The Understatement of the Year

Books | Fiction / LGBT / Gay

4.3

(279)

Sarina Bowen

What happened in high school stayed in high school. Until now.Five years ago, Michael Graham betrayed the only person who ever really knew him. Since then, he’s made an art of hiding his sexual preference from everyone. Including himself.So it’s a shock when his past strolls right into the Harkness College locker room, sporting a bag of hockey gear and the same slow smile that had always rendered Graham defenseless. For Graham, there is only one possible reaction: total, debilitating panic. With one loose word, the team’s new left wing could destroy Graham’s life as he knows it.John Rikker is stuck being the new guy. Again. And it’s worse than usual, because the media has latched onto the story of the only “out” player in Division One hockey. As the satellite trucks line the sidewalk outside the rink, his new teammates are not amused.And one player in particular looks sick every time he enters the room.Rikker didn’t exactly expect a warm welcome from Graham. But the guy won’t even meet his eyes. From the looks of it, his former… best friend / boyfriend / whatever isn’t doing so well. He drinks too much and can’t focus during practice.Either the two loneliest guys on the team will self destruct from all the new pressures in their lives, or they can navigate the pain to find a way back to one another. To say that it won’t be easy is the Understatement of the Year.Warning: unlike the other books in this series, this heartbreaking love story is about two guys. Contains sexual situations, dance music, snarky t-shirts and a poker-playing grandmother.Sarina Bowen's Ivy Years is my favorite New Adult series of all-time! -- Elle Kennedy, New York Times bestselling author of The Deal "It's so well done that I just want to read it over and over again." - Mandi Schreiner of Smexy Books "Sarina Bowen serves up yet another gut-wrenching story that left me limp at the end with relief that these two found their happily ever after." - Amy Jo Cousins, author of Off Campus"A beautiful love story about self-acceptance. I laughed, I swooned, and I shed a view tears. This is a must read." - Megan Erickson, author of Strong Signal "I gasped, I cried, I stayed up all night to finish. This book broke my heart in the best possible way." - Diana Peterfreund, author of the Secret Society Girl series."6+ Stars! I can honestly say that this is her best one yet." - Jenn Gaffney of Once Click Bliss"This story was beautiful from start to finish." - Angie of Badass Book ReviewsKeywords: new adult, college romance, hockey, gay, MM romance, Ivy League, male/male romance, LGBTQ romance, gay romance, hockey team, coming out.For fans of: Santino Hassel, Kindle Alexander, Elle Kennedy, Amy Jo Cousins, Megan Erickson, Lucy Lennox, Amy Lane, Leta Blake, Roan Parrish, Annabeth Albert, Ella Frank, TJ Klune, Riley Hart, NR Walker, Devon Mccormick, Eden Finley, Sloane Kennedy, Felice Stevens, Avon Gale, Alexis Hall, Heidi Cullinan, KJ Charles, Josh Lanyon, Cat Sebastian.

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More Details:

Author

Sarina Bowen

Pages

326

Publisher

Tuxbury Publishing LLC

Published Date

2014-09-04

ISBN

0991068068 9780991068067

Community ReviewsSee all

"2/5: This is a MxM book with a enemies to lovers trope. The characters John Rikker and Michael Graham are both attending Harkness College and are on the hockey team with Rikker transferring from another school due to being outed as gay and kicked off of his old team. Graham and Rikker had a close friendship in the past when they were about 16 but an incident led to it falling apart. I think I really would have enjoyed this book if it hadn't took Rikker and Graham so long to get together and clear things up. I'm pretty sure 85% of the book was Graham dealing with his internilized homophobia and fears of being caught and outed. In fact, at the end of the book Graham doesn't even come out to his team mates and confirm that he‘s dating Rikker. I was really hoping that Graham would stand up for Rikker at some point in the book but he didn't and that made me really mad. I also thought that the friendships Rikker and Graham had with other characters such as Bella and Skippy we're weird. I was disappointed by this book and felt as if Graham and Rikkers story was rushed. The book ends on an abrupt and unexpected ending, it sort of feels unfinished and there is a lot more that needs to be said and done by the characters (mostly Graham) but we don't get that."