Reviewed by Lady Macbeth
TITLE: Probably Never
AUTHOR: Emerson Beckett
PUBLISHER: Self Published
LENGTH: 331 Pages
RELEASE DATE: April 21, 2026
BLURB:
A guarded social worker. A relentless hockey player. A connection neither of them can afford to risk.
Hockey player Axel Hughes left the UK for two reasons. First, to attain retribution for being separated at birth from his twin brother. Second, to play for the NHL’s newest expansion team, the New York Nighthawks. His world is turned upside down on day one by a chance meeting with a man he can’t stay away from. Axel always has a plan and will do whatever it takes to keep Luca Vaughn in his life and refuses to walk away. He’s up for the challenge and becomes the one person Luca can’t shut out.
Social Worker Luca Vaughn’s life growing up in the foster care system taught him to protect himself at all costs. Working two jobs to survive while finishing grad school, the last thing he needs is a pushy hockey player who inserts himself into his life at every turn. When that chance meeting causes Luca to lose his second job, the one that helps pay the rent, Axel steps in. Over time, they slowly peel back the layers to find a soul-deep connection and a love neither can deny.
Probably Never is a standalone, emotional hurt-comfort MM romance with a hockey world. Additional tropes include: found family, opposites attract, first time emotional vulnerability, economic gap/class difference, foster care trauma/ abandonment, no 3rd act breakup, and a guaranteed HEA.
REVIEW:
I’ve been waiting to read Axel’s story since he appeared in Under Center and Emerson Beckett did not disappoint!
One thing I love the most about this author is that she might make you cry but she will always always deliver you a beautiful HEA.
In Under Center, Mason Kennelly, center for the San Diego Storm, finds out he has a biological mother and a twin brother, Axel, he knew nothing about. The brothers were lied to their whole life by their parents, who split them at birth and kept them away from each other.
But while Mason, with the help of his wonderful boyfriend Kingston, he’s able to deal with all the hurt that this revelation brought, Axel is resentful and angry and he makes his only mission in life to make the person responsible pay for all she’s done.
Axel, like his twin, is a professional athlete: he plays hockey in Europe but at the beginning of the story is just being traded to the New York Nighthawks. On the first night in the city, he goes to a bar with his teammates who want to welcome him in the team, and there he meets Luca.
After a very painful and rough childhood, Luca Vaughn is working hard to realise his dream of becoming a social worker: he’s about to get his master’s degree and in the meantime, he works in a bar where the Nighthawks often hang out.
Axel and Luca meet that very night and they feel an unexpected and uncanny pull towards each other.
Luca is determined to realise his dreams and help elderly people, but deep down, he’s still the little boy who was left behind by too many people and while Axel gives him all the attention, he still feels like he’s not worthy of any of it.
Axel has been badly hurt and he’s still so angry at both his parents for what they put him and his brother through, he hasn’t dealt with any of it, he just rejected their attempts to be forgiven. But he also feels guilty because his mother is sick and his resolution to keep everyone at arm’s length is starting to waver.
Because Luca is just the right man for him, the one who brings him to his knees with his tenderness and his innocence, the one who deserves all the love of this world and Axel knows, he just knows, that there is no one else but himself who could love him that way.
Luca is not ready to acknowledge his own worth yet, thankfully Axel is a stubborn man and after an event that could have kept them apart forever, finally they get their sweet HEA.
Looking forward to reading more from this author, I wonder where her next story will bring me.
Highly recommended.
[While Probably Never is a standalone, it can be more appreciated after reading Under Center too]
RATING: 
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