No Pain, No Game
Mar. 21st, 2026 04:49 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
alobearGame Changer by Rachel Reid is the first in the book series that has recently garnered a lot of attention because of the TV adaptation of the second instalment - Heated Rivalry. I watched the show but was more interested in the Scott/Kip storyline than Shane/Ilya, so was delighted to discover that this first book is all about them.
I listened to the audiobook, which may not have been the best choice, because the narrator's attempt at Kip's Brooklyn accent wandered around Boston, Minnesota and Australia by turns, and his intonation choices for several of the more peripheral characters were rather off-putting in various ways.
I also couldn't envisage the actors from the TV show as the characters in the book, since they're described very differently and the voices were obviously not the same.
And, lastly, it was very disconcerting to have explicit sex scenes playing out through my headphones while I was collecting my medication from the pharmacy or buying toilet paper...
All that said, I largely enjoyed this book!
It was good to see this story play out in more detail and have all the gaps filled, and a lot of it was very sweet. It did start to drag a bit in the second half (I'm not prudish about explicit sex in books, but I do find it gets boring if it's not informed by the specific characters involved - and it wasn't really here) and I found some of the power dynamics a bit unsettling in places - but I liked where it ended up and I'm glad I gave it a try.
I don't know if I want to carry on with the series because the next two books are read by the same narrator - and I really didn't like how he portrayed Ilya when he turned up briefly in this one...
The Other Side of Happiness by Brock Bastian has a tagline on the front that says: Embracing A More Fearless Approach To Living. So, I was expecting an easy, self-help read. But it turned out to be much more academic and rooted in scientific study than I thought. It covers psychological responses to pleasure and pain, how overcoming adversity makes you more resilient, and the ways in which shared difficulties brings people closer together. It didn't contain anything that was particularly new to me - but it was interesting to read about the data behind all the theories, and it's always good to be reminded of stuff like this, which may run counter to your instinctive or learned approach to life.
I listened to the audiobook, which may not have been the best choice, because the narrator's attempt at Kip's Brooklyn accent wandered around Boston, Minnesota and Australia by turns, and his intonation choices for several of the more peripheral characters were rather off-putting in various ways.
I also couldn't envisage the actors from the TV show as the characters in the book, since they're described very differently and the voices were obviously not the same.
And, lastly, it was very disconcerting to have explicit sex scenes playing out through my headphones while I was collecting my medication from the pharmacy or buying toilet paper...
All that said, I largely enjoyed this book!
It was good to see this story play out in more detail and have all the gaps filled, and a lot of it was very sweet. It did start to drag a bit in the second half (I'm not prudish about explicit sex in books, but I do find it gets boring if it's not informed by the specific characters involved - and it wasn't really here) and I found some of the power dynamics a bit unsettling in places - but I liked where it ended up and I'm glad I gave it a try.
I don't know if I want to carry on with the series because the next two books are read by the same narrator - and I really didn't like how he portrayed Ilya when he turned up briefly in this one...
The Other Side of Happiness by Brock Bastian has a tagline on the front that says: Embracing A More Fearless Approach To Living. So, I was expecting an easy, self-help read. But it turned out to be much more academic and rooted in scientific study than I thought. It covers psychological responses to pleasure and pain, how overcoming adversity makes you more resilient, and the ways in which shared difficulties brings people closer together. It didn't contain anything that was particularly new to me - but it was interesting to read about the data behind all the theories, and it's always good to be reminded of stuff like this, which may run counter to your instinctive or learned approach to life.
