I have a personal goal to write a new hockey romance novel each year – I’m 2 for 2 so far, and trying to make it 3 in a row. If you follow me on social media, you might’ve noticed a few hints about this upcoming project. Well I’m here to answer some major questions about this new book!
Who are the characters?
Dylan Everett, captain of the Turkeys, is one the league’s leading goal scorers. Words like “generational talent” and “superstar” get thrown around a lot to describe him. He’s from a right-winger from Washington state and has won gold for Team USA.
Luc-Henri Baptiste is a French-Canadian center who everyone thought would be a top player, but for whatever reason it never quit turned out that way. He’s been moved around to a couple teams and hasn’t really enjoyed hockey much the past few years. His move to the Turkeys might be the last chance he gets to turn things around.
In a recent post, I talked about players I use as a model for play styles. For Henri, I modeled his career off of Dylan Strome and Pierre-Luc Dubois, so when I need numbers, I’m combing through their stats. For Dylan, he’s basically just Ovechkin re: greatest goal scorer to score them goals (plus being big enough to land hits that make you cringe in sympathy) but American. I have been looking up a lot of Ovechkin stats XD
Is this part of the Trade Deadline universe?
It is in The Trade Deadline universe! Ryan, Lars, and Riley are all mentioned. I haven’t finished writing it yet, so I don’t know how big a part any of them will play. I also don’t expect to see Evan, just based on the timeline.
You’ll also expect to see some familiar events and teams come up.
What team(s) are Henri and Dylan on?
Dylan and Henri play for the Albuquerque Turkeys 🦃❤️🤎 The Turkeys have won the Stanley Cup twice in franchise history and are generally a playoff bound-team, but lately they’ve struggled to go very far. Dylan has been their star player and captain for over a decade. Henri is much newer – we’ll meet him as he gets traded to the team midway through the season and follow him as he adapts to yet another new team.
When does it take place?
It takes place over several years, but the main part of the book overlaps with The Trade Deadline (which is the 2023-2024 season). The main plot of the book takes place over about a year and a half, but with a heavy focus on what came the decade before (and a lot of Dylan’s baggage from that time).
What are the tropes?
I’m nothing if not consistent, so you can expect teammates to lovers, forced proximity, and secret romance. There are hints of a love triangle, but only because an ex is a frequent character. Since it’s still a work in progress, I don’t know that I can pin it down more than that?
What’s the spice level?
I don’t know 🤣 It’s an open door romance, but won’t know how it compares to The Trade Deadline or Drop the Gloves until it’s done. I would say more along the lines of what The Trade Deadline had.
How much social media, news articles, and text messages are there?
I love incorporating these types of things in my contemporary romances! I think social media and texting is such a part of daily life it’s hard to write a modern story without it (you can pry my emojis from my cold dead hands), plus social media and news articles are a huge part of an NHL team.
I had a lot of the latter in The Trade Deadline. The social media and interviews were a huge way I could move the plot forward but also develop the characters a little more. You can expect more social media in this book (though not so much the news articles). That means more fan interaction and impressions as they talk about the team.
There will also be a lot of texting, because…
What POV?
The Trade Deadline I specifically went in with a dual POV story where Ryan and Lars alternated chapters. Drop the Gloves was so very Evan-based that it’s essentially a single POV with just Evan (and Riley popping in a few times).
This book is dual POV, with Henri having a pretty traditional chapter set up. We get in his head a bit more. We still get Dylan’s POV, but his side of the story is told almost exclusively through his text messages. You get both characters, but Dylan is kept a little more at a distance from the reader than Henri.
Anything else…?
✔️ The book has a title
✔️ The cover art is done and the cover is mostly done
✔️ 86,000 words written (The Trade Deadline is about 120k, Drop the Gloves 107k)
I’m honestly really excited about this one. Henri and Dylan have been really cooperative, which is always a plus.
A.L. Heard 
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