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Kill the Puckers: A Dark Hockey Romance
Not yet published
Expected 31 Mar 26Alyssa Reed has always been a problem solver and a fan of the long con. So, when the justice system fails her best friend, Alyssa takes it upon herself to set things right. And as far as Alyssa is concerned, setting things right means killing the hockey players who assaulted her friend.
There’s just a minor problem, and it’s not means or motive. It’s opportunity and access. But when Alyssa snags a date with the team’s head coach, Mark Eriksson—after stalking him for weeks, shh!—access to the team may no longer be a barrier to entry. At least, not if she can convince Mark she’s serious about him.
When hockey players start dropping like flies and Mark becomes increasingly suspicious, Alyssa has to decide if it’s just great sex that makes her want to trust Mark or if her feelings for him have outlived the long con and evolved into something more than a means to an end.
There’s just a minor problem, and it’s not means or motive. It’s opportunity and access. But when Alyssa snags a date with the team’s head coach, Mark Eriksson—after stalking him for weeks, shh!—access to the team may no longer be a barrier to entry. At least, not if she can convince Mark she’s serious about him.
When hockey players start dropping like flies and Mark becomes increasingly suspicious, Alyssa has to decide if it’s just great sex that makes her want to trust Mark or if her feelings for him have outlived the long con and evolved into something more than a means to an end.
345 pages, Kindle Edition
Expected publication March 31, 2026
4 people are currently reading
21 people want to read
About the author
Sam Evans
4 books13 followersSam Evans has lived all over the US but currently resides in the upper midwest. She’s a software engineer by day, but letting her imagination run wild is her full-time occupation. She lives with her partner, a high-strung border collie, and an insane kelpie. She routinely drinks too much coffee and gets too little sleep.
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
Review of advance copy received from Netgalley
promising young woman with a happy end
and lots of fucking
and her bf is actually a good guy
and lots of fucking
and her bf is actually a good guy
February 1, 2026
“You fell for a mark named Mark.”
Alyssa Reed has always been a problem solver and a fan of the long con. So, when the justice system fails her best friend, Alyssa takes it upon herself to set things right. And as far as Alyssa is concerned, setting things right means killing the hockey players who assaulted her friend.
Kill the Puckers was an unhinged, woman seeking rightful revenge on behalf of her best friend, dark romance that was pleasant as hell.
Alyssa was a strong FMC and I liked her character very much. She was unapologetically real and knew what needed to be done to get her best friend the justice Katie deserved. She just wanted bad men to pay and honestly I couldn’t help but root for her. Her anger was raw and real and that made her actions just that much more sweet to witness. She planned, she had help from a side character, Vaughn, and did whatever she needed to do to get the job done. She honestly thought her revenge plan would be easy enough yet she wasn’t anticipating Mark, our MMC.
Mark was an exceptional MMC and I think him and Alyssa fit so well together. They weren’t overly lovey-dovey but you could still feel their chemistry. Their relationship was enjoyable to see unfold. It had me laughing because their love language was shit talking each other (Alyssa was the queen of this). Watching Alyssa go from seeing Mark as just a means to an end to then see her falling for the mark, well… it was beautiful to read about. I do wish their romance delved a bit deeper. I feel like we just got the tip of the iceberg of the romance that AlyssaMark could’ve really been. But I do take into consideration that this book focused a bit more on the revenge than the romance.
This book easily held my interest throughout and it even had me feeling nerves while we read about each kill. I was intrigued and wondering if Alyssa was going to go through with this kill and if or when she would get caught. I think this book focused more on the revenge killing plot but the romance throughout it was definitely enough for romance readers to enjoy. Sam Evans did a remarkable job on romance, revenge and even more serious topics while also not sensationalizing sexual assault.
Overall, I give this book a 4/5 stars.
Thank you Super Gravity Press LLC for providing this book for review consideration via NetGalley. All opinions are my own.
Alyssa Reed has always been a problem solver and a fan of the long con. So, when the justice system fails her best friend, Alyssa takes it upon herself to set things right. And as far as Alyssa is concerned, setting things right means killing the hockey players who assaulted her friend.
