He's So Slick

                                                

Title: He's So Slick

Series: Knot Pucking Mine Omegaverse #1

Author: Sinclair Kelly

Published: September 28, 2023

Pages: 318

Genre: Hockey Omegaverse

This Omega doesn’t do drama, drugs, or hockey players. The first two for obvious reasons. The last because I don’t shit where I eat. As the daughter of the Phoenix Heat’s owner, I know better than to dip my toes into that particular pool. The league is way too small a world, and I am a drama-free zone. 

When my daddy strongly suggests (read: insists) I come home for a visit, how can I say no? But without my besties by my side, there’s no one to stop me from making an epicly stupid decision when I discover the Heat’s captain in a compromising position. I’m suddenly in the one place I swore I’d never be…a hockey player’s bed, forging pack bonds I had no intention of having. 

When scandal erupts around us, I vow to do whatever it takes to save my new pack, even at my own expense. In a moment of desperation, I lock lips with their nemesis right on the kiss cam. Now, I’m the one in desperate need of saving from the grumpy center of the Chicago Storm. 

Can this Omega bridge the gap between these mortal enemies, or have I just doomed us all?

I love this cover and I love the little cartoons at the start of every chapter. But I'm looking at the cover now, after having read the book. And like, dang girl. What about Ziggy?? Was it just symmetry or a commentary on him being the only beta in the pack??

I am not usually a big instalove fan, but for whatever reason it works in paranormals and omega verse books. It's biology, am I right?! And there are elements of instalove in this book, but I enjoyed some of the angst we got as well. It felt genuine at least. 

This was a really fun pack dynamic and I loved all of the POVs that you see in this book. Spoiler alert: I do not like a surprise baby, and the fact that they threw a baby surprise in there really annoyed me. Like the book was pretty great up to that point. I did NOT want a surprise baby and I didn't see a trigger warning about it, even though I read all of the front material.

Ratings

Stars: 3/5

Spice: 4/5

Pucking Ever After, Vol. 2

                                               

Title: Pucking Ever After, Volume II

Series: Jacksonville Rays #2.5

Author: Emily Rath

Published: Emily Rath Books, November 22, 2023

Pages: 247

Genre: Hockey Romance

From the International Bestselling Jacksonville Rays Hockey Series comes a second Happily Ever After novella!

PUCKING EVER VOL 2 provides readers with SEVEN new chapters of happily ever after content. This volume spans five years and includes swoony and spicy HEA stories for both the Price Family (PUCKING AROUND) and Tess & Ryan (PUCKING WILD).

"Come on daddy...don't make me beg."

"I can't breathe for wanting you. I have no pride left."

"Mars...do you love me?"

PUCKING EVER VOL 2 is a special collection of bonus scenes meant to be read after PUCKING WILD (book #2 in the Jax Rays hockey romance series). A list of tropes and tags can be found at the author's website.

I love these little slices of Jacksonville Rays life. Check your content and trigger warnings for this one. There's a comprehensive list at the beginning of the book, and I found it very helpful. I did skip one of the chapters because of the comprehensive trigger warnings, but I loved everything else. I can't pick a favorite now that I've read them all. But I know the chapters I was most looking forward to were the Caleb/Ilmari chapters that Emily Rath has been teasing on social media. And they did NOT disappoint. Those two men are perfection. 

Ratings

Stars: 3/5

Spice: 5/5

Whiskey & Sin

                                              

Title: Whiskey & Sin

Author: Emily Rath

Published: Emily Rath Books, October 25, 2022

Pages: 474

Genre: MM Omegaverse Romance

Run.

In a world where unbonded omegas are worth their weight in gold, running is the only thing Silas Wright knows. Run from the criminal alpha pack hunting him. Run from the dark secrets haunting his nightmares. Run from himself.

Stumbling in the dark down a twisting mountain road, Silas is on the run when a stranger comes crashing into his life. This alpha is dangerous, but Silas is out of options. Forced to accept help, Silas finds himself holed up in a lonely mountain cabin. Cornered and desperate, Silas must quickly decide: Can I trust this alpha? Can I let him know my secret?

Dang, she says in the content warning that these are some sad boys, and she was not kidding. This book's cover should be in the urban dictionary next to "sad boy fall vibes." But it's not just sad. It's also dark as heck. This omega has been through the dang ringer. And then Bear is there!

As always, the writing is stunning. I love the way that she writes relationships. It's a master class in portraying emotional development within a relationship. Or maybe better than a class because it's really fun to read. 

