Sports Romance – Nonfiction and Nonsense

Pucking Sweet by Emily Rath

I knew I was going to love this book before I read it. I did some serious speed reading when I was getting through Pucking Wild and its accompanying novella, because I was anticipating this story so much. And I did not disappoint myself. I loved this novel just as much as I was hoping I would.

The poly relationship in this story felt exactly right to me. Three is the magic number in my opinion, any more than that just feels like a little bit too much, but I am not going to rain on the love parade that consists of anyone in a poly relationship involving more than three persons. We have our female main character, Poppy, and the two men she finds herself equally attracted to and can’t decide between. On the one hand, she has an honest and open relationship blossoming with a man that she has known for a few years, but who has only now confessed his feelings towards her. He is direct with her, telling her exactly how he feels and what he wants from her. But then she finds incredible passion between herself and the team’s potential public relations nightmare, a man who seems to have never had a serious, loving relationship with a woman, a real playboy. By all rights they should abhor the other, but there really is a fine line between love and hate. After these two have what was meant to be a one night stand they can’t deny that there is something chemical drawing them towards each other. You really get the best of both worlds in this story.

I have to go on a rant about the side plot, that being all the drama between Poppy and her family. The way Poppy was treated by her entire family made me so furious. Her younger sister was bratty and a bit narcissistic. Her mother was prude, withholding, demanding, and controlling. Her father just didn’t seem very aware or observant regarding anything that was going on with his family, he was fully focused on his political career. Why have four children if you aren’t going to know their likes and dislikes, or pay attention to any of them? The brother, who didn’t make much of an impact at the beginning, turned out to be a huge jerk too. He was a bully who loved to run his mouth, but at least someone shut it for him in the end. The only sibling who didn’t seem like they were mistreating Poppy was the oldest sister, who was only mentioned briefly in the beginning. If she managed to stay out of all this drama, then good for her. It seems like she accomplished what Poppy should have done years ago and ignored her overbearing, manipulative, snotty, Kennedy-esque wannabee of a family.

I can’t recall from memory all the times I have gasped aloud or shouted in surprise or glee over something that I had read in a book. You could say that not a lot shocks me, or that the moments are so few and far between that they are lost to time and memory. But I did gasp at a huge plot twist that happened towards the end, I screamed when I read it. However, after this one line no more mention was made of it, and it was kind of a big deal. Think relationship ending, perspective altering twist. Even though there were several other more pressing matters occurring at the same time that may have needed immediate attention, I was surprised that no one brought this one confession up after the other matters were taken care of. That one line is really going to bother me. I am hoping that the novella that we were promised will include a chapter that covers what went on here.

Speaking of that third novella, it was supposed to come after this book. It is listed in the indexes of both Pucking Ever After Volumes One and Two, which says to me that the author was committed to writing it. But it has not been released and I cannot find any information hinting at a release date. Pucking Strong does have a release date, August, and I already pre-ordered it, but there has been no word on whether or not the third novella is coming out before, after, or not at all. Maybe the author decided not to write a novella starring these particular characters? Maybe she was in a scramble to get this latest installment out and had to put Pucking Strong Volume Three on hold? I do hope that I get to read that novella one day, and I really hope that the one cliffhanger I was personally left on is addressed. Until the news drops on that, I just have to wait until September to read about the boys in Pucking Strong. I fear that I may have gone a little overboard with this blog, but I do tend to do that when I really enjoy a book. Next week, I have a thriller that I want to tell you about.

Pucking Ever After Volume Two by Emily Rath

Fiction

This novella has one more chapter than Ever After Volume One, but is about twice as thick. The author decided to put a little bit of extra care into these stories, in my opinion, and I am all for it. I think that overall you will notice a big difference in tone here. Volume One was mostly playful and sexy, Volume Two is serious, powerful, and heart stirring.

If you aren’t interested in a heavy read, maybe you should skip this one. I would say that every single one of the chapters in this novella touches on a serious issue or plays through a tense situation. The one serious topic, which required two chapters of plot, involved a life threatening medical issue with Tess. While I myself did not relate to the issue at all, and was not disturbed by what I read, the author was right in putting a warning at the beginning of the novel for anyone who might be sensitive to the issue. As for the other situation that required two chapters worth of narrative, it was less dramatic, not life threatening, but a delicate issue none the less. It focused on our moody, tight lipped Caleb, and the solemn Ilmari. These two chapters were more about longing and heartache, and they ended up being sweet and romantic and the guys worked through their issues. These two chapters ended up being my favorite in this novella.

Having finished this novella I fell right into the third novel in this series. If you want to find out who the love interests are in that book, come back tomorrow.

Pucking Wild by Emily Rath

Fiction

We get introduced to Rachel’s best friend, Tess, in the very beginning of Pucking Around. I could tell just from that first chapter that Tess was going to be a main character later on, even though we barely get mention of her throughout the entirety of the first book. This story started off right where Pucking Around ended.

Tess is having a cute moment with Ray’s forward Ryan, dancing, flirting, conversing with a comfortable banter. They have explosive chemistry, despite their age difference, vastly contrasting lifestyles, and the ban Rachel has put in place forbidding Tess from hooking up with any of the hockey guys. Oh, and on top of that Tess is married, albeit separated from her husband, and has sworn off men and serious relationships. Tess doesn’t need or want another complicated relationship right now, but Ryan wants her badly and he will do anything and everything to make her his.