Kill the Puckers was an unhinged, woman seeking rightful revenge on behalf of her best friend, dark romance that was pleasant as hell.
Alyssa was a strong FMC and I liked her character very much. She was unapologetically real and knew what needed to be done to get her best friend the justice Katie deserved. She just wanted bad men to pay and honestly I couldn’t help but root for her. Her anger was raw and real and that made her actions just that much more sweet to witness. She planned, she had help from a side character, Vaughn, and did whatever she needed to do to get the job done. She honestly thought her revenge plan would be easy enough yet she wasn’t anticipating Mark, our MMC.
Mark was an exceptional MMC and I think him and Alyssa fit so well together. They weren’t overly lovey-dovey but you could still feel their chemistry. Their relationship was enjoyable to see unfold. It had me laughing because their love language was shit talking each other (Alyssa was the queen of this). Watching Alyssa go from seeing Mark as just a means to an end to then see her falling for the mark, well… it was beautiful to read about. I do wish their romance delved a bit deeper. I feel like we just got the tip of the iceberg of the romance that AlyssaMark could’ve really been. But I do take into consideration that this book focused a bit more on the revenge than the romance.
This book easily held my interest throughout and it even had me feeling nerves while we read about each kill. I was intrigued and wondering if Alyssa was going to go through with this kill and if or when she would get caught. I think this book focused more on the revenge killing plot but the romance throughout it was definitely enough for romance readers to enjoy. Sam Evans did a remarkable job on romance, revenge and even more serious topics while also not sensationalizing sexual assault.
Overall, I give this book a 4/5 stars.
Thank you Super Gravity Press LLC for providing this book for review consideration via NetGalley. All opinions are my own.
Review of advance copy received from Author
What a sensational read!
Alyssa is everything you could want from a strong FMC. She's smart, she's deadly and most importantly, she doesn't need a man to save her. I couldn't put this book down, the plot was incredibly strong , the characters were so real (you loved some & you HATED some) and the spice was spicy 🔥
Sam Evans, this book is a resounding triumph and you've highlighted an epidemic within sports that shouldn't exist. I applaud you and your voice 👏
Alyssa is everything you could want from a strong FMC. She's smart, she's deadly and most importantly, she doesn't need a man to save her. I couldn't put this book down, the plot was incredibly strong , the characters were so real (you loved some & you HATED some) and the spice was spicy 🔥
Sam Evans, this book is a resounding triumph and you've highlighted an epidemic within sports that shouldn't exist. I applaud you and your voice 👏
Review of advance copy received from Author
⚠️ Disclaimer
Books are subjective. I said what I said. You can disagree, write a Reddit essay, light a sage bundle about it, or scream into a Stanley cup replica. None of that will change my opinion. Or my blood pressure. This is my lane. If you don’t like it, exit at the next ramp and don’t look back.
🏃💨 The Quick and Dirty
Kill the Puckers is an unhinged, spite-powered, bad-bitch revenge story where a woman looks at a broken justice system, laughs once, and says, “Cool, I’ll handle it.” It is dark as hell while being funny in a “laughing while loading the gun” kind of way.
🕵️♀️ The Non-Spoilery Situation Report
Alyssa Reed has always been a problem solver and a fan of the long con. When the justice system fails her best friend after a sexual assault, Alyssa does not write a strongly worded letter. She does not wait. She does not heal quietly. She decides to fix it.
Her problem isn’t motive or guts—it’s access. Hockey players are wrapped in money, PR spin, and the kind of institutional protection usually reserved for corrupt politicians (in the White House) and Marvel villains. So Alyssa stalks the team’s head coach, Mark Eriksson, for weeks, lands a date, and inserts herself directly into the ecosystem.
When hockey players start dying and Mark gets suspicious, Alyssa has to decide whether she’s trusting him because she wants to—or because the sex is great and she’s playing emotional roulette with a loaded gun.
🤔💭 The Review
Alright, puddin’. Buckle the fuck up.
