Hello! Thanks to Kimi for hosting us today at Kimi-chan Experience for the last day of The Hockey Player’s Heart blog tour. It’s been great talking about our first collaboration on a novel over the past few days. The story revolves around New York Rangers hockey player Caleb Carter who returns home to Foster Grove, New York (a fictional town that we made up). While he’s recuperating from an injury, he reconnects with Aaron Price who also recently returned to town and is teaching at the local elementary school.
Below we’ve got an exclusive excerpt for you. In it, Caleb is visiting Aaron’s classroom to see Aaron on the job with his students. It’s one of the cute moments in the story that involves kids (because cute kids are always great in romances!).
Make sure you check out the Rafflecopter we’ve included as well. We’re giving away an e-book copy at each tour stop plus there’s a grand prize of an autographed paperback for a US winner or a $10 Amazon e-gift card for an international winner. If you’ve missed any of the stops, you’ve still got a few days to go check them out..
We hope you enjoy The Hockey Player’s Heart and would love to hear what you think. If you read it, please consider leaving a review on your favorite site or dropping us a comment on one of our websites.
Excerpt
“So, here’s something I bet you guys don’t know. Mr. Carter was one of the first people I ever taught, back when I was seventeen.”
Caleb cringed as Aaron brought up the tutoring. It wasn’t Caleb’s favorite topic, but it had been necessary at the time.
“He was having a hard time with geometry, and I offered to help him so he could stay on the high school hockey team.”
Caleb piped up from the back. “You could say that’s he’s partially responsible for getting me into the pros.” He played along since he was sure Aaron was going to make this a teachable moment.
“You see, geometry is something that Mr. Carter still uses every day.”
A girl in the front row raised her hand and waited for Aaron to call on her before speaking. “Really? I’ve heard my mom and dad say they never use what they learned in school, especially if they’re trying to help my older sister with her homework.”
“I used geometry even before I knew what it was, and the fact that I know it as well as I do makes me a better hockey player.”
The class turned to hear Caleb speak.
“Most geometry is all about angles, and angles are crucial to the game. How many of you watch or play regularly?”
Six hands shot up.
“Okay. How many of you have heard of a goalie coming out of his net to decrease the angle?”
Only two hands now.
“Do you know why?” Aaron was already drawing what Caleb described on the white board.
No hands this time.
“It’s because moving out in that way makes the net appear smaller to the player, thus reducing the chances of getting a shot by the goalie while also giving the goalie more room to block the shot.”
Caleb got a tingly feeling at how well Aaron diagrammed the scenario. Aaron added additional lines to the board and drew out even more lines to show various angle scenarios that went beyond what Caleb had considered. The Rangers’ goalies would’ve been impressed.
“Of course, as a forward comes in for a shot, you have to try to force the goalie to reposition.” Aaron wrapped up his description, seemingly leaving the kids stunned.
“Now where are the players?” Caleb asked.
Four hands went up.
“How often do you use geometry in a game?”
He got four shrugs in response.
“You use it all the time.” Caleb walked to the front of the classroom to draw on the board, but he changed his mind before he picked up the marker. He looked to Aaron. “Can we go outside?”
Aaron looked surprised, and Caleb hoped he hadn’t put him in a bad position. “What’d you have in mind?”
Caleb stepped close and whispered in Aaron’s ear—the one angled to the whiteboard to help ensure the class couldn’t hear.
Blurb:
Hometown hero. Hockey superstar. Perfect boyfriend?
When hockey star Caleb Carter returns to his hometown to recover from an injury, the only thing he’s interested in is a little R & R. He never expects to run into his onetime crush at a grade school fund-raiser . Seeing Aaron Price hits him hard, like being checked into the boards. The attraction is still there, even after all these years, and Caleb decides to make a play for the schoolteacher. You miss 100 percent of the shots you never take, right?
Aaron has been burned by love before and can’t imagine what a celebrity like Caleb could possibly see in a guy like him. Their differences are just too great. But as Aaron spends more time with Caleb, he begins to wonder if he might have what it takes to win the hockey player’s heart.
Buy Links:
Dreamspinner Press: Buy direct from Dreamspinner
Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B078WJCDXN/
iBooks: https://itunes.apple.com/us/book/the-hockey-players-heart/id1318466207?mt=11
Kobo: https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/the-hockey-player-s-heart
Bio:
Jeff Adams and Will Knauss are husbands, authors, and podcasters based in Northern California. They write gay romances, sometimes together and other times separately. Jeff also writes young adult LGBT fiction. Together they host Jeff & Will’s Big Gay Fiction Podcast, a weekly show devoted to gay romance literature and the pop culture they love.
Websites:
Jeff: JeffAdamsWrites.com
Will: WillKnauss.com
Podcast: BigGayFictionPodcast.com
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Thank you for the excerpt. I look forward to giving this a read.