colleenreads40 's review for:

Zero Pucks by E.M. Lindsey

3.0

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 Zero Pucks is the first book in E.M. Lindsey’s new Punk as Puck series. Here’s what you can expect from Tucker and Amadeo:

🏒 MM contemporary romance

🏒 First person dual point of view

🏒 Guaranteed happily ever after

🏒 Sledge hockey

🏒 Drunk marrying a stranger in Vegas

🏒 Disability representation

🏒 Falling for his fake husband

🏒 Hockey found family

🏒 Strangers to lovers

As always, ensure you review the content and trigger warnings to decide if this book is right for you. Note that this list of warnings and triggers may be incomplete. Please take care of yourself while reading.

Past drug use; past intoxicated driving that leads to a car accident with permanent injuries; emotional neglect by parents; emotional and verbal abuse; threats of physical domestic violence by a partner (not between main characters); ableism; ableist language; non-sexual cheating (not between main characters); hockey violence; mild violence.

I was really looking forward to this one! E.M. Lindsey always does my favourite disability representation, and their books are just so diverse and well-planned. Zero Pucks was no exception in that regards. I’ve also never read a hockey romance that centred around sledge hockey, and I look forward to diving more into that world, as well as the blind hockey league the book depicted, as the series continues. Overall, I found this book okay in the sense I probably wouldn’t reach for it to re-read but I am interested in reading the rest of the series. I think the side characters written into the book were actually one of the standouts for me. 

I did find it took a few chapters to get into this book. Although the prologue was chaotic (which makes sense considering Tucker is drunk in Vegas and meeting random men that he’ll apparently marry), it was a bit difficult to follow at times. Tucker is definitely a character that’s rough around the edges, and some readers may have a difficult time forgiving him for the circumstances surrounding his accident and subsequent disability. It’s clear he’s learned a lot and grown since he missed his chance at the NHL. Amadeo was an interesting character as well, and I didn’t feel we got a good chance to get to know him. I really enjoyed how possessive Tucker was of Amadeo once they reunited (sober, of course) and they were quite cute together. And the spice was exceptionally well written, as I’ve come to expect with Lindsey’s books. The background characters also provided lots of comic relief, and there were plenty of lighthearted moments to balance out the seriousness of some of the situations happening.

Overall, this book was a slight miss for me but I look forward to seeing some of the side characters get their happily ever after! 

I received an advanced reader copy of this book from Gay Romance Reviews Tours and am voluntarily leaving a review.