The Unforgetting Game

by Maudie Christin

On paper, Fletcher Armstrong could be considered hockey royalty. Born into a dynasty of star NHL centers on the Jacksonville Manatees, his name comes with high expectations he never asked for and a legacy he’s tired living in the shadow of. When an opportunity arises for him to jump ship and be traded, Fletcher hopes this will finally be his chance to make a name for himself. Seattle is supposed to be his fresh start. His chance to prove himself worthy of the Armstrong name.

Taylor Piers is the future of the NHL. The number one overall draft pick, he arrives in Seattle with the weight of the league on his shoulders and something to prove to everyone watching. He’s fast, talented, and determined to be the best and stay the best. No matter the cost.

Thrown together on the Seattle Seaporters, Fletcher and Taylor are expected to carry the franchise’s future on their backs. Chemistry on the ice is undeniable. Off the ice, it’s complicated. Curiosity turns to obsession. Drive turns to desire. And suddenly, the lines between teammates, friends, and something far more dangerous begin to blur.

In a league where reputations are everything and mistakes are unforgettable, Fletcher and Taylor must decide what they’re willing to risk. Their careers, their hearts, and the game that brought them together.

The Unforgetting Game is a gay adult hockey romance about legacy, ambition, and falling for the one person you’re not supposed to.

Genres: M M Romance, Hockey, Sports Romance, Romance

436 pages, Paperback

First published February 7, 2026

Reviews

[Amanda Roye · Rating 1 out of 5]

I think I have to DNF this book after only 10%…
I’m having a hard time believing this book was proofread. Was it written using AI?! It flips between first and third person narrative in the same paragraph. Am I wrong?

[emma ༊*·˚ · Rating 1 out of 5]

reading this book made me feel like a dog chasing its own tail for 438 pages straight

[Georgia · Rating 2 out of 5]

I had really high hopes for this but I couldn’t get past the first few chapters. It was just one giant info dump at the beginning; instead of drip-feeding information to the reader throughout the book, it was just two whole chapters of background information without any of the story to actually draw you in. Maybe it gets better after that, but I was completely disengaged after the first chapter. I got bored before I could even start to care.

[Nichola · Rating 1 out of 5]

1.5 ⭐️ I’m not sure how to word this without it coming out mean, I know this is the first book from this author so I came in to it with an open mind but I really didn’t enjoy this book. Great concept, not so great execution.

This felt like a bunch of confusing scenes added together to make a book. Almost like the book was a collation of a bunch of self contained bits. No flow through, it felt like we’d jump to one point in time to another- making the development between these two happen off page. The whiplash between their feelings, back and forth between dislike, hate, anger and then sensitivity right back to dislike on a loop, sometimes going through the cycle multiple times in a chapter but in a way that made almost no sense, was off putting and honestly confusing af. They’d create tension between the two boys and then in the next scene they be best friends again ♾️

I think this would have benefited from a few more impartial eyes and a rewrite or two. Id like to see the author write something else in future, just hopefully learning from the mistakes here.

[Tim · Rating 1 out of 5]

Needs to go back to the editors desk. Pretty sloppy writing all round, full of genius prose like “Fletcher swirled his tongue over the pad of his thumb pad.”

Even more annoyingly, there is no sense of progression. The author just skips over any kind of character or relationship development. The characters meet, it hints at some potential tension, turn the page, oh they’re suddenly best friends now. Characters seem to have exactly the same internal dialogue chapter after chapter. Someone described it in another review as being like a dog chasing its own tail— I’d say that’s an apt description.

Also, the weird daddy issues/good boy pillow talk gives me the ick.

[Maya · Rating 2 out of 5]

This should've worked but everything was off

[Bundae · Rating 1 out of 5]

I saw this book repeatedly on social media, and the premise seemed interesting and fell along the current vein of popular hockey romance, so I kept an eye out for the drop. Figured it would be something fun to fit between some of my heavier TBR books.

But unfortunately, I had to DNF at chapter 16. I just could not continue, not with the way it is written.

The author tells us things instead of showing them. All the emotions, all the actions; all broken down into choppy, beat by beat exhibition. It almost reads more as a screenplay sometimes with the amount of telling us what is happening? I really wanted to be immersed in these characters and their story, but it all came across as rather flat and directorial.

They could have been great characters - and they have potential to be great characters! - but so much of what would make them resonate and feel real is glossed over or handed out in empty snippets. We're just handed facts about them, not allowed to experience their potential depth.

