The Understatement of the Year: (Ivy Years #3) (The Ivy Years) Paperback – September 16, 2014

Angsty, but good hockey romance should I come out to the public as gay kinda thing! Will love overcome all past societal barriers family/friends etc!!Loved it just felt rushed at the end didn’t get to see the outcome from the players after that phone call! Obviously glad his gma is okay though & Graham finally stepped up for his love Riki!!!!!No grammatical errors which is always a plus! The story flowed nicely!!!! Definitely can sense the connection loved that! Omg their fathers were such tools can’t believe them! Props to the author for creating such realistic & engaging characters & plot!! The chemistry between our main characters was AWESOME!!!! :) will read more in this series! Can’t wait to read Bella’s story thought she was a great fleshed out minor character & glad she gets her own novel & HEA!!!!!

Sarina Bowen is reliable. When I start one of her books I know I'll have a good time. I've also come to appreciate her sensitivity when she writes MM Romance. She always addresses issues you can easily relate to, even as a female because we all have experienced discrimination in one way or the other.The Understatement of the Year is a perfect example of how susceptible teenagers are to negative influences. Graham and Rikker were childhood friends and lovers when a vicious homophobic assault left Rik with a couple broken ribs and bruises and Graham firmly in the closet. Graham never got over the way their attackers called them fagots and that he ran and left Rik to fend for himself. But really, what else could he have done? He was a 16 year old kid and they were outnumbered. So he buried everything about this essential part of himself and showed the hetero front everyone expected him to be.Rik on the other hand was expelled from his bigot home and came to live with his grandmother who would become the rock in his life. When he is being kicked off the hockey team at college after being outed he comes to Harkness to continue playing for their Hockey team. Imagine his surprise when he comes face to face with the guy who was his first love, who never called after they were assaulted.Graham puts up a front - on the outside he is this guy who has always a flippant and funny comment on his lips, gets drunk, and sleeps with women. On the inside it's a Herculean effort for him to hide that he is gay.Sex with women only works when he gets drunk. It is super sweet to see Graham change - his immense growth from the beginning of the book to the end is touching and all kinds of beautiful. I never got mad at him for being a coward because the author made me realize that the reason for him staying in the closet was for fear of embarrassment. He lost a lot when those homophobic douchewaffles hunted Rik and him. Most of all, he lost his love and best friend. I challenge everyone not to get choked up a bit when Graham takes the first step letting go of his bottled up emotions and letting himself be vulnerable.Rik's way of handling the new situation at Harkness is pretty admirable. He is the new guy, the one who has zero social life when he starts out again and sometimes his loneliness shines through, it's a little heartbreaking. Rikker is such a laid-back, clear-headed and kindhearted, patient guy who would never do what was done to him - out Graham against his will. He is accepting and understanding, giving him space to work this out on his own terms. I loved their friendship and connection so much. Once they moved out of the friend zone it felt like wearing your most favorite pair of jeans. Comfortable.Next to the main characters there is always a cast of lovable side characters. I adored Graham's mom and Rik's gran. You could actually SEE why the two leads had become such good people. And then there is Bella whose book I can't wait to read. She is a wonderfully colorful character with a big heart and she deserves a happily ever after.Let me say a view words about the audiobook of The Understatement of the Year. I know Teddy Hamilton as a narrator from Him and Us by Sarina Bowen and Elle Kennedy. I knew I'd get an amazing audio experience with him. And then I heard Christian Fox and boy, the guy is good. I love how both of them put considerable voice acting skills into their performances.Sarina Bowen always balances the anxiety with a tenderness and lightness that takes the edge off it and makes her stories supremely entertaining that will leave you with a smile on your face despite the serious topic. It's the way her characters are wonderful human beings, people you accept and embrace with all their flaws. They make you feel good and when you close one all you want to do is start the next one. Her gentle hand creating these wonderful stories with amazing characters says a lot about her as a person.If you love MM Romance, give Ms. Bowen a chance. She always brings something special to the table, be it MM or MF Romance.

