Clara’s Verdict
If Common Goal was about learning to be honest, Role Model, the fifth book in Rachel Reid’s Game Changers series, is about learning to be seen. It pairs a scowling, scandal-bruised hockey player with a sunny, out-and-proud social media manager, and if that grumpy-and-sunshine dynamic sounds irresistible, that is because Reid makes it so. This is, for my money, one of the most purely enjoyable entries in the series.
Troy Barrett is a wonderful sort of romance hero, prickly, wounded and slow to trust, and Harris Drover is precisely the warm, patient counterweight he needs. What lifts the book above simple wish-fulfilment is how seriously it takes Troy’s fear of being publicly himself. The romance is swoony, but it has spine.
I came away genuinely charmed. There is humour, heart and a redemption arc that earns its happy ending, and the whole thing carries the easy confidence of a writer hitting her stride.
About the Audiobook
Role Model is the fifth book in the Game Changers series, the hockey-romance world behind the enemies-to-lovers hit Heated Rivalry. This time the spotlight falls on Troy Barrett, for whom the hits keep coming. Traded to the worst team in the league in the wake of a messy breakup and a recent scandal, Troy wants nothing more than to play hockey and be left alone. He certainly does not want to work on his online presence with the team’s relentlessly peppy social media manager.
That manager is Harris Drover, and Harris does not give up on people easily. He can tell that the standoffish Troy is miserable about the trade, and though he is convinced his growing crush is one-sided, he cannot quite turn away, especially once he glimpses the smile hiding beneath Troy’s grumpy exterior. Slowly, Troy’s move to the new team begins to look less like a punishment and more like an opportunity, both to embrace his true self and to explore the attraction building between them. But as Reid sets it up, being together behind closed doors is one thing; a public relationship will mean Troy facing his deepest fears once and for all.
The Narration
Cooper North again takes the narration, and by this point in the series his ease with Reid’s world is a real asset. A grumpy-sunshine romance depends on contrast, and North nails it, giving Troy a low, guarded gruffness that gradually thaws and Harris an open, buoyant lightness that never becomes grating. Hearing Troy’s armour crack under Harris’s warmth is one of the chief joys of the audiobook, and North times that softening beautifully.
Across ten hours and fifteen minutes he keeps the momentum brisk without rushing the tender beats. The humour is well served, the more emotional turns are given room, and the intimate scenes are handled with the same unforced warmth that made his earlier readings in the series so comfortable to inhabit. If you have enjoyed North’s voice on the previous books, he is on excellent form here; if this is your first, it is a very easy place to fall for his work.
What Readers Say
Role Model is among the best-reviewed books in the series, holding an average of 4.6 across twenty-two ratings, and the enthusiasm in the write-ups is infectious. Miles Thornton called it the best book in the series, praising the central couple and the storytelling, and noting that while it sits fifth in the sequence it can be enjoyed as a standalone. AJ Shortie went further still, suggesting it might be a personal favourite of the whole series, and singling out Troy’s redemption arc with Harris as genuinely beautiful; even though Troy is hard to like at first, the relationship struck this reader as wholesome and its happy ending well earned.
Team Worrall, awarding four stars, arrived with low expectations and came away pleasantly surprised, appreciating that every character had a proper background rather than being used as a plot device, and that the timeline stayed consistent with the earlier books. Megan_L, a Heated Rivalry fan, loved it and was delighted by how much of the character Ilya features. And savage_book_review observed that where the previous book began drawing the world together, Role Model finally makes the series feel like a true ensemble piece, layering in fresh drama alongside the familiar couples.
Who Should Listen?
Role Model is a gift for anyone who adores the grumpy-sunshine pairing, the redemption arc and the slow, satisfying thaw of a guarded heart. If you like your romance with genuine emotional stakes, a strong sense of found family and a hero worth rooting for, Troy and Harris will win you over. It also delights long-time Game Changers readers, since the wider cast is woven in generously.
Newer listeners can happily start here, as several reviewers attest, though the series rewards reading in order. If a warm, funny, big-hearted hockey romance is exactly what your week is missing, you can Listen to Role Model on Audible and let Cooper North bring Troy and Harris to life.
