Book Review: Pucked Off by Helena Hunting

I’m NHL defenseman Lance Romero, AKA Lance “Romance."

I’m notorious for parties and excess. I have the most penalty minutes in the league. I get into the most fights. I take the most hits. I’m a player on and off the ice. I’m the one women with no inhibitions want.

Not because I like the notoriety, but because I don’t know how to be any other way.

I have secrets. Ones I shared with the wrong person, and she used them against me. Sometimes she still does. I should cut ties. But she makes it difficult, because she’s the kind of bad I deserve.

At least that’s what I believed until someone from my past gets caught up in my present. She’s all the good things in this world. She lights up my dark.

I shouldn’t want her.

But I do.

I should leave her alone.

But I won’t.

I really have enjoyed the Puck Series but Pucked Off took it to the next level. It's different from the rest of the series. There's more emotion and strife. It's finally time for Lance 'Romance' Romero's second-chance painfully, heartwarming story.

This story completely caught me by surprise. I didn't expect the emotional strife that was Lance and Tash. Tash had been previously terminated from her job as the team trainer because she and Lance had been caught in the gym locker room doing the nasty. Their story doesn't end there and it's not what I had expected. It's much worse. Lance does not feel worthy and continues with the chaos know as Tash.

"I don't know how to exist without the chaos, and I seek it because it confirms the message beaten into me as a kid: I deserve to be a victim, because my little brother was mine."
  
Lance carries around the weight of the world on his shoulders which leads him to altercations. After a bad pummeling, Lance is sent to Poppy O'Connor, massage therapist, to relieve his stiffness. Lance does not like when women touch him but to his surprise he enjoys Poppy's massages. He wants more of Poppy and soon she gives into a few dates. 


Lance needs Poppy. She soothes the wild beast. However Lance keeps his struggles and hockey life away from Poppy. It doesn't take long for it to all go wrong. His good intentions back fire and he almost loses the woman he loves. 

There is a lot of heartache and tears in Pucked Off. Lance is a complex character who is misunderstood. His painful past drove him into the arms of the wrong woman. He struggles to move forward until he finds his strength with Poppy by his side. Poppy is an amazingly strong woman. She had a past with Lance but kept it to herself because of their last encounter. Now they have a second chance to make it work if Lance is willing to let her into all of his life. This story indirectly deals with mental illness in a serious but hopeful way. The author did an excellent job in developing the characters. This book is so much more. 5 Stars!