Michael Graham and Johnny Rikker met in 7th grade Spanish class. 2 nerdy little kids sitting in the back of class getting partnered for “Hola Juan”, “Hola Miguel” exercises. Classmates become best friends and friends hit high school and become something more, until circumstances tear them apart. Rikker gets outed and shipped to Michigan to Vermont; but at least going to live with his grandmother (in a fairly liberal state) allows him to escape his bigoted parents and their Christian school preaching hate and intolerance and roasting in hell. Graham just happens to run faster and not trip – but in many ways – while it’s hard to warm up to him because of his seeming cowardice – he gets the worst of it. Rikker goes on to have boyfriends and go to clubs and to learn to accept himself and his place in the world – even if there always are those people who don’t make it easy. Graham has no opportunity to deal with the event that tore their lives apart. Despite actually having loving and sane (although misguided and not very competent) parents he finds the deepest closet he can and burrows into the darkest corner with lots of guilt, trauma, shame and embarrassment to keep him company.5 years later Graham is playing Hockey for Harkness College and one day he walks into the locker room to find his first (and only) love and the source of all his PTSD, guilt, shame and self-hatred standing there putting on hockey gear. And proceeds to have a panic attack. And so it goes. Graham is plagued with the inertia of a deer in head lights and Rikker is hurt and angry that there was never even so much as a phone call, a text, a “Hey, out of the hospital? Feeling OK”? But now they’re on the same hockey team and it’s only a matter of time before they’re forced into each other’s company to dig up the past, resolve old issues, wrestle with Graham’s spectacular homophobia and the fact that they never stopped loving each other.The Understatement of The Year is a bit of an angst fest. Not horribly so but definitely a rocky road to the HEA/HRN. I liked Rikker a lot. He’s just a regular college dude – not twinky but not alpha either. Just a normal kid, who’s learned the hard way to stand up for himself and not back down. He’s not exactly out loud and proud but he’s not in the closet either; and since the reason he transferred to Harkness is because his Christian College hockey team discovered his sexual orientation and tossed him out (which is completely against the law) he has to be out to his new team to stem the tide of gossip and get down to the business of playing hockey. Graham for his part is trying so so hard to be straight, act straight, look straight. He’s trying so hard he can barely breath and once Rikker shows up he initially finds his strength to get through the day in the bottom of a bottle.The romance between the 2 is very sweet. The sex is not especially explicit but they have good chemistry and there’s enough banter and emotional connection to make up for the lack of sexy times. – once you warm up to Graham and realize how much of a wounded baby bird with a broken wing he really is. There were some fairly well developed secondary characters in the other members of the hockey team and we get to know Graham’s mom (who’s a sweet lady but not going to win mother of the year. “You know dear, we thought perhaps you were acting like you were broken-hearted, but we thought it best to have absolutely no conversation on the subject or try to offer any reassurance or encouragement to talk – despite that public school was failing and we had to send you to that fire and brimstone den of prejudice”) and Rikker’s mom (who puts the C in See you next Tuesday) and a few other friends and family members.All in all the story moved quickly and was pretty entertaining.

I got this after being on a recent MM Ice hockey high after making my way through Rachel Reid's Game Changer series.This is a good read, there's angst, not mega angst but enough to hurt.There's an awful lot of oh my god that makes me so happy smiley moments.The audio book.Oh my god the narrators are fire. They did such a good job with the book. I loved Teddy Hamilton as the voice of the absolutely gorgeous Rikker, but I very much hope to find plenty more MM that utilises Christian Fox, his voice as Graham... Just wow.Just a couple of things I didn't like, and this is only from personal opinion.I didn't particularly like the character Bella. I was glad when she began to fade away from the story.The sex is tame in this in comparison to a lot of MM books. I appreciate that it's not always needed, and reading this after just finishing Heated Rivalry probably didn't help but I would have liked a bit more steam.The writing however throughout was excellent. The audio really REALLY made it for me.

What a perfect ending! 5 stars easyI love this series, but unfortunately, I only have one book left to read.They were high school best friends and more, but kids can be cruel. It ended in disaster, and neither of them ever got over what they had lost.John Rikker moved away during high school and left Michael Graham behind, but he wasn't the one who betrayed his best friend. Rikker has never had it easy. All he wants to do is play hockey and keep his head down. Unfortunately, his team doesn't feel the same way. He is kicked off the college team for being gay! His Uncle finds a loophole and gets him a transfer to Harkness college. The problem is that this is Michaels team.Michael is the straightest gay guy anyone could know. He so far in the closet it's controlling his life and affecting his sleep. Now Rikker is back on his radar, and he is a walking disaster.This story isn't all fluffy and fairytales. It's raw and shows the lonely side of accepting yourself. One guy is out and friendless, and the other is living an impossible lie. The understatement of the year is about finding happiness and forgetting about what others think. Of course, there is some hockey in there too ;-P.

Michael Graham is so deep in the closet I bet he's made friends with the lion, the witch AND the wardrobe.Jonny Rikker is out although not really by his own choice.Graham and Rikker were friends and lovers as teenagers and this is the story of them meeting again in college.For reasons I don't fully understand I didn't like Bella much. She seems a nice enough person, ballsy (which I like in a female character) but somehow I just couldn't connect with her.Graham acted like a complete dick for most of the book. I get that he was scared but dammit man lay off the arseholeyness!It took me a long time to warm to him and I actually ended up feeling horribly sorry for him and his self imposed exile.Rikker is an absolute sweetie and I loved everything about him. My heart hurt for what he had to go through but he did it with humour and dignity.The writing is fresh and easy to read. It had me chuckling one minute and trying to ease the ache in my heart the next.The ending was slightly disappointing...I wanted more somehow.

I am loving Sarina's Ivy Years series and this book was no different. Rikker and Graham are such strong, powerful characters who I loved right from the first page. They have a lot of history and the tension Graham felt when Rikker walked into the locker room absolutely radiated off the page.While the other books in this series are all about couples meeting and falling in love for the first time, Johnny [Rikker] and Michael [Graham] are learning to love each other all over again.This book features a wonderful cast of supporting characters including Skippy and Rikker's gran, she was my absolute favourite.Like the previous books this is a standalone but if you loved the previous couples as I did you'll be pleased to know they are still very much together and a receive a little mention as all the guys are on the same ice hockey team!

Ice hockey, tough game, played by men, but some of those men may not be all they seem. As in this case. I enjoyed the book and felt for Graham who was suffering from guilt over an incident in his youth which haunted him. He was terrified of his secret getting out and warred with his emotions and feelings until he had a head injury on the ice when everything started to unravel.This was a moving tale and of course in the end love won out but god, its so hard sometimes when you think the world and his wife is against you and everything you are. Its a crime that so many people are still so very blinkered in their views of same sex relationships and innocent men (and women) still have to suffer because of this.