just feel like hockey is ripe for being the gate-smasher in that area. Please please please please PLEASE please pretty please. kthx.

CW // homophobia, lotssss of spicy seks

spice level: 🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️ —was this book somehow even *spicier* than Trujillo’s Lizards Hold the Sun? I think it was…!

season: hockey season, duh

music pairing: Kip & Scott dance to this song in Scott’s apartment. 🥹 riDICulous.

Quotes, Notes, & Annotations…

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GAME CHANGER by Rachel Reid (2020)

★ ★ ★ ★ .75 - After a slowish start, I did end up falling in love with Kip & Scott & their cute relationship dynamic. However the main reason to read this is so you can get the most out of book two…

“When I was a kid, I mean, hockey was my whole life. And, in that world, being gay—that was the worst insult. The lowest thing you could be. I can’t even tell you how many times I had to hear. . . well, every homophobic comment imaginable. It was pretty relentless.”

“Aimed at you?”

“At me, at everyone. It was just what you said if you wanted to get under a guy’s skin. Or if you were mad. And everyone accepted that. But when I started to realize that I might be that thing that my teammates all considered so repulsive. . .”

title: Game Changer

genre/subgenre: gay hockey romance

“Rozanov stumbled backward, then moved like he was going to shove Scott right back. The referee, Hal Coleman, stepped in. “Come on, guys. Rozanov, stop being a dick. Hunter, stop listening to Rozanov.”

“How many minutes would I get if I just killed him?” Scott grumbled as he watched Rozanov skate away.

“I’d have to give you at least ten,” Hal said dryly. “Not worth it in the playoffs.””

my thoughts:

Pros:

Cons:

“You think you’re the only gay guy in the NHL?

No. Scott was sure that he wasn’t. But he felt like he was. All the time. It was a lonely, horrible feeling. And those other secretly gay players must be feeling it too.

Maybe he could change all that. Maybe he could make it easier for them, as well as for himself.”

further reading:

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