Book 1,088: One-Touch Pass (SCU Hockey #4) – J.J. Mulder

The fourth and fifth installments of Mulder’s SCU Hockey series were on my radar early in the summer when I blazed through the first three and the Offsides intertwined series. But, I of course completely forgot about them until they were both already out and I was avoiding starting my next Austen so I jumped at them.

One-Touch Pass is the story of Nate (housemate of Atlas from On the Edge who we briefly meet) and Macros (childhood best friend and Max’s roommate from Save the Game. Nate is a happy go lucky hockey player from Wyoming with a big heart and an open mind; and Marcos has a lot of hurt, PTSD, and self-blame from the experience Max went through. It’s another opposites attract like Atlas and Henri.

From a timeline perspective this one might be the most complex as I’m pretty sure it covers time from books 2-3 overlapping so it was great in that it revisited some things but also a little confusing about when some things were happening.

I won’t lie, this one gets off to a very fast start and I thought it might be a bit too much spice for me, but thankfully it cooled off pretty quick, but you did get this total gem of an observation by Nate who (for the most part) takes his bisexual awakening in stride:

It’s been a full week since I gave my first blowjob and I’m starting to notice just how many men there are on the SCU campus. They are everywhere. And apparently, swallowing a load of cum clears the film from your eyes, because now I’m also noticing how attractive a lot of these guys are. (24)

He does struggle at some points, but more so out of the lack of physical affection that Marcos isn’t really able to provide because of his (undiagnosed) PTSD, than out of questioning his sexuality and rather than being upset or mad at being bisexual/queer he’s more upset that he just didn’t notice it:

I’m twenty years old, and just like that I’m bi? Something else? How the hell have I gone my entire life without knowing this about myself? I’m ashamed, all of a sudden, like it’s only just hit me how clueless I am. I’ve been queer for only a handful of months, and am already failing at it. Or, even worse, maybe I’ve been queer my entire life and am just so stupid I never noticed. (134)

And that’s pretty much his approach to life and it was refreshing.

The overall relationship definitely felt a lot harder than the other novels and that’s saying something with Max and Luke from Save the Game and what they went through, but I think Mulder was stretching their writing muscles on this one. They definitely pushed the boundary of doing too much and may have crossed it, but not so far as to make me annoyed enough to really complain about it. But so you’re aware not only is there Marco’s fear/aversion to physical intimacy, there’s his guilty of what happened with Max, there’s Nate’s bisexual awakening, drama (non sexuality related) 0n his family farm when they go to visit, both of their sports ball things, and their relationships with their friends and teammates.

So, yeah you can see where it could be a lot and when you add in the overlapping timeline Mulder may have bit off slightly more than they could chew, but I think in the end they wrote a great book and saved it and even had time to throw in a little wink to the hockey romance sub-genre, and specifically the MM Hockey Romance sub-sub-genre(?) with a conversation between Nate and his bff Jack (protagonist of the final novel The Last Buzzer):

‘I also got a book about dinosaurs—no, before you ask, there aren’t any pictures—and then a book about gay hockey players.’
‘Like, a biography about Troy Nichols? Holy shit, is Coach Mackenzie in there?’
‘No, no.’ He chuckles.
‘It’s fiction. A romance. There’s pretty much an entire subgenre of romance devoted to hockey, and this one happens to be about two men. I haven’t read it yet.’ (109)

Now for the one thing that really got me, yet another continuity error in the middle of a sex scene. Over two pages apparently in the middle of an intimate moment both Nate and Marcos apparently swapped out the type of underwear they were wearing:

We’re both naked but for our briefs, and both very obviously hard, but he hasn’t made a big production out of looking at me, which I appreciate. (93)

He laughs again, a slightly more nervous sound this time, as he pulls his boxers off and climbs on to his bed, flopping onto his back with his head pillowed on an arm. (93)

I discard my own boxers before I go. (94)

Now, I know it’s not that big of a deal and I’m sure it’s because a lot of people use different types of underwear names interchangeably, but it just throws me for a bit of a loop when something like this happens. You’re seeing two guys in relatively form fitting skimpier underwear with certain areas accented and lots of leg showing and then all of a sudden they’re much more covered and if you take it literal and don’t assume boxer briefs, wearing baggy almost shorts like underwear. It throws things off, for me at least.

Mulder continues to do a great job with the intimate scenes and the various needs, wants and limits of the protagonists. This one was interesting with Marcos’ aversion and I wasn’t sure where we were going, but Mulder did a great job of both showing Nate’s respect for Marcos’ boundaries and both of their frustrations when sometimes it flared up at the worst time.

Recommendation: As with the rest of Mulder’s novels I’ve read, it is 100% worth the read. It wasn’t perfect, but nothing is. Mulder may have bitten off more than they could chew with the many things going on in this novel, but for the most part it was well written and I enjoyed it. I think they were getting tired of writing MM Hockey Romances and started to get the itch to write something else because this one (‘Oh heeeeyyyyyy, cowboy romance)’ and I’m pretty sure the next one (Oh heeeeeeyyyyy, single dad romance’) start to veer away and become other tropes, which isn’t a bad thing.

Opening Line: “‘Come on, Micky, it’ll be fun. Loosen up a little bit!'”

Closing Line: “I wait, knowing there’s more. ‘Te veo al amanecer.'” (Whited out to avoid spoilers, highlight to read.)

Additional Quotes from One-Touch Pass
“‘You’re really pretty,’ I hear myself say, completely unbidden. ‘Like my horse.'” (7)

“If the Greek gods did exist, one of them would have scooped up Nate the moment he angled his summer-green eyes in their direction. He’s beautiful.” (15)

“I’m shaky with the realization that I am completely fucked. I don’t want to be friends with Nate. Not even a little bit. Friends is nowhere near good enough.” (102)

“He glances up at me and smiles. Marcos doesn’t really smile the same way other people do, with their full mouth and teeth participating. He smiles like he’s not really sure he wants to commit. Like smiles are precious and he can’t give them away to just anyone. The trick is to look at his eyes. His mouth might lie, but the smile will be in the warm, deep brown of his eyes.” (192)

“You obviously don’t want to, Nate, and that’s fine. It really isn’t a big deal. I don’t care if I top or bottom. I care that you feel safe, and aren’t just doing something because you feel like you have to.” (197)

“Second Chance Romance is his actual name, if you can believe it. Racehorse names are even dumber than our food names.” (278)