The Hockey Rabbit Hole

Something happened at the beginning of this year I would have never expected: I fell in love with hockey.

I’d been a football fan, specifically the Green Bay Packers, for nearly thirty years, so cheering on a team wasn’t something new for me. Hockey, however, wasn’t even on my radar. I’d been to a couple Detroit Red Wings games during my stint in Michigan, which were fun, but I never got into watching hockey on TV.

Then my reading habits picked back up. (As of this post, I’ve already read 105+ books just in 2026.) I was devouring books. TV shows? I’m so far behind in whatever shows I used to watch, and I can’t say I really care. Sleep? Who needs sleep when there are book boyfriends to read about?

I found a BookTok influencer that spoke very highly about a number of books. One such series was the Jacksonville Rays series by Emily Rath. I loved it! I read the four-book series, prequel, and two “ever after” volumes in two weeks. (And these were not short books. The first one was just shy of 600 pages!)

From there, I found myself diving into the Windy City Series by Liz Tomforde. Every influencer I’ve watched has touted it, and I tend to agree with them. The five-book series was gobbled up.

And then came the Vancouver Storm Series by Stephanie Archer. Yep, you guessed it. *munch munch munch*

Then came my favorite. The Playing for Keeps Series by Becka Mack. I don’t know what it was about this series, but it crept into my heart and stayed there. (Especially Emmett and Cara’s story. #ifyouknowyouknow)

Needless to say, I became hooked on hockey romances. At their root, they were all about found family. And I loved that just because a novel came to an end, that couple’s story wasn’t over.

Then I started asking questions. Mainly, what was it about hockey that made this subgenre so popular? So, I turned to a friend and started asking questions about hockey. Long story short, I found that defensemen are my guys, and the Colorado Avalanche is my team.

I became obsessed. Thanks to a certain streaming service, I was able to see every Colorado game, even living in a different state (and time zone). Additionally, I was able to go back to the beginning of the season and watch the team from the start. I created a roster list so I could familiarize myself with the players and what position they played. I tracked the team’s wins and losses. I asked a LOT of questions about the rules. Offside. Icing. Minor vs. major penalties. The list goes on. Like I said, #obsessed.

It didn’t hurt that the first year I cheered on an NHL team, they made it to the Western Conference Final.

The rabbit hole continued. One Avs jersey. Two sweatshirts. Three t-shirts. Testing myself by calling out who players were based on their jersey numbers. Identifying some of the Avs players just by how they skated. I mean, it was like I turned into a scout for their own team.

So, why does this all matter? Two reasons.

First, 2026 has been an incredibly rough year for me. A lot of things have happened personally, and to be fair, hockey became a tremendous distraction. The highs, the lows, the yelling at the TV for someone to just SHOOT THE DAMN PUCK! It was cathartic.

Second, I’m going to let you in on a couple little secrets… I had every intention of writing another book for The Shore Series. (I won’t tell you who the book was going to be about because I don’t want you to be too disappointed.) The plot was coming together. Outlines had been started. Even a bit of the writing had begun to take shape. But then, hockey.

I started conjuring up a fictional professional hockey team. Where they played, who was on the team, what their mascot would be, what colors the team would wear. All of it. All the nitty-gritty details that go into creating a hockey team. Let’s just say the rabbit hole went so deep, I actually worked with a German company to customize a jersey for one of the players with the logo for my fake hockey team.

People, I went ALL. IN.

But you know what came out of it?

I picked up a hockey romance because people on BookTok wouldn’t stop talking about them.

A couple of months later, I found a new favorite sport…and a brand-new series waiting to be written.

Funny how life works sometimes.

(CALDER will be coming out…soon.)

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