Pucking Strong - by Emily Rath (Paperback)

Highlights

• FOR FANS OF hockey romances by Hannah Grace, Elle Kennedy, Lexi LaFleur
• Brown, Grace Reilly, Rachel Reid, Helena Hunting, Anna Zabo, Sarina Bowen,
• Grace McGinty, and Sarah Blue. Readers of sexy, boundary-pushing romances
• with Tiktok/Booktok-driven fandoms by authors such as Ana Huang, Emily
• McIntire, Lucy Score, Colleen Hoover, Erin Watt, Penelope Douglas, Claire
• Contreras, and Lauren Blakely, as well as authors who write complex,
• well-developed characters like Liz Tomforde and Elsie Silver flock to Emily Rath’s
• Jacksonville Rays series as well
• NEVER BEFORE PUBLISHED!: As with Pucking Sweet (Sept 24, 2024),
• Kensington’s TP and the author’s indie-published ebook will be released at the
• same time!
• PREMIUM PACKAGE with GLITTER lamination, spot gloss and designed chapter
• headers.
• TROPES: hockey romance; sports romance; MM romance; single guardian
• romance, multiracial romance; workplace romance; a deliciously slow burn,
• mutual pining, grief/loss, found family, demisexual representation, let’s defraud
• our governments together, baking as a love language, bathtub blues, your quiet
• matches my loud, jealousy kink, bedazzled WAG jackets, hair care as a love
• language, “that’s my husband”, unprofessional massage ethics, a hopeless
• romantic double Pisces makes his bed and cries in it, a stoic Capricorn learns to
• lighten up, that trope where marrying the coworker you’re secretly in love with
• never has any consequences
• HEAT LEVEL: Very, very spicy (4 peppers)
• MM HOCKEY ROMANCE: The 4th Jacksonville Rays novel is an emotional MM
• romance between a physical therapist intern, Teddy, and Henrik, the team’s
• Swedish leftwinger.
• EMOTIONAL THEMES & NEW SETTING: Taking place in both Jacksonville,
• Florida and Sweden, this installment deals with themes of grief and blended
• families. In it, a player has to rush home to Sweden after his sister’s unexpected
• death leaves him as the primary guardian of his young niece.
• VIRAL TIKTOK SUCCESS FOR THE JACKSONVILLE RAYS: Within 6 months
• of its indie release in March 2023, #PuckingAround had accumulated more than
• 27 million views. Hashtags related to the Jacksonville Rays series overall have
• more than 20 million views.
• INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER WITH STRONG PLATFORM: Emily Rath is an
• internationally bestselling author with a ton of momentum on Tiktok. As of
• 8/15/24, she has more than 89.5k followers on the platform and more than 1.6
• million likes, plus another 35k followers on Instagram.
• BESTSELLING PRINT TRACK RECORD: The Kensington print editions of
• PUCKING AROUND (1/23/24) and PUCKING WILD (3/26/24) were USA Today
• and Publishers Weekly bestsellers that put another quarter of a million trade
• paperbacks in the market, with the former selling nearly 100k copies in its first 7
• months on sale and the latter 40k within 5 months. Expectations for PUCKING
• SWEET (9/24/24) are double that amount!
• KINKY, INCLUSIVE, QUEER, POLY, “WHY CHOOSE” (REVERSE HAREM)
• ROMANCES: The Jax Rays series is an open and inclusive world, celebrating
• themes of queer joy, ethical nonmonogamy, kink exploration, and body and sex
• positivity. Each book features at least one player on the Jacksonville Rays hockey
• team meeting and finding their love(s).
• HOCKEY ROMANCE: Hashtags associated with the subgenre
• (#HockeyRomanceBooks, #HockeyRomanceBooksTiktok, etc) have accumulated
• more than 470 million views (as of 9/22/23) on Tiktok. Driven by this Tiktok
• explosion, contemporary romance starring hockey players is one of the hottest
• and bestselling trends in romance, with mainstream outlets such as the New York
• Times marveling over its popularity (see: https://tinyurl.com/mu8y88t8).
• Kensington Reads Title Highlights: SEPTEMBER 2025
• Crucially, it's also a subgenre that’s not oversaturated in the market.
• KENSINGTON IS IN THE EMILY RATH BUSINESS: In addition to the
• Jacksonville Rays novels, Kensington is publishing paperback editions of Emily’s
• Second Sons historical romances staring with BEAUTIFUL THINGS (4/29/2025)
• as well as her hardcover adult fantasy duology, Tuonela Duet, starting with
• NORTH IS THE NIGHT in Dec 2025.
• MASSIVE SALES POTENTIAL: Acquiring independently published novels that
• have built viral momentum on Tiktok has become an enormously successful
• model for traditional publishers. Sourcebooks has sold over 1 million trade
• paperbacks in Lucy Score’s Knockmeout Series since acquiring the print-only
• rights. In 2022 alone, Things We Never Got Over sold more than 330k print
• copies, while Elle Kennedy’s The Deal sold more than 130k copies and Neon Gods
• by Katee Robert sold more than 169k print copies. On the hockey romance front,
• Atria has sold nearly 500k copies of Icebreaker by Hannah Grace.
• JACKSONVILLE RAYS SERIES ROLLOUT: One of the first authors to bring the
• why choose trope to hockey romances, Emily Rath self-published the first 2
• books in this series, PUCKING AROUND (March 2023) and PUCKING WILD
• (August 2023), and anticipates a total of 5 installments. Kensington is releasing
• the trade paperback editions of books 1 - 3 in rapid succession and publishing
• the trade paperback editions of the remaining books simultaneously with the
• author’s ebook releases.
• PERSONAL CONNECTION: As a queer person living in Jacksonville who loves
• hockey and hockey romances, Emily Rath’s joyful passion for this series is
• apparent on every page.
• EASTER EGGS: Emily layers in Easter eggs everywhere across all her novels, so
• fans of her Regency books will catch references in her Jacksonville Rays novels
• and fans of the Jacksonville Rays will notice connections in her Finnish fantasy
• duet.
• CAN BE READ AS STANDALONE: Each Jacksonville Rays novel features a
• different female main character and can be read as a standalone.