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Reposted by S. B. Barnes

MP Book Reviews 🇬🇧🇪🇺 @mpbookreviews.bsky.social · 15/09/2026

𝙏𝙝𝙚 𝙧𝙞𝙜𝙝𝙩 𝙥𝙤𝙬𝙚𝙧 𝙥𝙡𝙖𝙮 𝙘𝙤𝙣𝙫𝙚𝙧𝙩𝙨 𝙬𝙝𝙚𝙣 𝙮𝙤𝙪 𝙡𝙚𝙖𝙨𝙩 𝙚𝙭𝙥𝙚𝙘𝙩 𝙞𝙩. Don’t miss the fourth and final book in the Minor Penalties series by @sbbarnes.bsky.social, TWO FOR ROUGHING is live! Grab your copy today! → getbook.at/MinorPenalti... #SBBarnes #TwoForRoughing #MinorPenalties #HockeyRomance

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S. B. Barnes @sbbarnes.bsky.social · 28/08/2026

Preorder of the final book in the series is now available! www.amazon.com/gp/product/B...

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S. B. Barnes @sbbarnes.bsky.social · 04/05/2026

Find out more at sbbarnes.com

Illustrated author image of a white woman in her thirties with brief tongue in cheek author bio

Illustrated author image of a white woman in her thirties with various things the author probably erroneously thinks are fun facts about her

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S. B. Barnes @sbbarnes.bsky.social · 05/11/2025

💫💫 Intro post about me and my books! 💫💫

Petrol background with a black bar at the top reading "Who is S.B. Barnes?". Centered is a photograph of the back of a woman's head. She has light brown hair in a fancy up-do with a wire of pearls over the top of her head. Surrounding her are arrows with various attributes. They read: disembodied head, no face, writes, reads, knits, eats, sleeps, teaches, mom of 2 cats and 1 human, German (sort of), teaches two languages, still sucks at punctuation, teaches computer science, still can't do decent graphics, author of queer romance, terminally online

petrol background with a centered black bar reading "My Books". On the top right are the covers for "Heart First" and "Second Chance" beside a text box reading "Hudson Valley Murder Mysteries. #1: Heart First (2023), #2: Second Chance (2024)". On the bottom left is the cover of Two for Holding and behind it three blank boxes for the future installments of the series. Beside it is a text box reading "Minor Penalties: #1: Two for Holding (2025), #2: Two for Boarding (2026), #3: Two for Charging (2026), #4: Two for Roughing (2026/7)"

Petrol background with a centered black bar reading "Hudson Valley Murder Mysteries". The cover of Heart First is in the top right corner. It shows a bridge over the Hudson River in a grey-ish color scheme as well as the title with the "S" in "First" red. The bottom right shows the cover of Second Chance, which shows a view of the Hudson Valley on the bottom and a mechanic working on a car above it. Surrounding the books are attributes of the books: One couple, multiple books; found family; academic x mechanic; non-LEO main characters; single POV; 3rd person present tense

Petrol background with a centered black bar reading "Minor Penalties". The cover of Two for Holding is in the top left corner. On it we see the title "Two for Holding", the author S.B. Barnes and the series "Minor Penalties Book 1". The art shows two hockey players in a locker room. One is shirtless, sitting on the bench in the background, staring at the other. The man in the foreground is wiping sweat from his forehead with his teal and navy jersey. He's holding a hockey stick in a suggestive position. In the bottom right are three blank covers for the remaining three books in the series. Surrounding the covers are various attributes: 3rd person past tense, dual POV, homophobia, racism, sexism, Islamophobia in professional sports are major themes, one couple per book, hockey romances, MCs of different ages, races, religions, sexualities

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S. B. Barnes @sbbarnes.bsky.social · 05/11/2025

Two for Holding is an M/M hockey romance for people who love hockey and romance but can't defend the reality of the NHL 🏒 First in a 4-book series ⛸️ Opposites attract 🏒 Dual POV 3rd person ⛸️ Drift compatible (but for hockey) 🏒 "Practice with me" #questpit #P #R #A