Kill the Puckers is what happens when feminine rage stops being theoretical and starts wearing combat boots with chipped nail polish. This book is feral. It’s loud. It’s sharp. It’s laughing too hard at the wrong moment and daring you to say something about it. This is not a book that asks, “Is this okay?” This is a book that says, “I already did it,” and blows a kiss as the sirens get closer.
Alyssa Reed is not here to be liked. She is here to be effective. And that—right there—is the secret sauce. She’s smart in a way that’s terrifying because it’s practical. No magical intuition. No plot armor stupidity. She watches. She plans. She stalks with purpose. She runs a long con like she’s been doodling revenge flowcharts in the margins of her notebook for years. Watching her work is like watching Harley Quinn with a spreadsheet: chaotic energy, razor focus, zero remorse.
And the thing is, Alyssa’s rage isn’t sloppy. It’s curated. It’s been simmering. It’s the kind of anger that shows up after the tears dry and the numbness wears off and what’s left is clarity. That clarity is dangerous. Evans understands this. She doesn’t dilute Alyssa’s anger to make her “palatable.” She doesn’t soften it with fake moral equivalency. She lets it be ugly and righteous and sharp-edged, because that’s what it is.
This book was born from real-world fury, and you can feel it humming under every page. That specific kind of anger that comes from watching men walk free while everyone tells women to trust the system, be patient, don’t ruin lives, think of the consequences. Kill the Puckers looks that rhetoric dead in the eye and cackles. Consequences? Babe. That’s the point.
Let’s talk about how this book handles sexual assault, because this is where grit matters. Evans does not exploit it. She does not sensationalize it. She does not turn trauma into a spectacle for reader consumption. The assault is treated with weight, respect, and seriousness—and then the story moves forward without forgetting why it exists. The survivor’s pain is not erased. It is honored. And Alyssa’s fury on her behalf feels earned, not performative.
This is women standing up for women without asking permission. No speeches. No hashtags. No performative wokeness. Just action. The kind of action that makes people uncomfortable because it refuses to be quiet. If you’re looking for a story where the survivor exists only to motivate the plot and then disappears, keep it moving. This book doesn’t do that shit.
The humor is unhinged. Dark. Razor-dry. It sneaks up behind you and whispers something fucked up in your ear and you laugh before you realize you probably shouldn’t have. It’s gallows humor with a glitter bomb taped to it. The jokes don’t pause for approval. They drop like anvils. It’s late-night stand-up comic energy where the punchline lands and the room goes silent because everyone knows it’s true.
Evans uses sarcasm like a shiv. There’s no apology tour. No explanatory footnotes. The book trusts you to keep up. It trusts you to sit with discomfort. It trusts you to laugh at the wrong moments and interrogate why. That confidence is intoxicating.
And oh, the hockey world. Jesus Christ. Evans doesn’t romanticize it for a second. She shows the insulation. The money. The PR spin. The way accountability evaporates when the right people close ranks. It’s not cartoonish. It’s worse than that—it’s familiar. The book doesn’t yell “THIS IS A PROBLEM.” It doesn’t need to. You’ve seen this movie before. On the news. In courtrooms. In documentaries everyone argued about for a week and then forgot.
Mark Eriksson is the wildcard. The emotional grenade Alyssa did not plan for. Their dynamic is messy and uncomfortable in a way that feels intentional. Attraction here is not safe. It’s not romanticized as healing. It’s volatile. It’s the kind of thing that makes you yell “DON’T DO IT” at the page like you’re watching someone ignore every red flag because the chemistry is doing parkour off the walls.
What I love is that the book never pretends desire is harmless. It complicates everything. It introduces vulnerability into a plan built on control. Alyssa doesn’t suddenly lose her brain because she wants something. She loses certainty. That’s scarier. That’s real.
The pacing is tight, like a coiled spring. Evans knows when to floor it and when to let tension sit there, grinning at you. Nothing feels wasted. Every scene either tightens the screws, reveals character, or sharpens stakes. It’s controlled chaos. Like a grin smeared with blood and lip gloss.
