Okay, I want to start this review with a disclaimer: I am a trans gay man. I played hockey for 6 years (also when coming to terms with my sexuality and gender). I have played on teams consisting of all girls, and co-ed teams with girls and guys. Now with that out of the way, here is me hating on this book! Enjoy! Also, I dnf'ed (did not finish) at 20%. This book is that bad.

CW: Me swearing at how bad this book is :)

I have my highlights and notes visible, so you are able to see just how much I HATED this god-forsaken book. I truly don't understand how this has a 4.41 rating. If you are a gay man and you read this book, I apologize in advance. You don't want to read this. Go read something else, like a book written by a gay man, like Alexis Hall or Eliot Schrefer. Don't waste your time on this.

Oh also, this book is apparently a new series that is set in the same type of world as another series by these two authors???? Um, where the fuck does it say that in the description? Absolutely nowhere. I had to find that out from other reviews.

Now the authors: from what I could find, it seems like both Eden Finley and Saxon James are women. They both use she/her, and I am pretty sure they are cisgender females (not 100% sure, but I don't care at this point). This book is clearly written by women, FOR women. It is not for gay males to feel represented in hockey. It's a complete fucking shit show. If you are a gay male wanting to read this, I beg of you to NOT. It is not worth it. All of the 5-star reviews I've seen for this book are by women. I have not seen a SINGLE gay guy write a review that is good for this book. In fact, I don't think I saw a SINGLE guy review this book. I could be wrong, but I don't give a fuck anymore.

Here are some lines that I think make it clear to me that this book did not go through a large editing phase:
- "If anyone needs to piss, it's going to be very hard to explain this away."
- "My dick couldn't decide what it liked better: hearing you sing or the way you moan when you're impaled on it." ("impaled"? No, no no no no no no)
- "Exhibit A: I'm attending this press conference in jeans and my B's jacket." (I'm sorry, WHAT is a B's jacket????????? Like is it his teams jacket? Fucking describe it so readers get what you are trying to say)

Those quotes are a select few from the first 59 pages. THE FIRST 59 PAGES OF THE BOOK. If that doesn't show you how badly written this book is...yikes on your part.

The writing in this book is literally atrocious. I don't understand how anyone can like it. Sometimes when writing is bad, I can turn my analyzing brain off to just read the book, but this? No, it's THAT BAD.

In the first 63 pages that I read (and said no thank you to), there was a sex scene in the SECOND CHAPTER. Like huh? It wasn't even written that well. The descriptions made it very obvious that the authors are women, and not men, because gay men would not describe sex like that. This is one of those books that really should not exist. It is one that also didn't have sensitivity readers in the version of gay men.

If you want a laugh, look at my highlights and notes. In the 63 pages I read, I highlighted (and added notes to each one) 134 things. Average of 2 things per page. I want to bleach my eyes after reading those pages, and to take some god damn fucking pills to help me forget that shitshow.

The characters themselves, specifically Ezra and Anton (the main characters) are so fucking annoying. They are gay guys but the authors wrote them as straight guys who just like dick. They wrote them as if they are straight, act straight, and talk as if they are straight but add in "oh yeah, by the way, I like dick and not vagina." Like Jesus Christ, how badly can you write gay characters??? Apparently REALLY fucking bad.

If I read this entire book, I can already tell you that I would be hating on Ezra the entire time. He is a complete and utter dickhead. He is fucking egotistical to another level. Yes, the book is literally titled "Egotistical Puckboy", but fucking christ he is on something else. I don't think there is a character I hate MORE than Ezra. Anton is also just a fucking dickhead, but he is not as bad as Ezra. They are both fucking assholes, but Ezra takes it to another god damn level.

If you somehow liked this book and recommend it to someone, god help me. If someone tries to recommend this to me and we are friends? Oh man, that friendship is not going anywhere.

If you have read this far, and still think, "oh yeah I want to read this just to see how bad it is", I beg of you to pick up literally ANYTHING else. It is not worth your time. Just read my highlights to get your fix of this book and move on. I will leave you with that.