Petrol background with the headline "Playing defense never won the game...or the guy". The cover of Two for Holding is centered. On it we see the title "Two for Holding", the author S.B. Barnes and the series "Minor Penalties Book 1". The art shows two hockey players in a locker room. One is shirtless, sitting on the bench in the background, staring at the other. The man in the foreground is wiping sweat from his forehead with his teal and navy jersey. He's holding a hockey stick in a suggestive position. Surrounding the cover are various tropes: M/M hockey romance, inexperienced older man/experienced younger man, practice kissing, opposites attract, slow burn(ish), mild animosity to lovers

background with the headline "Microtropes except the author doesn't really get microtropes". The cover of Two for Holding is centered. On it we see the title "Two for Holding", the author S.B. Barnes and the series "Minor Penalties Book 1". The art shows two hockey players in a locker room. One is shirtless, sitting on the bench in the background, staring at the other. The man in the foreground is wiping sweat from his forehead with his teal and navy jersey. He's holding a hockey stick in a suggestive position. Surrounding the cover are various tropes: "we have to get along for the good of the team", MC1 teaches MC2 he deserves nice things, inexperienced older man/experienced younger man, supportive best friend, emotional moments in the locker room, standing up to homophobia, "we're just practicing, it doesn't mean anything", mild bashing of St. Louis and hotel breakfasts

background with the a centered black bar reading "Minor Penalties". The cover of Two for Holding is in the top left corner. On it we see the title "Two for Holding", the author S.B. Barnes and the series "Minor Penalties Book 1". The art shows two hockey players in a locker room. One is shirtless, sitting on the bench in the background, staring at the other. The man in the foreground is wiping sweat from his forehead with his teal and navy jersey. He's holding a hockey stick in a suggestive position. In the bottom right are three blank covers for the remaining three books in the series. Surrounding the covers are various attributes: 3rd person past tense, dual POV, homophobia, racism, sexism, Islamophobia in professional sports are major themes, one couple per book, hockey romances, MCs of different ages, races, religions, sexualities

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S. B. Barnes @sbbarnes.bsky.social · 04/11/2025

🎊🎉🎊 buy my book so I can hire someone else to make graphics like this because they make me anxious 🎉🎊🎉 Amazon: www.amazon.com/Two-Holding-... Other retailers: books2read.com/two-for-hold...

Cover of Two for Holding with excerpts from positive reviews

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Reposted by S. B. Barnes

Fay Kennedy @mmbookwormreviews.bsky.social · 28/10/2025

🌈📚#HappyMMBookReleaseDay 🎉 Rebecca Rathe Hinsel Meyer Tessa Kane Amy Aislin TJ Nichols Kevin Klehr S.B. Barnes Lyla Dane Universal Links at mmbookwormreviews.com #MMReaders #GayRomance #OctoberMMBooks2025 #LGBTQIACommunity #NewMMBooks

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S. B. Barnes @sbbarnes.bsky.social · 28/10/2025

Two for Holding is out now! Swipe to read a short excerpt as an enticement or maybe a deterrant. Order here: www.amazon.com/Two-Holding-... or here books2read.com/two-for-hold...

Cover of Two For Holding with header "available now"

Excerpt from Two for Holding in which Jax flirts with Tom despite believng him to be a homophobe, like any rational well-adjusted adult would

Excerpt from Two for Holding in which Jax tries to convince Tom to get laid for his own good and not at all because Jax has a crush the size of all four Scandinavian states

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S. B. Barnes @sbbarnes.bsky.social · 26/10/2025

in romances featuring kids many readers dislike explicit scenes where the narration doesn't say door is locked my toxic trait is not caring about the door--I care when one of the kids is small and the characters don't pause to check the baby monitor because that mattress squeak might be the baby

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S. B. Barnes @sbbarnes.bsky.social · 26/10/2025

Two for Holding comes out in two days! You can pre-order on Amazon, or send me proof of a donation to You Can Play to win a free copy! www.amazon.com/dp/B0FWF1GQP...

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S. B. Barnes @sbbarnes.bsky.social · 16/10/2025

Now pre-orderable on your platform of choice! Out October 28th! www.amazon.com/dp/B0FWFJ4CB...

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S. B. Barnes @sbbarnes.bsky.social · 05/10/2025

As far as I can telll, microtropes are just...things that happen. Preorder Two for Holding here to get it four days earoy! ninestarpress.com/product/two-... Art by @tuiskuh.bsky.social

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S. B. Barnes @sbbarnes.bsky.social · 01/10/2025

Out on October 28th! Pre-order here and get it early! ninestarpress.com/product/two-...

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S. B. Barnes @sbbarnes.bsky.social · 07/08/2025

Mourning that I won't get back to these guys till December

Excerpt from hockey romance Two for Charging

Excerpt from hockey romance Two for Charging in which the love interest's comically big dick is revealed

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S. B. Barnes @sbbarnes.bsky.social · 06/08/2025

is anyone else essentially a cat on the hunt for the right napping spot except it's writing programs and utensils that allow you to focus for ten minutes put together?

