Puck by Samantha Allen
Synopsis
“Full of mischief and romance, this book is everything you’d want in a Shakespearean retelling. A joyful, riotous romp!” —Ashley Herring Blake, award-winning author of Delilah Green Doesn’t Care
Named a Most Anticipated Romance of 2026 by Marie Claire and USA TODAY
In this A Midsummer Night’s Dream-inspired romcom, Puck is a reality show producer and agent of chaos with a talent for bringing people together . . . and tearing them apart.
Meet Puck: the nonbinary, thirty-year-old mastermind behind Homewreckers, a dating show that puts troubled couples through hell—with a little help from their exes. Used to being the one pulling the strings, it shocks Puck when their life undergoes a plot twist of its own and their college roommate Mia announces her engagement to her ex’s best friend, Damon. Having only recently broken up with longtime-boyfriend Zander, and never having had much in common with Damon (who lovesick Lena has always pined after), Mia’s news leaves her friend group reeling—and Puck’s mind whirling.
When they arrive for a week of wedding festivities at an upscale resort in the Appalachian forest, Puck immediately sees that Mia’s marriage will lead to misery, and takes it upon themself to save their friends by rearranging the couples—without anyone finding out. But as Puck comes up against a type-A maid of honor hell-bent on making this wedding happen, it becomes clear that they will have to deliver the greatest stunt of their career. If only they can take their eyes off the bridesmaid. After all, the course of true love never did run smooth…
Written with Samantha Allen’s signature charm, wit, and an irresistible dose of Shakespearian mischief, Puck is the ultimate romcom for our chaotic era, and a celebration of the friendships that carry us through it all.
Rating
5/5
Review
Oh Puck, how I love you.
Puck by Samantha Allen is one of the most thoroughly enjoyable reading experiences I have had the pleasure of treasuring. Not only is Puck one of my new favorite literary characters, but this book was a pure, emotional delight. Never have I laughed, felt my heart been ripped apart, or cared so much about every character in a book.
Puck is a take on A Midsummer Night’s Dream with a nonbinary, morally grey main character. The book follows Puck as they are invited to their best friend from college’s wedding. However, they end up trying to break it up because they feel that their friend is making a mistake. As the producer for Homewreckers, a dating reality TV show, Puck uses their skills to try and manipulate those involved in the wedding and match their friend up with her ex-boyfriend who Puck thinks that they should be with instead of their fiancé. But Puck doesn’t expect to find a spicy pairing with their college friend’s new best friend and maid of honor, Robyn, which throws a wrench in their plans.
This novel explores the reality of growing older, and how sometimes the friendships that you thought would last forever change and sometimes drift post-college.
“You never get too old to need rescuing from yourself.”
Allen has a gift with creating a large cast of characters that includes multiple well-developed personalities. While some characters felt like placeholders, the rest were all essential and so loveable. Even Puck, who doesn’t make the best choices, is such a joy. There is so much pain, passion, and love in these characters and this book. It was a fun, bittersweet ride that ultimately ends in a realistic happy ending that isn’t perfect.
“’I think sometimes people need to lose everything in order to fix their lives.’”
Being queer while surrounded with heterosexual friends or acquaintances comes with its difficulties that aren’t spoken about often enough. Allen touched on this well by highlighting how in heterosexual relationships and cisgender lives, there tends to be a set course of what is “expected.” Such as getting married and having kids, for example. While this isn’t always the case, there isn’t a set “script” for those of us who are queer, which can feel like drifting as you try to navigate finding and embracing yourself. Not to mention exploring queer relationships if you want a relationship, and fighting the hurdles that we have to navigate as queer folx, such as safety concerns, planning families, etc.
Allen worded this in a way that resonated with me on a deep level, because it can often be so hard to talk about:
“Sometimes they laughed about the differences between their life paths. But in Puck’s worst moments, the disparity fed their deep, almost unutterable insecurity that queerness was sort of perpetually delayed adolescence. It felt sometimes like heterosexual life at least had the dignity of evolving seasons, while being queer was a sort of eternal summer, pleasurable but ephemeral, and ultimately meaningless.”
Puck evolves beautifully throughout this novel to better understand how their actions are impacting their friends, while facing insecurities. The conflict was gutting, and reading this book felt like watching a soap opera that had everything, in true Shakespearean style.
“Puck was right about everything, and yet so wrong at the same time, and while that might seem puzzling, they know now that intent and action are not the same.”
There was also a primary character with obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), and it was represented very well (coming from someone who also lives with the disorder.) Although this character’s illness was mentioned briefly, Allen gave some vital insight into what the disorder is like living with every day, while adding essential depth to this character.
To avoid spoilers, I am hiding the name of the character in the following quote:
“‘I used to think that if things didn’t go a certain way, or follow a certain track, that something terrible would happen to me or the people I love. Like if I took the ‘wrong’ road home from work, I thought I’d get in a car accident and die – or kill somebody. A kid, even. Sometimes the anxiety would get so overpowering that I’d pull over and wait hours for the traffic to stop and the roads to empty before drive home.’”
“It’s hard for Puck to imagine someone with so much drive having airplane crashes and brain-eating bacteria playing in her mind on a constant loop-not because they doubt it happens, but because it seems so cosmically unfair that it does.”
Without giving too much away, just know that you don’t need to know A Midsummer Night’s Dream to enjoy this book. If you are looking for a fun ride of a novel with emotional intensity and perfect character development, Puck is an essential read.
*Thank you to Zando for the PR package!
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