Stylistically, the writing doesn’t give a shit about sounding pretty. It’s sharp. Direct. Sometimes brutal. Sometimes laugh-out-loud funny in a way that makes you look around like, “Am I allowed to laugh at that?” The rhythm is jagged and alive. Short punches. Long riffs. Sudden turns. It feels like someone typing at 1:47 a.m. with a half-empty drink, a full playlist, and zero interest in restraint.
This book is gritty because it refuses to clean up its mess. It understands that anger isn’t neat. Justice isn’t neat. Loving someone while dismantling the structures that protect monsters is not neat. Polishing that into something tidy would be a lie. Evans doesn’t lie.
Kill the Puckers doesn’t ask you to agree with every choice. It asks you to understand where those choices come from. And then it lights a match, laughs too loud, and keeps walking.
🎯 Let’s Shoot the Shit
Here’s the truth: Kill the Puckers is not a comfort read. It’s a confrontation. It’s for readers who are tired of watching women be asked to be graceful about injustice. It’s for anyone who’s ever read a headline and felt their teeth grind. It’s for people who want to see bad people face consequences without becoming President.
This is a bad bitch book. Glitter-stained rage. Lipstick on a blade. It’s angry. It’s funny. It’s unapologetic. It does not explain itself or soften its edges to make you feel safe. It looks at you and says, “I’m angry. You should be too.” It trusts you to keep up or get out of the way.
Read it late at night. Read it when you’re pissed. Read it when you need a reminder that women standing up for women is not radical—it’s necessary.
And if it makes you uncomfortable?
Good.
Books are subjective. I said what I said. You can disagree, write a Reddit essay, light a sage bundle about it, or scream into a Stanley cup replica. None of that will change my opinion. Or my blood pressure. This is my lane. If you don’t like it, exit at the next ramp and don’t look back.
🏃💨 The Quick and Dirty
Kill the Puckers is an unhinged, spite-powered, bad-bitch revenge story where a woman looks at a broken justice system, laughs once, and says, “Cool, I’ll handle it.” It is dark as hell while being funny in a “laughing while loading the gun” kind of way.
🕵️♀️ The Non-Spoilery Situation Report
Alyssa Reed has always been a problem solver and a fan of the long con. When the justice system fails her best friend after a sexual assault, Alyssa does not write a strongly worded letter. She does not wait. She does not heal quietly. She decides to fix it.
Her problem isn’t motive or guts—it’s access. Hockey players are wrapped in money, PR spin, and the kind of institutional protection usually reserved for corrupt politicians (in the White House) and Marvel villains. So Alyssa stalks the team’s head coach, Mark Eriksson, for weeks, lands a date, and inserts herself directly into the ecosystem.
When hockey players start dying and Mark gets suspicious, Alyssa has to decide whether she’s trusting him because she wants to—or because the sex is great and she’s playing emotional roulette with a loaded gun.
🤔💭 The Review
Alright, puddin’. Buckle the fuck up.
Kill the Puckers is what happens when feminine rage stops being theoretical and starts wearing combat boots with chipped nail polish. This book is feral. It’s loud. It’s sharp. It’s laughing too hard at the wrong moment and daring you to say something about it. This is not a book that asks, “Is this okay?” This is a book that says, “I already did it,” and blows a kiss as the sirens get closer.
Alyssa Reed is not here to be liked. She is here to be effective. And that—right there—is the secret sauce. She’s smart in a way that’s terrifying because it’s practical. No magical intuition. No plot armor stupidity. She watches. She plans. She stalks with purpose. She runs a long con like she’s been doodling revenge flowcharts in the margins of her notebook for years. Watching her work is like watching Harley Quinn with a spreadsheet: chaotic energy, razor focus, zero remorse.
And the thing is, Alyssa’s rage isn’t sloppy. It’s curated. It’s been simmering. It’s the kind of anger that shows up after the tears dry and the numbness wears off and what’s left is clarity. That clarity is dangerous. Evans understands this. She doesn’t dilute Alyssa’s anger to make her “palatable.” She doesn’t soften it with fake moral equivalency. She lets it be ugly and righteous and sharp-edged, because that’s what it is.