This is a shockingly slow burn for an omegaverse. If you're familiar with the genre, they tend to burn hot and fast. But these two men have some stuff to work through before they're quite ready for physicality. Not least of which was learning how to trust their guts. 

But *spoiler* they do learn how to trust their guts, and when they get together it is hot. I love the pack dynamic in this book as well. It was much more similar to what you typically see in shifter packs, with inheritance expectations and such. But it was pretty cool to apply those intricacies to an omegaverse situation.

Ratings

Stars: 4/5

Spice: 3/5

Cocky

                                             

Title: Cocky

Series: Cocky #1

Author: Sean Ashcroft

Published: April 7, 2017

Pages: 298

Genre: LGBTQ Hockey Romance

Faking a relationship with an injured hockey player had never been on Eliot’s to-do list, but when he’s sent by his editor to interview the newly-out hockey legend Danny Harper, he gets a little more than he bargained for.

Eliot has been stuck writing a fashion and grooming column that no one reads since he started at Cocky—a men’s lifestyle magazine—a year ago. Desperate to prove himself, he takes the assignment to interview Harper, even though he couldn’t hold a hockey stick the right way up in an emergency.

Danny turns out to be nothing like he expected—a lonely man who’s missed out on a lot by being in the closet, rather than the overconfident jock Eliot expects him to be. As much as he resists it, Eliot finds himself drawn to the other man.

When Danny proposes they fake a relationship to improve his image, Eliot jumps at the chance—not only does he need the money, but his curiosity about Danny demands to be satisfied.

With Danny struggling to get through the season on a busted knee and Eliot digging up the story that could make his own career, can the two of them bring themselves to admit their real feelings and find their happy ending?

These two are so cute. Danny is oblivious and Eliot is a little flirt. It's a pretty standard fake date for reasons, but we both are super attracted from the start. Which is an excellent formula. Eliot being a reporter was pretty fun. It introduced a new angle to the hockey romance than you typically see. But it was still just a fun romp of a romance between these two! 

This was fairly low angst which was a nice change of pace from what I've been reading lately. I won't say no angst, we still had some in there. But it was dealt with fairly quickly. At least when it comes to relationship angst. Career and medical angst were there in spades, but because the relationship angst was fairly low it didn't stress me out so badly. 

It helped that the audiobook was like 5 hours long. What a short, snappy little book. You gotta love a book that you can listen to during an 8 hour work day!

Ratings

Stars: 3/5

Spice: 2/5

Love From A To Z

                                             

Title: Love from A to Z

Series: Love from A to Z #1

Author: S.K. Ali

Published: Salaam Reads, April 30, 2019

Pages: 358

Genre: YA Fiction

A marvel: something you find amazing. Even ordinary-amazing. Like potatoes—because they make French fries happen. Like the perfect fries Adam and his mom used to make together.

An oddity: whatever gives you pause. Like the fact that there are hateful people in the world. Like Zayneb’s teacher, who won’t stop reminding the class how “bad” Muslims are.

But Zayneb, the only Muslim in class, isn’t bad. She’s angry.

When she gets suspended for confronting her teacher, and he begins investigating her activist friends, Zayneb heads to her aunt’s house in Doha, Qatar, for an early start to spring break.

Fueled by the guilt of getting her friends in trouble, she resolves to try out a newer, “nicer” version of herself in a place where no one knows her.

Then her path crosses with Adam’s.

Since he got diagnosed with multiple sclerosis in November, Adam’s stopped going to classes, intent, instead, on perfecting the making of things. Intent on keeping the memory of his mom alive for his little sister.

Adam’s also intent on keeping his diagnosis a secret from his grieving father.

Alone, Adam and Zayneb are playing roles for others, keeping their real thoughts locked away in their journals.

Until a marvel and an oddity occurs…

Marvel: Adam and Zayneb meeting.

Oddity: Adam and Zayneb meeting.

While this was not at all what I was expecting, I did enjoy it! Which maybe isn't the right word. Maybe this book is a marvel and an oddity. It certainly contains them, and boy do they tell you about it. 

As a story-telling device, I thought the marvels and oddities focus in the book was well done. But I did have to keep reminding myself that this is a YA book. The innocence was refreshing, but also didn't feel authentic at times. I'm not sure if that is just a lived experience difference or not. 

