by Pippa Grant
ASIN/ISBN: B091P5TKQG
Publication: April 8, 2021
Series: Copper Valley Thrusters #5
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DESCRIPTION
You know those stories where an adorably misunderstood clumsy girl needs a fake date to a wedding so she asks her brother’s best friend and they accidentally fall in love?
I wish that was the kind of life I lead, but it’s not.
I don’t need a date to a wedding. I need a date to a funeral.
Clumsy sometimes fits, but then, that’s true for all of us, right? But adorable? No. Misunderstood? Nope again. I’m just your average girl, standing in front of a funeral invitation, asking it to be a winning lottery ticket instead.
And I don’t have a brother, or a best friend with a brother available, which means I’m stuck with Tyler Jaeger.
Sure, he’s a professional hockey player who also knows advanced calculus, but let’s say we’re not compatible and leave it at that. I should know. I am a matchmaker.
Not a very good one, but that’s beside the point.
I know a mismatch when I see one.
Still, Tyler’s what I’ve got, and I am not going to this funeral solo, so he’s what I’ll take.
After all—what could go wrong at a funeral?
I Pucking Love You is a hilariously wrong romantic comedy about the world’s worst matchmaker, a hockey player with a problem he doesn’t want to talk about, and an awkward date-of-convenience that everyone would prefer to forget. It comes complete with a cat working his way through his nine lives, all the sexy times, fish and chips, and a swoony happily-ever-after.
Copper Valley Thrusters Series
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EXCERPT
Tyler
We all have to be at practice tomorrow morning—check that, this morning, as it’s shortly after midnight—but I don’t want to go home.
I don’t want to drink. I don’t want to talk. I don’t want to screw.
I want—
Dammit.
I want a bucket of greasy fried fish and chips, because it’s what my big brother used to take me to get every time he came home on leave from the Marines and got annoyed at being hen-pecked by the four sisters between us.
My car’s cold, thanks to the early November weather, and no, I’m not telling you what kind of car I drive, because yes, it very much feels like compensation tonight.
It gets me where I want to go.
That’s all that matters.
That, and getting my ass to Cod Pieces before they close for the night.
Could I stay at the bunny bar and get fried fish and chips?
Yes.
Will I?
No fucking way.
I’m still stewing in my own misery when the bright neon sign with the armored cod and the storefront that looks like a medieval castle comes into view at the edge of a strip mall four miles the wrong direction from my downtown condo. I roll the window down, letting in a blast of chilly air and the scent of fries.
Just in time.
I holler my order over the sound of my engine, then pull around to the window to get my fish.
Debate calling my brother in Miami.
It’s one AM. He and his wife recently celebrated their kid’s first birthday, and I think they’re working on baby number two.
If I call him in the middle of the night to bitch about how I can’t get it up, he’ll probably hang up on me, then tell our sisters.
And Mom.
She’s a professional comedienne with her own popular Netflix special. There’s no damn way I’m bothering West in the middle of the night for this.
I’ll talk to the fried fish and call it even.
Has as much personality as West had before he married Daisy.
The window swings open. “That’ll be fourteen seventy-three, please.”
My car lurches forward before I remember to put it in park, and I gape up at the woman staring down at me. “Muffy?”
My brain is playing tricks on me.
It has to be.
Because there’s no way the curvy, clumsy, smart-mouthed goddess who’s haunting my dick is standing there wearing a Cod Pieces polo and hat.
But she is.
And I swear to god, her long brown braids are recoiling in horror as her whole face twists, her lip curling, her left eye squeezing shut, before she snaps herself together. “For the hundredth time today, I have no idea who this Muffy person is. My name is Octavia Louisa Beaverhousen.”
Fuck me.
There are two of them? She looks exactly like Muffy. I’m not seeing things, and I’m not projecting just because I want my dick to work again and the bunnies made me think about screwing Muffy in the walk-in fridge at the bunny bar.
“Fourteen seventy-three, please.” She turns away as she holds out a hand, twitching her fingers like she’s waiting for cash or a card.
And that’s when I see the tattoo.
Rufus.
Her cat’s name. It’s on her wrist.
Octavia Louisa Beaverhousen, my ass. This is Muffy.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Pippa Grant is a USA Today Bestselling author who writes romantic comedies that will make tears run down your leg. When she’s not reading, writing or sleeping, she’s being crowned employee of the month as a stay-at-home mom and housewife trying to prepare her adorable demon spawn to be productive members of society, all the while fantasizing about long walks on the beach with hot chocolate chip cookies.
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REVIEW: I PUCKING LOVE YOU
**I was provided a copy of the book by Give Me Books as part of the promotional campaign. I voluntarily read and reviewed it. All opinions are my own.**
Muffy is a matchmaker, but not a very successful one. Normally she wouldn’t set foot back in Richmond, but her best friend and business investor Veda needs her to attend a funeral. Rather than go alone, she’s desperate to bring a date along and the only choice she has is Tyler Jaeger. Tyler plays for the Copper Valley Thrusters and usually a hit with the ladies. However, he’s dealing with some interesting problems of his own so he volunteers to go as Muffy’s date, not realizing it’s a funeral. Of course, hilarity ensues.
Pippa Grant remains one of my favorite authors with her over-the-top humor. I know when I pick up one of her novels, there will be absurdity along with lots of laughs. As soon as she comes out with a new book, my spirit fingers come out and I’m reaching for it. As the newest addition to The Copper Valley Thrusters series, I Pucking Love You retains Grant’s signature humor.
