Forget soulmates. This girl might be my sexmate.
The Charming(?) Clancy
Author: Jacob Chance
Genre: Sports Romance, Surprise Pregnancy
Series: Boston Terriers Hockey
Pages: 244
Release Date: August 21, 2019
With a cover like that… this book left me all dream. No steam. Literally negative steam.
Let me preface this review with the fact that I live in Boston. So I had such high hopes for this book. I was excited to see what Boston landmarks and events would be thrown in. I wanted to love it. I was so excited, and I love hockey romances, so how could I not? I’m sorry, but this was a no from me. I mindlessly read it and could easily finish it, but I didn’t enjoy it.
Tenley has been crushing on her friend Sophie’s cousin forever. Clancy “Wilde Man” Wilde is the captain of Boston University’s hockey team and the president of his frat (wow, he does it all). They have a one-night stand after a wedding right before the start of the school year. Clancy goes back to BU, and Tenley studies at a college in Virginia.
After feeling like shit, months later, Tenley finds out she’s pregnant. She tells Clancy when he visits for Thanksgiving, and they deal with the fallout. I’m not even trying to spoil anything here, but they’re pretty much just both on board with having the baby, being friends, both being involved in the baby’s life, and moving on with life co-parenting.
The only conflict they have is that they won’t say how they feel, and Tenley is worried that Clancy could be hooking up with all the girls throwing themselves at him, because he’s so swoon-worthy and an ~athlete~.
This book is just straight up unrealistic. For a hockey romance, we barely get any hockey. For a romance, we barely get any steamy scenes… like the entire pregnancy is a dry spell. To add, they’re kind of insta-love. There’s no real character development, and we don’t really see how they develop any feelings for each other, but THEY ARE THERE.
Wilde Man is not wild in the least; he’s actually pretty boring. Tenley is fine, but she tries overly hard to act like she’s cool with Clancy doing whatever he wants. Babe, you’re having his baby, you don’t have to be chill all the time, especially when you should probably be freaking the f*ck out.
Clancy must have Hermione’s Time-Turner, because idk how this guy is juggling D1 hockey, frat prez, actual school work, volunteering weekly with the kids at his mom’s art shop, AND visiting Tenley in Virginia for appointments. Like damn.
Lastly, something that bothered me to the extreme in this book was that all of Clancy’s friends are locked down with fiancés or having their own babies. That might be an exaggeration, but I felt like this was so far from realistic. I would say it’s very fairly uncommon for people to get engaged in Boston at that age.
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