The relationships - from friendships, or family, to romantic - in this story also feel flatter than a pane of glass for the most part. To start with there's an immediate, chapter one, jump from "I don't trust people with my life story" to "he gave me a beer and so I told him everything about why my grandfather raised me". And it just keeps spiraling downhill from there.

A bisexual girl who might actually be gay (based on her own description and actions), but makes an exception for one of the MMC's and it's treated like a joke between them? An across-the-hall neighbor and teammate, who barely makes an effort to extend an invite but claims to be a good friend? The stereotype of a clueless, oblivious mother who doesn't know, or doesn't care, about how her own husband is abusing and trying to control their son? And said father is about the only real character that seems to have a smidgen real motivation and depth - all to be the villain.

The attraction between the two MMC's feels rushed, fragmented and sparkless. Because all their feelings are spelled out, not shown to us. Not communicated in actions on the page. And their romantic/spicy scenes are a slog of: "Character A does this. Character B does that." Repeated over and over. First names used to dictate who is doing what in every other sentence. It lacks flow, emotion, and personality.

And then there are the large segments where contextually important past interactions and character/plot points are inserted in the middle of a chapter. In the middle of a scene. Which just further breaks any tiny amount of immersion you might be gaining.

The premise is good! I just wish the execution had been capable of giving what the premise promised.

[Jasmin · Rating 1 out of 5]

wanted an easy read got something that either had no editor input or was written by AI, if i could give it less than one star I would

[Veisa Alina · Rating 1 out of 5]

I'm so disappointed:( I had such great expectations from the book. here are me main reasons I DNFed it
1.Taylor is shown as a child w deep trauma,but then we see him so open and positive towards everyone?like his trauma is completely forgotten
2.it was so rushed,we didn't even see them become friends properly
3.what was up w Emogen?I did not like her and whatever was going on there

[nana · Rating 2 out of 5]

What the hell was this

[Flo’ · Rating 1 out of 5]

What happened during the writing of that book ?

[Nikki :) · Rating 1 out of 5]

halverwege was is er wel klaar mee, maar opgeven staat niet in mijn woordenboek. stom dialoog, stomme karakters en een stom einde

[BookNerd · Rating 1 out of 5]

Dnf 61% I almost didn’t finish the 30% mark but was trying to power through until I saw a review saying it ended on a cliffhanger and knew I had to give up because there’s no way I was reading the second book

[liz I · Rating 1 out of 5]

I started tbe book having high hopes and expectations because I’ve genuinely never read a mlm hockey book and didn’t thoroughly enjoy it or at least be interested. To say i hated it would be and understatement, i hated every character outside if fletcher, jesse, gretch and pancek.

I DESPISED taylor, especially considering the end and I hated that fletcher didn’t stand his ground and wasn’t even pissed about it, it was extremely unsatisfying and quite frankly literally out of nowhere. It felt very forced just so she could continue writing a series when the author could’ve just continued writing stories about the side characters, considering there’s TONS.

I hated the smut, boring, repetitive and weird and super out of character. Also very unrealistic and confusing, also extremely super and ABSOLUTELY cringey and corny, i struggled to get through it (i am NOT a fan of daddy kinks, and the jokes about being fletcher’s dad outside of the bedroom?? I wanted to puke, felt very incesty)

Oh and i have no idea how this book got published, it constantly switched between perspectives and the start was just a massive info dump that she could’ve very easily incorporated throughout the story. I was genuinely struggling to get through the first few chapters because it was written like a freaking history book, no idea why she did any of that. She also didn’t stay in characted AT ALL. The story line was extremely rushed and weird. Like wtf do you mean taylor was supposed to be this mysterious type of dude who didn’t actually like fletcher at the start but then the next page is him happily interacting with him, conversing with him, calling him his BEST FRIEND? Babes, you literally JUST told us you didn’t like him and thought he was an asshole???

[jeef]

dnf but just wanted to share my thoughts. I felt like the names of the characters were kinda similar? they both ended in the same "er" sound so I got kind of confused reading their names back to back, especially with how often theyre used. I didnt know who was who, my bad 💀 I dont like the way women r written either. ik its typical for women to be discarded in gay romance books but it kind of felt like the ones in this book were leaning more towards becoming objects? the way the characters talk ab them too idk...(maybe thats just me overanalysing tho and im completely wrong). it felt like the POV i was reading from kept changing in the middle of chapters??? I was like what perspective am I reading from now?? I just felt confused reading it. random things kept happening and i couldn't keep up with how the characters were feeling. they felt like robots doing random actions with no meaning behind them. and the info dump at the start??? 😭😭 sorry did not like. also he is not even a clean freak. its normal to not wear "outside clothes" on a bed especially a hotel bed after you've been on a plane. its normal to shower once u get to a hotel and before u go to sleep hello??? 😭 this reminds me of in my love mix up when they went to a restaurant and one of the characters went to wash his hands and they thought he was a clean freak but that is actually a normal thing to do 😭

[Jine · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5
I really enjoyed getting to see the changes in Taylor and Fletchers relationship how it went through many different levels of intimacy! I loved their banter and how they interacted with each other but uh I need book 2 now because that ending hurt like a mofo! Oh my god I can’t handle the brokenness it’s too much! I need to see happy babies!

