Reviewed by Carissa

TITLE:  Picks & Pucks

AUTHOR:  Teegan Loy

PUBLISHER:  Dreamspinner Press

LENGTH:  254 pages

BLURB:  

Rising men’s figure skating star, Justin Corrin, is coming home to train for the upcoming season and face his demons. The last thing Justin needs is to fall in love with a hockey player. Instead of getting rid of his demons, Justin is collecting more. He tries desperately to control his growing feelings for CJ Daly, but finds being with CJ keeps his nightmares away.

Justin isn’t the only one with problems, and hidden fears and secrets threaten to separate the two. With the pressure mounting, CJ starts to pull away, and Justin doesn’t know why. His skating suffers, and he decides to stop wasting his time on love and focus on winning the nationals.

If Justin can destroy his demons, he might have a chance for happiness on and off the ice. But if the demons win, Justin’s life could be ruined.

REVIEW:  

It would to fair to say that I love hockey–that I may be a tad bit too in love with it and with its players.  Maybe it is the barely contained violence, the sight of men flying on ice and crashing into each other…hell, maybe it is just that it is just so much fun to watch.  Either way, I love it.  And being as the playoff season has begun (and my lovely Sharks beat the Kings in their first game with beautiful 6-2 final score) I was really excited to read this book.  It didn’t hurt that I’ve been known to enjoy (watching) figure skating a time or two, either.  When you have hockey and figure skating together in the same book it is going to have my name written all over it.

Justin Corrin fled from his hometown to escape his father’s disapproval, his mother’s death, and the damage her accident had on everyone who loved her.  But Justin is back now, trying to find some way to heal the fractures in his life and in his relationship.  His whole life growing up was a battle between hockey and figure skating, with more than one fight with his father and siblings devolving into shouting matches over his choice to leave hockey behind in favor of skating.  Time seems to have changed everyone, though, much to Justin’s surprise, and he might not be only one trying their damndest to heal the damage they have done to each other over the years.

Things get complicated, though, when the new transfer student–and hockey player–starts renting the room next to Justin’s.  Especially when he has to contend with hallway meetings that involve little more than a towel and lickable skin.  And an ass that makes all sorts of things start thinking perky thoughts.  Still–hockey player.  And Justin has been burned, and burned bad, by hockey players in the past…and he has no idea if he can trust that CJ will not just ditch him at the first sign of trouble.  ‘Cause if there is one thing that CJ seems to attract (beside incredibly smitten figure skaters) it is trouble.

While there was not nearly enough hockey in this book (is there even such a thing as too much hockey?) I have to say that I really enjoyed this story.  The book was not without its faults, but it was a good story, well written, and was just plain fun to read.

This book, at its heart, was about family and about dealing with the demons that haunt us all.  Justin’s family has been at odds for many years.  Even before Justin’s mother’s death tore the family apart at the seams, there was a lot of problems pulling everyone apart.  One major issue was the fact that Justin chose to take up figure skating over hockey.  His father, a college hockey coach, had some massive issues with this.  Picks or Pucks…that is the choice that Justin has to make.  And to almost everyone but himself, he made the wrong one.

I really liked how this book showed how the world does not get frozen in stone when you run away from your problems.  While Justin was off trying to hide, or just trying to make a life that doesn’t revolve on a painful past, everyone else had to deal the mess left behind.  The way that they did so, the way that they are not perfect, that they still make mistakes, show just how human they are.  But I liked that Justin didn’t just come back to everyone still stuck in the same rut as when he left.  He wasn’t the catalyst for change in everything, but simply another person trying to heal.  These demons that everyone are dealing with have been struggled with for a long time and healing isn’t as simple as one action or a few words.

The whole demon aspect of this book just threw me for a loop though.  I mean they are not just figurative demons haunting Justin–he actually sees demons haunting and taunting him…and that was just odd.  I couldn’t decide if this book was trying to be slightly paranormal or if Justin was just shit crazy.  If it was the first, than the book did a lousy job of explaining that, explaining a world where people can see their demons.  If it was the second, I was wondering why no one thought the guy should be seeking help, because when you start seeing demons gibbering around you, you have gone ‘round the bend and then some.  I liked the concept, but in the execution it was just too odd for me. It kept dragging me out of the story.

The various family and friends were great, and I totally called it on Eli.  I loved the whole Eli subplot and him and his other were so incredibly cute together.  Kept feeling the strange urge to cuddle both of them close and pinch their cheeks, though.  And while some parts of his family had clearly been douches in the past, Justin’s family really started to shine in this, by the end.  It was not a normal kind of family (at least in comparison to mine) but they were great characters.

And CJ.  Oh he of the lustful bum.  I really liked him, and how he handled Justin.  They were really great together, even with all the shit going down around them.  I do wish he would have fessed up sooner though.  I know sharing your past (especially one that hurts) is not a lot of fun, but communication would not have killed them.  In fact, lack of communication almost did.  While they seemed to fall rather quickly, I never had problem believing it.  And all those road trips (and sleepless nights) really showed how far they had fallen without really hitting us over the head with the angst.  And I may have been a little unsure about the whole inclusion of Danny–Mr. Closet Case–and Justin together at the beginning of the story, I like how it set up the situation later with CJ.  I get why Justin would be so gun shy of hockey players because I just saw the fall out of what happens when they get confronted with the whole ‘gay’ thing.

Despite my demon issues, I really liked this book.  The figure skating aspect was fun, and I only wish I had been actually able to see the routines that Justin performed.  Though, I have to say, I’m having a bit of a hard time buying that he would be able to pull all that off while he was as sick as he was when he performed.  But the bus ‘hijacking’ was cool, and the whole Justin/CJ love story was just great.  This is a good book to read when you want to read about some cool sports, some messed up athletes, and whole lot of demon bashing.

RATING:  

BUY LINKS: Dreamspinner Press