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Puck Deep: An MM Enemies-to-Lovers Hockey Romance
I’m the league’s golden boy. He’s the enforcer who nearly ended my career. Now, we’re sharing a locker room—and a duplex.
Remy “Saint” St. Clair I owned Thunder Bay. I was the star center, the face on the billboards, and the city’s favorite son. Then the front office traded for Jaxson Graves. The man is a mountain of muscle and ice-blue eyes, known as "The Wall"—and the man who put me in the hospital last season with a hit that still haunts my dreams.
Now, he’s my defensive partner. He’s moved into the unit directly above mine. And he’s making it his mission to shut me down, both on the ice and off.
Jaxson Graves I don’t do drama. I don’t do relationships. I’m here to win a Cup, not make friends with the cocky star I put through the boards a year ago. But living an floor away from Remy St. Clair is a special kind of hell.
He’s loud, gorgeous, and looks at me with a hunger he can't hide. When a late-night confrontation turns into a heated arrangement, we set the No feelings. No complications. No one finds out.
But in the high-stakes world of the playoffs, secrets are hard to keep. And when the "golden boy" starts looking like he belongs to me, I’m ready to drop the gloves for real.
Puck Deep is a high-heat, standalone MM hockey romance. It features a massive size difference, an enforcer with a protective streak, a star center with a "praise" kink, and a guaranteed HEA.
Remy “Saint” St. Clair I owned Thunder Bay. I was the star center, the face on the billboards, and the city’s favorite son. Then the front office traded for Jaxson Graves. The man is a mountain of muscle and ice-blue eyes, known as "The Wall"—and the man who put me in the hospital last season with a hit that still haunts my dreams.
Now, he’s my defensive partner. He’s moved into the unit directly above mine. And he’s making it his mission to shut me down, both on the ice and off.
Jaxson Graves I don’t do drama. I don’t do relationships. I’m here to win a Cup, not make friends with the cocky star I put through the boards a year ago. But living an floor away from Remy St. Clair is a special kind of hell.
He’s loud, gorgeous, and looks at me with a hunger he can't hide. When a late-night confrontation turns into a heated arrangement, we set the No feelings. No complications. No one finds out.
But in the high-stakes world of the playoffs, secrets are hard to keep. And when the "golden boy" starts looking like he belongs to me, I’m ready to drop the gloves for real.
Puck Deep is a high-heat, standalone MM hockey romance. It features a massive size difference, an enforcer with a protective streak, a star center with a "praise" kink, and a guaranteed HEA.
250 pages, Kindle Edition
Published January 2, 2026
3 people are currently reading
2 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
January 26, 2026
What in the Temu Heated Rivalry is this?
I know sports romances tend to cater to people here for the romance, but some of us actually know and enjoy the sports too. So all readers aren't expected to know what a field goal is in football, jump shots in basketball or RBIs in baseball are, but the authors trying to tell a story in those worlds should know what they're talking about. Hockey is an extremely easy sport to be a spectator for and fan of. The terminology is so easily grasped. Google it. Watch a single televised or live game. Want to show you're just a hack copying the work of others without any knowledge of ice hockey?
"The goalie was thirty-one, married with two kids, and had the kind of steady presence that made him easy to talk to. He was also Graves' defense partner, which meant—"
"Hernandez was their backup defenseman."
These are just the two most egregious examples, but they're not it. If no one's going to do the research, let me explain how a goalie is a goalie and a defenseman is a defenseman in professional hockey.
Teams typically have two goalies a game - the starter and backup. The goalie is the one on the ice wearing all the pads and the cool mask that protects their face and head with the big mitt on one hand and a bigger stick than everyone else because the goalie is in front of the net responsible for keeping pucks from getting into that net. That would be a goal against and teams do not want goals against them, so the goalie is a pretty big deal.
Teams typically rotate through 3 lines during games, each consisting of 3 forwards and 2 defensemen. Defensemen tend to be the taller, bulkier players that do the fighting, delivering hard checks and doing their best to keep the opposition from getting close enough to a forward to prevent their team from scoring or too close to the goalie for the other team to score against them. Historically, they're the ones missing the most teeth. Defenseman dress, train and play completely different from goalies.
In a nutshell, goalies need focus and agility. Defenseman strength and power. The two roles are NOT interchangeable. Brick cannot be a goalie and defenseman on the line with Graves. The terms are not synonymous.
Similarly, only goalies have a "backup" because it's the only singular position on the ice that may need swapped out for a backup player. With, typically, 6 defensemen on a bench none of them are backups for anyone or anything else. They're defensemen. They may get shuffled between different lines or from left to right side of the ice and some of them can take center or wing if the need arises, but they do not BACKUP.
