#sadenverse

Green: Written by Eden Finley Red: Written by Both Authors Yellow: Written by Saxon James

purple is not significant, it just means the arrows are layered so its just to separate them.

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First off, the Sadenverse is a universe created across multiple series that Saxon James and Eden Finley have either written separately or co-written together. There’s no one “right way” to read these books, so you might come across minor spoilers depending on where you start. Personally, I didn’t read them in any particular order. I began with the Puckboys series, moved on to the CU Hockey series, and then jumped into the Mike Bravo Ops series without worrying too much about the reading order. That’s when I realized what the Sadenverse really was.

While reading the Mike Bravo Ops series, I discovered a couple things: first, there is a suggested reading order that doesn’t follow the chronological publication dates, and second, there are over 25 books in this universe, with more on the way from both authors. People on TikTok and Reddit have been discussing the best order to read them in. I found a map that was both helpful and a bit confusing—if that makes sense. I recommend checking out ‘Steph Sometimes Reads’ on TikTok for guidance on the reading order or this map I found on figma. The authors also have a reading order on their website, though I haven’t been able to find it myself, but others have mentioned it’s there.

Honestly, I don’t think the reading order is as crucial as some people make it out to be. If you want to dive into the entire universe, go for it! But if you’re a moody or picky reader, just read what you feel like and check the synopses and warnings for each book. I plan to read the whole universe, but I’ll drop a book if the characters start acting too stupid—I’m not about to subject myself to that, I have things to do.

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Fake Boyfriend Series

Famous Series

Mike Bravo

CU Hockey

Frat Wars

Puckboys Series (VOL 1-3)

The Husband Hoax (Accidental Love 1)

Puckboys Series (4-6)

Up In Flames

Bastard and the Heir

Headstrong

Divorced Men’s (Prequel + VOL 1-4)

Not Dating Material (Accidental Love 2)

System Overload (Divorced Men’s 5)

The Revenge Agenda (Accidental Love 3)

The Dating Disaster (Franklin U 2)

Football Royalty (Franklin U 8)

Author: Eden Finley and Saxon James

Rating: 4.5/5

Date Finished: March 28, 2025

Review: God, I fucking LOVE this series (and all the interconnected series by Eden Finley and Saxon James). The whole extended universe is so amazing.

Though I'm gonna be real, I spent the first 25% of this book feeling like I'd read it before. I'm not sure if maybe I read a preview in an email or something? But the feeling stuck around longer than a preview chapter. So that was weird. It's why it didn't get a full 5/5 lmao.

This book gives us Connor Kikishkin (one of the three Kiki brothers. we've seen the story of Easton so far, one of the other brothers, if my memory serves me correctly). He was a super overbearing brother in Easton's story. He was overprotective and it almost came across homophobic. But by the end he and his brother were good again, even if Easton ended up stealing Connor's best friend to be his boyfriend.

His love interest is Parker Duchene. Aka the guy he kinda sorta bullied in high school. The guy who quite literally purchased Connor's hockey team just to ruin Connor's life in revenge (partially, the bigger reason was because his late father was a huge fan and hockey was a huge part of their relationship). He's also a tech genius billionaire. Which fuck billionaires, but fictional ones I'll accept sometimes.

So normally I HATE bully to relationship kinds of stories. I really do. But he wasn't the actual bully, necessarily. He just turned a blind eye to the bullying. It still gave me a little bit of an ick, but I got over it. This pair definitely butted heads in the beginning of the book. Like, Connor pinning Parker to the wall kind of butting heads. And not in a sexy way (at first). But as they started actually talking to each other, the realized that maybe their first impressions of the other weren't so accurate.

Both of them go through a lot of self reflection in this book, and it's really great seeing them grow and change become better people. Seeing them move past the well, past.

I really liked the build and pacing of this story. But that's pretty much always the case for this universe. I don't think I've read a book by this pair that I've disliked. The inclusion of hockey itself was really well balanced. Not too much, not too little.

For today’s “Here are some queer books I recommend,” I have an author duo: Eden Finley & Saxon James. 

