Lucky Bounce
by Cait Nary
I am no stranger to m/m hockey romances and I’ve reviewed a few here. This one has been on my TBR for a while and my library hold finally came in yesterday. Yes, I read it that quickly, folks. It wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say that I devoured it.
Ezekiel Boehm, or Zeke as he is more commonly known, is a gym teacher at a relatively posh private school. (The school is a Quaker one and has fantastic politics.) He’s also a huge hockey fan, specifically of Spencer McLeod. He owns four of his jerseys, he daydreams about him, he watches all his interviews. Serious fan. So who is the new child in his class? None other than Spencer’s five-year-old daughter.
The first part of the book involves Zeke trying his best not to freak out too badly that his idol is talking to him, inviting him to games, etc. It was tough at this stage to imagine Zeke being anything other than a starstruck fan. The book does a masterful job of showing the fan element slowly fading away and being replaced by a relationship of two equals.
The journey to that status is punctuated with some seriously witty banter. Zeke has a flair for the dramatic sometimes and Spencer’s mumbled, shy, on-the-surface-abrupt utterances are charming rather than annoying. Spencer’s emotions are primarily communicated in half smiles and blushes. It’s very endearing.
As for plot, this book focuses on small events that lead to love like when Zeke helps prepare Spencer for this turn at leading the reading circle. Or Zeke helping Spencer choose a dog to adopt. What this book did differently to others is that there’s no tension building up to a dark moment that tests their relationship or commitment. It just kind of ends. Before this book I would have sworn up and down that I don’t enjoy reading the dark moments of books, but this book has made me rethink that stance. I really missed some indication that their relationship can withstand a test of some sorts.
If you’re looking for a book that will make you swoon from the giddiness of falling in love, then this book will hit the spot. Just don’t be too surprised when it ends abruptly.
– Lara
“Lucky Bounce is a funny and charming hockey romance that I couldn’t put down.” – Rachel Reid, USA Today Bestselling author of Time to Shine
A single dad pro hockey player falls for his biggest fan—who just happens to be his five-year-old daughter’s teacher—in this fun, flirty romantic comedy from Cait Nary
Ezekiel Boehm is no stranger to teaching kids with famous parents. But when the pro hockey player he’s been thirsting after walks into the Rittenhouse Friends School gym hand in hand with a tiny kindergartener, he figures he must be hallucinating. Spencer McLeod is a lot of things—Zeke’s favorite winger on the Philadelphia Liberty; a menace on the ice; a mumbling, reluctant but somehow captivating-as-hell postgame interview—but he’s not a dad. Except he is. Apparently.
Zeke can be chill about this. He can.
Surprisingly, the more time he spends with Spencer, the easier this becomes. School volunteer events turn into reserved seats at games, turn into…more. And even though Zeke is 100 percent committed to ignoring Spencer’s blush, to ignoring the way he looks in that one pair of gray sweatpants, he can’t take his eyes off him.
This can never work. Can it?
Contemporary Romance, LGBTQIA, Romance
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Umm, is Zeke still Spencer’s daughter’s teacher throughout the book? That seems seriously inappropriate.
The Bitchery knows what an angst queen I am, so take my comments with a grain of triple-angsty salt, but LUCKY BOUNCE was a disappointment to me. It was the book I was most anticipating in the early part of the year. I had loved, loved, loved Nary’s first book, SEASON’S CHANGE, and enjoyed (although not to the same degree) her next book, CONTRACT SEASON, so I was primed for another deeply emotional angsty love story. Instead, I found LUCKY BOUNCE on the meh side—not enough conflict or growth, just a very basic hockey-player-meets-his-daughter’s-teacher-and-they-start-dating-and-fall-in-love story. Nothing objectionable, but nothing I could sink my teeth into. A bit ho-hum and very much a let down from what I had been anticipating.
This was previously published on AO3 as a Hockey RPF of Travis Konecky/Nolan Patrick. I’ve read other fanfics that were tweaked and published but I DNFed this one. Maybe another time- I did like the OG fanfic though.
I read and loved LUCKY BOUNCE by Cait Nary more than I think @DiscoDollyDeb did. I agree that this is way less angsty than Nary’s previous books, but had less concern with it (I guess more a feature than a bug for me), and felt like I was able to get enough insight into Spencer through Zeke’s PoV. (I would for sure have enjoyed Spencer’s PoV also, but it would have been a different story in that sense.) I found Zeke a likable enough narrator to be charmed, and I loved their friends and families. I think it put me more in the mind of Rachel Reid’s Time to Shine or Ari Baran’s Delay of Game.
It’s roughly a B- for me; decent but low-conflict.
I was disappointed by it as well. I like main characters being challenged in their relationships, even if it’s a bit of a third-act-misunderstanding cliche. LUCKY BOUNCE is a sweet story and I know there are a lot of people who love just that, but it’s not for me.
Nary’s first, SEASON’S CHANGE, remains on my top 3 romance list of the past couple of years. Probably time for a reread!
Add me to the disappointed – almost entirely because of the solo POV. I love a grumpy/sunshine (or reserved/sunshine) but it’s hard to make that work if you never get the interior life of the grumpy/reserved character. I felt like Spencer was mostly a cipher throughout; I really wanted his perspective and found the story lopsided and incomplete without it.
I love Cait Nary and was really looking forward to this. It was enjoyable, but unfulfilling.
A DNF for me–just too much manic pixie dream guy energy.