Spotlight: Puck Me It’s Christmas! by Alina Jacobs
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(Maplewood Falls, #2)
Publication date: November 18th 2025
Genres: Adult, Comedy, Contemporary, Holiday, Romance
When you’re a blacklisted preschool teacher and somehow end up coaching the worst team in the NHL, it’s shaping up to be the crappiest Christmas ever.
We’re adding an NHL head-coaching job to the Yule log dumpster fire of my holiday season.
I lost my apartment and had to move back home for the holidays.
My mom sneaks into my bedroom to watch me sleep because she “can’t help it. I missed my little girl so much, Ellie!”
And my day-drinking granny has declared herself the team’s new equipment manager so she can ogle hockey butts in the locker room.
The last thing I need is twenty-two adult toddlers with blades on their feet and bad attitudes for Christmas.
Captain Fletcher Sullivan? He’s the worst, with his muscles and his sneer, turning every practice into The Grinch on Ice.
Between breaking up fights, hosting snack time, and bailing my goalie out of jail, I have no time for Christmas cheer—or for the cocky, absurdly ripped team captain who thinks I don’t belong in the NHL.
Yes, I played on the women’s national hockey team.
Yes, I lift weights.
And yes, I will pick up a six-four hockey player and put him in time-out if he doesn’t follow directions.
There’s no Christmas miracle coming to save us. We lose. A lot.
But armed with Goldfish crackers and juice boxes, I’m going to turn this team of ragtag hockey players into winners.
Even if it turns me into the Grinch.
Or worse—makes me fall for the enemy.
Excerpt
There’s a loud buzzing noise, then a metal gate opens, and two heavyset police officers are dragging out a barefoot, shirtless man covered in tattoos—yes, on his face, too—and missing a few teeth. “And I’ll take a piss on your mother’s grave as soon as I get out of these handcuffs!” he hollers.
The cop unlocks the cuffs. Ellie’s eye is twitching.
“Uh, the ankle bracelet…” Ellie points to the chunky bracelet. “We won’t be able to get his hockey boots on, let alone any of the goalie pads.”
“Where are my flip-flops?” Ren demands. “I have a constitutional right to have my things returned to me.”
“Not me.” The officer shakes his head. “You gotta talk to his parole officer.”
“Great. Well, we’ll talk to the equipment manager.” Ellie sighs.
“Your grandmother, who I’m pretty sure I saw doing shots with Murphy’s Law—that equipment manager?”
“It’s a team effort,” Ellie tells me through a gritted smile. “We’re all trying to make sure that we win.”
“Well, goddamn,” the goalie drawls in a thick Southern accent and looks Ellie up and down. “The rumors are true. I heard the guard gossipin’, but I ain’t believe a word I heard.”
“Watch your mouth,” I snarl at him.
“The boyfriend?” He raises one eyebrow, causing the tattoos crawling all over his forehead to wrinkle.
“Alternate captain.”
“Damn Yankee.” He spits on the ground. “And a shitty hockey player too.”
Fuck this guy.
“Guess this weather is a little different from Mississippi,” Ellie says as Ren makes a big show of getting the door for her and letting it slam in my face.
“Aw, shucks, ma’am, my birth daddy’s actually a damn Yankee. Piece of shit from upstate NYC.” Ren walks barefoot through the snow next to Ellie. “He played for Boston back in the day. That’s the only reason I took this goalie job. Free plane ticket up to New England, all so’s I can take a shit on his front lawn. Got arrested for public indecency, public intoxication—oh, and I stole a police car.”
Ellie giggles. Why the hell do women find men like him charming?
“Back seat, Yankee Doodle,” he barks at me when I reach for the door.
“Fuck you.” I shove him away from the front passenger door.
He shoves me back. Harder. “I’m important. You’re just some shithead call-up from the minors.”
“Fletcher, get in the back seat, please.” Ellie gives me a stern look.
I hate that goalie.
Ellie beams at Ren as I crawl in the back of the SUV. “We brought you a snack!”
“Thanks, darlin’.”
“The hell—don’t talk to our coach like that.”
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About the Author
I write the kind of books I love—romantic comedies featuring snarly guys with hearts of gold, kick-ass heroines, and a swoon-worthy happily ever after! Also wine. And cupcakes.
When I’m not writing I can be found drinking tea, surrounded by my massive to-be-read pile! So many books...
You can connect with me on social media or find information on my books at my website.
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