Pucked #3
Author: Helena Hunting
Kindle Edition, KU and Audiobook, Audible
Narrators: Rose Dioro and Jacob Morgan
Lily LeBlanc is on the rebound. She has just managed to get rid of her on and off relationship with her less-than-stellar boyfriend. She needs to shake things up, get back in the dating scene… Her best-friend’s boyfriend’s best friend (ooh, what a mouthful!) just happened to be more than welcome to help her by being her rebound guy.
Randy Ballistic is an NHL hockey player on the rise. He is the king of the puck bunny scene and he has no interest in relationships. His dad was a hockey player too and apparently everyone says he just like him. Well, there is one small problem – his dad is an @$$hole. And Randy doesn’t want to follow his footsteps and hurt anyone, so he avoids relationships like the plague. Lily is cute and fun, so he can be her rebound guy, right? Well, no one took into account one pesky little detail: catching feelings…
I didn’t care for Lily very much when we met her in book 2. And in the same way she managed to turn my feelings around in relation to Buck in that book, Helena Hunting managed to make me see Lily in a completely different light. She’s a badass girl, who doesn’t let life bring her down. She was an Olympic hopeful in figure skating, but who had to have her career cut short because her dad (another dead beat hockey player dad) stopped paying child support and they couldn’t afford her training. Instead of being bitter and resentful, she pulled herself by the bootstraps, went to school on a scholarship and now works her butt off in two jobs to help her mom.
I always thought that man buns were the badge of the annoying hipster millennial… until I saw Jason Momoa sporting a man bun. Held on by a freaking scrunchie! In pink! And poof, now I have a thing for man buns. And Randy is all alpha… with a man bun. Swoon! Randy could have been a shallow, egocentric character, but Helena Hunting gave him depth and sweetness with his insecurities about being like his dad and also by having a very bad scar. And one of the sweetest and most poignant scenes in this book is exactly the one where he lets himself be vulnerable and let Lily finally see him.
I loved those two together! And once again we catch up on the whole gang, which is always a bonus!
Narration: Rose Dioro is a favorite. Her narration is spot on. She has that sweet voice that gives you a hint of vulnerability. Y’all know how much of a Jacob Morgan fan I am and I believe he was a still a baby narrator when this came out and he was already insanely good!
Possible triggers: child abandonment by a parent, body image issues, scarred hero
