
Assistant to the Villain
romantic comedy
Series · MM sports romance
The Hockey Guys series by Sarina Bowen has 4 known books (4 published) and is best read in publication order, starting with The New Guy (2023). The latest book with a fully recorded publication date is My Kind of Guy.
Start here: The New Guy (2023) — then read straight through in publication order.
The date order of published books and any announced future entries — the default way to read the series.
The New Guy is the first novel in Sarina Bowen's Hockey Guys series, a MM sports romance title, published in 2023 at 376 pages. It opens a series that has continued since 2023, and is followed by I'm Your Guy.
Alternative text for cover: Cover of The New GuyI'm Your Guy is the 2nd novel in Sarina Bowen's Hockey Guys series, published in 2023. It follows The New Guy and precedes The Last Guy on Earth in the reading order.
Alternative text for cover: Cover of I'm Your GuyThe Last Guy on Earth is the 3rd novel in Sarina Bowen's Hockey Guys series, published in 2025. It follows I'm Your Guy and precedes My Kind of Guy in the reading order.
Alternative text for cover: Cover of The Last Guy on EarthMy Kind of Guy is the 4th novel in Sarina Bowen's Hockey Guys series, published in 2026 at 325 pages. It follows The Last Guy on Earth in the reading order. It's the most recent entry published to date.
Alternative text for cover: Cover of My Kind of GuyHockey Guys is Sarina Bowen's series of standalone M/M hockey romances, each pairing a professional or semi-pro hockey player with a love interest from outside the sport. The New Guy opens the series with a closeted NHL player navigating a new relationship under the threat of exposure; I'm Your Guy follows a different couple built around the same pressures of visibility and career risk in pro hockey. The Last Guy on Earth widens the lens to a recreational LGBTQ+ hockey league, and My Kind of Guy pairs a struggling minor-league goalie with a small-town bartender who ends up filling in for that same league's team.
Each book stands alone with its own central couple, but all four share Bowen's research-grounded hockey detail and recur through overlapping side characters and settings, giving the series a lived-in, connected feel without requiring reading order. It's aimed at readers who want Bowen's sports-romance craft — professional stakes, workplace-adjacent tension, closely observed team culture — built around gay and bisexual leads rather than the M/F pairings of her other hockey series.
Four: The New Guy (2023), I'm Your Guy (2023), The Last Guy on Earth (2025), and My Kind of Guy (2026).
No. Each book is a standalone romance with a different couple; reading in publication order lets you catch recurring side characters and the Stickhandlers rec-league setting introduced in book 3, but it isn't required.
It's a separate M/M-focused series from Bowen's other hockey and sports romances (such as Brooklyn Bruisers), sharing her research-heavy approach to the sport but with its own standalone cast each book.
Yes. My Kind of Guy (book 4) published in March 2026 and no further entry has been announced as of this curation pass.
Becker James, a minor-league goalie on the verge of being cut, falls for Forest, a Denver bartender, after Becker fills in for Forest's LGBTQ+ recreational hockey team, the Stickhandlers.
Reading order last verified .