Sometimes the toughest thing to have faith in is yourself.

The first time Paul Dyson met Robbie Rhodes, they ended up naked in Robbie’s bed. The last time they met, on the ice the morning after, Paul punched Robbie in the face and called him something he’d rather not repeat.

Two years later, they’re teammates on the Seattle Thunder hockey team.

Being gay is wrong, unnatural, and there is no room for them in his world. Paul’s heard that his whole life. So when it hits him that he is gay, he does the only thing he can: he shoves himself so deep in the closet he would need a map to find his way out again.

When the chance to fulfill his lifelong dream comes along, Paul can’t say no, even if it forces him to share hotel rooms with the only man he can’t resist. It doesn’t take long for Paul to give into temptation and find himself falling in love with his brilliant, caring teammate.

But as much as he cares for Paul, Robbie is finding it harder and harder to justify hiding who he is. It goes against everything he was taught was right. He feels like he has a duty to come out to the public. He’d be the first out gay pro-hockey player.

If Paul wants to be with Robbie, he will have to turn his back on his family and everything he’s believed in. If Robbie wants to be will Paul, he’ll have to do the same.

It’s going to take them a lot of faith to find their way together in this shiny new world.

Country Boy is a love story about figuring out who you are, who you want to be, and how to get there. It contains sweet hockey plays, a 1976 Corvette Stingray, fancy underwear, and the journey of a lifetime.

Note: Before beginning my review of Country Boy, by A.E. Wasp, I wish to point out that on release day, the wrong draft was published on Amazon, one that was an even earlier edition than the ARC that I was given to read for this review. According to the author, Amazon now has the correct version, so if you purchased the book before this review was published, delete the copy from your device and allow it to be downloaded again.

After finishing the first book (City Boy) in A.E. Wasp’s Hot off the Ice series, I admit to being a little reluctant to read the follow-up because of the few stylistic and character issues I had with the first. Fortunately, the second book, Country Boy, suffers from none of those issues. In truth, the book has a much different feel than its predecessor. It has more angst and a heavier conflict (though neither is anywhere close to being a downer to the storytelling), and, more importantly, it is better focused on the plot and central characters. It also contains what I thought was an interesting take on the closeted-gay-professional-athlete trope. All of which improved my enjoyment over the first installment of the series.

When Robbie Rhodes and Paul Dyson crossed paths two years ago on the night between their rival collegiate hockey teams’ two games against each other, it turned into an unexpected hook-up where Robbie felt like they had made a real connection. During the game the next day, that connection turned into Paul’s fist to the face accompanied by that hateful slur all gay men hate, not the sort of “real” Robbie wanted. Now, Robbie is a rookie on the NHL’s Seattle Thunder, and though he isn’t out publicly, his sexuality is an open secret with the team. He’s mostly settled into the routine of the big leagues, but things are about to get a lot more complicated when he finds out Paul has been called up from the team’s minor-league affiliate, which means they’re about to be teammates.

In addition to the closeted-athlete trope, Country Boy is also about Paul’s difficulty with being gay after being raised in a strict, very conservative religious home and community. I have to admit that this type of character background often produces storylines that aren’t my favorite. Fortunately, while the religious component does play an omnipresent role in the book—Paul’s life doesn’t revolve around religion, but his belief, his faith, and his family are all very important to him, in spite of how they have created the struggle he has with his sexuality—the author does a good job keeping religion from overrunning the story she’s telling. Instead, it creates another interesting counterpoint to Robbie’s beliefs and upbringing. Instead of Paul’s tightly knit community and his family who has always supported his dream of making it big in hockey, Robbie’s academician parents have always poo-poo’d his love of the sport, a point that is only worse now that it’s his career.

Paul’s moral conflict ultimately establishes the facet of this rendition of the closeted-pro-athlete trope that I found intriguing. Early in the story—in fact, it may also have been revealed during one of the few scenes involving Robbie in this novel’s predecessor—we learn that Robbie’s last serious boyfriend broke up with him because Robbie did not want to come out publicly so early in his professional career. After Robbie and Paul get past the tense reunion and move firmly into “we shouldn’t be doing this” land, it quickly becomes apparent that Robbie, whose mindset on being the first out pro-hockey player has advanced much more closely toward doing it than when his ex broke things off, is now in the same position that he had put his ex in: Paul can’t come out without losing his family, and Robbie can’t come out without losing Paul. I love a good reversal of circumstance within a character.

This conflict definitely comes with an appreciable and expected level of angst. As with the religious component, this too doesn’t overwhelm the story, because this isn’t a story of selfish personalities creating an off-again-on-again relationship. On the contrary, it’s about two young men dealing with their feelings both as they relate to each other and to the outside influences in their lives in a satisfyingly real manner, one that felt true to their characters instead of being overwritten and overdramatized for the sake of attempting to pull some extra emotional response from the readers. It’s this restraint that I often find lacking in stories involving characters who come from conservative religious backgrounds, the lack of restraint that often keeps me from believing and enjoying such stories. This was about as well done as I could hope for.

I also have to admit that the setup for Country Boy included something that gave me a vested interest in its outcome. The few chapters early in the story that, by way of flashback, cover Robbie and Paul’s first encounter take place while Robbie plays hockey in a small town at a Northern Minnesota school called Bemidji State University, which happens to be my alma mater and is in the town where I was born and spent the first twenty-five years of my life. Happily, it wasn’t just that fact that made me enjoy the story, but it certainly didn’t hurt. :-D With two books of the series done and my enjoyment of the second improving over the first, which was also good, here’s hoping the trend continues, for the pairing I suspect will come in book three looks to be rather interesting.

The author generously provided me a complimentary copy of Country Boy in exchange for this fair and honest review.

After time spent raising children, earning several college degrees, and traveling the world with the U.S. State Department, she is returning to her first love - writing.

A dreamer and an idealist, Amy writes about people finding connection in a world that can seem lonely and magic in a world than can seem all too mundane. She invites readers into her characters’ lives and worlds when they are their most vulnerable, their most human, living with the same hopes and fears we all have. An avid traveler who has lived in big cities and small towns in four different continents, Amy has found that time and distance are no barriers to love. She invites her readers to reach out and share how her characters have touched their lives or how the found families they have gathered around them have shaped their worlds.

Born on Long Island, NY, Amy has lived in Los Angeles, London, and Bangkok. She currently lives in a town suspiciously like Red Deer, Colorado.