Pucked #5
Kindle Edition, KU and Audiobook, Audible
Author: Helena Hunting
Narrators: Rose Dioro and Jacob Morgan
Lance Romero, AKA “Romance”, is an NHL defenseman who plays the stereotype of the hockey player to a T. He embodies “excess” : excess parties, excess fights, excess time in the penalty box, excess hits… and excess number of puck bunnies.
One day, Lance gets into a “scuffle” and gets pretty beat up. The games are on and Poppy is the massage therapist the PT from the team basically forces on him. Either go get the kinks on your muscles sorted out or you are benched.
The thing is… Lance may be a player, but he hates being touched. But for some reason, he is comfortable with being touched by her.
What he doesn’t know is that he has met Poppy before. So have we. She is the one who cleaned up Buck’s face when someone painted a dick on his forehead in a party at Lance’s a while back. She was left alone by her friend who took her there but took off to hook up with no one other than Lance. But…. the plot thickens. They went to same school, and when they were teenagers, during one of those 7 Minutes in Heaven games, Lance was Poppy’s first kiss. AND HE DOESN’T REMEMBER HER! The nerve!
This book is right off the bat different from the other ones in the series. It has its funny moments but the rug is pulled from under you right in chapter one.
Lance is dealing with Tash, the former team trainer, with whom he was involved and she is proving to be as loony as bunny boiling crazy women. And I am not talking puck bunnies! When they were involved, Lance confided in her and now she is using his insecurities to manipulate him with her mind games.
When he meets Poppy, he has this feeling he knows her from somewhere, she makes him feel safe and soon enough he is pursuing her, first as his massage therapist and then as a date.
Like in all the books in the series, I loved this couple! Lance is broken by a horrible loss in the past and by how he was treated by his parents afterwards, specially his mother. Poppy is still insecure about his reputation and how he wants to keep her away from everything and everyone in his life. It’s adorable to see how cute Lance gets when he realizes he doesn’t know how to “date” and asks his friend Violet for help. Violet! Of all people!
It’s also a lot of fun to see a totally new character introduced to the group. Poppy being introduced to Violet and her “violetness”, to Randy and Lily with their bathroom-breaking horny shenanigans is a delight! I wouldn’t say this is my favorite book in the series because I have a huge soft spot for my man bun wearing Randy and Lily, but they are a very close second.
It was an emotional ride and I loved it!
Narration: again we get Jacob Morgan and Rose Dioro.
Jacob Morgan doing accents is… Sweet. Baby. Jay. Zoos. And what is amazing here is that it’s not a full on Scottish accent. Lance has been in the US since his teens and the accent surfaces when he is under stress. That is so much harder to do. JM does it to perfection.
Rose Dioro has an even harder task. She has to do the same thing JM does, while doing a male voice to boot. AND SHE KILLS IT.
Possible triggers: loss of a sibling, toxic relationship with a parent, child neglect, PTSD, feelings of extreme guilt, obsessive ex
