Common Goal book review
I’ve realized now, reading the fourth book, that hockey just happens to be their job. I’m reading these books and falling in love with the characters, the conflict, and the tension. Hockey just happens to be there.
Today, we’re talking about Common Goal by Rachel Reid. The genre is fiction, and the theme is contemporary romance.
Common Goal is part of the Game Changers series. There are six books as of June 2026, and Rachel Reid is writing the seventh book, Unrivaled. We are all waiting for it to come out.
This is book four, and it features Eric Bennett and Kyle. Kyle is a bartender we first meet in Game Changer, and he’s really good friends with Kip. If you’ve read Game Changer, you know Kip and Kyle have a little flirtatious kiss that doesn’t go anywhere.
What we don’t get until this book is Kyle’s perspective. Kyle was in love with Kip. He wanted to be with him, take him on dates, and do all of that. He isn’t jealous that Kip falls in love with Scott and has his own love story, but he still looks at Kip with longing.
Then Kyle meets Eric at the bar.
Eric is still wearing his wedding ring, so Kyle is immediately thinking, “No. I always fall for the married guy who doesn’t want me.”
Except Eric is divorced. Not separated. Divorced.
Eric tells us that he’s bisexual and was married to a woman for 20 years. Now he doesn’t know how to be single, how to approach gay men, or even how to express that he’s attracted to men.
Meanwhile, Eric is looking at Kyle thinking, “Is he flirting with me? I can’t really tell.”
I’ve been with one person for 20 years. What’s going to happen?
That’s their biggest tension, but my problem with this book is that Kyle asks Eric if he wants a sex coach or a sex teacher, and Eric says yes.
In what world do you think you’re going to have this man teach you how to have sex and you are NOT going to gain more feelings for him?
The book is really about how life is about more than what meets the eye. Kyle is a bartender, but he’s also extremely accomplished. He speaks multiple languages, has a complicated family, is from Vermont, is a skier, and is a grad student. Then you have Eric walking around with a wedding ring on, but he’s divorced. He doesn’t know how to be single or how to express that he’s attracted to men.
“The book is about how life is about more than what meets the eye.”
And this is where I realized something about the entire series.
Don’t get me wrong, hockey is a big part of these books. They’re playing, practicing, and doing all of these hockey things. But I’m reading the books and falling in love with the characters. I’m falling in love with the setting. I’m falling in love with the conflict and the tension.
Hockey just happens to be there. And that’s probably because I’m not a huge hockey fan. Maybe if I get more into hockey, I’ll start thinking, “Oh, I recognize that,” or, “This is why she always has them at center ice.”
Right now, I’m just like, great. What did Eric say today? How did the artwork look in your apartment?
They’re so good. So, so good.
Have you read Common Goal? Did you know there was more than one book? If you’ve watched the show, you should absolutely read the books because there’s just as much sex, just as much attraction, just as much yearning, and it’s really good.
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Until the next book review,
Kyla
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