Gather initial thoughts and broad opinions about the book.

1. Discuss your overall impressions of Tough Guy. Which were your favorite or least favorite aspects of Ryan Price and Fabian Salah’s romance, and why?

2. How did your experience reading Tough Guy compare with your experience reading the other Game Changers novels? What narrative and thematic throughlines did you appreciate between this title and Heated Rivalry or The Long Game?

3. Compare and contrast Tough Guy with other sports-romance novels. Consider the novel in comparison to titles like Hanna Grace’s Icebreaker or Liz Tomforde’s Mile High.

Encourage readers to connect the book’s themes and characters with their personal experiences.

1. How did you emotionally respond to Ryan and Fabian’s reunion at the drugstore? Have you ever had a chance encounter with an old crush? How did your experience compare to Ryan and Fabian’s?

2. Ryan uses his enforcer role to hide his anxiety, fear, and shyness. Have you ever used a professional role to similarly disguise your insecurities? What was the result or toll?

3. Compare the trajectory of Ryan and Fabian’s relationship to your own love life. How does Ryan and Fabian’s romance resonate with your own romantic experiences? Which facets of their story did you find least or most believable, and why?

4. Ryan and Fabian live in Toronto’s Church-Wellesley Village, an LGBTQ+ neighborhood that offers them inclusivity and acceptance. Explore how this setting compares to your own home city or neighborhood. How does your search for belonging echo Ryan and Fabian’s?

Examine the book’s relevance to societal issues, historical events, or cultural themes.

1. Ryan and Fabian’s romance interrogates stereotypes of masculinity. How does Reid use Ryan’s and Fabian’s distinct expressions of self to challenge patriarchal notions of strength, power, and toughness?

2. Ryan and Fabian both have complicated relationships with their families, but they find connection in the LGBTQ+ community. Explore how this community offers the characters a found family. What do they derive from these connections? How does Reid reinforce notions of acceptance and inclusivity through her representations of LGBTQ+ friendship?

Dive into the book’s structure, characters, themes, and symbolism.

1. Analyze the novel’s point of view. How does Reid’s formal choice align with or diverge from that of other contemporary romance novels? How would the novel resonate differently if it were written from Ryan’s and Fabian’s alternating first-person perspectives?

2. Explore Reid’s use of romance tropes throughout Tough Guy. Discuss how the opposites-attract, friends-to-lovers, and second-chance tropes function in service of the narrative themes.

3. Discuss how micro and macro settings create different narrative moods or thematic resonances. Consider how Toronto, the Village, the community center, and Ryan’s and Fabian’s apartments impact the characters, their relationships, and their senses of self.

4. Identify three symbols not explored in the guide and discuss their relevance to the novel’s themes. For example, what might Ryan’s haircut, Anne of Green Gables, or Fabian’s apartment symbolize, and how do they develop notions of identity and belonging?

Encourage imaginative and creative connections to the book.

1. Imagine you are adapting Tough Guy into a feature film. Who would you cast in the leading roles? Which artists would you include in the soundtrack? Which plot points would you add, omit, or alter to make the adaptation your own?

2. Imagine a continuation of the story. How do you imagine Ryan’s and Fabian’s lives evolving five years after the novel’s end? Do they still live in Toronto? Is Ryan still retired from hockey, and is Fabian still making music? What relationships or conflicts do you imagine contributing to their life in the future?