The social justice demands in this book were beautifully laid out. While you're reading about these two adorable kids falling for each other, you're not allowed to look away from the very real prejudices and injustices that they have and will face. And you get to see things from the lens of Zayneb, a young Muslim woman who wears a hijab and grew up in the US. And the lens of Adam, a young Muslim man who has south Asian ancestry so doesn't necessarily read as Muslim on first sight. And how even those two lenses can be so different when talking about Islamophobia. 

Both of these kids are on heavy journeys in this book. Zayneb is dealing with aggressive Islamophobia from a teacher at her school. To the point where the man is determined to keep her from going to college. Adam is dealing with a newly diagnosed chronic illness. The same illness that his mother died from ten years before. It is wild to me that the book was so sweet, and equally so triggering. It was a fine line to tread and the author nailed it. 

Ratings

Stars: 4/5

Tangle of Need

                                         

Title: Tangle of Need

Series: Psy-Changeling #11

Author: Nalini Singh

Published: Berkley, May 29, 2012

Pages: 431

Genre: Paranormal Romance

Adria, wolf changeling and resilient soldier, has made a break with the past--one as unpredictable in love as it was in war. Now comes a new territory, and a devastating new complication: Riaz, a SnowDancer lieutenant already sworn to a desperate woman who belongs to another.

For Riaz, the primal attraction he feels for Adria is a staggering betrayal. For Adria, his dangerous lone-wolf appeal is beyond sexual. It consumes her. It terrifies her. It threatens to undermine everything she has built of her new life. But fighting their wild compulsion toward one another proves a losing battle.

Their coming together is an inferno...and a melding of two wounded souls who promise each other no commitment, no ties, no bonds. Only pleasure. Too late, they realize that they have more to lose than they ever imagined. Drawn into a cataclysmic Psy war that may alter the fate of the world itself, they must make a decision that might just break them both.

Ms. Singh. You know what you did! I don't even know how to start with this review. Of course, I loved the book. The Psy-Changeling world is so interesting with all of their power dynamics and political intrigue. Learning about all of the different powers that they have is always really cool. As always, the narration was top notch. 

Then you have this book in particular. Adria is newly divorced and moving back to the den to get some separation from her ex. Riaz, a lone wolf, has been in Europe on assignments, and has also had his heart broken. He's back in the den to lick his wounds and reconnect with his pack before he heads back out into the wide world available to a lone wolf. These two have some blistering hot chemistry together, and they are both so completely pissed about it. Like how dare you be hot and attractive in my general vicinity?! It's hilarious.

This one was tough though. Because while you have their fun enemies to lovers situation, you also have the very valid reasons that they have not to get together. Even when they're ready to risk it all and start a life together, of course, things keep getting in the way. But it was really cool to get a closer look into the pack dynamics and learn about the pack librarian. I could sit and listen to him tell me stories all day. 

I was in it with Adria. Her insecurity when Riaz is confronted with the reason he left Europe was harsh. And then he just kept trying to court her, even when she was trying to be strong and let him go. Oof, it was a lot. As always, there were 75,000 other story lines and I can't wait to see what happens next in the series. I'm most excited to see if we get a Black Sea book/s!

Ratings

Stars: 3/5

Spice: 2/5

Clueless Puckboy

                                            

Title: Clueless Puckboy

Series: Puckboys #5

Author: Eden Finley & Saxon James

Published: October 5, 2023

Pages: 256

Genre: LGBTQ Hockey Romance

Quinn

Straining my groin is bad enough. It puts my hockey career, my future, but even worse, my dignity on the line. Having to get massages in that area from Vance Landon, one of the team trainers, is mortifying. It’s impossible to hide my feelings toward him. If my constant blushing and bumbling doesn’t give it away, my body does. It’s getting to the point where I wonder if hockey is even worth the embarrassment.

Trying to avoid him only makes him seek me out more. He’s determined to rehab my injury, but all I want is for him to leave me alone. Or fall for me. One or the other.

Vance

Ayri Quinn isn’t your typical jock … except for the fact he refuses to admit when he’s injured. I’ve seen more than enough professional sportsmen lose the career they love due to injury, and I’m not having it happen again. Especially not when the guy in question happens to be the sweetest, most awkward, innocent jock I’ve ever met.

When a night out leads to Quinn re-injuring himself, I create a care plan that keeps me hands on, literally. Unfortunately, working with him in close proximity brings all those feelings I’ve been trying to ignore to the surface. I just need to get him better so he can be back on the ice and out of my bed. Ah, my massage bed. Because if this goes on any longer, I might mean my actual bed. Ayri Quinn is impossible to resist.

