Reviews with content warning for Homophobia - Pucking Around

"You deserve every good thing in life. Don't wait for it to come to you. Go out and get it."

Rachel Price has always kept her head down and her private life out of the eyes of the press. The daughter of a famous rockstar just wants to leave her party-girl image behind and move forward with the fellowship of a lifetime as the team doctor for the newest hockey team in the league, the Jacksonville Rays. But when Rachel realizes that one of the guys on the team was her mysteriously magical one-night-stand a few months ago, his best friend is the guy she can't stop herself from falling hard for, and there's a goalie who keeps worming his big Finnish way into her heart - she quickly realizes she's in over her head.

I LOVED THIS BOOK. I love Emily Rath. I loved the characters. I LOVED EVERY SECOND. I have so, so many good things to say about this book, but first and foremost - it was absolute why choose/RH/polyam perfection. There were so many wonderful conversations between Rachel and the guys in the pages, and then the guys with each other. Caleb, Jake, and Ilmari are now three men I might also be in love with? I'm definitely in love with Ilmari, we'll get to him first because I seem to always find myself falling for the absolute biggest, teddy bear of a man in RH books. Ilmari fits all my bills and then throws them in the shredder, he's incredible and I truly loved the emotional journey he went on in this book. Caleb had some incredible moments, he was such a rock for Rachel and I found myself wanting to just wrap him up in a big hug. And Jake, the ultimate golden retriever energy was everything I loved and more. The three of them were balanced to total perfection.

Rachel Price, oh my god, what a fantastic MC. At this point I'm expecting fireworks to start going off every time I open an Emily Rath. book, especially after reading the prequel and seeing Rachel and Jake in their one-night-stand glory. I loved her, I loved how she had her own background and insecurities to work through, and I loved how the guys both supported her and told her to get her shit together. What a way to throw me into hockey romances.

This also did a wonderful job with exploring and expressing some of the harsh realities of professional sportsmanship like outing, homophobia, injuries, and more. I really loved how the author didn't pull punches and made the characters have tough discussions and talk to each other. It was done in such a beautiful way and I'm just extremely glad I read this.

I'm sure people will balk at the page length of this. I did too, but I promise it's worth every single page. I never felt rushed with the relationships, I always felt like I was getting the scenes they needed for development and the moments that were extras, added in just to have. I really loved the shifting POVs and being able to peek into the heads of the guys when things started getting wild. It was just an overall incredible time. I highly recommend this to anyone! And the spice, oh my god the spice. Put me on the bench, I need a quarter to recover before getting back into the game.

Content warnings: sexual content (I mean, you name it they do it), cursing, outing (a major plot point), injury/medical content (Rachel is a doctor, she does doctor things), bullying/homophobia (some people are dicks, and they are put in their place)

Content Warnings

lizrosereads8's review against another edition

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emotional funny lighthearted medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

Content Warnings

fromthefoxhole's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional funny lighthearted medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

Content Warnings

iamsammie27's review against another edition

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emotional funny lighthearted medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

5.0

Content Warnings

thecajunbookworm's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional funny hopeful fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes

4.5

Content Warnings

tab_reads's review against another edition

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emotional funny hopeful lighthearted tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

I received an ARC and here's my honest review.

5⭐️ 4🌶️
MOOD: lighthearted, funny, emotional
TROPES: instalove, instalust, friends to lovers, lite dom/sub play
FAV QUOTE: I groan. Just slather me with butter and jam because I am so f*cking toast.

I really enjoyed Whiskey & Sin so I figured I'd probably like this MMFM/poly story.
THE GOOD: I could not put this down. I did not read the prequel novella That One Night and was fine navigating the story and characters. There is a lot of character depth and growth and the overall story is interesting. Also, lots of spice.
THE NEUTRAL: It's over 700 pages. Not my length of choice. On the plus side, the story moves along nicely and it doesn't feel that long.
THE MEH: I was sad when I finished cause there wasn't more.

CW: From the author: mentions of addiction, substance abuse, bullying/homophobia, harassment, suicide, and eating disorders. Detailed sex scenes with multiple people including elements of impact play, choking, voyeurism, bondage, double penetration, double vaginal penetration, toy use, degradation, spit play, and breeding kink

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