Reviewed by Sadonna
TITLE: King of the Crease
SERIES: The Comebacks
AUTHOR: A.J. Truman
PUBLISHER: Truman Books
LENGTH: 302 pages
RELEASE DATE: August 26, 2026
BLURB:
The team’s new goalie is a secret prince. Red, white, and royal WTF?!
As the Prince of Ardenia, I don’t want for anything – except freedom. Freedom from bodyguards and media scrutiny. Freedom to love who I want without bringing shame to the throne. So when I get a chance to live incognito while on a trip to America, I take it. It’ll be my royal rumspringa. I can be Nick, not Prince Nicholas.
Then I meet a plumber named Hank. I’m instantly attracted – my kink for big-gutted American guys who drink beer fully activated. I join his local hockey team as their backup goalie…and secretly hope Hank and I can get freaky off the ice, too. Yet in between one-on-one practices, wild bar crawls, and lazy afternoons texting about Christmas movies, our easy camaraderie deepens into crackling chemistry. The only thing standing in our way is the tiny matter of my true identity.
I’m due back in Ardenia on Christmas Eve, but the thought of getting on the palace jet without Hank makes me royally blue. I’m not sure if the king — or the entire world — will get on board with the prince and the plumber. Can I get the crown and the guy? I’m hoping for a Christmas miracle here.
King of the Crease is a funny, spicy MM romance featuring secret royalty, a lovable single dad, teammates-to-lovers magic, 90s references galore, and lots of Christmas charm. It’s book 3 in the Comebacks series but can be listened to as a standalone.
REVIEW:
Hank is a single dad who is pretty happy with his life. Well maybe with the exception of wishing he had a partner to come home to. He’s a good plumber – a stalwart part of this community. He’s got a great friend group – many he’s known since high school. But as he’s past 40 now and his only son is about to go off to college and his friends are all paired up at this point, he feels a little left out. His divorce from his piece of work ex-wife was painful but he’s grateful that he’s gotten to be a big part of raising his son Brody. Brody is very smart and a good student – very different to Hank’s academic experience. He couldn’t be more proud of the man his son is becoming. His self-esteem takes a lot of knocks though from his ex-wife who is newly engaged. He feels like he’s the funny fat friend – never the guy who will get the girl – or guy 😉
Nicholas is the Crown Prince of Ardenia. He is closeted and he’s tired of trying to live up to his father’s expectations as to how he should live his life. He’s stayed in the closet after an absolute debacle while he was in university with a guy who used him that his father had to pay off to get the story killed. Since then his private secretary has procured sex workers with ironclad NDAs when he can’t take it anymore and needs to scratch the itch. When he’s in New York on business on behalf of his father, he’s just had it. He needs to get away and decompress. He visits his closest friend, Millie, from from boarding school who lives in Sourwood now with her family. She convinces him to stay through the holidays and live as a “normie”. He somehow managed to convince his security and his secretary to go along with this plan and handle his father.
Hank and his friend Griffin are out picking up a Christmas tree when they run into Nicholas – literally. Nick, as he introduced himself, tells them he’s fine and when Hank gives him ideas on lunch, they also get to chatting about the Comebacks hockey team. Nick tells the guys that he used to play. Never mind that it was one season more than 15 years ago 😉 He also tells them he’s an accountant from Baltimore 😛 He jumps at the chance to play hockey with the guys as he’s very much interested in Hank.
When Nick shows up for practice, it’s clear that he’s rusty. Bill, the captain/coach of the team is not impressed, but Nick is such a nice guy and it’s just beer league. And Hank makes a compelling case for a backup goalie, so he joins the team. Nick is delighted to hang out with the guys at the local bar. He discovers that the team mostly guy and bi guys and he’s happily shocked at this development. He’s also envious of these men who can live authentically. He feels more free than he ever has in his life. He also gets the opportunity to hang out more with Hank. And it seems the attraction is mutual 😉
Hank is a little reluctant to share his sexuality with his son, but Brody is a cool kid and also, it’s not like Hank and Nick haven’t been a bit obvious 😀 The rest of the guys on the team think it’s great and so they are now “boyfriends”? Everything is going along well until a social media post goes viral. Nick has to tell Hank the truth in a way he hadn’t planned. Hank is shocked and it takes him a minute to process. But he knows Nick is a good guy and he never intended to hurt Hank.
Paparazzi show up. Media is everywhere looking for Nick and Hank. The comments are brutal. NEVER READ THE COMMENTS!!! Nick is forced back to Ardenia to deal with this and another crisis. He’s had a taste of what his life could be though and despite wanting to do the right thing, he’s not sure that he can follow his father’s wishes to marry a woman and produce an heir. Their confrontations is explosive. Nick is caught between a rock and a hard place. But can he spend his life being miserable?
Oh my god, this was such a good story. This is apparently my week for royalty/commoner stories 🙂 Like all of AJ Truman’s books, this one has a healthy dose of humor and plenty of heart. Hank is such a good character. We’ve watched him throughout this series and he’s just a salt of the earth, give you the shirt off his back kind of standup guy. I loved seeing his relationship with his son. His ex-wife? Not so much and I loved his interaction with her at Brody’s graduation 😀 What a guy! Nick is truly caught in a difficult position. He wants to honor his commitments, but at what cost? He can’t go back to pretending he’s something he’s not. That PR lady? I wanted to drop-kick her from the roof, but honestly, I kind of feel like this was pretty authentic. I know it’s cynical, but given the bad behavior and lack of cancellation for people who SHOULD be cancelled for life and how often we see these EXACT excuses given to try to divert bad behavior, I didn’t think this was in any way out of the realm of possibility to try to “placate” the public and court sympathy and excuse or “explain” abhorrent actions and thereby escaping accountability. *sigh* Anyway, I really liked how Nicholas was able to negotiate the path forward. Another great book in this series and I can’t wait for more 🙂 Highly recommended!
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