I’ve been following Amy Aislin since 2017 and at that time she only had two books published. I’m not sure who I thought I was back then 😊 but I predicted that she’d have a bright future as an author. Well, I wasn’t wrong. 😊 I’ve now read everything she’s published and I’m always eagerly awaiting new books from her.

The Stick Side books have all been wonderful stories and Two-Man Team is a fantastic addition to the series. I love that each of the books in the series can be read as standalone stories and yet characters from previous books will make appearances from time-to-time.

Rory is an out and proud NHL player. When he was young, he crushed on his older brother’s best friend, Kris. Kris was always kind to him and chased off the kids who bullied Rory when he was young. At seven years younger than Kris, Rory’s crush back then was more of a hero worship rather than a romantic crush. Now that they’re playing together on the same team the feelings Rory has for Kris are definitely romantic and he wants the crush to turn into something more– but he doesn’t think that Kris looks at him that way.

This story hit me right in the feels. My heart hurt for Rory when he talked about being bullied as a kid. I also felt awful when Kris was unjustly crucified by social media and the press for things he didn’t do. When Rory is injured by missing a step coming down a ladder, it brought back painful memories because I missed the last step coming down some stairs a couple of months ago. I was lucky I didn’t break anything but I was sure sore for a month or so after it happened.

Two-Man Team is a slow burn story that doesn’t heat up until about 50% into the book but look out after that! I was very happy to learn that Amy plans to write more stories in this series.

Reviews for Amy Aislin

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At some point while Kris had been occupied—or possibly when he’d been sitting here feeling sorry for himself—Rory had brought a bowl of grapes and blueberries to the table, as well as two sets of cutlery, two tall glasses of water, three different types of jam from the fridge, and two empty mugs. The smell of percolating coffee hit and Kris almost wept.

Rory was surely here because Emery had asked him to come, but Kris didn’t give two shits about his motivations. As long as Rory fed him, the man could come by anytime he wanted.

“You look like you need this.” Rory set Kris’s plate at his elbow. “And about twelve hours of sleep.”

“You’re not wrong. Thanks for this.” Closing the laptop, Kris shoved it aside and brought his food closer.

“Maybe stay away from fast food breakfast sandwiches in the future.” Rory wrinkled his nose. “That thing looked like poison.”

Kris chuckled and shoved half a toast in his mouth, not bothering with jam.

Rory Stanton was one of those cute as button types. High forehead, small nose, big brown eyes. In Rory’s downtime, those big eyes were usually covered with glasses. Today, he wore his contacts, which meant he’d been outdoors. He’d complained, more than once, about the annoyance of changing from prescription glasses to prescription sunglasses and back whenever he went from indoors to outdoors to indoors again. He always seemed to smell like sunshine and grass, and his dark brown hair was constantly in a state of dishevelment.

“You got a bit of a burn on your nose,” Kris said, pointing his fork at him.

“Damn.” Rory’s eyes crossed. “I do? Didn’t think I’d need sunscreen for an hour of street hockey this late in September. Ah well.” Unconcerned, he dug into his meal.

Kris stood, retrieved the ketchup from the fridge, and proceeded to smother his eggs in it.

Rory stared at him. “God, you’re disgusting.”

“Ketchup brings me joy.”

For some reason, Rory thought that was hysterical and he dissolved into snorted, hiccupy giggles. The same kind that had left Rory a snorting, laughing mess at last year’s Christmas party.

The same night he’d kissed Kris.

If Kris had thought about that sloppy, back-of-an-Uber kiss more than once in the intervening months, well . . . it wasn’t Kris’s fault. Despite tasting like a barroom floor, that kiss had awoken something in him. Not feelings. More of an awareness of Rory as something other than Kris’s best friend’s little brother. An awareness of Rory as a fully grown man.

Stick Side Series

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