Michael Graham has been living a lie, hiding behind a whole lot of denial and guilt. But when John Rikker walks into the locker room, he knows the force field he lives behind won't hold up against his childhood friend. John is openly gay, having transferred to a new school after being outed by one of his classmates. 
 Graham and Rikker has history between them. A history of first sexual experiences, a devastating hate crime, and other losses that have shaped who they are at that moment. I just wanted to give John Rikker a hug -- his acceptance of his sexuality has cost him friends and family and he's the new kid at school and loney, and those feelings are compounded by Graham downright ignoring him and their past history. And I wanted to shake Graham more than once for his fears and denial. It made it the much sweeter when he starts to see things a different way. 
 A nasty hockey game at Rikker's old school shakes everything up, and the team must learn to deal with their own feelings about having the first openly gay player in their conference. Thank goodness they have their coach and captain to bring some sanity and words of wisdom to the players as they learn to deal. But it all just pushes Graham a little closer to looking at himself with acceptance and he finds it hard to keep denying his feelings toward Rikker. 
 It did seem to take quite a while for Graham to come around. It's a gradual process for him and he's still afraid to be true to himself until an accident on the ice gives him another push to coming out. Things really started picking up then, with some great scenes with Rikker and Graham's mother. 
 I really liked this coming out story, and especially how the hockey team was set as the backdrop. I couldn't think of a better day to post my review than National Coming Out Day. 
 This review also appears on my blog at: 
 http://redhotbluereads.blogspot.com/2014/10/review-understatement-of-year-by-sarina.html