I was conflicted about how much I really liked the book, much of it due to Muffy’s reasons for not wanting to return to Richmond. Muffy reminded me of Henri from Grant’s Real Fake Love but Muffy is a bit more awkward and a bit less successful. Like Henri, those who know her also are fiercely supportive of her and Muffy is also fiercely protective of them. Although Muffy presents this sort of “devil may care attitude,” she’s more vulnerable than people think, and Tyler is the perfect match for her. Having grown up with so many sisters, he’s very aware of Muffy’s needs, which includes large doses of confidence boosting and loving her for the person she is. I loved how protective over her he eventually becomes.
While it was a fun book, it was also tinged with melancholy that isn’t as apparent in the other books I’ve read by Grant. I enjoyed Muffy and Tyler’s chemistry, but I couldn’t quite overcome the bit of sadness even as the book headed towards our main couple’s HEA. I Pucking Love You is entertaining and will provide lots of laughs even though it has some sad undertones.
MINI-REVIEWS: COPPER VALLEY THRUSTERS SERIES
**With the exception of Royally Pucked, I was provided a copy of the the series as part of the promotion campaign for I Pucking Love You. I voluntarily read and reviewed each book. All opinions are my own. **
The Pilot & The Puck Up (#1)
It’s hard not to have a soft spot for The Berger Twins if you’re a fan of Grant’s books. They randomly show up in places and it can often be hilarious. Zeus, one-half of the Berger Twins, finally finds love. Despite being a tough guy, the woman he falls for, Joey/”Fireball”, is a lot tougher. I loved her right away and could tell at least one of the twins had met his match. Bailey, the caddie at the golf tournament who idolizes Joey, definitely stole my heart! Can she have her own book one day in Pippaverse? Can she be part of an all-girl hockey team? That would be awesome!
Royally Pucked (#2)
I was a bit hesitant about the book because I’m not fond of two of the prevailing tropes, royal-plebian romance and unexpected/secret pregnancy. Gracie, Joey’s sister, and Manning, Willow’s stepbrother, continue their dalliance from The Pilot & The Puck Up which leads to an unexpected pregnancy. I appreciated that the pregnancy happens early in the story, and there isn’t any kind of hiding or miscommunication between Gracie and Manning. Grant handles the pregnancy well here with both parties in-the-know and not keeping it a surprise until somewhere in the middle–thank goodness! Although I understood Manning’s predicament, I can’t say I was a fan of him to begin with so this made me like him even less. I eventually warmed to him, but he ranks low on my list of male leads from the Pippaverse.
Beauty and the Beefcake (#3)
Ares finally gets a love interest! AND he says more than a grunt or two because he gets chapters and chapters of them!! Okay…I’m kidding. He says words too. As much as I like Zeus, I’ll be honest and say that I have a soft spot for Ares. Felicity is a ventriloquist and talks a lot. She has conversations with herself in her different voices often so it’s great that she’s paired with a minimal talking, mostly grunting Ares. The book solidifies why I like Ares. He only makes the effort when he wants to and the effort he gives here is swoony when he starts catching feelings for Felicity. More than that, he understands and sees into Felicity like knowing what she’s channeling into the multiple voices for her puppets. It’s a forbidden romance–Nick his Felicity’s brother and Nick is Ares’s teammate–and I love how the sparks start slow because both are aware of the position they’re in since they both care about Nick.
Charming as Puck (#4)
Kami is one of Felicity’s besties and her crush on Nick is well known by all. Nick knows it to and has been known to use it to his advantage…as per Felicity in book #3. What no one at least guessed was they had an arrangement, a mutually beneficial one that Kami has decided is no longer enough for her. I love when someone realizes they deserve better than what they’ve been getting!! She asks her cousin Muffy of Muff Matches (yes, this is the introduction of Muffy of I Pucking Love You) to find her someone so she can move on from the guy who obviously doesn’t realize he is actually in love with her. If Royally Pucked contained my least liked tropes, Charming as Puck has one of my favorites (okay, this is a long one), the “I have a crush on you so I agree to an arrangement and now realize I deserve better so I break it off and try to date other people but you finally come to your senses and realize need/want me back and that you love me” trope (whew!). The nuance to this trope that I dislike is when one side heads into it with the hope that the arrangement will eventually lead to them being end game despite the understanding that a relationship is what neither wants. That’s what happens here, and so I can’t really be all that mad at Nick. BUT I still like Kami more, so I liked the groveling that happens and a jealous Nick is satisfying too.
Of the series, Kami might be my favorite female lead and Ares is the male lead I have the soft spot for. Charming as Puck and Beauty and the Beefcake are the top two contenders for the books I like best in the series. Overall, this is another fun series from Grant. If you’re fan and have read the other books, it’s a lot of fun to see cameos especially because in Pippaverse the degrees of separation are likely less than 6. Now, I need to conquer the rest of Grant’s series.
Pippaverse Throwdown: Girl Band vs Copper Valley Thrusters
Both are great, but if I had to choose between the two, I’m going to have to say I prefer The Girl Band series (you can find the reviews here) over the Copper Valley Thrusters series. I liked the stories that accompanied each of the Girl Band members and, except for maybe the first book, the books all had fairly good plots. Similar to The Pilot and The Puck Up, Mister McHottie doesn’t have a lot of plot, but they’re both fun introductions into each series. Although I generally liked all the female leads in both series, I connected with all members of the band much more, and I generally liked the men each ended up with as well. While I adore the Berger Twins and the Thrusters, my heart lies with an all girl band that covers boy bands–they just have the right stuff.
itsKoo reviews 