[Readerssyndrome · Rating 2 out of 5]

I made it 200 pages until I absolutely could not go through with it anymore. I really wanted to enjoy this, and I have hope for this author in the future, but this book requires a lot of improvement. It feels like the first draft was published without any edits or arc readers, which the author could have benefited from.

The weird jump from past to present confused the heck out of me, and the way the characters acted gave me whiplash. So much information was word vomited on the page that was either unnecessary or could have been divulged later on.

I do hope the author doesn't quit here. Yes, the book had some issues, but we all learn from our mistakes, and I hope she uses this as fuel to push on.

[Mallory · Rating 3 out of 5]

2.75 to 3. This is very much a debut through-and-through (could have honestly used 1-2 thorough copy edits); and there is very much room for improvement and development with her future books. But Taylor and Fletcher are cute and the smut is hot! I will be reading book 2, that cliff hanger was something.

[Andi · Rating 2 out of 5]

I liked the beginning, I liked Fletcher and Taylor but after the first kiss it kind of spiraled and I feel like we skipped so many things and conversations and just kept skipping to the next thing without getting into anything else. We basically went 0 to 100 very quickly then you blink we're diving into some light BDSM dynamic which is not my vibe then I get punched in the face with a 'daddy' thing near the end I was ready to tap out. I just don't think this was the book for me but I know it'll find its audience!! I'm just not it.

[Courtney Huber · Rating 2 out of 5]

Like had potential to be good but it was not. The characters felt so underdeveloped like traits that one had would suddenly be passed onto the other one as well. It felt like she had 1 idea for a character and then tried to split them into 2 and failed. There were parts I liked though, but overall wouldn't recommend. Also, was it proofread at all?

[Dana Mollart · Rating 2 out of 5]

It is important to note I did not finish this book and this is entirely subjective

I was really looking forward to this book when I first saw the promo on TikTok last week; friends to lovers, mm and ice hockey are some of my favs. Unfortunately, I did find that the mc’s name was mentioned a few times too many and some he/him/his pronouns here and there would have been a better choice. On another note, there was a bit of an excess of information that was not entirely necessary; yes it’s good to know who the characters mentioned are, but explaining how and where she met her husband just makes the text drag and heavy to read. There’s only one way to learn though, and that’s to keep on writing even more, so keep going Maudie Christine, I’m sure your next book will be even better!

[☽❣≾KraFish≿❣☾ · Rating 1 out of 5]

DNFed at 24% Chapter 12
So far the characters have barely interacted on page but are already besties. Despite Taylor not really liking Fletcher at first (It wasn't hate just mild dislike.) because he didn't think he'd actually earned his spot. Fletcher was legacy and because of past interactions Taylor assumed he didn't work hard and was kind of a baby. He eventually changes his mind, but it's not at all earned because it not done on page. Fletcher somehow proves himself off page. I would have liked to see that. I would have liked to see Taylor's mind changing as his first impressions of Fletcher changed, but nope. None of their friendship milestones are earned because we didn't see how they got there.

[Bibi · Rating 2 out of 5]

The first few chapters were really a struggle to get through. I think this could have worked better if it wasn’t self published and had another editor on it.

I was thinking of DNF’ing but honestly I don’t really do that that often, so I pushed through. But honestly the ending made it even worse. Like wth. I thought this was a standalone, so honestly I probably should have dnf’ed at an earlier point.

I don’t like leaving bad reviews but this was just not for me.

[Samira Burkowsky · Rating 1 out of 5]

Yaaas give me absolutely *nothing*
I literally skipped through the last 10 chapters and I didn't miss a thing

[Nadia · Rating 1 out of 5]

I can tell when someone hasn’t even tried

Endless full names of 85 people and the plot is no where to be found

[Lala Palmer · Rating 2 out of 5]

**2.5/5**

I received an ARC of this book from the author

It was an interesting book with a good premise, but the writing most definitely needs more editing and proofreading done. The random switches from 1st to 3rd POV was off putting and took me out of the story. The ending leaves much to be desired but if this series continues, I did enjoy the characters that I will continue on. A little more polishing and I do think this book could have been great!!

