Pucking Strong by Emily Rath is an MM hockey romance that melted my cold, dead heart. It’s the fourth book in the Jacksonville Rays series, featuring a marriage of convenience and two totally opposite men who find themselves thrown together in a crazy situation.
Six years ago, on his first day as a physical therapy intern for the Jacksonville Rays hockey team, Teddy O’Connor met Henrik Karlsson when the sexy Swedish hockey forward saved him from getting hit by a car. Despite Teddy’s immediate crush, the two maintain a strictly professional relationship.
When Teddy returns to the Jacksonville Rays as one of the team’s physical therapists, his crush on Henrik is just as powerful as ever, despite the years. But on his first day back with the team, tragedy strikes. Henrik gets the news that his sister died in a car accident, leaving behind his five-year-old niece in critical condition.
Henrik needs to go to Sweden, and Teddy offers to go with him to help bring his injured niece back home. When they arrive in Sweden, they learn that the government is unwilling to give custody of his niece to an unmarried man with such a grueling work schedule.
Thankfully, Teddy has a plan to strengthen Henrik’s custody case. They’ll get married, and they’ll have to make it look real. It’s reckless and crazy, but it’s also the only way they can keep Karolina where she belongs.
Teddy knows it isn’t real, that Henrik will never love him in the way he’s always dreamed of, but for Karolina, it’s all worth it. He can keep his feelings buried for the sake of the five-year-old girl who needs him. But as Henrik and Teddy’s lives become increasingly entwined, it gets harder to pretend he’s not hopelessly in love with his fake husband.
I was immediately entranced by the story. The romance is a slow burn, but the plot jumps right in and keeps moving, successfully keeping the reader hooked. Short chapters make this story fly, but even so, I was able to savor every page, even while on the edge of my seat.
I’m weird because I’m weird, not because you’re weird. You’re perfect, okay? You just be you, and I’ll be me, and we’ll just be weird and awkward together. Sound good?
Teddy and Henrik are so cute together. I want to train my dog to bite people like Denise (you’ll understand when you read it). Teddy is so dynamic and lovably hilarious, the perfect foil for Henrik’s strong silence. Jealousy abounds between them in a deliciously misguided and undeniably adorable way, and I couldn’t get enough.
Equally as adorable is the dynamic both men have with Karolina. Her relationship with Teddy, in particular, is deeply heartwarming. He’s the perfect uncle, braiding her hair and singing along to Disney movies.
The entire Rays team feels like my own found family at this point, and I love them all so much. Getting to see characters from previous books all living in their happily ever afters is such a joy.
Diversity is an important part of the whole Rays universe, but it is particularly essential to this book, given that Teddy is a gay Black man, and Henrik is demisexual. Getting to see these characters experience such joy and acceptance was something truly special. Also, the Rays call their WAGS group the Wives and Guys, which is so perfect that I could cry.
If you are a long-time lover of the Jacksonville Rays books, be warned that this is a much slower burn than previous books, excruciatingly so. As she warned readers in the author’s note, Emily Rath really made us earn the spice.
There is torturous tension built up from so much yearning and wanting something they both think they can never have. Once the tension breaks, the spice is pure fire and so perfect for these characters. It’s so freeing for them and is a wonderful treat to read.
I knew Pucking Strong was a five-star read by chapter three. This book made me so happy that my husband kept asking what I was smiling about. Reading this book is like pure sexy sunshine, and I highly recommend it to even the most sports-averse romance readers.
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