16.- I read Rachel Reid's _Common Goal_, the forth in her Game Changers series of contemporary hockey romance.

#2026Reading #RomBkBlog #RachelReid #GameChangers @bookstodon

https://herhandsmyhands.wordpress.com/2026/05/04/common-goal-by-rachel-reid/

🧵 7/7
He gets no sympathy because his trauma is painted over by his parents and himself; ultimately his trauma is painted over by the author.

As someone else here commented, the sex scenes were great. That's all that can be said about this book. Boooooo!

#RachelReid

🧵 6/7
Kyle survived a major traumatic experience as a teenager, which explains his attraction to older men due to his abuser and his plush financial situation due to his parents sending him away. None of this is fair to Kyle, but Kyle does absolutely nothing to heal from it, and no other people in his life help him either - not his parents, and not Kip or Eric. This is why Kyle appears to readers as a spoiled brat.

#RachelReid

🧵 5/7
If pro hockey is as retirement-phobic as it is homophobic, then we readers need an explanation via the plot. Whether or not this is the case, there still is possibility of conversations with retired players and near-retired players and conversations about post-retirement opportunities. It's just so lame that Eric's retirement just happens.

Similar to Eric, there is barely any character development happening on Kyle's side.
#RachelReid

🧵 4/7
On the side of hockey, we get barely any hockey action that describes his acceptance of the reality of retirement. There's really only Eric describing once to Kyle about hating to face his last season opener, his last home game, his last flight with his team between away cities. We don't actually witness any of Eric's final milestones, whether because Eric was too much in denial to open up the matter to anyone or because the author was too lazy to write about it!

#RachelReid