My Pucking Crush by Tori Chase

 

Protecting him is my duty, but falling for him could be my undoing.

I’ve spent five years burying my past, leaving behind the violence and bloodshed of my former life as a Bratva enforcer. Now, I’m just Luca—the quiet guy who keeps his head down, working security for a professional hockey team. I don’t get close to anyone, and I definitely don’t let anyone get close to me.

But then I’m assigned to protect Max Ryan, the team’s star defenseman, and everything changes.

He's my obsession. My crush.

Max is everything I shouldn’t want. Charismatic and stubborn, he’s got a knack for finding trouble, and now he’s got a target on his back. The last thing I need is to be drawn into his world, where old loyalties and deadly secrets collide with new, dangerous desires.

As much as I try to keep things professional, Max has a way of breaking through my defenses. But when a shadow from my past threatens to destroy him and everything I’ve built, I’ll do whatever it takes to keep him safe.

Even if it means confronting the darkness I thought I’d left behind—and risking everything, including my heart.

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/204945874-my-pucking-crush

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My Review: 4/5 Stars

Max’s life revolves around hockey. He is good at what he does and works so hard at it. All while crushing down a part of himself and the trauma he has endured. But when he is attacked, his coach assigns him a bodyguard. It was clear a rival team did this and with playoffs coming up, Max needs to be protected. But having a bodyguard is the last thing Max wants. Especially when he sees Luca and everything he has tried to hide about himself is threatened. Luca has had a long crush on Max since he started working for Stamford hockey’s security team. But with his past filled with running from the bratva and staying hidden in plain sight, he knows better than to pursue anything. Though he also believed Max was straight. But everything changes when he is assigned to guard Max. And with his past catching up with him, it’s hard to decipher what is coincidence and what is not. All the while, the more time they spend with one another, the harder they fall. They are protective of each other and their pasts don’t scare either away. But can they find a way to be together when all is said and done? This was such an interesting combo for me to read! The mafia? Hockey? Dark romance? What a whirlwind of a story! I couldn’t put it down.