[Nadia Van · Rating 1 out of 5]

I read the first few chapters and well I've got a headache trying to understand the words im reading. It was such a information dump at the start I kinda just disengaged for the rest

[Kacey Smart · Rating 1 out of 5]

Find it hard to believe this wasn't written with AI tbh

[Noah · Rating 4 out of 5]

I want to begin this review by saying that I saw posts about the book on TikTok and was instantly interested. I saw enough that I was dedicated to reading and diving into the world of these characters.

I want to be clear and state that I judge romance differently from other genres. I care about character and plot. If those two are solid, I can look past any grammatical errors or mistakes, especially for a self-published book. I understand the grievances people have with it, but for me, they were not pervasive to the point of distraction. For a debut novel, I applaud the author for dedicating time to characters and a story that she loves, and having the confidence to publish her work.

With that, here is my review:

I enjoyed Fletcher and Taylor. I thought their romance was beautiful and more than just erotic. Christin made the effort to write sensual moments that built the tension between the two and developed the characters (mostly Fletcher). Fletcher has issues with his parents that are impacting his relationship with Taylor. Not in a negative sense, but in a way that Taylor is an outlet for Fletcher to heal from the trauma inflicted by his father and experience true love. Others have said that the book is repetitive; I argue that the trauma Fletcher has will do that. This is his obstacle to overcome, and Taylor is constantly reassuring him. The two of them play into tender and rough moments, a sort of punishment and reward. The relationship is slightly toxic, but trauma will do that to you. Fletcher doesn't really want to hurt the person he loves. He does it because he thinks he has to for any attention/love to come his way. It is beautiful to see this unfold and get addressed in the latter half of the book.

The big standout for me was the dialogue!! Christin has written some of the best banter I've read in a while. I can't explain it; you truly have to read it to understand. The back and forth is the best during the intimate scenes, really expanding on the characters and their relationship with one another. The comfort they have, the insecurities lurking within, and the love they have for one another.

Lastly, without giving too much of a spoiler, I enjoyed the ending. It was a happy but not happy ending that allows for a sequel (which I hope is coming soon!) I'm glad that Christin did not allow Fletcher to submit fully to Taylor, and the decision was made. I like that Fletcher's attitude is consistent throughout the book, even through the ending. It might not be an ideal ending for some, but I loved it.

I look forward to more content from Maudie Christin in the future!

[Aiden · Rating 4 out of 5]

Rating: 4 / 5 Spice: 🌶️🌶️🌶️.5

I received an Advance Reader Copy (ARC) of this book, so please note that some details in the final published version may vary slightly from what I read.

The Unforgetting Game is a debut that lingers with you because of its characters. Fletcher and Taylor felt deeply real to me, not just as individual archetypes, but in the way they slowly realized how much they genuinely needed one another. The strength of this book lies in that character growth; watching them shift from enemies to understanding the vital roles they played in each other’s lives felt earned rather than forced. The emotional tension throughout the story was compelling, and even when the pacing felt more deliberate in the earlier chapters, it successfully laid the groundwork for an emotional payoff that had me fully invested in their dynamic.

However, the pacing toward the end of the book was a bit of a struggle for me. For a story that takes its time building a complex world and relationship, the conclusion felt rushed, with the majority of the significant plot developments and emotional climaxes compressed into the very end of the book. I found myself wishing these pivotal moments had been given more space to breathe, as there was so much rich emotional ground left to cover regarding the fallout of the ending—specifically regarding the side characters who acted as parental figures, and the complex family dynamics that were hinted at but not fully unpacked.

My biggest hesitation came with the final tonal shift between the main characters. While the chemistry is undeniable, the dynamic in the final intimate scene leaned heavily into resentment and animosity at a moment where the narrative seemed to call for emotional safety. After watching them soften toward one another for hours, seeing that level of friction re-emerge was heartbreaking in a way that felt more painful than cathartic. It didn’t ruin the experience, but it did leave me aching for a different kind of closure.

Despite those critiques, I am genuinely intrigued by where this story goes next. Maudie Christin has created characters that you root for and worry about, and the setup for the sequel promises that Fletcher and Taylor’s story is far from over. This is a debut with a lot of heart and courage, and I am excited to see how the author handles the challenges these characters are about to face in the next installment.