The E.M.M.A. Effect

Riley again mashes up a Jane Austen plot with professional hockey drama in her enticing second Regals Hockey romance (following Puck and Prejudice). After computer scientist Harriet Smythe’s boyfriend dumps her via text, she throws herself into her job at TrainTech, creating the Empirical Machine for Maximizing Athletics, a precision AI tool to help coaches “make more informed training decisions.” When her boss realizes that she has a personal relationship with Austin Regals hockey forward Gale Knight—her best friend’s younger brother and Harriet’s longtime crush—he insists that Harriet recruit him as a beta tester for the technology. Gale also harbors a crush on Harriet, and his performance on the ice has been “career-threatening bad” lately, so he agrees. The experiment gets off to a bumpy start when the meddling AI asks a touchy question about Gale’s estranged father, and as he and Harriet attempt to work out the bugs, Harriet is shocked by her own creation’s conclusion: that she and Gale belong together. The nods to Austen’s Emma add to the fun as submissive-leaning Gale and dominant-leaning Harriet dance around their chemistry. Riley peppers the tale with spicy scenes and handles heavy emotions with empathy. Sports romance fans will devour this well-crafted contemporary. (Dec.)