A Bully’s Redemption To Finding Real Love
A Riveting MM Hockey Romance Review
I’m back with a new post about the latest Puckboy book by Eden Finley and Saxon James.
For those that don’t know, Eden and Saxon have a whole universe where they write interconnected stories.
This particular one is the Puckboys series. It’s about queer hockey players who have to deal with the homophobia of being a queer athlete. This is book 8 of the series and one that we’ve been waiting for while.
I have read basically all the connected books. I’ve been wanting to be beta reader for them since I discovered them. Imagine my surprise and glee when I was chosen to be one of the beta readers!
It felt like I won the lotto🤣
If you’re a book junkie like me, you’ll understand how HUGE that it. When I saw the email pop up on my screen, I might or might not have screamed🙈
To be one of the first to read it before it’s released, it’s an honor.
Below are my thoughts about this book as well as my review.
The Pain of Unknowing Cruelty
Sometimes, the worst wounds aren’t inflicted with intention but through thoughtlessness and indifference.
Connor Kikishkin had everything—respect, admiration, and a future paved with success. He never saw himself as a bully. Just a guy caught up in the effortless popularity that came with being a hockey star.
But for Parker Duchene, the reality was far different. One careless nickname, one fleeting moment of mockery, and suddenly, he was no longer invisible—he was a target.
What Connor saw as harmless teasing became the defining wound of Parker’s teenage years. The ridicule, the isolation, the daily humiliation. It all stemmed from that one moment when Connor unknowingly set the tone for the way others treated Parker.
While Connor moved on, Parker was left to pick up the shattered pieces of his confidence. Carrying the weight of that hurt long after high school ended.
Now, years later, their roles have reversed. Parker is no longer the scrawny kid desperate to blend into the background—he’s a self-made billionaire with the power to turn Connor’s world upside down. But beneath his success, the scars remain.
When fate forces them together again, Connor is faced with the devastating truth: his thoughtless actions shaped a past that Parker has never been able to escape.
For Parker, confronting Connor means reopening wounds he’s spent years trying to heal. For Connor, it’s a reckoning—one that forces him to question the person he was and the man he wants to become. Because sometimes, the deepest pain comes not from outright cruelty, but from the indifference of those who never realized the damage they left behind.
A Decade Later: A Shocking Role Reversal
Fast forward ten years, and Parker is no longer the powerless boy Connor once tormented. Instead, he has transformed into a powerful, self-made billionaire who now holds Connor’s entire future in his hands.
The shocking twist? Parker has just become the new owner of Connor’s hockey team—and he’s about to make Connor’s life a living nightmare.
For Parker, this moment is a long-awaited reckoning, a chance to make Connor feel the pain he endured for years. But as they come face-to-face again, old wounds reopen, and buried emotions surface in ways neither of them expected.
A Painful Journey of Redemption and Forgiveness
Meanwhile, Connor’s personal life is in turmoil. The weight of expectations has suffocated him for years, leading to fractured relationships with his brother and best friend.
Now, as Parker forces him to confront his past, Connor is left questioning everything: Was he truly the villain in Parker’s story? Was he even a good person at all?
As their worlds collide, resentment turns into something raw, unexplainable… and undeniably magnetic. Despite Parker’s deep-seated anger, he begins to see beyond the bully Connor once was.
Parker, once burdened by resentment, slowly learns that healing doesn’t mean forgetting—it means making space for something new. At the same time, Connor comes to understand that love isn’t about duty or expectations, but a conscious choice to stand by someone, flaws and all.
As their paths intertwine once more, they realize that the past may have shaped them, but it doesn’t have to define them. Sometimes, the ones who once hurt us the most are also the ones who can show us what true love really means.
Enemies to Lovers: A Love Neither of Them Expected
What starts as an intense battle of wills soon transforms into something far more complicated. Parker, who spent years harboring hatred, now finds himself drawn to the very man who once broke him.
Connor, who always did what was expected of him, begins to realize that Parker is the only person who sees him for who he truly is. Not just the golden boy of hockey, but a man desperate for something real.
Together, Parker and Connor embark on a heart-wrenching yet deeply healing journey. Parker helps Connor understand that true love isn’t about duty or obligation—it’s about choice.
Connor, in turn, proves to Parker that even the most broken relationships can be rebuilt when two people are willing to fight for each other.
A Powerful and Emotional Read
This book is an emotional rollercoaster—equal parts heartbreaking, inspiring, deeply romantic and spicy.
If you love MM hockey romance, enemies-to-lovers tension, and powerful redemption arcs, this is an absolute must-read! Prepare for a story that will break your heart, mend it back together, and leave you breathless.
Possessive Puckboy by Eden Finley and Saxon James
Self awareness and redemption
5 ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Connor and Parker were exactly what I expected this book to be! I knew it would be a very hard read, especially with the bully element.
We all know that when it comes to bullying, making the bully become a good person is a double edged sword because it might seem like his behaviour was excused.
In this case though, Connor did deserve a chance because he genuinely didn’t mean to be a bully. Yes, he was inadvertently guilty but he didn’t mean it to hurt Parker the way it did.
Connor is now a witness to what his actions ten years prior can do a person. The bitterness and resentment that Parker has harbored for ten years is something that has Connor questioning whether he’s a good person or not.
Parker and Connor’s life become intertwined in an unexpected way that leads both men to see the true side of each other giving ways to hidden feelings none of them could have imagined.
Parker was everything Connor didn’t know he needed. His sweetness, determination and honesty was what helped him see that everything he had done so far had come from a place of responsibility and expectation, not love.
Connor was what Parker had been yearning for even when he hated him for bullying him. Connor was the man he saw as the one who destroyed his life but also as the man he always dreamed of.
Together they found a way to heal a relationship that was born out of pain for one and obliviousness for the other.
Parker showed Connor what it meant to be himself, to do things because he loved them, not because it was expected of him. His journey of self discovery was a painful one. One that he should have made a long time ago.
On the other hand, Parker was able to finally understand that there was so much to the real Connor than he let on. He could see the struggles he had to deal with as he came to understand that his actions were not the way to show the ones he loved his love.
Connor and Parker were two souls that needed to let go of the resentment that plagued them for years and let in the forgiveness they were both seeking. Even if it came in the most painful ways, they were able to see they were what each other needed.
Just when I think the last Puckboys book is my favorite, Eden and Saxon say hold my beer😂
This book was so beautifully written. The way they both tackle bullying, expectations from others, redemption and forgiveness, is what makes these amazing ladies my favorites.
They don’t downplay any difficulty topic that plagues our society. They face it head on and lets us see that we as a society can do so much better.
If you want to check my favorite books you can check it out here.
Until next time!