This book was born from real-world fury, and you can feel it humming under every page. That specific kind of anger that comes from watching men walk free while everyone tells women to trust the system, be patient, don’t ruin lives, think of the consequences. Kill the Puckers looks that rhetoric dead in the eye and cackles. Consequences? Babe. That’s the point.
Let’s talk about how this book handles sexual assault, because this is where grit matters. Evans does not exploit it. She does not sensationalize it. She does not turn trauma into a spectacle for reader consumption. The assault is treated with weight, respect, and seriousness—and then the story moves forward without forgetting why it exists. The survivor’s pain is not erased. It is honored. And Alyssa’s fury on her behalf feels earned, not performative.
This is women standing up for women without asking permission. No speeches. No hashtags. No performative wokeness. Just action. The kind of action that makes people uncomfortable because it refuses to be quiet. If you’re looking for a story where the survivor exists only to motivate the plot and then disappears, keep it moving. This book doesn’t do that shit.
The humor is unhinged. Dark. Razor-dry. It sneaks up behind you and whispers something fucked up in your ear and you laugh before you realize you probably shouldn’t have. It’s gallows humor with a glitter bomb taped to it. The jokes don’t pause for approval. They drop like anvils. It’s late-night stand-up comic energy where the punchline lands and the room goes silent because everyone knows it’s true.
Evans uses sarcasm like a shiv. There’s no apology tour. No explanatory footnotes. The book trusts you to keep up. It trusts you to sit with discomfort. It trusts you to laugh at the wrong moments and interrogate why. That confidence is intoxicating.
And oh, the hockey world. Jesus Christ. Evans doesn’t romanticize it for a second. She shows the insulation. The money. The PR spin. The way accountability evaporates when the right people close ranks. It’s not cartoonish. It’s worse than that—it’s familiar. The book doesn’t yell “THIS IS A PROBLEM.” It doesn’t need to. You’ve seen this movie before. On the news. In courtrooms. In documentaries everyone argued about for a week and then forgot.
Mark Eriksson is the wildcard. The emotional grenade Alyssa did not plan for. Their dynamic is messy and uncomfortable in a way that feels intentional. Attraction here is not safe. It’s not romanticized as healing. It’s volatile. It’s the kind of thing that makes you yell “DON’T DO IT” at the page like you’re watching someone ignore every red flag because the chemistry is doing parkour off the walls.
What I love is that the book never pretends desire is harmless. It complicates everything. It introduces vulnerability into a plan built on control. Alyssa doesn’t suddenly lose her brain because she wants something. She loses certainty. That’s scarier. That’s real.
The pacing is tight, like a coiled spring. Evans knows when to floor it and when to let tension sit there, grinning at you. Nothing feels wasted. Every scene either tightens the screws, reveals character, or sharpens stakes. It’s controlled chaos. Like a grin smeared with blood and lip gloss.
Stylistically, the writing doesn’t give a shit about sounding pretty. It’s sharp. Direct. Sometimes brutal. Sometimes laugh-out-loud funny in a way that makes you look around like, “Am I allowed to laugh at that?” The rhythm is jagged and alive. Short punches. Long riffs. Sudden turns. It feels like someone typing at 1:47 a.m. with a half-empty drink, a full playlist, and zero interest in restraint.
This book is gritty because it refuses to clean up its mess. It understands that anger isn’t neat. Justice isn’t neat. Loving someone while dismantling the structures that protect monsters is not neat. Polishing that into something tidy would be a lie. Evans doesn’t lie.
Kill the Puckers doesn’t ask you to agree with every choice. It asks you to understand where those choices come from. And then it lights a match, laughs too loud, and keeps walking.
🎯 Let’s Shoot the Shit
Here’s the truth: Kill the Puckers is not a comfort read. It’s a confrontation. It’s for readers who are tired of watching women be asked to be graceful about injustice. It’s for anyone who’s ever read a headline and felt their teeth grind. It’s for people who want to see bad people face consequences without becoming President.
