Pucking Around

Pucking Around is a 2023 romance by academic Emily Rath, a professor of international politics as well as a novelist. Pucking Around is a sports romance in the “why choose” subgenre of romance, leading the protagonist Rachel Price to a polyamorous relationship with multiple partners in the Jacksonville Rays hockey team. The self-published novel became popular after it was praised in the BookTok community of the social media platform TikTok.

This guide refers to the digital version of the book as published by Amazon. Pagination may vary.

Content Warning: Please note that this guide includes discussion of alcohol abuse, depression, anti-gay biases, and past attempted suicide. This guide also uses the term “queer” to describe a character’s sexuality, per his self-description.

Plot Summary

The novel opens when Rachel Price learns that she has been granted a prestigious fellowship to practice medicine for a professional hockey team, the Jacksonville Rays. The news is exciting to Rachel, who has been in a personal and professional slump for several months, ever since she was initially rejected for the fellowship. At that time, she met and had sex with a stranger in a hotel and Seattle, then left him behind. They never exchanged names or contact information, and Rachel has been thinking about her “Mystery Boy” ever since.

Now, Rachel quickly moves to Jacksonville; since she was pulled from the fellowship’s waitlist, she has only days to move to her new home. When she arrives, she is greeted by Caleb Sanford, the Rays’s assistant equipment manager (and her neighbor). Rachel feels an instinctual attraction to Caleb despite his grumpy attitude, and Caleb reciprocates her interest. The two become closer during a misadventure in which Caleb rescues a scantily clad Rachel from her balcony, but nonetheless, Rachel resolves to focus on her professional life. The next day, Rachel begins her new job and is excited to work for the Rays until she encounters defensive lineman Jake Compton, who is both Caleb’s best friend, and as it turns out, Rachel’s “Mystery Boy.” He, too, has frequently thought of their night together and now wishes to pursue a relationship with her. Rachel keeps her distance from Jake, citing professionalism, but he flirts incessantly. Initially, Rachel does not tell Jake about her attraction to Caleb, and it takes a while before the burgeoning romantic attraction between Jake and Caleb becomes apparent as well. After several weeks of flirtation, the three dance and kiss at a nightclub, then decide to try a relationship. Due to their hectic schedules, they all agree to move into Jake’s house together in order to pursue their mutual relationship more fully.

While her relationship with Jake and Caleb develops, Rachel’s professional life focuses on trying to schedule a physical for enigmatic goalie Ilmari “Mars” Kinnunen, who has been avoiding her due to a groin injury that he is attempting to keep secret while he is scouted by Finnish Olympic representatives. Ilmari and Rachel privately experience a growing interest in and attraction to one another, which culminates when Ilmari seizes Rachel and kisses her. In deference to her other two partners, Rachel pulls away. She tells Jake and Caleb about the incident, disclosing that she would also like to pursue her interest in Ilmari. They approve, though they are concerned about how the taciturn goalie will affect their existing group dynamic. During a short trip to Cincinnati to get scans of Ilmari’s groin injury without alerting the NHL or the Finnish scouts, Rachel learns that her old mentor, Doctor Halla, is Ilmari’s birth father, who abandoned him years ago. Though Ilmari initially believes that Rachel tricked him into seeing Halla, the incident ultimately brings Rachel and Ilmari closer together, and they have sex after Rachel discloses her concurrent relationship with Jake and Caleb.

Ilmari, who does not have a sexual interest in men, joins the relationship but initially seeks to keep his partnership with Rachel separate from her relationship with Jake and Caleb. The group ultimately decides that this distance does not work for them, and they all elect to live together as a group, though Ilmari still does not engage in a sexual relationship with either of the other men. Meanwhile, Jake and Caleb grow increasingly close in a sexual manner, which leads Jake to begin to question his own sexuality. While the four decide that they would like their relationship to be permanent, they worry about how to reveal to the world that they are in a polyamorous relationship without risking professional retribution. After Rachel and Caleb wear Ilmari and Jake’s jerseys to a Rays game, rumors begin to circulate about their relationship. Soon thereafter, Jake and Caleb are discovered kissing after they admit their romantic feelings for one another, and Rachel is discovered kissing Ilmari. They all reveal their relationship to the Rays’ management. This disclosure causes Rachel to be suspended from her position because she treated Ilmari as a patient even after their romantic relationship began, which violates ethical rules for doctors.

While Rachel visits her family to avoid dwelling on her suspension, Jake, Caleb, and Ilmari reveal their relationship to the world. They also hide this public announcement from Rachel by stealing her phone so that nobody can contact her. They then bring her to a game that is filled with supportive fans who wear hockey jerseys bearing the name Price, in honor of Jake and Ilmari changing their last names as a public declaration that the four of them are family. Due to an effusive outpouring of support from current and past patients, Rachel is reinstated in her position. The novel ends with Ilmari winning a gold medal for Finland in hockey and the group deciding that they are ready to have children.