The Pucking Wrong Number

The review

Monroe is alone in a new city, broke and getting by, when she answers a text that was not meant for her. The man on the other end is Lincoln Daniels, the golden-boy star of the Dallas Knights, and he does not tell her his last name. By the time she finds out who he is, he has already decided she is his. It is the book that proved hockey romance and obsessive-hero dark romance could share a locker room.

The hook is the meet-cute: a wrong-number text thread that turns flirty, then intense, then very personal, before the two ever share a room. C.R. Jane uses it to build intimacy fast, and then lets the reveal of who Lincoln really is crash into Monroe's very ordinary, very precarious life.

Lincoln is the selling point. The author's own description calls him a morally grey antihero obsessed with his girl who will do anything to keep her, and that is accurate. He is protective to the point of overstepping, he does not take no for an answer when it comes to taking care of her, and he is a total softie about it. If you like Icebreaker's Nate but wished he were a bit more unhinged, this is your book.

The heat: four peppers. It is billed as a darker hockey romance, and the open-door scenes are frequent and explicit, with possessiveness and praise in the mix. It stays well short of true dark romance; think obsessive, not cruel.

Know before you start: the instalove is real and fast, and readers who need a slow burn will roll their eyes. The book is the first in a series but reads as a standalone with a happy ending for Monroe and Lincoln. If you want the bridge between sweet sports romance and stalker romance, this is the most popular one on the shelf, and a very easy weekend read.