Okay, so both of these series, Puckboys and CU Hockey, are both part of the Sadenverse. The sadenverse is like a zillion interconnected books over 8 (9? 10?) series between the two authors, Eden Finley and Saxon James. Some of the serieses are co written, and some are solo by one or the other author. There’s a flowchart. It’s a whole thing. Each of the series is pretty stand alone, but if you’re the type of reader who likes cameos, this is the world for you. Also, Finley and James write all the time, so there’s always something new to read. 

First: CU Hockey. Set in Vermont, at a fictional university, these five books follow a series of hockey players playing Division I hockey (which is like pros in the college world. Very good hockey. Where you want to be to get to play for the NHL). It’s all very college-romance with crushes on people’s brothers and bisexual awakenings left and right. These books are light hearted and funny, with some sweet and tender moments. Book 5, Puck Drills and Quick Thrills, is my favorite, because it follows an assistant coach and a professor, so the protagonists are older. I know he’s happily married and busy parenting his siblings and all that, but Westly Dalton deserves more cameos in the other books. (there’s actually two coming out this summer about his much younger twin brothers, so I have hope that we’ll see some West.) 

Following the CU Hockey books are the Puckboy books, which follow various queer players in the fictional NHL as they do lots of stupid things, and try not to get into too much trouble professionally. Or in Oskar’s case, not try at all to stay out of trouble (that’s Shameless Puckboys, fyi). These books are also light-hearted and funny. One of the MCs in book 1, Egotistical Puckboys, is Ezra, and he’s the glue that holds all these books together. 

Stayed up until 2am (when my alarm goes off at 6) to finish this the same day I started because it was so good!!!

Cohen slides in next to me and taps his knuckles on the table. “How you doing?”

I eye him. “Fine, why?”

“The whole captain thing.” His voice turns serious for a moment. “I know you really wanted it. Hell, I was all set to vote for you too.”

“I appreciate that, but fair’s fair, I guess.”

He hums.

“What?”

“Well, I mean, you didn’t have to send me those photos. The fact you did proves you deserve that C on your jersey this season, but come on. Are you seriously telling me you’re that ethical? You can’t stand Beck. You had the upper hand.”

It’s clear Cohen has no clue what he’s caught on to, but the questioning is a bit too close to what’s happening to be comfortable. “It’s the catamount statue. Word would’ve got around fast. You all would have found out eventually.”

“True …”

I’m not convinced he believes me, but Beck returns before I can push it. He sets out the drinks, and when he gets to me, he hands over a Coke.

“What the hell is this?”

He winks. “I’m doing the vamp a favor. No one likes a sloppy hookup, Topher.”

And that sets off the teasing again. Beck kicks back in his seat and watches it unfold, making it clear this is for leaving him high and dry.

I clench my jaw like I normally do when he starts his shit, but this time a smile slips out.

And I’m not sure who’s taken over my body, but when Beck reaches his legs across and presses his foot against mine, the teasing becomes easy to drown out.

Fuck you, I mouth.

So after reading the Puckboys series, I decided to read the CU Hockey series. It was alright. Puckboys is so much better. But anyways here's my rapid fire review of the series.

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5. Line Mates & Study Dates (CU Hockey 4)

⭐ ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆ I really didn't like this book. Asher's POV was annoying at times, and while I understood his perspective, I just couldn’t get into it. It was so hard to read it.

4. Power Plays & Straight A's (CU Hockey 1)

⭐ ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆ This one was alright, not bad, but it’s very much an insta-love trope, which feels like a cop-out to me.

3. Goal Lines & First Times (CU Hockey 3)

⭐ ⭐ ☆ ☆ ☆ I liked this one until the end. Seth was kind of annoying and unfair to Cohen, but the representation of ace/aro people was a nice touch, something you don't see often or done well.

2. Face Offs & Cheap Shots (CU Hockey 2)

⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ☆ I’ll always love enemies-to-lovers, and this book was so addictive to read. I can't wait to see more of Beck and Jacobs in the other books.

Puck Drills & Quick Thrills (CU Hockey 5)

⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ☆ This one is the best so far. I loved Wes in the Puckboys series and it was great to see his story and how it connects with Puckboys. I absolutely loved the epilogue. Jasper and Wes had a better relationship than most of the other couples in the CU Hockey. I think it was because Wes and Jasper were adults.

