AUDIO REVIEW: The Understatement of the Year by Sarina Bowen (The Ivy Years #3)

THE UNDERSTATEMENT OF THE YEAR

The Ivy Years - Book Three

by Sarina Bowen

Release Date: September 29, 2014

Audio Release Date: June 20, 2016

Review

For some people, coming out is the hardest thing ever. Even when it’s to be with your best friend. Especially when a traumatic event help solidifies why you were in the closet.

This is a second chance story for Graham and Rikker. When they find themselves on the same college hockey team, tension is high. Because they loved each other in high school until a tragic event tore them apart. Leaving some deep emotional scars.

It’s hard to watch Graham fight being gay. Torn between loving Rikker and being terrified of the world finding out. The push and pull between the two. It hurts. Meanwhile, Rikker has been forced into the spotlight for being Gay, becoming the poster boy for being an out player.

It’s an excellent book. With all the angst you expect from young love and fears of coming out. It was satisfying for them to find a way to be happy and take strength from each other.

Narrators Teddy Hamilton and Christian Fox do an excellent job of these two young guys and their journey.

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Synopsis

What happened in high school stayed in high school. Until now.

Five years ago, Michael Graham betrayed the only person who ever really knew him. Since then, he’s made an art of hiding his sexual orientation from everyone. Including himself.

So it’s a shock when his past strolls right into the Harkness College locker room, sporting a bag of hockey gear and the same slow smile that had always rendered Graham defenseless. For Graham, there is only one possible reaction: total, debilitating panic. With one loose word, the team’s new left wing could destroy Graham’s life as he knows it.

John Rikker is stuck being the new guy. Again. And it’s worse than usual, because the media has latched onto the story of the only “out” player in Division One hockey. As the satellite trucks line the sidewalk outside the rink, his new teammates are not amused.

And one player in particular looks sick every time he enters the room.

Rikker didn’t exactly expect a warm welcome from Graham. But the guy won’t even meet his eyes. From the looks of it, his former… best friend / boyfriend / whatever isn’t doing so well. He drinks too much and can’t focus during practice.

Either the two loneliest guys on the team will self destruct from all the new pressures in their lives, or they can navigate the pain to find a way back to one another. To say that it won’t be easy is the Understatement of the Year.

Warning: unlike the other books in this series, this heartbreaking love story is about two guys. Contains sexual situations, dance music, snarky t-shirts and a poker-playing grandmother.

About Sarina Bowen

Sarina Bowen is a twenty-three time USA bestselling author, and a Wall Street Journal bestselling author of contemporary romance novels. Formerly a derivatives trader on Wall Street, Sarina holds a BA in economics from Yale University.

A New Englander whose Vermont ancestors cut timber and farmed the north country in the 1760s, Sarina is grateful for the invention of indoor plumbing and wi-fi during the intervening 250 years. She lives with her family on a few wooded acres in New Hampshire.

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