Bending the Rules

Rules of the Game, Book 1

By: Brigham Vaughn

Narrated by: James Edward Jones

Rule number one: Never give up on love.

Hockey is Noah Boucher's life. He even walked away from a chance at a relationship for a career as a star goaltender. But when an injury sidelines him and he crosses paths with the man he left behind, everything changes.

Noah is determined to have it all: a return to the ice, one final season to lead the Toronto Fisher Cats to the Cup—and a future with Simon Lawrence.

Simon is stunned to see Noah again, and all of his old feelings come rushing back, along with off-the-charts chemistry. But Simon has been burned by relationships in the past, and his own career as a photographer and gallery owner is at a turning point. Trusting Noah to put him first—even while struggling to reconnect with his team and dealing with media scrutiny—is a tall order.

When catastrophe strikes just as the playoffs are heating up, Noah will have to make a choice: risk the man he loves or bend the rules to prove this time, Simon comes first.

©2022 Brigham Vaughn (P)2022 Brigham Vaughn

Resparking romance on a mountain train

Audiobook-December 14-15, 2022
The narrator does a good job of bringing the book to life, and his French isn’t bad. Nice.

Simon and Noah meet in college and feel a spark, but then become friends instead. Just when it seems they’re both free to date, Noah gets called up to play in the NHL.

Ten years later, Simon is opening an art gallery and Noah is coming back for his last season after a knee injury. They meet by chance on a train, and the spark is rekindled.

This time they vow to make it work, and they’re there for each other through fears, catastrophes, and successes. They handle the media, and by supporting each other, their dreams come true.

I love these characters, both with interesting careers, and their amazing support systems. I love Leah, Simon’s business partner, but Noah’s sister Margot rubs me the wrong way.

The start of the book is a bit clunky, but it smooths out after the first 3 or 4 chapters. Fun read.

I received this free ARC, and am happy to provide an honest review in thanks.

Great start to the series!!

I have read this author before. I listened to an audio book. This is a MM contemporary romance. The main characters are Noah and Simon. Noah is a NHL goalie getting back to the game after an injury. Simon is a photographer opening his own galley. These two met in college as friends and now years later they get together. The secondary characters are great and I cant wait to read their story. Awesome start to the series, I'll be reading more.

Poor performance but interesting storyline

3.5🌟’s

Story started out melodramatic, eventually becoming a swoon worthy listen. The MC’s sense of humor was what did it for me, reacting off the other and allowing their chemistry to gradually improve. I did end up enjoying the characters, even after an unclear beginning.

I am really big on bringing a character to life through audio, which is what I enjoy about audiobooks. But, James Edward Jones’ rendition was very meek and bland, as though he was reading the script straight from the book without putting forth any enthusiasm or trying to “feel” the characters. I am going to go back to actually read the book, maybe I will be able to enjoy it more.

Awesome book

I enjoyed this greatly! Great pacing and story. I highly recommend this one to everyone. Noah and Simon's story was touching.

Great hockey romance.

4.5 stars A not so second chance second chance story. I must admit that the beginning of the book was a bit cheesy/cringy. But as it went on, I fell more and more in love with the main characters. Their chemistry was portrayed very well. Their senses of humor bounced off one another very well. And their determination to stay together was endearing. I’m so happy they didn’t have an unnecessary break up, especially since they waited for each other for so long. I ended up thoroughly enjoying these characters and the mains’ love story.

James Edward Jones has a very nice voice, enjoyable to listen to. But it wasn’t much of a performance, it was like he was just reading the book out loud instead of bringing the story to life. I still enjoyed listening to a story I already loved though.

Hockey Ginger Love!

The beginning chapters here are a bit of a background on Noah and Simon. How they know each other and what they have been doing for the last ten years. When these two run into each other again all the feels pick up! I would call this a First Chance Romance since they had only been friends with strong feelings for each other in college. Separated by Noah becoming a big Hockey player. Loved that Simon followed his press and games all that time. Refreshingly this is a very low angst, fun, steamy read since there was no real drama from a past break up! We get to experience them falling in love for the first time and supporting each other through their careers. James Edward Jones did a fantastic job with the narration. I thought he brought both of these guys out really well!

Love this sweet second chance romance!

I loved absolutely everything about this book except for the fact that I reached the end! Noah and Simon are some of my favorite characters because they are so sweet and so real. I wish there was a way to actually be friends with them! The beginning of their story is wonderful and I do love that while this is a second chance romance, no one hurt the other party in the past. They just simply found each other before the timing was right for a relationship. I love that these two characters were able to build such a strong foundation in college and essentially fell in love with each other before they even started a relationship. *swoony schmoop galore!* I am a huge fan of sports romances and am always excited to find a new series with some sexy athletes! I can't wait to see what else Brigham Vaughn will create in this shared universe and I love the idea of meeting characters from different teams in the league instead of just focusing on one team! The writing was excellent with beautiful characters and storylines. I can't wait for the next book in this series to release! Also, there is a free prequel story available through BookFunnel right now that is a must read! The narration was wonderful and I am really happy to see that James Edward Jones is narrating more of Brigham's books because I loved his work with the Midwest series!

You want this!

Fantastic second chance romance full of love, friends and great hockey! College crush becomes lifetime love.

Sweet start

This was a pretty sweet introduction to the series. I love the second chance and friends to lovers vibe this one had. I also enjoyed how they didn't linger on the missed opportunity part and moved forward with this is the right time kind of attitude. Overall it's a pretty low angst and sweet story it moves a little slow to begin with. I did get the feeling there was something I missed with the mention of the other team perhaps there was a prequel or maybe a concurrent series I'm not sure. It was only a bit distracting to me. Overall I enjoyed it and the narration was done well.

A Second Chance Romance…

This was a great read! The main characters and the side characters had a lot of personality! Bending the Rules is a second chance romance, that was done relatively well. I’m intrigued by this series. The narrator was disappointing I wish the author would’ve chosen a better voice actor for the audiobook.

I voluntarily reviewed a complimentary copy of this audiobook.