This is a bad bitch book. Glitter-stained rage. Lipstick on a blade. It’s angry. It’s funny. It’s unapologetic. It does not explain itself or soften its edges to make you feel safe. It looks at you and says, “I’m angry. You should be too.” It trusts you to keep up or get out of the way.
Read it late at night. Read it when you’re pissed. Read it when you need a reminder that women standing up for women is not radical—it’s necessary.
And if it makes you uncomfortable?
Good.
Review of advance copy received from Netgalley
”How many hockey-douchebags can you kill before they realize they’re an endangered species?”
Did I read this in one sitting? Yes, yes I did, with the audacity of a man unsupervised.
I love dark romance, that’s my primary lane. Throw in hockey, and I’m levitating. Add a revenge plot, now I’m orbiting outer space.
Alyssa's cousin and best friend, Katie, is failed by the justice system after being gang-raped by five hockey bros. Alyssa, ever the problem solver, stalks Mark, their head coach, as part of a long con to get close to him and, in turn, gain access to Katie's rapists in order to take those pieces of shit out John Wick style.
I've said it before, shit talking is my love language, so I was howling with Alyssa and Mark. It was fast-paced and witty. Vengeance was delivered, and Alyssa slayed while she did it. She was such a strong FMC - she's a breath of fresh air compared to all the oh-so-weak and oh-so-delicate FMCs we are given most of the time. Alyssa put on her "bad ass" pants and showed up to become their problem.
Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for this ARC. Opinions are my own.
Review of advance copy received from Netgalley
Sam Evans is as sassy as she writes her FMC in this book. Her content warning lets you know this right away -- and I was excited about the book from this point forward.
What makes this dark romance different from others is our villain is female righting wrongs, with a job that makes her vengeance even more wrong. Yes, a woman was victimized, but that is only fuel for the morally grey villain you root to win.
The MMC reads very hot. The only thing that could have made him hotter were tattoos. He wasn't a golden retriever, more of a complex macho guy who's very much a feminist. It's fun when you can't put characters into an assumed box.
What left me wanting was the ending. It ramps up to a cliff and then just stops steps from the edge. Kinda disappointing. Not sure if this was to get us fired up for a sequel?
4/5 for spicy. This dark book doesn't shy away from some kinks and dirty talk.
I was lucky enough to get a NetGalley ARC (advanced reader copy) in exchange for my honest opinion. And that is BUY THE BOOK!
What makes this dark romance different from others is our villain is female righting wrongs, with a job that makes her vengeance even more wrong. Yes, a woman was victimized, but that is only fuel for the morally grey villain you root to win.
The MMC reads very hot. The only thing that could have made him hotter were tattoos. He wasn't a golden retriever, more of a complex macho guy who's very much a feminist. It's fun when you can't put characters into an assumed box.
What left me wanting was the ending. It ramps up to a cliff and then just stops steps from the edge. Kinda disappointing. Not sure if this was to get us fired up for a sequel?
4/5 for spicy. This dark book doesn't shy away from some kinks and dirty talk.
I was lucky enough to get a NetGalley ARC (advanced reader copy) in exchange for my honest opinion. And that is BUY THE BOOK!
Review of advance copy received from Netgalley
Después de que un juicio mediático deja claro que la justicia no siempre protege a quienes deberían, Alyssa decide seguir adelante con un plan propio. Su objetivo la lleva directo al mundo del hockey profesional, donde poder, fama y secretos conviven fuera del hielo. Lo que comienza como una estrategia calculada pronto se complica cuando las emociones y la atracción entran en juego. Mientras se adentra cada vez más en un entorno peligroso, tendrá que decidir hasta dónde está dispuesta a llegar y qué está dispuesta a sacrificar cuando el control ya no está completamente en sus manos.
____
Quería que sufrieran más.
Thanks to NetGalley, the publisher and the author for the ARC in exchange for an honest opinion.
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