Book Review: Shattered Truths by Helena Hunting

 

Publication Date: August 29, 2023

Helena Hunting has a way of ripping your heart out of your chest and making you thank her for the privilege.

Shattered Truths was no different. And while I didn’t find it quite as emotionally devastating as the first two

books in the series, I will admit to shedding a few tears.

BJ, son of the most beloved couples in her original Pucked series, is a bearded man-bunned, man-whore figure skater. Winter is a foul mouth hockey player, who's too busy taking care of everyone else to take care of herself.

The relationship pairing closely mirrored BJ’s parents origin story. Rich and famous athlete and an aspiring athlete being kept from her dreams due to financial constraints. I found the fact that she so closely mirrored that but gender-swapped the sports interesting. Both BJ’s mom and Winter are strong and used to caring for themselves and everyone else. And when you’re the one caring for everyone, it’s easy to forget to take care of yourself too.

In a lot of ways this was more Winter’s story than BJs. It probably could have been written in her POV without losing much. BJ is a pretty solid person on his own who just needed someone to make him grow up a little and to make him want to open up. Someone who wouldn’t simper but could and would kick his butt when necessary. Most of the book was centered around Winter and her issues, which were far more extreme than BJs.

I think that’s why this was less devastating than the others in the series. With the previous books the characters were more flawed, the relationships more unstable. With this one, it felt more hopeful. BJ and Winter were solid from the start and it was hard to see them falling apart. Sure they had things to work through but nothing seemed insurmountable. Despite Hunting going in a different direction than expected with BJ based on the first two books, I really couldn’t have asked for a better pairing to end the series.