This book was so boring that I genuinely forgot to review it, and then forgot that I'd forgotten! I was actually about to review Role Model (which is MUCH better!), but I wanted to revisit my reviews of the earlier books in the series first, to see if there were any commonalities. I was so confused about why I couldn't find my review for Common Goal, lol!
Anyway, if you don't want spoilers for the most boring gay hockey smut that ever gay hockey smutted, then instead of continuing to read this, go read Common Goal for yourself. And then lie down for a looooong time, because Kyle is exhausting!
Common Goal by Rachel Reid
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
The first thing you need to know is that the book’s blurb describes our hockey player, Eric, as a silver fox, but the book’s graphic shows him with a pretty standard brown flow. I don’t remember what his physical description in the actual book is, but in my head he’s somewhere in the middle. I guess we’ll have to wait for Season 2 of Heated Rivalry to see if we get any more opinions!
The second thing you need to know is that Eric’s house party scene gives me SO much second-hand anxiety! Kyle shows up, and this is totally fine and normal. But he shows up with a bunch of mocktail mixer crap that he wants to use to make Eric a custom mocktail. In Eric’s own kitchen. During a party Eric is trying to host. DUDE! Eric did not plan for you to be playing bartender when he was buying the ice for this party! He did not plan for this while he was cleaning his kitchen! And THEN Kyle actually makes this mocktail in, like, a secondary kitchen? So they’re the only people there and it’s not where the actual party is happening? I would just plain die and send myself to Hell if I thought I was somehow monopolizing the host of a house party in some separate room away from the rest of his party! Like, Kyle. ERIC IS TRYING TO HOST A PARTY. IT IS NOT UNREASONABLE TO THINK THAT HE MIGHT LIKE TO BE IN THE LOCATION OF HIS OWN LITERAL PARTY. THAT HE IS LITERALLY TRYING TO HOST.
So then Kyle makes Eric his custom mocktail, and okay, fine, it’s delicious. Whatever. But THEN he’s all, “Lmk when you want another and I’ll make you one!” So okay, let me get this straight. Eric now is obligated to drink a drink he didn’t know he was going to drink, and then he’s going to have to ASK Kyle to make him another. Like, Kyle didn’t even offer this as a whole party thing? He’s not just going to set himself up to make everyone the mocktail so it’s a proper activity? It’s… just for Eric? And Eric has to remember to ask for another, obviously, or Kyle might be disappointed that he didn’t love it. And he can’t let Kyle be disappointed--Kyle is a GUEST!!! Is asking for one more mocktail enough to be polite, or does he have to ask for a third? Three mocktails is kind of a lot of mocktails! I’m exhausted. This is exhausting behavior. Kyle is EXHAUSTING.
And as if that is not enough, you guys, at the end of the party, Kyle. Does. Not. Leave. Eric low-key, sideways hints at him to leave several times, and Kyle just. Does. Not. Eric genuinely does everything but TELL Kyle to leave, but Kyle absolutely will not leave! He ends up spending the night, he doesn’t leave so hard! I don’t even care that it all works out in the end and they’re in love--I am mortified by this behavior.
Eric’s apparently into it, though, so off we go! I don’t really feel one way or another about the age gap romance trope. However, I DO kind of feel a certain way about Kyle’s retelling of his very first age gap romance--are we supposed to feel like he’s focused on older men because he hasn’t processed the trauma of being groomed by his boss?!? Because that is a Whole Thing, if so. Not that I’m not there for it or anything! I was just surprised!
But ultimately, even though both Eric and Kyle profess to be interested specifically in an age gap romance, and both fantasize about it separately, they don’t really actualize any aspects of it in their actual romance. Eric fantasizes about “spoiling” Kyle, but he never really does. Kyle fantasizes about being “irresistable” to his older partner, such that they’d do anything to please him, but they never really act out this scenario together, either. Instead, they just kind of have normal--though excessive!--sex. They’re both pretty focused on edging, which honestly makes sense for Eric (less for Kyle), but otherwise they’re just a couple of normal dudes dating normal dudes.
The relationship angst is meant to come from both men secretly wanting to have a relationship, but neither man admitting it while they continue to act like friends with benefits. Maybe this is just me being unfamiliar with queer culture, but Bro. Is it really THAT hard to tell a sexual partner that you’ve caught feelings? Like, I get that it’s probably embarrassing and you’re upset that they might stop wanting to have sex with you, but Bro. Come on. Or was this maybe meant to be the relationship version of edging? That could be cool as a through-line, but I think we’d have needed some more hints at it for it to work.
I was surprised that none of this hidden turmoil really showed itself in the sex scenes. One of my favorite parts of Heated Rivalry is that you can see how Shane and Ilya are falling in love against their will by how they behave during their sex scenes, because although they both think they’re hiding it, they actually can’t. It’s cute and sweet and there would definitely have been room for it in this book, too. Like maybe they each simultaneously find themselves acting out that fantasy they’d both expressed, and then they have Big Feelings about it. Just… SOMETHING! If nothing else, it would have given them something to talk about!
I’ve felt like that about a couple of the books. Obviously Shane and Ilya have a ton to talk about, although another one of my favorite parts of Heated Rivalry is how it takes them about six years to realize it. Fabian and Ryan were kids together, so even though they have very different interests now that’s still plenty to build on. Troy and Harris work together. But I do not know what on earth Scott and Kip have to talk about (and that scene in which Kip is trying to talk to Scott about something he’s interested in and Scott shuts him down because he doesn’t care STILL pisses me off!), and I do not know what on earth Eric and Kyle have to talk about. Good thing that Eric and Scott are friends, and Kyle and Kip are friends. They can survive off of double dates!
Honestly, though? I give them eight months.
Game Changer Reviews:
- Game Changer
- Heated Rivalry
- Tough Guy
- Common Goal
- Role Model (coming next week!)
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