Title: ⟫ Face Off (Alpha Omega Hockey Series Book #2)
Author: ⟫ Marina Vivancos
Rating: ⟫ 5/5
Blurb: ⟫ Orion’s life turns upside down when someone outs him as the first Omega in the NHL…that anybody knows of. Now, he has to wrestle with the decisions he made throughout his life to keep that secret hidden—including the man he left a decade earlier.
Problem is, that man is Gabriel McKenna, Captain of the Gotham Hounds. Seeing as Orion captains the Brooklyn Cats, their relationship is more one of hate than love at the moment.
Or so he wants to tell himself.
Orion has enough difficulties dealing with idiots on the ice thinking they can put him on his knees just because they know he’s an Omega. He doesn’t need to suddenly reconnect with his old flame. Doesn’t need to deal with the feelings he thought he’d buried long ago.
Orion is trying to escape the memories of the best year of his life, but the past is catching up with him. After the way Orion left, after all the fights on the ice, he doesn’t know if he deserves a second chance…
But he might want one anyway.
This book is a steamy rivals-to-lovers story with a complicated past. It is the second book in the Alpha Omega Hockey series but can be read as a standalone.
Review: ⟫ I was a little wary of reading this book – although I liked the first one in the series, I didn’t enjoy it as much as I’d hoped. But this book actually blew me away! I was engrossed from the very first page when Orion was outed as an Omega – the first one to actually be known about in the Hockey league.
The story is told with some flashbacks – to his rookie year when he met Gabby and how things progressed between them, to how things were now where he and Gabby were known to throw down on the ice. It was fascinating, painful and engrossing to see how things progressed – from the way Orion accidentally became the Omega to go to for all of the others hidden in the league, to the way things between he and Gabby moved forward now that what could be seen as the major barrier being removed.
I felt for Gabby the most – he had no idea why Orion ended things between them all those years ago, and his bitterness was understandable. Yet this wasn’t one of those silly misunderstandings that make you roll your eyes – Orion’s reasons were more than valid, and the fact that they managed to talk about it and see each other’s point of view was special.
The relationships Orion had built up over the years were a pleasure to read, and the fact that his team completely had his back was refreshing – it would have been easy for there to be a complete 180 in how his team-mates treated him once they knew.
I also have really enjoyed the fact that Orion is a man of colour, yet that’s not made a big deal of. He just is. Instead of it being used as a plot point, it was just a fact in the story and that was incredibly refreshing.
The sex between Orion and Gabby was extremely hot – the nesting scene for some reason made me tear up and squirm in equal measure – and this book has completely reaffirmed my desire to read more of Vivancos’ work. It was a pleasure to read – from the hockey games, to the relationship building, the chirping – everything. An easy 5/5 from me.
I received an ARC from GRR.
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