WHAT’S INSIDE THE GUIDE

🏒 Thought-provoking discussion questions
🏒 Lucy and Buzz character breakdowns
🏒 Then-and-now emotional themes
🏒 Second-chance, forgiveness, and trust discussions
🏒 Northbend locations and hockey-operations details
🏒 Playlist inspiration and dream casting
🏒 Themed snacks, cocktails, and mocktails
🏒 Wild Card–inspired book club games and activities
🏒 Behind-the-book insights from Kristen
🏒 Bonus questions and Minnesota Frosthawks extras

PERFECT FOR READERS WHO LOVE…

🔥 High school sweethearts-to-enemies-to-lovers
🔥 Emotional second-chance romance
🔥 Forbidden owner’s daughter × hockey player tension
🔥 Forced proximity and workplace complications
🔥 Slow-burn yearning with a low-spice payoff
🔥 A chaos hockey hero × controlled heroine
🔥 He fell first—and never stopped
🔥 Then-and-now memories filled with unfinished business
🔥 Found family within a professional hockey team
🔥 A matchmaking basset hound who steals every scene

ABOUT THE BOOK

Before Ty “Buzz” Burns became the Minnesota Frosthawks’ unpredictable number thirteen, he was the boy Lucy Thomas loved—and the one who broke her heart without ever telling her why.

Years later, Lucy returns to Northbend determined to prove herself as the Frosthawks’ new Director of Player Operations. The position is already complicated enough without being forced to work alongside her first love—especially when her father owns the team and getting involved with a player could jeopardize everything she has worked to build.

But Buzz has never forgotten Lucy. Beneath the easy grin, reckless reputation, and relentless coffee deliveries is the same boy who once promised she was the part of his future he would always take with him. With old feelings resurfacing, long-buried truths coming to light, and one meddling basset hound repeatedly pulling them together, Lucy and Buzz must decide whether their history is a warning—or proof that some love stories deserve another chance.

Emotional, heartfelt, and filled with slow-burn yearning, locker-room found family, and hard-earned forgiveness, Wild Card #13 is a standalone contemporary hockey romance about first love, unfinished business, and finding the courage to choose each other again.

A NOTE FROM KRISTEN

Dear Reader,

Wild Card #13 began with a question I couldn’t stop thinking about: What happens when the first love you never truly got over is suddenly standing across the office—and the truth that could change everything arrives years too late?

Lucy and Buzz’s story is about the distance between intention and impact, the courage it takes to ask for forgiveness, and the even greater courage it takes to trust a second chance. I loved bringing them home to Northbend, surrounding them with the wonderfully chaotic Frosthawks family, and—of course—letting Dottie interfere whenever necessary.

Whether you’re reading with a book club, sharing the story with a friend, or enjoying it on your own, thank you for giving Lucy and Buzz a place in your reading life. I hope this guide inspires conversations about first love, family expectations, forgiveness, and the people who may still be worth fighting for.

With love,
Kristen Hope Mazzola

READ NEXT

WHAT TO READ AFTER WILD CARD #13

Not ready to leave the Shots on Goal universe? Choose your next romance based on what you loved most about Lucy and Buzz’s story.

PUBLIC ENEMY #91
Read this next if you want to stay with the Minnesota Frosthawks.

Return to Northbend and discover how Alois Müller—the league’s favorite villain—and brilliant PR strategist Bea Ribeiro became one of the Frosthawks’ most unforgettable couples. Expect fake dating, forced proximity, media chaos, slow-burn tension, and familiar faces from Wild Card #13.

CHERRY PICKED
Read this next if you loved watching a hockey hero fall completely and unapologetically.

When rookie hockey player Chase Harding meets small-town ballerina Nikki Jennings in a New York City bookstore, one perfect day becomes a once-in-a-lifetime love. Their story is romantic, hopeful, and filled with fate, firsts, big dreams, and a hero who falls fast and loves with his whole heart.

HAT TRICK
Read this next if you loved the forbidden romance, slow-burn yearning, and found family.

Begin at the very start of the original Shots on Goal series with Myla Cox and Gavin Hayes. A former figure skater rebuilding her life and her brother’s completely off-limits hockey rival find unexpected love amid grief, healing, family loyalty, and the New York Otters.

LOW BLOW
Read this next if the emotional healing and hard-earned hope stayed with you.

Championship boxer Griffin Hayes survived because he received a transplanted heart. Olive Cooper is the grieving mechanic whose father’s heart saved him. Deeply emotional and ultimately hopeful, their romance explores grief, survivor’s guilt, identity, found family, and learning how to truly live after loss.

Whichever story you choose, another unforgettable couple—and another hard-earned happily ever after—is waiting for you.

READING WITH YOUR BOOK CLUB?

Tag your photos, annotations, snack spreads, and hockey romance chaos:

@khmazz

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© 2026 Kristen Hope Mazzola. All rights reserved.