- Book Title: Penalty Shot
- Book Series: Hat Trick, book three
- Author: Jeff Adams
- Publisher: JMS Books LLC (September 13, 2015)
- Book Length: 254 pages
- Genre: Contemporary, Erotic, Romance, Sports
- Posting Date: September 25, 2015
The Author Guest Post:
Many thanks to Scott and the GGR team for hosting me today. I’m excited to be here to talk about the third and final novel in the Hat Trick trilogy, Hat Trick 3: Penalty Shot.
This book finds Simon and Alex, the hockey playing college students at the center of the series, celebrating their fourth anniversary together as they enter their senior year at the University of Michigan. The guys are excited that graduation is on the horizon and they’re making a lot of plans about their future. Despite having a full schedule, when they’re approached by a talented, teenage goalie to coach a team he’s putting together of LGBT youth and allies, they end up saying yes. They see it as an opportunity to pay forward some of the good opportunities they’ve had with their coaches through high school and college.
Among the players on the new team are Bryan and TJ and their story is unlike anything I’ve done in the Hat Trick series so far. While there’s always a couple of supporting characters who look like they’re headed towards their own romance, this one is more complex than others. TJ is a seventeen year old female to male trans character. He’s been living as a male for a couple years and hasn’t played hockey since he starting identifying as male because neither gender team would take him. Bryan arrived on the new team and initially identifies as one of the straight allies. However, Bryan is drawn to TJ and he’s not sure what to do with that attraction.
It’s a new thing for Simon to counsel on as well. Despite doing workstudy at the Ann Arbor LGBT Community Center for a couple years as he trains to be a social worker, he hasn’t encountered this exact situation. Since he’s the team coach, both boys come to him for guidance. This section of the book was enjoyable, and sometimes challenging, to write.
I was lucky that I had good guidance writing this storyline. Skyler Cruz and I have been friends for a few years, and played hockey together as part of the New York City Gay Hockey Association. He and I had some candid conversations around his own transition journey as well as issues that face transgender youth in general. He’s also a social worker (and is the primary inspiration behind why, in Hat Trick 2, it’s revealed that Simon changed majors to social work) and he helped me craft dialogue for Simon, Bryan and TJ. Best of all, he read their scenes when the book was completed to make sure I’d created something that felt authentic.
It’s possible Bryan and TJ will have further appearances. While Hat Trick 3, along with a free short Hat Trick Overtime: Reunion (which is now available as a free ebook from JMS Books), wraps up Simon and Alex’s story, I’m planning a story in 2016 that focuses on the youth team. Bryan and TJ would appear in that story.
Check out the excerpt below for a sneak peek of Simon and Bryan talking about his feelings for TJ. Plus make sure you leave a comment or question on this post for a chance to win one ebook from the Hat Trick series (you’ll have your choice of any one you want). I’ll stop back by and see what is being talked about and leave some responses, too.
The Buy Links:
Hat Trick 3: Penalty Shot (Hat Trick (Simon and Alex) Book 4) – Amazon US
Hat Trick 3: Penalty Shot (Hat Trick (Simon and Alex) Book 4) – Amazon UK
JMS Books
All Romance eBooks (ARe)
Barnes & Noble
The Book Description:
Life has a sneaky way of checking you into the boards.
The relationship that began when Simon Roberts and Alex Miller were in high school is about to cross another milestone as they start their final year at the University of Michigan. It’s been four amazing years of love, friends, and hockey.
Now it’s time to help pay it forward.
When a talented sixteen-year-old goalie is denied placement on a youth league roster, he asks Simon and Alex to coach a team of LGBT youth and allies. With the determination, hard work, and help of an amazing group of friends, they rally the team towards a winning season.
In the final installment of the best-selling Hat Trick trilogy, Simon and Alex find everything they’ve worked so hard for is in jeopardy. When they’re thrown a devastating curve ball, the far-reaching implications put their entire future together on the line.
The Excerpt:
“Coach Simon, you got a minute?”
I’d just walked into the community center and being called coach confused me. Here, I was just Simon, or in some random moments, Mr. Roberts. I looked towards the voice and found Bryan sitting on one of the lobby benches, looking like he was trying to blend into the wall.
“Hey, Bryan,” I said, taking a seat next to him. “Everything okay? Didn’t expect to see you with no practice today.”
“Is it a bad time?”
“It’s fine. My first meeting isn’t for a while yet.”
“Crap, sorry. I should’ve known I’d need an appointment.”
“It’s okay. What’s going on?”
He looked around, like he expected someone to jump out. “Is there some place we can talk?” His eyes kept moving. “In private?”
“Sure.” My curiosity was piqued. Bryan was a friend of Walt’s who identified straight during the team meeting, even hitting on Hillary. “Let’s head up stairs.”
“TJ’s not here, is he? Or anyone from the team?”
“I don’t know.” And that was true. It wasn’t a day that anyone from the team would usually be here, but it didn’t mean they couldn’t drop in.
“I thought you might know.” As we got further away from the front door and the lobby, he seemed to relax a little. “What we talk about can be confidential, right?”
“Of course,” I said as we climbed the stairs. We continued in silence. As we entered the room, I slid the sign on the door to “in use” before closing it. I dropped into a chair while Bryan simply stood next to the table, watching. “You can get comfortable, have a seat.”
“Sure. Sorry.” He put his pack on the floor and sat down, not taking his coat off.
“So what’s up?”
He thumped his thumb on the table. The guy was nervous. That’d been clear downstairs, but even more so now as he fidgeted.
“I shouldn’t be here.” He pushed away from the table, but didn’t get up. He stared at me like he was waiting for the answer to a question he hadn’t asked yet.
“You can say anything that you want,” I said. “It won’t leave this room.”
“So I think I’m really into TJ.” He immediately looked horrified, like he hadn’t meant to say that.
“Okay.”
“I mean…like…as in I think want to ask him out. I don’t know what that means.” He talked fast. “I’ve always been into girls. But TJ is amazing. I feel attracted to him. Am I attracted to him as the guy that he looks like, or the girl that he sorta still is? Should I just stay his friend, or ask him out? If he was a girl and I felt like this, I know I’d ask for a date.
And what does feeling this way make me? Am I gay?” I listened carefully to make sure I didn’t lose anything in his rush to get this out. “And, look, the most important thing is that I don’t want to offend or piss him off. I don’t know what to do. Tell me you’ve got an answer for this.” His voice dropped to just a whisper. “Please.”
Whoa. Unexpected start for the day. I felt for the guy, questioning so much all at once.
Meet the Author:
Jeff’s written stories since he was in middle school and became a gay romance writer in 2009 when his first short stories were published. Since then he’s written several more shorts and novels, including some in the young adult genre, and he plans to keep writing as long as wonderful readers keeping picking up his books.
Jeff lives in rural Northern California with his husband of twenty years, Will. Some of his favorite things include the musicals Rent and [title of show], the Detroit Red Wings and Pittsburgh Penguins hockey teams, and the reality TV competition So You Think You Can Dance. If forced to pick his favorite book it would be a tie between Michael Chabon’s The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay and David Levithan’s Every Day.
Go to the Jeff Adams Author Page
Go to Pinterest – Books We Talk About
The Giveaway:
Jeff Adams is giving a lucky reader the chance to win an e-copy of a book in the Hat Trick series, all you need to do to enter is leave a comment below.
Comments must be time/date stamped by Midnight Pacific time on Friday, October 2, 2014, to be eligible. One winner will be selected at random on Saturday, the 3rd, and notified via email for 5prize delivery. (Void where prohibited)
Best of Luck!
