New Release Review and Giveaway: The Viking and the Drag Queen by V.L. Locey

08 January of 2022 by ButtonsMom2003

The Viking and the Drag Queen By V.L. Locey

Genre: Contemporary Romance, GLBTQ, MM

Tropes: Opposites attract, closeted athlete, found family

Released: January 5, 2022

Publisher: Self-Published

Series: Campo Royale, Book 1

Length: 214 pages

Cover Design: Meredith Russell

Synopsis

Who will emerge the victor on the battlefield of love?

Tyr Hemmingsen had his life mapped out at a young age. The only son of the late Danish hockey great, Elias Hemmingsen, Tyr has always done his best to follow the plans his father had laid out for him. Finish school, make it into the pros, become team captain, find a biddable young lady to marry, and win a championship so the Hemmingsen name lived on eternally on the side of a massive silver cup. Like the good son he is, Tyr has done as his father wished, no matter how it peeled away layers of his true self. Then, all the neatly placed supports that hold up his so-called life come crashing down during a night on the town. Tyr might be known as the “War God of Wilmington” on the ice, but there’s no battling the effect Gigi Patel LeBay has on him.

Elijah McBride lives for the spotlight. As Gigi, he bewitches and bedazzles the crowds at the Campo Royale Club. His vibrant stage persona is the face he presents to the world. Underneath the rouge, eyeliner, and lipstick is a young man who still feels the sting of his parents’ disapproval and rejection of the son who wears wigs and dates other men. With his drag family and older brother in his corner, he’s finally found peace in his life. Until the fateful night a massive hockey player shows up at the club. There’s a world of hurt in Tyr’s soft brown eyes, and Eli finds himself falling for the big man, despite all the barriers he’s built around his tender heart.

The Viking and the Drag Queen is an opposites attract gay romance with heavy checking, lipstick worship, an out and proud queen, a closeted athlete, family lost and found, twink/jock, a new beginning, and a well-cinched happy ending.

Teaser Graphic

Review

Reviewed by ButtonsMom2003

Fantastic start to a new series!

The Viking and the Drag Queen is classic V.L. Locey. It’s witty, snarky at times and full of heart and heat.

Tyr is a closeted hockey player and he falls hard when he sees Gigi perform at a drag club. He hates that he can’t live his life as his true self. He’s shackled by a promise he made to his dying father.

Gigi/Elijah also falls hard for Tyr even though he knows better than to fall for an athlete in the closet. His drag mother warned him against it but he has to follow his heart.

I loved everything about this story. It’s hot as fire but it’s also full of heart. I loved Elijah’s brother, Hank, and how supportive he is of his career as Gigi. Their parents are homophobic a-holes but Hank totally sticks by Elijah.

Tyr has decisions to make if he’s ever going to live his authentic self and I loved how V.L. Locey pulled it all off at the end so that Tyr and Elijah get their HEA.

There is a great cast of secondary characters in this story and I was happy to learn that Gigi’s drag mother, Sitka, will be the next one to get a book.