I was SO looking forward for a new Puckboys book after loving the hell out of this series so far. But I did kind of expect something else with this one. The Trope "Refferee x Player" sounded so good, and I expected the forbidden aspect to be coming a little more from this direction instead of from the 'best friend's brother' trope. This might be a trope I generally don't understand or like that much, but I hoped for more conflicts regarding the MCs' professions - because that'd be so interesting to read! So, a little bit of expected suspense was missing for me, which lead to me not being as invested as I was with the other Puckboy books and as I expected to be with this one.But so much about the couple and the main story - because the absolute best in this book definitely was the Collective gettogether! I personally always wished for a bonus book with as many of the Sadenverse characters as possible, a little bit like the beauty Fake Boyfriends Final Play is - but I'm definitely gonna take what I get! So having a lot of my absolute comfort characters on one pile just made me so happy. A lot of typical Finley/James humor took place and I will never get enough of Ezra Palaszczuk existing.I also loved the teaser for Possessive Puckboy, which will be released in March. From Parker's first appearance I thought I'd love to read about his story, and we're going to get that!In conclusion, I liked the Collective Pallooza better than the main story, but the problem with the main story definitely was not that it was a bad or boring story or anything, but my expectations were wrong and I would've enjoyed the book a lot better if I didn't expect a forbidden romance between a working ref and an active player! Still 4/5 stars, I've had fun and I got a little bit more Ezra!

This was one of my most anticipated reads this year but unfortunately it was a bit of a let down. I really love the puckboys-series but this book couldn’t really keep up with the rest of the series. I don’t really enjoy the brother‘s best friend trope, but Eden Finley and Saxon James have a way of making it good. With Easton and Knox it was a little too much for me though. I just had some problems with them in general. They were cute together but I found every single other relationship in this book more interesting than them. Like the brotherly relationship between Connor and Easton, the friendship between Connor and Knox, the obvious setup for Connor’s own book… I was honestly so much more excited for Connor than for Easton and Knox and it wasn’t even his own book yet… I don’t know, I think their feelings and conflicts just felt a bit forced to me. I also expected much more Collective content. Especially with the way the book was marketed, I thought the fundraiser game would be much more of a focus in this book. And the whole ref x player trope was also not as present as it was made out to be. All in all, I had very different expectations for this book that weren’t really met but it was still a cute, easy and enjoyable read. And I’m already super hyped for the next book!

More like a 3.5*, I think Gods, how I love that this series keeps on giving. (Though I am pretty sure I caught the hints for the next book and I am not going to like the premise, but I might be surprised, who knows) THIS BOOK though has a lot of flawed people on its plate and that led to me having a lot more FEELINGS than I anticipated and I loved it for that. The brothers' relationship had my heart wrenching so hard, the PINING and YEARNING was UNREAL, the love interest acted like an utter idiot in the third act and it all had me on the edge of my seat, flying through this. The charity match scene?! Chef's Kiss, please just give me a million more queer collective scenes, I want them ALL. Ezra continues to own my heart <3 CNs for self doubt/fear of failure, struggle for independence, miscommunication on many a front, references to past high school bullying

Ich habe mich so unendlich auf einen neuen Puckboys Teil gefreut, hatte aber unter dem Trope "Ref X Player" etwas anderes erwartet, und vor allem deutlich mehr Interessenskonflikte, bzw. wie der Titel schon sagt, eine "forbidden" Beziehung. Friends to lovers bzw. Brother's best friend sind Tropes, auf die ich mich gerne einlasse, wenn ich sie denn erwarte. So hat dem Buch einfach ein bisschen erwartete Spannung gefehlt und es hat mich auch nicht so sehr in seinen Bann gezogen, wie alle bisherigen Puckboys, irgendwie war auch der Humor ein bisschen blasser als sonst. Aber so viel dazu. Geliebt habe ich das Collective Gettogether, da fehlt mir persönlich eigentlich ein ganzes Buch, wie die Fake Boyfriends Breakaways. Aber ich nehme alles, was ich kriegen kann, ich liebe die einfach sehr. Das Anteasern von Possessive Puckboy, das im März erscheinen wird, fand ich richtig stark und hab schon richtig Bock drauf - ich habe mir mit dem ersten Auftreten von Parker schon gedacht, dass ich da gerne was lesen würde. Auch wenn ich immer nicht so genau weiß, wie ich es finden soll, dass von drei Brüdern alle queer sind, das ist einfach so ein "dAs iSt aBeR niChT rEaLisTiScH"-Angriffspunkt, auch wenn es mich persönlich gar nicht stört. Ich hatte Spaß mit diesem Buch und werde weiterhin alles aus der Feder Finley/James verschlingen.