There was a lot of drama in this novel, a very different sort than what we saw in Pucking Around. Rachel thought she was getting too much of a good thing, Tess doesn’t think she deserves anyone that wants to be good to her. Rachel shies away from relationships because of her celebrity connections, Tess doesn’t want a relationship because the last one she had resulted in her being legally bound to a cheating, abusive spouse. The tension in Pucking Around makes you gleefully anticipate what is going to happen next. In this story, you feel tense and anxious as you turn the pages, wondering how much more of the story involves the situation getting worse before it gets better. I did have anxiety as I was reading some of the chapters when it seemed that things were going to turn out badly, all of them involving confrontations or ultimatums between Tess and her ex husband. The man seemed to possess every terrible quality a human could have, he was narcissistic, arrogant, entitled, cruel, threatening, and smug, and I could go on. I don’t understand how a person as bubbly as Tess got involved with him to begin with.

If you don’t mind being a little frustrated and a little worried, but hopeful as you root for the good guy, this is the perfect romance for you. And it’s just the start of this series. This is only novel two of what looks like is going to be at least a five part series, full of supplemental reads in the forms of novellas and short stories. This author is in the process of creating what I expect to be a much loved fictional universe.

Pucking Ever After Volume One by Emily Rath

Fiction

Pucking Ever After Volume One is the novella that you should read after Pucking Around. It consists of a few chapters of short little extra bits focusing on the relationships between Rachel, Jake, Caleb, and Ilmari. You absolutely need to read Pucking Around because you will have no idea what is going on without having read it first. You should also buy Volume Two when you buy Volume One, because one chapter in Volume Two should be read before the second half of Volume One. I don’t know why the author chose to put that particular chapter in Volume Two, maybe I’ll see the sense of it when I get to it. However, before that can occur, I need to read the second full length novel in this series, Pucking Wild, which I am working on right now.

Although this was only six short chapters, it was fun to get a glimpse into the day to day life of these characters after the climax of the last book. I believe that the author wrote this because it was purely fun for her, and she took her readers’ suggestions into consideration. I believe that the content of Volume One and Two was written according to what the fans wanted to get a little more of. If someone suggested the plot behind chapter six in this book, or if the author decided that she wanted to write it all on her own, I am very grateful either way. That chapter was my hands down favorite in this novella and probably one of my favorite chapters that I have read in the series so far. The only spoiler I will give is that it focuses on Jake and Caleb. And there is a big cliffhanger at the end, the conclusion of which is coming in the fourth full length novel in this series, which is being released in September. Come back tomorrow to see what I have to say about the second book in this series, Pucking Wild.

Pucking Around by Emily Rath

Fiction

I’ve been reading a lot of romantic fantasy, romantasy if you will, and consuming as much of this type of fiction as I can has pretty much been my motivation to read as much as possible lately. But I think I just found a series that will bring me back to reality. A hockey romance, a very dirty hockey romance.

If you read my post from last week I discussed the novella which was a prequel to this book. That piece of work was full of smut. This full length novel had a decent story with plot behind it, and the scenes with our love interests were just as naughty. On top of that, as the story progressed the moments between our female main character and all her men became even more debaucherous.

The story starts off a few months after that one night between Rachel and Jake. She is wallowing in her disappointment at not getting the position she was hoping for, and not being near Jake. Due to a misfortune, the job that Rachel has been in a pit of depression over is now available. Less than forty eight hours later she has left the apartment she shared with her best friend in Cincinnati and has arrived in Jacksonville. She is picked up by one of her new colleagues and they could not have had a worse first encounter. The story starts off with the regular introduction of the characters, but things get heated pretty quickly when Rachel sees Jake walking towards her and at that moment learns that she is going to be working with him. Even though the two are attracted to each other with a desperate longing akin to lost soulmates meeting for the first time, Rachel puts her foot down. She doesn’t want to risk either of their jobs with an office romance. Jake reluctantly agrees to her terms, but he wants nothing more than to break down her walls, and he is not at all subtle when it comes to hiding his true intentions. There are other characters and other plot points I want to discuss, but to say any more would in my opinion be giving too much away. And I don’t want to do that because I believe this is a book worth getting into, without spoilers, for any of my fellow smut lovers looking for a new series to start.

Even though this piece of fiction tells a story that could possibly happen in real life, and by that I mean there isn’t any magic being thrown about or mystical creatures walking around, I think that it would have to be in very similar circumstances for something like this to happen. I feel like the events that occur and the relationships that develop could only exist between famous professional athletes and children of the extremely wealthy. I can tell you, I don’t personally know anyone who has ever lived anything close to what goes on in this story and I don’t think I ever will.

Forgetting all that, this book gets a five out of five on my raunchy scale. I remember the exact scene in the novel when I realized that I had just read the filthiest piece of literature I had ever read in my life. And while there were more equally scandalous scenes ahead of me, the one encounter I just mentioned is one I will never forget. There was a point in the midst of the story when I thought that the numbers were a bit much, but everything seemed to round out well enough in the end. All I can say is, it couldn’t be me.