As a hockey fan am I unreasonably angry about this? Probably. But when the book also fails to understand how the "little spoon" tends to be the one held or cradled in sleep, gives a closeted athlete (Remy) an ex-boyfriend who had a thing for mirrors but later claims to have never had a secret relationship before AND then takes another closeted athlete (Jaxson) who had had an affair with a team trainer who got outed and lost everything while Jax stayed hidden but swore to never get involved like that again and kept that promise to himself for 10 years then the train derails and he's all in with a teammate declaring love after about 4 weeks and making it 40 days at most before he "can't keep it secret anymore" so Remy has to choose hockey or him...what is even happening here???
There are some really good moments in here, but since I read other gay hockey romances, I can't give this book any credit for the good points because Rachel Reid wrote them first. There are too many parallels to Heated Rivalry and The Long Game for me not to see the Ilya and Shane hidden behind so much of this story. You thought speedrunning through their relationship would disguise its influence on this? Nothing is plagiarized because Rachel knows how to write hockey and romance and this book doesn't hit either of those marks, but iykyk.
I'm so done with this title and would hurl it back to KU if I could. I cannot believe anyone putting out a hockey romance wouldn't know how unique the position of goalie is. Enforcers are great and we love our goal scorers, but goalies are weird and wonderful and deserve enough respect that they're not mistaken for defensemen. Watch The Mighty Ducks, ffs.
I know sports romances tend to cater to people here for the romance, but some of us actually know and enjoy the sports too. So all readers aren't expected to know what a field goal is in football, jump shots in basketball or RBIs in baseball are, but the authors trying to tell a story in those worlds should know what they're talking about. Hockey is an extremely easy sport to be a spectator for and fan of. The terminology is so easily grasped. Google it. Watch a single televised or live game. Want to show you're just a hack copying the work of others without any knowledge of ice hockey?
"The goalie was thirty-one, married with two kids, and had the kind of steady presence that made him easy to talk to. He was also Graves' defense partner, which meant—"
"Hernandez was their backup defenseman."
These are just the two most egregious examples, but they're not it. If no one's going to do the research, let me explain how a goalie is a goalie and a defenseman is a defenseman in professional hockey.
Teams typically have two goalies a game - the starter and backup. The goalie is the one on the ice wearing all the pads and the cool mask that protects their face and head with the big mitt on one hand and a bigger stick than everyone else because the goalie is in front of the net responsible for keeping pucks from getting into that net. That would be a goal against and teams do not want goals against them, so the goalie is a pretty big deal.
Teams typically rotate through 3 lines during games, each consisting of 3 forwards and 2 defensemen. Defensemen tend to be the taller, bulkier players that do the fighting, delivering hard checks and doing their best to keep the opposition from getting close enough to a forward to prevent their team from scoring or too close to the goalie for the other team to score against them. Historically, they're the ones missing the most teeth. Defenseman dress, train and play completely different from goalies.
In a nutshell, goalies need focus and agility. Defenseman strength and power. The two roles are NOT interchangeable. Brick cannot be a goalie and defenseman on the line with Graves. The terms are not synonymous.
Similarly, only goalies have a "backup" because it's the only singular position on the ice that may need swapped out for a backup player. With, typically, 6 defensemen on a bench none of them are backups for anyone or anything else. They're defensemen. They may get shuffled between different lines or from left to right side of the ice and some of them can take center or wing if the need arises, but they do not BACKUP.
As a hockey fan am I unreasonably angry about this? Probably. But when the book also fails to understand how the "little spoon" tends to be the one held or cradled in sleep, gives a closeted athlete (Remy) an ex-boyfriend who had a thing for mirrors but later claims to have never had a secret relationship before AND then takes another closeted athlete (Jaxson) who had had an affair with a team trainer who got outed and lost everything while Jax stayed hidden but swore to never get involved like that again and kept that promise to himself for 10 years then the train derails and he's all in with a teammate declaring love after about 4 weeks and making it 40 days at most before he "can't keep it secret anymore" so Remy has to choose hockey or him...what is even happening here???
There are some really good moments in here, but since I read other gay hockey romances, I can't give this book any credit for the good points because Rachel Reid wrote them first. There are too many parallels to Heated Rivalry and The Long Game for me not to see the Ilya and Shane hidden behind so much of this story. You thought speedrunning through their relationship would disguise its influence on this? Nothing is plagiarized because Rachel knows how to write hockey and romance and this book doesn't hit either of those marks, but iykyk.
I'm so done with this title and would hurl it back to KU if I could. I cannot believe anyone putting out a hockey romance wouldn't know how unique the position of goalie is. Enforcers are great and we love our goal scorers, but goalies are weird and wonderful and deserve enough respect that they're not mistaken for defensemen. Watch The Mighty Ducks, ffs.
January 8, 2026
cute MM enemies to lovers romance!!!
for a quick and fast paced enemies to lovers MM romance this was it! loved how both MMCs were so smitten with each other. I do feel like sometimes the reaction i was expecting from a character was flipped and reversed on me but nevertheless a good quick easy read!
for a quick and fast paced enemies to lovers MM romance this was it! loved how both MMCs were so smitten with each other. I do feel like sometimes the reaction i was expecting from a character was flipped and reversed on me but nevertheless a good quick easy read!
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews