Hockey’s most hated player just asked me to marry him.
Connor Grace is the league’s bad boy–and my best friend’s worst enemy. He’s the fallen prince of a famous hotel chain dynasty. Me? I’m the foster kid who grew up to be a librarian.
I never thought I’d end up in a marriage of convenience to make someone’s grandma happy, but here we are.
I have no plans to kiss my husband for any reason other than show. I have no plans to fall in love with the arrogant man dressed in a custom suit hiding intricate tattoos. But when we’re alone, he drops the mask he wears for the rest of the world. He holds me like he means it when he says I’m his. And I want to believe him.
Too bad I learned early on that fairytales aren’t real, and nothing good lasts forever.
Connor and Mildred (Dred) are both damaged—damaged by the very people who were supposed to love them. Without question. Without pretense. Without judgment. They’re broken in different ways, shaped by different hurts, but their pain runs parallel in a way that feels achingly familiar.
Mildred has never really had a home. A lifetime spent in and out of foster care could have left her bitter, but instead, it’s made her loyal, loveable, and endlessly compassionate. She shows up for the people she cares about and expects nothing in return. Her heart should be hardened, but somehow, it’s still soft. Still hopeful. She craves the kind of love that makes her feel seen—the kind that burns slow and deep and makes her feel like she finally belongs somewhere.
Connor Grace, on the other hand, is beautifully broken in a very different way. On the surface, he’s hockey’s most hated player—angry, reckless, and impossible to understand. But underneath all that, he’s a man who just wants to be loved. He grew up in a family that saw him as a disappointment—a burden, not a son. The only person who has ever truly seen him is his grandmother, Meems, who’s his entire heart.
Connor looks around the locker room and sees his teammate Flip living the kind of life he’s always wanted: a family who adores him, friends who support him, a team that always backs him, and a best friend that lights up his entire world. And it eats at him. Not out of malice, but out of envy—a painful reminder of everything he’s never had and isn’t sure he deserves. That bitterness and longing sit heavy on his chest, even as he does everything he can to hide it.
So when Meems’ health begins to decline, and Dred, Flip’s best friend and the librarian who’s unknowingly become Meems’ favorite person, is suddenly facing eviction, Connor sees an opportunity. A way to help the two people who mean the most to him. A way to do something good, something right, for once. His solution? A marriage of convenience.
“Stand down, Connor. Just because you’re everyone else’s villain doesn’t mean you need to be mine, too.”
What starts as a practical arrangement quickly becomes something neither of them expected. Because behind the sarcasm and stubbornness, Dred and Connor recognize something familiar in each other—a quiet loneliness, a shared ache for belonging. Every touch, every late-night conversation, every moment spent pretending for everyone else slowly blurs the line between fake and real.
“I don’t need to hate you, Connor.” She bends, and her hair tickles my skin as her warm, soft lips brush my cheeks. “You do it enough for the both of us.”
But Connor’s biggest battle isn’t with the world—it’s with himself. He’s terrified of becoming his father, of ruining the one good thing in his life because he doesn’t believe he’s capable of love that lasts. So instead of trusting what’s growing between them, he does what he’s always done—he pushes her away before she can leave him first.
“You pressed your fingers into a wound I’ve carried with my entire life. You cannot do something like that to me ever again. I won’t accept it. I won’t allow it.”
That moment wrecked me. Because beneath the hurt is the truth—Connor doesn’t hate love, he just doesn’t think he’s worthy of it. And Dred, with all her softness and strength, proves him wrong every single time she shows up, every time she refuses to walk away when he gives her reasons to.
“Here in this moment, I am claimed and claiming. I’m his, and he’s mine. And I never want us to end.”
Helena Hunting masterfully blends humor, heart, and heat in a story that’s both deeply emotional and beautifully hopeful. The banter is sharp, the chemistry electric, and the vulnerability? Absolutely breathtaking. Watching Connor’s walls crumble, seeing Dred’s light reach every shadow he’s spent years hiding behind; it’s everything I love about romance.
This book isn’t just about two people falling in love. It’s about forgiveness. It’s about forgiveness of others and of yourself, and realizing that sometimes love doesn’t fix your broken pieces; it simply helps you carry them better.
“You are such a beautiful miracle.”
If You Claim Me is heartfelt, sexy, and achingly tender. It’s about finding home in another person, even when you’ve spent your whole life convinced you’d never have one.