Puck Chemistry
Author: Ava Jackson
Reviewer: Sophia Rose
Rating: B
What I’m Talking About:
She’s made a scientific breakthrough only to have the university shut her down; he’s at the end of his career and struggling to stay in the game let alone go out with a win unless they can get some Puck Chemistry going. Ava Jackson is a new-to-me author, and I thought this brains and brawn sports romance sounded like just the thing.
Sophia Chen had to watch her father’s work injuries debilitate him with pain and she was determined to find a break through in science to help people like her dad get healing from the injury and the pain so they could live happy, normal lives. Unfortunately, right about the time her formula and work are on the brink of success, the university pulled the funding and, due to the contract, gets to keep all the work and her test vials. Sophia is utterly disappointed, but not defeated.
The city’s professional hockey team needs a doctor, and the backers of the team want her expertise for one of their best players who is playing injured and wrecking his public image lately. If she will heal their star player, they will back her research so her formula makes it through drug testing and gets approved. Meanwhile, her shady uncle who is high up in a big pharma company is keeping close and she has become wary about trusting anyone that her formula didn’t all go with the rest of her stuff at the lab.
Sophia has a hard time at first convincing Jake Morrison to take a chance on the straight-laced new team doc, but she observes and really sees him as a person in pain and not just a business asset. Jake warily gives her a chance and they secretly work together as he takes the injections of her new formula. But with so much riding on it and so many watching, will they be able to keep their secrets- including the attraction they start to feel- from everyone?
Puck Chemistry was an engaging, well-developed novella. Sophia and Jake were opposites and shouldn’t work at all, but the chemistry mentioned in the title was there and they slowly formed a team protective of each other’s secrets and their shared goal to see him get injury free as a result of her treatments. She’s a brainy scientist and he’s a talented and strong athlete. She’s cool and methodical and he’s energy and impulse, a brute force on the ice. They were a fun relationship pair to see happen.
I also appreciated the light suspense element going on when it came to her ‘secret formula’ as I thought of it. Corporate espionage with those who want her wonder drug is going on and there was a surprise or two as a result.
Puck Chemistry did offer a few niggles in that there were a few leaps that didn’t transition scenes well in the plot sequence so I felt I was missing something a few times, but overall, I found it a fast, engaging read with a satisfying finish.
My Rating: B
Sophia Rose
About the Book:
When a career-ending injury meets an experimental cure, the ice isn’t the only thing heating up.
Dr. Sophia Chen has five years of research and one impossible deadline: prove her revolutionary pain treatment works, or watch her life’s work disappear into corporate vaults forever. Her solution? A last-ditch assignment as team physician for the Boston Blackbirds hockey team.
Her problem? Jake Morrison.
The Blackbirds’ captain is hockey royalty with a destroyed shoulder, a reputation for fighting his way out of every problem, and zero interest in being anyone’s research project. But when conventional medicine writes him off as finished, Sophia offers him something no one else can: a second chance.
One experimental injection. One fake relationship for the cameras. One chance to save both their careers.
But somewhere between late-night treatments and public appearances, the lines blur between professional necessity and personal desire. As corporate sabotage threatens to destroy everything Sophia has built, Jake becomes more than her patient—he becomes her protector, her partner, and the man worth risking everything for.
The chemistry between them is undeniable. The stakes couldn’t be higher. And when the final buzzer sounds, they’ll have to choose between playing it safe and playing for keeps.
Release Date: June 23, 2025
Publisher: self-published
Series: standalone
Genre: Contemporary Sports Romance, novella
Format(s): e-book
Book Source: Purchased with my own funds/freebie