Oh, Ayri. This bumbling man is so dang cute. He's got such a big crush that everyone knows about it, and he still can't string a full sentence together. And somehow, it takes overhearing it said in a conversation for Vance to get the picture. Which is its own level of "head in the sand" naivete that's pretty cute.

These puckboys are so perfect. I love every single one of them, and I will be bereft when Eden and Saxon decide to move on with their lives. I'll never be ready to move on from these dinguses. They're all so charmingly ridiculous. Ridiculously charming? Eh, same same. 

Professional ethics are a real thing that should be respected. Taking advantage of someone within a cringey power dynamic is not ok. However, when it comes to these two, the way that they handled it was so good! I loved that their coworkers were like, eh it's not great but just don't be buttheads about it and we're all good. 

It's always a good time to catch up with the Collective, and I can't wait to see what antics they get up to next. It sounds like it's going to be a bi-awakening and I'm so ready for it!

Ratings

Stars: 4/5

Spice: 3/5

One Pucked Up Pack

                                           

Title: One Pucked Up Pack

Series: Pucked Up Omegaverse #1

Author: Sarah Blue

Published: February 25, 2023

Pages: 434

Genre: Hockey Omegaverse Romance

Winter break wasn’t supposed to turn into a whirlwind romance for Charlotte Hodges. She finds her dream pack landing in her lap, just a year before she’s due to graduate.

But life is never that easy, especially when the men she falls in love with are all getting drafted to different hockey teams. Long distance is hard. It’s even harder when the people you trusted the most aren’t there for you in your worst moment.

Charlotte thought she could move on. They would never put her over hockey and Charlotte knows her worth. Unfortunately, she can’t seem to forget about the three men she fell in love with on the ice. Especially when they'll do whatever it takes to make this pack work and prove they are the right Alphas for her.

I've been bamboozled. I have been looking forward to this book for months! I've been specifically saving it to read during November because this is my month to read all of my hockey and omegaverse books. And this is a HOCKEY OMEGAVERSE book all in one! 

But these swords do not cross. It took me like 60% of the book to give up hope on the swords crossing in this book, and then it took me so long to continue reading after that. I should have just DNFd it, but like, it is good. I was just mad about it. I do not understand the appeal of a why choose where all of these partners are willingly in a relationship where they only have sex with one other person. I know that that's being very reductive right now, but it's my review and I can do that. 

Ultimately, it was hockey and it was omegaverse. I liked the characters for the most part. Read and heed your trigger warnings because there is pretty graphic parent death on the page. But just please be forewarned, these swords do not cross. 

Ratings

Stars: 3/5

Spice: 3/5

Bunny

                                       

Title: Bunny

Author: Mona Awad

Published: Penguin Books, June 11, 2019

Pages: 317

Genre: Dark Humor

"We were just these innocent girls in the night trying to make something beautiful. We nearly died. We very nearly did, didn't we?"

Samantha Heather Mackey couldn't be more of an outsider in her small, highly selective MFA program at New England's Warren University. A scholarship student who prefers the company of her dark imagination to that of most people, she is utterly repelled by the rest of her fiction writing cohort--a clique of unbearably twee rich girls who call each other "Bunny," and seem to move and speak as one.

But everything changes when Samantha receives an invitation to the Bunnies' fabled "Smut Salon," and finds herself inexplicably drawn to their front door--ditching her only friend, Ava, in the process. As Samantha plunges deeper and deeper into the Bunnies' sinister yet saccharine world, beginning to take part in the ritualistic off-campus "Workshop" where they conjure their monstrous creations, the edges of reality begin to blur. Soon, her friendships with Ava and the Bunnies will be brought into deadly collision. 

The spellbinding new novel from one of our most fearless chroniclers of the female experience, Bunny is a down-the-rabbit-hole tale of loneliness and belonging, friendship and desire, and the fantastic and terrible power of the imagination.

What did I just read? I have no idea. Did I have a good time? Kind of.. 

Bunny, I don't even know what happened. I don't know what was real and what was the narrator being absolutely unhinged. Were the bunny boys real? Were the bunnies real, or just bunnies? Did this woman have four pet rabbits that she conjured up a rivalry with....POSSIBLY! 