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S. B. Barnes @sbbarnes.bsky.social · 01/08/2025

So tomorrow's my birthday and I am working my way through the second round of edits on this book. And if you follow me on social media a really cool birthday gift would be to shoot me a question anywhere about this series!

Cover and trope sheet for hockey romance "Two For Holding"

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S. B. Barnes @sbbarnes.bsky.social · 05/07/2025

am i doing this trope sheet thing right? cover art by @tuiskuh.bsky.social

Cover for a hockey romance novel with one player sitting on a locker room bench shirtless while the other uses his jersey to wipe sweat off his brow. Title: Two for Holding. Author: S.B. Barnes. Tagline: Playing defense never won the game...or the guy. Tropes: mild animosity to lovers, m/m hockey romance, inexperienced older man/experienced younger man, slow burn (ish), opposites attract, practice kissing

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S. B. Barnes @sbbarnes.bsky.social · 01/07/2025

Both books available for 3.24$ each on Smashwords! If you want to read about an anxious academic and a gray ace mechanic falling in love and solving crimes, look no further! www.smashwords.com/books/byseries/99625

Book covers of Heart First and Second Chance with the Text "Half-Price at the Smashwords Summer Sale"

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S. B. Barnes @sbbarnes.bsky.social · 29/06/2025

the only things tagged "foryou" that are actually for me are those sped up videos of pastry in the oven

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S. B. Barnes @sbbarnes.bsky.social · 24/06/2025

love writing wish I could do it without using so many words

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S. B. Barnes @sbbarnes.bsky.social · 19/06/2025

hemingway said "write drunk edit sober" but I choose to follow the cersei lannister method of "doesn't matter what part of which process, have a glass of red wine handy"

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S. B. Barnes @sbbarnes.bsky.social · 15/06/2025

Ideally I don't want to have a legacy as a person/creator, just my books. Those I hope provide comfort, distraction, amusement, catharsis.

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S. B. Barnes @sbbarnes.bsky.social · 15/06/2025

If you're interested in queer academics not trusting the police to competently solve murders, both Heart First and Second Chance are 40% off for the whole month of June! ninestarpress.com/product/hear...

Book covers of "Heart First" and "Second Chance" side by side. Below them text "40% reduced in June! Use coupon code "PRIDE2025"" in fluorescent pink

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S. B. Barnes @sbbarnes.bsky.social · 13/06/2025

Proud to announce Second Chance has now sold 69 copies. Nice.

Book cover for Second Chance by S.B. Barnes. Tagline: Will solving the crime mean losing his lover? Cover shows the Hudson River Valley in upstate New York in the lower third and above that a mechanic in coveralls working on a car

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Reposted by S. B. Barnes

Courtney Milan @courtneymilan.com · 03/06/2025

It does suck that "AI" now means both generative AI (boo hiss) and a whole basket of incredibly useful machine learning techniques.

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S. B. Barnes @sbbarnes.bsky.social · 03/06/2025

There are two wolves within me. One wants to gain enough recognition that people read my books. The other one wants to continue being totally unknown online.

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S. B. Barnes @sbbarnes.bsky.social · 31/05/2025

are there people out there who can just be working on one thing? not editing one thing and drafting another and brainstorming a third and always thinking about something new?

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S. B. Barnes @sbbarnes.bsky.social · 27/05/2025

trapped in the editing hell of my own making, I once again ask: what's so bad about adverbs? And why did I use so many?

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S. B. Barnes @sbbarnes.bsky.social · 23/05/2025

AI could never bring to the table what I do as a writer (fudging the timeline during the first draft forcing me to wade through 350k+ of material and reconstruct three separate fake nhl schedules retroactively so it adds up)

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S. B. Barnes @sbbarnes.bsky.social · 23/05/2025

turns out the downside of writing a whole series at once is having to edit it all at once too. who knew? (me it's me I knew and I did it anyway)

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S. B. Barnes @sbbarnes.bsky.social · 21/05/2025

Sometimes I get nervous about publishing hockey romances given I haven't been following hockey for very long. Thankfully I have the basketball plots of the high school musicals to comfort me because I definitely know more about hockey than whoever wrote those knows about basketball.

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S. B. Barnes @sbbarnes.bsky.social · 20/05/2025

flashback to the time a girl I didn't like held a presentation about how disney teaches good morals cause all the princesses are nice to ugly people and I was like "all that proves is they're dumb because disney villains are often fat and ugly and I think that's a bad moral they're teaching".

