Review: Season’s Change by Cait Nary

 Season’s Change

by Cait Nary

Published February 1, 2022

Olly Järvinen has a long way to go. He’s got a fresh start playing for a new team but getting his hockey career back on track is going to take more than a change of scenery. He’s got to shut his past out and focus. On the game, not on his rookie roommate and his annoyingly sunny disposition—and annoyingly distracting good looks.

All Benji Bryzinski ever wanted was to play in the big leagues, and he’s not going to waste one single second of his rookie season. Yoga, kale smoothies and guided meditation help keep his head in the game. But his roommate keeps knocking him off track. Maybe it’s just that Olly is a grumpy bastard. Or maybe it’s something else, something Benji doesn’t have a name for yet.

Olly and Benji spend all their time together—on the ice, in the locker room, in their apartment—and ignoring their unspoken feelings isn’t making them go away. Acting on attraction is one thing but turning a season’s fling into forever would mean facing the past—and redefining the future.

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Olly has extreme anxiety, panic attacks, low self-esteem and almost no confidence. And his pro-hockey career is about to tank because of it. Olly’s past problems are slowly revealed, his teammate & roommate Benji tries to help him cope, and over time they grow closer. Benji is a sweet guy. I liked how much he cared about Olly. 

I found the book too slow paced. There were several parts where it felt like the narration wandered aimlessly, with no discernible purpose to the text. On top of the slow pace, this was also a slow burn romance. Slow burns are fine but this one was so slow, the fuse and the match were in separate rooms for the first 40+% of the book. And for a hockey romance, it felt like it took the hockey part seriously but left the romance to go hang. It needed a better balance, in my opinion.

There’s plenty of good things in this book, however; great story, important topics, great camaraderie between characters, and authentic and accurate professional hockey portrayal. 

- Olly and Benji were lovely from the start. Their teammates are good people and become very supportive friends to them both as the book goes on. Benji and Olly have issues with certain of their family members; their friends & teammates become their found family, and support and encourage them when they eventually come out as a couple. 

- Olly’s brothers were a nice part of the story; I loved how supportive they became of their little brother when he needed it. 

- Same with Benji's billet family. They were a much-needed surrogate family support when his own wasn't available. 

- A large part of the plot revolves around Olly’s deteriorating mental health. The book addresses these issues in a serious and sensitive manner. I always appreciate when writers show their characters accepting that they need therapy, and show their personal growth and betterment from having gone. 

On the more technical side of things, the book needed to be edited with a machete and tightened up a lot. (The way the characters used the words “bud” and “buddy” way too often was weird and off-putting.) For me, a lot of the good stuff in the book got a little lost amid the weird pacing and meandering focus. I got bored with it early on, and normally I love hockey romances. I did enjoy the ending, though. I liked how everything wrapped up for Olly and Benji.

With that said, it’s possible this could be more enjoyable to me on a second read because I would know what to expect in terms of structure and pacing. This just didn’t hit my expectations right on the first read.

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3 hockey pucks out of 5 

Steam level: high ❤️‍🔥

CW: anxiety, depression, panic attacks, homophobia, internalized homophobia, slurs, toxic parental relationships, manipulative relationships/gaslighting

Click here to read more about this book and what Cait Nary is coming out with next.

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Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for providing the digital ARC.

nb: I was approved for this ARC the day before its release. I strive to provide reviews before a book’s release if I can but I didn’t think to check the exact release date after receiving it, so the review is a little late.