It was excellent though. Very spooky. There was a lot of body horror and gore which worked really well and didn't detract from the story. This felt very much like a woman who has been bullied and left out of the "cool clique" for her whole life telling us what was happening on the "inside" of the club and not having a clue of what they were actually getting up to. It's like all of the rumors that you hear about weird rituals and stuff happening when you get inducted into sororities or secret societies. This whole book felt like someone's really messed up guess at what those are like.

All of the allusions and references to Lovecraft were very fun. It actually made me want to read some Lovecraft because it made me wonder which nods I was missing because I've only consumed fiction inspired by Lovecraft, but never his original work. Since this was a book club pick maybe I can convince them to read Lovecraft next month.

Ratings

Stars: 4/5

Team Players

                                          

Title: Team Players

Series: Mendell Hawks #2

Author: Deanna Gray

Published: December 15, 2022

Pages: 376

Genre: New Adult Romance

Aderyn
Resident playboy, Samson Morgan, thinks he can beat me at my own game.
The hockey captain truly believes he can stop playing the field for longer than I can start having one-night stands.
Okay, sure, historically I'm known for being an all-in, ask-to-be-your-girlfriend-on-the-first-date romantic. But being a player isn't that hard. And I came to Mendell University to win. Whether that's on the ice or off.
Morgan doesn't realize it yet but he's finally met an opponent who can take him down.

Sam

My bet with the women's hockey team captain feels like an easy win.
Three months pretending to be a one-woman kind of man? Easy...scary easy, actually.
Somewhere along the line, I start taking my role too seriously.
This semester isn't the time for me to get distracted from my main goal - ensuring my team gets a fair shot this season.
But Aderyn Jacobs consistently makes me rethink everything I've ever wanted. I'm in danger of losing something far bigger than our bet.

I wanted to like this so much. I LOVED Sunny Disposition. Finn and Naomi were great! And separately, Aderyn and Sam were great! Even together, Aderyn and Sam were great. I actually really liked how they played off of one another, and they both, in equal turns, made each other more playful and more serious. As the situation called for it. 

I just wasn't really rooting for them as much? IDK, something happened like 40% in and I should have DNFd. Not anything specific that happened in the book. Something happened between my brain and the page and I just...wasn't as invested in what was going to happen. I was way more invested in the side characters and the cloak and dagger aspects of the plot. But they were kind of few and far between. 

But I do love Aderyn. She is awesome! She's the super strong, super athletic woman who has her insecurities but still walks through life determined to claim her space. And I was all the way here for that. 

Ratings

Stars: 3/5

Spice: 2/5

Sunny Disposition

                                         

Title: Sunny Disposition

Series: Mendell Hawks #1

Author: Deanna Gray

Published: June 30, 2022

Pages: 335

Genre: New Adult Romance

Naomi

I can't understand why – out of the four hockey players I'm sharing a house with this semester – Finn Howard's the one who catches my eye.

The guy never smiles. He doesn't say much and disapproves plenty.

But, something about him feels familiar. Something about him feels safe.

I'm not falling for Finn, I'm just curious. Could I make him smile? It wouldn't hurt to try. I love a good challenge. And who knows, maybe it'll distract me from pining over a guy I meet online.

Finn

I don't get nervous unless I'm on the ice. So why does my chest feel tight whenever Naomi Lewis looks in my direction?

She's witty, kind, and happy. How is someone that happy all the time?

If her sunny disposition isn't enough to distract me, the fact that her voice sounds exactly like the streamer I anonymously moderate for will.

If Naomi is her, she's in for a huge disappointment. I'm not the guy she thinks I am...not anymore, at least. And for that reason alone, I should stay away from her. I should stop trying to get closer. I should stop wanting her because she fell for someone else. Someone I will never be again.

Naomi and Finn are so stinking perfect. I could not put this book down! 

I love a hockey! We know this. It is known. But dang, this was a good one. And it was arguably one of the least hockey heavy hockey romances I've read in a while. But it was so great. I just love how awkward these two are with one another. 

I don't want to even review too much about the book because the twists were so fun to read with fresh eyes. I thought the miscommunications were handled well. I loved how diverse the cast of characters is. All of the side characters felt three dimensional and real, without detracting from just how much I loved and was rooting for Naomi and Finn.

The way that she talked about Finn's amnesia was so well done. It just introduced some ideas regarding how to handle your life and your loved one's after amnesia that you don't really think about. Or I certainly hadn't thought about it. But I have been lately and it's been so interesting. So thanks for my existential ennui to get me through the holiday season, Ms. Grey!

Ratings

Stars: 4/5

Spice: 2/5