Melting the Ice (Portland Evergreens Book 1) by Beth Bolden


A new college hockey series from Beth Bolden. New roommates, a blazing attraction, and two guys that find an unexpected desire to kiss another guy for the first time. Brody and Dean start something for fun but have to figure out if they can see a future together.


From the Melting the Ice blurb:

Brody’s got enough on his plate.

Recovering from a knee injury he hopes won’t keep him off the ice. His team, the Portland University Evergreens, have a brand new coach, and he’s hoping to impress the legendary leader. Plus, he's got to make a decision once and for all about playing professional hockey or using his love of science to go a totally different direction.

The last thing he needs is a sexual awakening at the large, calloused hands of his football player roommate.

Dean is big and brawny and taciturn, but he doesn’t need words to woo Brody. He wants Dean, and his brilliant "experiment" to test his attraction gives Brody all the scientific results he needs to know he's not straight.

Now, they're proving his theory with new pleasures every night, while pretending during the day that they’re just roommates.

Except the heat burns so hot between them, it doesn’t just melt all the ice on Brody’s rink, it melts all his beliefs about who he is and what he wants.

But even more, it destroys the lie that he can’t fall hard for a guy. Because Brody is falling hard. The only question is will Dean catch him?


SNik's review:

First in series (Portland Evergreens). Roommates to lovers. Slow burn. Dual POV. 

Coming off of an injury Brody is dedicated to hockey, but during his time off he realized that he might just want to pivot away from hockey to go to medical school, and to confuse his mind more his attraction to his new roommate isn’t helping. Dean is focused on getting to the NFL, and becoming friends with his roommate isn’t a priority, but maybe he can carve time out for some benefits because everything about Brody makes Dean sweat. 

As neither Brody nor Dean has ever been with another man I enjoyed this slow build up of lust filled experimenting to falling slowly in love, with only a short amount of panic over the change in their romantic interests and eventual easy acceptance. Both Brody and Dean are driven, intelligent, sweet and supportive when it comes to someone they care about, and once they admit their attraction they are fully committed. An introduction to possible future main characters that were fun secondary characters, a couple of jocks that study and play hard, and some slight pining while falling in love. Fun start to a new series.


Heather's Review:

Beth Bolden has taken a few steps into a new sport with Melting the Ice, a college/New Adult romance featuring Brody, a hockey junior on the cusp of the NHL, who is recovering from a serious injury, but holds on to her first love, football by making Dean, the man Brody falls for, an up and coming defensive lineman on the school's football team with dreams of going pro himself.

This book is a double bisexual awakening, roommates to lovers story with a slow build, lots of conversation and two sweet guys who 'get' each other.  It's fairly low angst and you also meet many of the secondary characters who will feature later in the series!   If you like a good college sports romance, you'll want to add Melting the Ice to your tbr immediately!


Melting the Ice is currently available as an e-book and in paperback and can be read as part of your Kindle Unlimited Subscription

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