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Author: Saxon James

Rating: 4.5/5

Date Finished: January 31, 2025

Review: Another banger by Saxon James. I was really looking forward to this book, especially after reading Just Bromantically Invested a couple of weeks ago. It reminded me about my boys in Big Boned Bertha.

There is a LOT of negative self talk in this book. So if that's something that's hard for you to handle, this book might not be for you, and that's absolutely understandable.

This story was a long time coming. We first really learned about Xander in Seven and Molly's book (book 2 in the series) and all of his issues. One of the major ones is abandonment issues. We also met Derek around the same time. He worked at a pharmacy as a clinic nurse. He was pretty much the go to person whenever Xander had panic attacks over his perceived health issues (he's definitely a hypochondriac). He would always check Xander over and then talk him down from his panic attacks.

He was also slowly falling for Xander whenever he would see the real Xander under all the bullshit. And man, was Xander good at bullshitting. He would always put up a front about who he was to protect himself. Because of the abandonment issues. And attachment issues (specifically with Seven and now Molly, now that Molly is such a huge part of Seven's life).

This book was just... So good. You could easily differentiate between the POVs, which some people struggle with. Each character had their own internal monologue that was purely them. I will say, the beginning was a little tough because I have friends who really do think a lot like Xander does, which is in a REALLY negative way. It hurt to see how much he hated himself and how much he was resisting help, which honestly I get. I, too, have trauma when it comes to psychologists. But I eventually pushed past that to get help and it was nice to see Xander do that, as well. Even if, at first, he did it just to appease Derek, Seven and Molly. Because he eventually DID put in the effort.

The book also touched a little on the conflict of interest in being attracted to/interested in someone you professionally treat medically. You see Derek struggle with it throughout most of the book. He doesn't want to lose his nursing license because of how much he loves what he does. But he also loves Xander.

There was a really good use of time jumps in this book. Sometimes those can really flop or break up a story. In this case, it worked out. Both time jumps were when Derek left to volunteer overseas and the characters didn't really interact. Could we have seen a little more of how Xander worked on himself in therapy? Maybe. But it also could have been really tedious and ruin the flow of the story. So I think it worked out for the best.

Near the end of the book, there was a conversation that had me crying. These are two parts of that conversation that I actually decided to highlight (something I very rarely do on my kindle, tbh).

"Things are changing, and I get the feeling nothing will be quite like this again.”

“Change is growth, which I think is beautiful. But life tends to be segmented up into a whole list of befores and afters. Before you can remember, before you were a teenager, after you became an adult. High school and college. Before you had your license. Before you lost someone you loved. Right now, it feels like one of those dividing moments."

This was SUCH a beautiful moment. It showed the growth of not only Xander and Derek, but of all the boys from Big Boned Bertha. And it was such a perfect send off for this crazy little family.

Author: Saxon James

Rating: 4.5/5

Date Finished: January 20, 2025

Review: So I missed this book when it came out in October because I was busy, uh, recovering from major surgery and having some fun complications. But I pretty much always ready anything from Saxon James as soon as it releases because her books are just so readable and enjoyable. She is definitely one of my favorite MM authors right now.

Onto the actual review/synopsis/whatever it is a normally do.

This was the 4th book in the series following the boys who live in Big Boned Bertha, a big old house in the heart of Seattle. This one focused on Madden, the nudist and his best friend since high school, Penn, who thought he was straight. Madden has basically been in love with Penn since those high school days and thought it was totally unrequited love. They even started a company together so they could spend more time together.

There's a smidge of fake relationship in this story because at one point, Penn's new friend Lana pretends they are dating so that Madden will stop trying to set Penn up with women when he doesn't actually want to date. Because of that, there is a time of perceived infidelity, so warning on that. Which means there was some seriously angst for a couple of chapters where Madden was really questioning how well he knew his best friend.

Sometimes excessive miscommunication in books can be, well really annoying. This book definitely had a decent amount of miscommunication, but a huge part of the book was these two guys who almost felt like they were stuck in a "teenage best friends" phase learned to actually talk to each other in a mature way.

We get to see these two men learn to FULLY communicate as adults. They went from "we just understand each other" to "hey, we need to learn our boundaries and how to communicate our needs to each other, because we were both hurting because of our assumptions". And that was absolutely beautiful to read.