Emily Rath is bae, okay? I’ve fallen in love. Also, I’m now obsessed with hockey. So. There’s that. Lemme put you on these books.

That One Night is the prequel novella that introduces us to Rachel Price and Jake Compton. Emily has just irish goodbye’d her brother’s after wedding brunch and is sitting in a hotel bar, being hit on by some uptight yacht guy, who is not getting the hint that she has no interest. She’s just received news that she didn’t win the Barkley Fellowship, a prestigious program that matches sport doctors with professional sports teams, to spend a season treating injuries. She’s been working to claim her own spotlight, outside of her famous rock-star father, so she is taking this rejection especially hard.

Jake walks into the bar and saves Rachel by pretending to be her brother. They strike up a conversation, learning that they are both twins. Jake’s sister, Amy, was supposed to meet him in Seattle, but due to work complications, she wasn’t able to make it. There’s instant attraction between the two main characters. One thing lead to another and they end up back in Rachel’s hotel room, having the most spiritually explosive night of their lives. Neither share names or personal details, then Rachel sneaks out early in the morning, leaving Jake alone and pining for “Seattle Girl”.

Pucking Around picks up three months after with Rachel in Cincinnati, working at an outpatient clinic. She receives word that the doctor, who was originally chosen for the last fellowship slot had a water rafting accident and wouldn’t be able to accept the position. In a matter of 36 hours, she is packing and heading to Jacksonville to work as a sports doc for the Jacksonville Rays, a completely new NHL team.

She’s picked up at the airport by the surly equipment manager, Caleb Sanford, who (because it’s a romance book) happens to be best friends with Jake. Caleb and Jake used to play for the Philly Penguins, but seven minutes and thirteen seconds into their first game as NHL stars, Caleb was illegally checked into the boards, after a play, and shattered his knee so bad that it ended his career.

This story is first person, multi-POV and as you’re reading along, you start to wonder, why are we getting the Ray’s goalie, Ilmari Kunnunen’s, perspective? Great question. We already know that this story is a why choose, so you do the math. Ilmari is a Finnish born athlete, who comes from a long line of Olympic hockey players. He’s described as a Viking, blonde beard, man bun, and huge. On top of that, he’s a broody loner. Be still my heart.

Pucking Around is over 700 pages, which, trust me, you’ll appreciate. The long book format allows Emily to give us slow moving details that help to build the world, develop the characters, and make the relationships believable. With the addition of the 70 pages in That One Night, we are able to truly feel a part of the past, present, and future for Rachel, Jake, Caleb, and Ilmari. Emily takes her time in her writing, showing us things like Rachel settling in to her apartment by going to Ikea in an Uber, walking through the many areas of the practice arena, Caleb doing laundry or ironing jerseys, insights into side characters’s lives, and so on. A lot of time is spent in hockey game play, which is described so well that I could smell the ice and feel the cold. I could hear the crowds cheering, the music, and the announcer. Then there’s the sex scenes. Sometimes in why choose, I have a hard time envisioning where everyone is, but not here. You can see everyone, even if they are passively sitting somewhere in the room, not saying or doing anything on the page. The dirty talk is chefs kiss. AND IN FINNISH!

Let’s talk about languages because if you’ve read my post of my favorite tropes, you know that I simp for languages in books. Emily delivers. Oh does she deliver. She provides a list of Finnish to English translations at the beginning of the book, so you can refer back to it throughout the story. Amazing. Just pure genius.

The trauma addressed is different than I’ve read before, in that Caleb’s career-ending injury has bled into every area of his personality. He’s closed off from the world and bitter. I love that there isn’t animosity between him and Jake, but more like guilt in Jake’s side. Caleb loves Jake so hard that he feels the love over any jealousy. Jake’s trauma is how he feels like survivor’s guilt. He dotes on Caleb, as the golden retriever friend, always wanting to cheer up Caleb and make everything better. Where Caleb internalizes everything, Jake forces everyone to talk and share. I have a hard time with characters internalizing their angst over long periods of time during stories, so having Jake constantly forcing everyone to come out with it is refreshing. Ilmari has been burned by his father and we see how this comes into play as well.

There’s a LOT of plot. Get ready. Somehow, though, it’s told in such a way that it doesn’t feel too much. Like the whole time I thought, “this all makes sense”. Even the crazy twists at the end don’t feel unobtainable. Yeah, like, they are definitely things that happen in fiction, maybe not in the real world, but they work in THIS world. And they are so wonderful. Emily describes this book as being two books in one; the first book is the relationship between Rachel, Jake, and Caleb and the second book is the relationship between Ilmari and Rachel, then how they all come together. Although I can see what she’s talking about, she melds the two so well together that it really doesn’t seem like two books, more like several acts, you know?

Speaking of Emily, she has a TikTok account, where she describes a lot of the inside baseball (or…hockey…I guess…) on these books. She receives tons of clips from fans that depict the characters and scenes in the book, which she duets and discusses. A lot of times, I will search out authors’ Pinterest boards, Spotify accounts, and Instagram because they will post media that help to enhance the experience even further. I love the way Emily gives us insight into this world.

Overall I gave this book 5/5 stars because it is so well-written and immersive. Several elements were different than I’ve read before, which speaks to Emily’s talent because it’s so easy to fall into the typical cadence of romance. Well done, Emily! Thank you so much! If you’re interested in reading Emily’s works, check out her website here.

This is also a poignant moment for me because I think Pucking Around is going to be one of the last contemporaries I read before I switch gears. For most of March, I’ve been reading MM, MF, and, now, MMFM contemporary romances and, don’t get me wrong, I have thoroughly enjoyed myself. Now it’s time to get to work on my TBR. I have a big Amazon haul coming my way tomorrow that includes the rest of the Shadowhunter interconnected series, the Zodiac Academy series, the Vicious Lost Boys series, and most of the State of Grace series, and the first in the Crowns of Nyaxia series. Before my contemporary binge, I abandoned Queen of Myth and Monsters, the second in the Adrian X Isolde series, so I need to pick that back up. So goodbye Kindle, hello paper. And, of course, I am going to be sharing here!