RELEASE BLITZ: Star of the Game by Amy Aislin (Excerpt & Giveaway)

RELEASE BLITZ

Book Title: Star of the Game (Stick Side #6)

Author and Publisher: Amy Aislin

Cover Artist: Natasha Snow

Release Date: December 27, 2022

Genre: Contemporary M/M sports romance

Tropes: Best friends to lovers, roommates, hockey

Themes: using your voice/platform for good, mental health, friendship, taking risks

Heat Rating: 3 flames

Length: 94 000 words / 360 pages

It is book 6 in the Stick Side series, but can be read as a standalone. It’s not necessary to have read the previous books in the series.

Goodreads

Buy Links

Amazon | Apple | B&N | Kobo

The previous book in this series, Two-Man Team (Stick Side 5),

is on sale for $0.99 on all platforms from December 20-January 3

Amazon | Apple | B&N | Kobo

Blurb

Felix only wants two things:
1. To make music.
2. His best friend, Emery.

But he’s not willing to risk two decades of friendship for something more. Besides, a bout of writer’s block is preventing him from creating new material, and he’s got deadlines to meet. He doesn’t need any distractions—and Emery is the biggest distraction of all.

Emery only wants two things:
1. To play hockey.
2. His best friend, Felix.

He’s ready to risk it all for a shot at being together. While he should be concentrating on playing his best hockey so his team will grant him a contract extension, there’s no reason he can’t multitask.

With their careers at a crossroads, the timing for romance couldn’t be worse—but when Felix is forced to move in with Emery, will Emery finally convince him to take a chance at becoming the stars of their own game?

Excerpt

Music was his heart and soul. It would never not be a part of his life. But he was ready for something different, whatever that “something” looked like. It was a vague, nameless something that poked at the back of his brain like a child lazily poking at a drum set.

He had tour dates and venues for this summer to firm up with his tour manager, and although he loved performing, the thought of touring made him slump back against the wall.

Twisting open the bottle cap, Felix chugged half his water, mopping up a drop that spilled onto his chin with the back of his hand. Fuck, he couldn’t wait to get home, even though Vancouver in January was as dreary as Henryk Gorecki’s Symphony No. 3. He had a house in LA too, in Playa del Rey, but Vancouver was home. He wanted to sleep in his own bed, visit with his parents and younger sister, help out at his mentor’s after-school musical theater program, and spend time with Emery.

His phone rang, and he pulled it out of his pocket. Well, speak of the devil. Emery Stanton read his caller ID next to a photo of his childhood best friend’s face, and Felix’s heart skipped a beat, an automatic smile pulling his lips upward despite his exhaustion. Felix remembered snapping that picture. “Smile,” he’d said one day when they—along with their other best friend, Kris—had been strolling along Vancouver’s Seawall a couple of summers ago, and instead Emery had made a kissy face.

“I was going for pouty and sexy,” Emery had explained, but the result was that he looked like he’d eaten a lemon.

Felix swiped to answer the video call. “Hey, Em.”

“Oh, hey.” Dark eyes flared in what Felix wanted to believe was pleasure but was probably surprise. “I thought you were still doing the show. I was going to leave you a message.”

See? Surprise.

“We just wrapped up,” Felix said. “What’s up?”

“Nothing.”

Felix waited out a whole ten seconds of silence where they did nothing but stare at each other. Emery scratched his bristly jaw. Felix sipped more water. Amusement tickling the back of his throat, he finally said, “What was your message going to be about, then?”

“Oh, nothing. I was going to ramble on about the latest movie I saw with the guys just so you didn’t forget the sound of my voice.”

The guys being his friends on his NHL team.

Felix rolled his eyes. “I haven’t been gone that long.”

“It’s been two weeks, Fe. You disappeared right after New Year’s. I miss your face.”

Felix did not let that go to his head—or his heart. This was just Emery being Emery. “You were in Winnipeg playing a New Year’s game, and then in New York, then Colorado. If I’d have been home, we wouldn’t have seen each other anyway.”

Emery scowled. “That’s not the point.”

“What is the point?”

“The point is that it’s the middle of January and I haven’t even said ‘Happy New Year’ to you in person yet.”

“Oh, the horror.”

“Sarcasm is unbecoming,” Emery quipped, quite primly.

About the Author

Amy’s lived with her head in the clouds since she first picked up a book as a child, and being fluent in two languages means she’s read a lot of books! She first picked up a pen on a rainy day in fourth grade when her class had to stay inside for recess. Tales of treasure hunts with her classmates eventually morphed into love stories between men, and she’s been writing ever since. She writes evenings and weekends—or whenever she isn’t at her full-time day job saving the planet at Canada’s largest environmental non-profit.

An unapologetic introvert, Amy reads too much and socializes too little, with no regrets. She loves connecting with readers. Join her Facebook Group to stay up-to-date on upcoming releases and for access to early teasers, find her on Instagram, or sign up for her infrequent newsletter.

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