Coming in First Place
Taylor Fitzpatrick's hockey romance has spent years circulating as one of the most-recommended titles in queer sports fic, and Coming in First Place pays off the slow-burn she set up in Thrown Off the Ice and the rest of her Carolina Comets-adjacent novels. Theo Sundstrom and Aaron Price are NHL teammates whose secret arrangement has been the worst-kept open secret on their roster for several seasons, sex on road trips, friendship by day, and absolute silence about anything that would make either of them admit feelings. As Theo's career enters its golden years and Aaron starts thinking about life after hockey, the unspoken rules they have built around each other start to creak. Fitzpatrick writes hockey with real fluency and emotional intelligence, lets her men be both private and clearly in love, and earns every quiet declaration.
Themes & atmosphere
What you might want to know about Coming in First Place
The questions readers send us most often, answered without spoilers.
Out junior hockey phenom Dan Riley signs with the team of the older, deeply closeted teammate he has been quietly in love with for years. They have a long season ahead of them and a private arrangement to figure out.
Yes. Coming in First Place is an explicit M/M hockey romance, around 4 to 5 out of 5 on the spice scale. It is part of the BookTok wave of LGBTQ sports romances.
Yes. Coming in First Place is an explicit M/M hockey romance, around 4 to 5 out of 5 on the spice scale. It is part of the BookTok wave of LGBTQ sports romances.
Yes. Coming in First Place is part of Taylor Fitzpatrick's Concordia hockey series, a connected set of M/M romances featuring different couples in the same fictional team and league.
Coming in First Place was written by Taylor Fitzpatrick.
Coming in First Place is available in hardcover, paperback, ebook, and audiobook formats from Amazon, Bookshop.org, ThriftBooks, and most major bookstores.