Role Model: A Gay Sports Romance

Rachel Reid

Aug 2021 · Game Changers Book 5 · Sold by Carina Press

About this ebook

"Rachel Reid crafted a story of true heart, beauty, heat, and glorious, hard-won redemption! I loved both heroes and their journey to love was a gorgeous one to watch!" —Lauren Blakely, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Scoring With Him

The highly anticipated fifth novel in USA TODAY bestselling author Rachel Reid’s Game Changers series sees a grumpy professional hockey player meet his match in an out-and-proud social media manager…

The hits just keep coming for Troy Barrett. Traded to the worst team in the league would be bad enough, but coming on the heels of a messy breakup and a recent scandal… Troy just wants to play hockey and be left alone. He doesn’t want to be in the news anymore, and he definitely doesn’t want to “work on his online presence” with the team’s peppy social media manager.

Harris Drover can tell standoffish Troy isn’t happy about the trade—anyone could tell, frankly, as he doesn’t exactly hide it well—but Harris doesn’t give up on people easily. Even when he’s developing a crush he’s sure is one-sided. And when he sees Troy’s smile finally crack through his grumpy exterior, well… That’s a man Harris couldn’t turn his back on if he wanted to.

Suddenly, Troy’s move to the new team feels like an opportunity—for Troy to embrace his true self, and for both men to surrender to their growing attraction. But indulging in each other behind closed doors is one thing, and for Troy, being in a public relationship with Harris will mean facing off with his fears, once and for all.


Game Changers
Book 1: Game Changer
Book 2: Heated Rivalry
Book 3: Tough Guy
Book 4: Common Goal
Book 5: Role Model
Book 6: The Long Game

Ratings and reviews

I loved the story and I loved the audiobook. When I reviewed book four in this series about a year ago, I started out listening to the audiobook but had a hard time getting into it so I switched back to reading the book. It must have been my mood at the time or something because I listened to the audiobook of Role Model and I loved it. It’s not often that an audiobook will move me to tears, like what happens when I read a book, but this one died and I loved Cooper North’s performance all that much more because of it. This story really touched me and got all of my emotions involved; just what I like in a book. Troy was not a very nice character in previous books and I’m glad he got a chance at redemption in this story. He’s been hiding his true self for a long time. He knows that his father will disown him if he ever gets the courage to come out and that is part of what keeps him from doing so. Harris is one of my favorite characters ever! He’s out and proud and isn’t afraid to be his adorable self. He’s the sunshine to Troy’s grumpy. Rachel Reid’s writing really made me feel the connection between Harris and Troy even though Troy wanted to deny that any attraction was there. Once these two get together things really heat up! I also loved the team dog, Chiron. Everyone on the team loves this puppy and the way he is described I can just “see” how cute he is. While you don’t need to have read the previous books to enjoy this one, fans of the series will enjoy the cameos by characters from previous books. I particularly loved Ilya in this story and was really happy to find out that the next book in the series, The Long Game, will be about him and Shane (the two MCs from Heated Rivalry). Review copies of the ebook (via NetGalley) and audiobook (via publisher) were kindly provided by their respective publishers but this did not influence my opinion or rating of the book. ***Reviewed for Xtreme-Delusions dot com***

This was a good read that covered some serious topics. I had a bit of trouble connecting Troy's character in this book with how he was portrayed earlier in the series. His friendship with Dallas was hard to disconnect, but the author did a good job of showing Troy's vulnerabilities which might have been the reason he befriended Dallas originally. I enjoyed seeing glimpses of characters from previous series, and I am looking forward to the next book and hopefully another audiobook narrated by Cooper North whose performance made me believe Troy was really a good guy.

It was another wonderful addition to an overall great series. Tad depressing, but still positive. Love the couple, love the couple, they were cute

About the author

Rachel Reid has always lived in Nova Scotia, Canada, and will likely continue to do so. She has two boring degrees and two interesting sons. She has been a hockey fan since childhood, but sadly never made it to the NHL herself. She enjoys books about hot men doing hot things, and cool ladies being awesome. You can follow Rachel on Instagram at rachelreidwrites and Twitter @akaRachelReid, and on Goodreads. Her website and blog, where she writes more things, is www.rachelreidwrites.com.