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S. B. Barnes @sbbarnes.bsky.social · 19/05/2025

entering this new phase of my life as "sports fan, apparently" is interesting bc one of the big things that used to turn me off of sports was how way too much money goes into it and simultaneously the casual possessiveness fans feel comfortable stating over other people's bodies weirds me out

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S. B. Barnes @sbbarnes.bsky.social · 18/05/2025

constructing trope sheets for this hockey romance series and I keep being like "marriage (proposal) of convenience". "slow burn (ish)". "bisexual awakening (sort of)".

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S. B. Barnes @sbbarnes.bsky.social · 16/05/2025

oh no i have created a romance novel protagonist no one but me will like

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S. B. Barnes @sbbarnes.bsky.social · 16/05/2025

Title reveals and cover reveals are fine for other people who possess a modicum of patience, could never be me though

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S. B. Barnes @sbbarnes.bsky.social · 15/05/2025

The void inside me is deep and hollow but I bought myself stationary I don't need so maybe that will fix me

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S. B. Barnes @sbbarnes.bsky.social · 13/05/2025

Every day I arrive at my job feeling guilty I would rather be writing and every day my job immediately shows me I will receive no support or even a quick break from them. Guess I'm back to using my work tablet to write this subverted married in Vegas romance novel ✌️

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S. B. Barnes @sbbarnes.bsky.social · 10/05/2025

"amazon doesn't profit off of KU so you hurt indie authors with a boycott---" Amazon's business model with books has always been to brutally undersell the competition until they are the last ones standing and then jack the price. They did it with physical books and they're doing it with ebooks. 🧵

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S. B. Barnes @sbbarnes.bsky.social · 10/05/2025

Joining the "First lines of dialogue between the couple" trend late but here you go! Two for Holding will be out late this year. Cover art by the inimitable @tuiskuh.bsky.social

Dark turquoise background, title "Two for Holding", tagline "Playing defense never won the game...or the guy". Image showing two hockey players in a locker room, one fully dressed in gear and wiping sweat off his face with his jersey, the other shirtless and watching the first man from the bench. Text reads "That was the energy he tried to project as he walked into the San Francisco Sea Lions locker room for the first time at the tail end of training camp. No one had seen his trade coming, least of all Jax himself, and he’d missed all the team bonding events to start the season out, but he was used to coming in as the underdog. He could make this work for him. He would make this work for him.
With that in mind, he strolled up to Tom Crowler, team captain, absolute beast on the ice and averaging comfortably over a point per game for the last decade. “Hi. Nice to meet you. Tom, right? I’m Jax, I’ll be—”
“I know who you are,” Crowler said."

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S. B. Barnes @sbbarnes.bsky.social · 10/05/2025

Well the numbers from February are in...Second Chance sold 56 copies in its release month. Which is about what I expected I guess, although Heart First did better by about 30 copies. Then again, it is a part two. Still, being a small author is disheartening sometimes

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S. B. Barnes @sbbarnes.bsky.social · 09/05/2025

A good friend of mine has had a run of very bad luck and now her adorable dog has had some very expensive surgeries, if you can help out every little bit helps, and a share helps if you can't donate! gofund.me/6591d35a

gofund.me

Donate to Support Aldo's Emergency Surgery and Recovery, organized by Jen Y

Hello. My name is Jen and I'm trying to raise funds to cover the cost of spinal su… Jen Y needs your support for Support Aldo's Emergency Surgery and Recovery

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S. B. Barnes @sbbarnes.bsky.social · 08/05/2025

Today's writing Progress: important characterization

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S. B. Barnes @sbbarnes.bsky.social · 05/05/2025

Happen to know one of the fanfic authors who was plagiarized by Layla Moran. She's a great writer who has worked really hard on a writing degree and her own original work, which she is trying to get trad published. Discovering someone is making money off of her fanfic is such a slap in the face.

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S. B. Barnes @sbbarnes.bsky.social · 28/04/2025

so i was going to write a creepy cozy story about a woman haunted by specter of pps left in her house by the previous owner but I wrote like 2k and went into a tailspin of my own. it took me two weeks to stop crying daily so I think maybe this will have to wait until my kid sleeps through the night

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S. B. Barnes @sbbarnes.bsky.social · 27/04/2025

Everyone check out @tuiskuh.bsky.social's amazing cover art for my book! You can read the blurb at my website and follow me if you want updates about release dates and ARCs! www.sbbarnes.com/minor-penalt...

sbbarnes.com

Minor Penalties | Home

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S. B. Barnes @sbbarnes.bsky.social · 25/04/2025

I have a hockey romance coming out and I should start marketing but like. It's not enemies to lovers, it's mild animosity to friends to lovers. In narrative time it's slow burn but in narrated time it's only like a month. One of the MCs is named "Jaxon" but he knows that's not how you spell it.

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