Tough Guy book review (Heated Rivalry series)
Updated: Sep 25
If your parents ever wanted you to do one thing and you wanted to do your own thing, this book is for you. This is how to be a rebel on your own terms.
Tough Guy by Rachel Reid is a fiction book about parenting, hockey, musicians, contemporary romance, love, and why you should do your own thing because your parents have their own life. This book is one of the books in the Heated Rivalry series, or correctly, the Game Changers series, which is a collection of hockey player romance books. But there’s so much more.
I have done a book review on Game Changer, which is the first book and includes Scott and Kip, and how I had not considered athletes as people who fall in love. I had not thought about them falling in love. For one, I do not watch hockey.
Then, when I read Heated Rivalry, I had not thought about having your heart broken and being in love and what that could feel like.
In this book, you have Ryan Price, who’s the hockey player, and then you have Fabian Salah. The two meet at a store, and it’s really, really cute.
Ryan is gay. His teammates know that he’s gay. His locker room knows that he’s gay. He moves into what’s considered a gay village in Toronto, but he also has a lot of challenges when it comes to sex. He does not get turned on very often. He is not attracted to a lot of people, and so he wants to express himself sexually, but he’s kind of uncomfortable with it.
He also does not like his job. He’s very, very, very, very wound up tightly.
Ryan Price is not having a good time.
And then he bumps into Fabian Salah.
But twist of the century: they already know each other.
My favorite character in the book is Fabian Salah. We get to see his family and Fabian’s struggle because his parents wanted him to be this hockey player. He grew up in Canada, and his parents were like, “Oh my God, you’ll be amazing. You’ll be phenomenal.”
He wasn’t interested.
Fabian is a musician. He wanted to sing. At one time, he was playing for the Toronto Symphony. He’s playing at bars. He’s getting all this notoriety, but it’s still kind of insular within a very specific group.
His parents were disappointed.
Fabian has declared that he will never date a hockey player.
Ryan is attracted to what he would call prettier gay men, and Fabian likes to paint his nails. Fabian likes to wear glitter. He likes to wear pearl necklaces. And Ryan Price, being this big tough guy, thinks it’s so ironic that he just wants this sweet person that he can protect and love and be cuddly with.
And so it turns out, of course, that Ryan has been comparing everyone to Fabian, and Fabian has had a crush on Ryan. But he could never express it because screw hockey. He’s never going to date a hockey player just because of his parents and because they’re obsessed with them.
“Screw hockey. I’m never gonna date a hockey player just because of my parents and because they’re obsessed with them.”
Of course, we get to see Shane and Ilya. They are a thread that goes through every single book. You get to see the other players. You get to see Scott and Kip from Game Changer. You hear them talk about Eric. There are a couple mentions of Dallas Kent.
So all of the characters are throughout.
The books are absolutely so well written. Rachel Reid is a phenomenal writer.
And yes, I have given away the book, but I haven’t given away all the details.
If you’re interested in family dynamics and sticking it to your parents and saying, “This is my life. I’m gonna do what I want,” consider picking it up.
It’s definitely on the reread list for me.
Yes, it is a love story. It also includes hockey, and it mostly includes how to become your own person. It’s almost like a coming-of-age story.
I love how complex the characters always are in Rachel Reid’s writing.
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Until the next book review,
Kyla
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