Two Man Advantage

Title: Two Man Advantage
Author: Riley Shane
Publisher: Loose Id
Genre: Contemporary M/M
Length: Novella (82 PDF pages)
Rating: 4 stars out of 5

 
Summary Review: Can two men coming off different personal hurts see each other as the answer to their dreams? 

THE BLURB  

 When Professor Nathan Troy walks into his cabin and finds a naked man in his bed, he figures his one-man vacation to snowy Lake Tahoe can’t get any worse. It’s not that Nate doesn’t appreciate the view…he’d just prefer he knew the man in question.  

Kyle Harper has come to Lake Tahoe to escape the memories of his former life — one where he was a star hockey player until a career-ending injury shattered his dreams forever. All Kyle wants is peace, and he certainly isn’t going to get it with a prickly, stubborn man waking him up, insisting that Kyle is in his cabin.  

An accidental double-booking and a wary compromise puts the two in close quarters. Attraction heats things up, but Nate’s not about to let his libido lead him into making the mistake of getting involved with his unexpected roommate. Kyle, however, seems determined to get under his skin at every turn. Both men soon learn that they can’t outrun desire. But lust is easy; it’s opening their hearts that’s hard. Each will have to let go of the past before they can take advantage of the future the two of them could have together.  

THE REVIEW  

Nate’s lover of 2 years broke up with him without any warning. That was bad enough, but the worst part was he dumped him by text message as Nate was waiting for him in the ‘departures’ area at LAX airport just before they were supposed to leave on vacation for a resort in South Lake Tahoe, a place he would not have chosen because he loved the warmth of Southern California. When he arrived at his cabin the stakes were raised because there was a naked man in his bed. This was the last straw, even though the man had buns of steel and the rest of him was mighty attractive. All Nate wanted to do was go to bed to sleep, so he woke his unwelcome visitor and demanded that he get out.  

Kyle Harper had been drowning his sorrows with alcohol for over 8 months to try and get over the pain of a career-ending injury on the ice. As a former star left winger with the NHL Marauders his career was over at 28 because he would never be able to skate competitively on his smashed ankle which could not take the kind of punishment that would be meted out by the opposition. When he was poked awake he grabbed Nate who fell on top of his erection. After untangling themselves they tried to untangle their reservations, but it turned out that the resort had made a mistake and both men had been given the same cabin. What to do? They decided to share. (Because if they didn’t there would be no story. 🙂 ) 

They called a truce and tried to make the best of their situation for the week that they would be staying in the cabin, but their libido kept getting in the way as they were both attracted to each other. There was a shower scene which was really hot as Kyle  masturbated to memories of how Nate’s body had felt when they first ended up in bed; Nate thought that was pretty hot as he listened in. Then Nate had his own wet dreams of Kyle. The next day emotions ran high and in the middle of the night the very conservative Nate couldn’t take it any more and decided to see if Kyle felt the same. Of course they had the hottest sex in the bed, on the couch, and every other surface they could find, and over the next couple of days they started falling in love. Would this be a bust or a HEA?  

What I liked  

The characters. Both Nate and Kyle were three dimensional and I could really feel their emotions as each one re-lived his heartache – one for a lost love and the other for a career that was no more. I particularly appreciated Kyle’s grief as he tried to make sense of his life now that he no longer had the career for which he had worked so hard. As for Nate, although he was upset at being dumped it made sense why he got over his ex so fast since it seemed the relationship had been one sided. 

The way they communicated with each other when there was a misunderstanding that could have ended their budding affair (I can’t call this a relationship since it had only been 2 days). There was no Big Misunderstanding, but the book was only 82 pages so I don’t suppose there was an opportunity for an extended ‘time out’.  

 There was a poignant and moving scene when Kyle skated for the first time since his accident. 

 The hot tub scene.  

I think this was one of the best paragraphs in the book from Nate’s POV which put their situation into perspective  

He wasn’t wholly sure how things would work out, but he knew they’d make it work. Kyle wasn’t the man of his dreams. Despite how well they fit, Nate knew there’d be ups and downs in their future, but that was life. No, Kyle wasn’t the man of his dreams. He was the man of his reality, and that was so much better.  

What I didn’t Like  

The author’s frequent use of the word “chute” which made this story seem unromantic; at times I felt like I was reading porn. There are other words to describe this passage and I wish that Riley Shane had made use of some of them.  

The author started calling Kyle and Nate “lovers” as soon as they had sex. Just because someone has sex with another person does not make him his lover. 

Insta love. In two days Kyle was in love with Nate who returned the favour. Even though Nate had broken up with his ex and knew that they were never getting back togeher it seemed to me that maybe falling for someone else should take a little longer than 2 days.  

There was a bit of  over the top prose in a couple of areas. This is one: 

“Right now there was no one before Nate, and he knew there would be no one after”
  

Despite my niggles, Two Man Advantage was a good read and the guys had a lot of fun once the initial hostilities were over. Even though this was not a sports book because Kyle was already out of the game, there was a pretty good comparison between sex and hockey 🙂 

“Two-man advantage, slapshot, hat-trick, high”—Nate grazed his prostate again—”fuck—sticking…”