Rating: ★★★★
Audience: Contemporary Sports Romance
Length: 460 pages
Author: Torie Jean
Publisher: Self Published
Release Date: November 7th, 2023
Image & Other Reviews on: Goodreads

BOOK SUMMARY:

Can a professional hockey player reform his rakish ways for a winning shot at his best friend’s guarded heart?

Nestled between rocks and mountains, the slumbering town of Chawton Falls, NH, blinks alive every autumn when the Wentworth Estate hosts the Jane Austen Regency Fair.

For event coordinator Aulie Desfleurs, fall is a dizzying season full of bonnets, muslin, bicorn hats—and, unfortunately, this year, playing the role of the foolish Lydia Bennet. A sensible woman to her core, she has no time to worry about her mysterious chronic illness or love life.

So what if a spicy photo of her best friend Jack Parker in a penalty box threatens to reignite a spark from years ago? If she maintains her distance—an easy feat during hockey season—she’ll be fine.

Jack Parker, the bad boy of the American professional hockey league, is suspended…again. Forced to flee to Chawton Falls, Jack comes face to face with a swell of repressed emotions…and a goat. Seeking a distraction, he soon finds himself in the fair cast as the infamous rake, George Wickham.

Wearing breeches isn’t exactly on brand, but after five years of harboring unrequited feelings for Aulie, Jack’s willing to sport the high-waisted pants if it means convincing her he can be the dashing hero she deserves.

With a less than stellar dating history, and a suspension deadline looming, Aulie knows falling for Jack would be foolish.

But when he kisses her like a man possessed, one day, and takes care of her like a saint, the next, Aulie’s forced to choose: either embrace Jane Austen’s signature truth, “we are all fools in love,” or risk living like the author without a happily ever after of her own.

“Dukes and Dekes” is a friends-to-lovers, brother’s best friend romance that deals with grief and chronic illness. It contains adult language and open-door intimate scenes that realistically depict endometriosis (i.e., no penetration).

SO CLOSE.

I was very close to giving this five stars, but the more I thought about it, the more a few things bugged me (I would definitely still recommend this book though!!).

I AM ABSOLUTELY GONE FOR MEN WHO HAVE FALLEN HARD. The mutual pining in this book was off the dang charts. I loved it so much. I loooved that Jack was this grump of a hockey player who every time you got to his POV you saw this blushing man trying to work up the courage to confess his feelings. STOP IT. MY FAVORITE.

And I adored Aulie too. Her health battles and journey brought tears to my eyes. I loved the endo rep and the knowledge this book brought about the struggles and how this effects every aspect of your life.

There were lots of cute and saucy moments between Jack and Aulie. I thought the spice level was great and brought more to the story rather than take it over.

What I didn’t love/find necessary was the ex drama. I thought that was done with and causing ridiculous internet nonsense added more pages, but not more to the plot. I also feel like I have a few background questions that didn’t get answered??

Anyways, I will definitely be reading the next book in this series! I do love the way Torie Jean writes. And if it’s the couple I’m thinking of I love it already.

Overall audience notes:

• Contemporary Sports Romance
• Language: some strong
• Romance: 2 brief open door
• Violence: low-moderate
• Trigger/Content Warnings: bad doctor experiences (including misdiagnosis), endometriosis rep, loss of a father to cancer (recounted), grief depiction, loss of family memebers

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