e-ALC, 10:57:34
Narrated by: Jeremy Carlisle Parker
Release Date: October 28, 2025
Published by: Harlequin Audio
Read from: December 8-9, 2025
Puck Struck, #1
Source: Netgalley (I received this ALC free from the publisher and Netgalley. This did nothing to influence my review!)
Content Warning: Sexism, Toxic Friendship, Sexual Content, Homophobia, Bullying, Lesbophobia, Toxic Relationship, Abandonment, Deadnaming
For Readers Interested In: 2sLGBTQ+, Audio, Contemporary Romance, Dual POV, Holidaze, Realistic Fiction, RomanceMaking the yuletide gay
JT Cox never quite fit into Hart’s Landing. Playing on the boys’ hockey team and coming out young didn’t help. Now, thanks to an Olympic gold medal, JT’s name is on a sign greeting visitors to her hometown. Her family of artists and creatives still treat her as an odd duck, but elsewhere there’s a warm welcome. Especially from her best friend’s older sister, newly divorced Ali Porter.
Single for the first time since high school, Ali is ready to take the reins of her own life. She’s never had the chance to date another woman, and JT is an irresistible force of nature. When they team up for the town’s holiday contest, cocoa tasting and gingerbread decorating give way to snow-melting chemistry.
If teenage JT thought Ali was the prettiest girl on the planet, adult JT is completely smitten. But JT can’t see herself living in Hart’s Landing again and Ali can’t imagine leaving her job and her newly purchased home. And with Ali’s mom trying to plot a reconciliation with her ex, this holiday season might be bittersweet…or the start of something magical.
*MY THOUGHTS*
This wasn’t what I thought it would be. Not in a bad way, but in like a I wanted more kind of way. In some ways it was cute, but in other ways it was like eye rolly and weird. And the way no one cussed out one of these characters is just unrealistic. Idc whose mom she is lol
Ok so the main thing I loved about this was the holiday aspect. I loved the games and they way they played them. I definitely felt like I was in the thick of being in the holiday spirit when I was reading it. I think my favorite was the chariot thing? I would have paid money to see Ali’s ex’s face when they got to the end of that race lmao He was so annoying the whole time and I was just so glad that she got to show him what’s up and make him shut up. But other than that, I liked the other events, but I did not like JT’s family not being there.
Speaking of that, I liked this so much more than I thought I would because none of JT’s family knows her. I related way too much to this and seeing her go through this actually made me cry. I felt everything that she felt. Seeing people who don’t have support and those that don’t support their loved ones just always makes me so disappointed. And just because this family is fictional, it was no different.
Ok so the main thing that I didn’t like was the actual characters. First Ali’s mom should have been cussed out from the beginnning. I can’t believe that they let her disrespect her the whole time. Ain’t no way I would have let that fly that whole time. It was so rude. Idc what she thought she was trying to protect me from, ain’t that much protecting in the world. ESPECIALLY with Ali being grown too? Ain’t no way. She was wrong for that. Now the rest of the characters were also a bit annoying. Like the ex and the new girl. I didn’t even believe they were real because literally everyone was disrespecting that girl like she wasn’t there at all. As far as the main characters I liked them well enough. Nothing stuck out at all.
The plot itself was just meh. When they weren’t doing the games thing it was just boring. I know they had their own individual issues, but I just didn’t care about them. It seemed like since we got both POVs, we never really got to know either of them. It’s probably just a me thing, but it seemed real surface like and the plot was already meh. It just didn’t make for a good breeding ground for me as a reader.
This one didn’t make me feel at all like the first one in this series did. I guess I was hoping for more of that in this story, but we don’t get that. And though that didn’t make it bad, it also didn’t make it my favorite. I hope there’s more to this series and it gets better later on.
Overall, I give this
