* This review is spoiler-free *
4.75/5 ⭐
Tropes
➮ Hockey romance
➮ Enemies to lovers
➮ Matchmaking
➮ One night stand
➮ Brother's rival
➮ Workplace romance
➮ Dual POV
Synopsis
Annie is thrilled to be working in professional hockey since her brothers are all players. Her new role as skating coach to the New York Bears is the perfect fit. Except one of the guys is Logan Coates—the guy who sent her brother to the hospital in a memorable game three seasons ago. She wants nothing to do with him.
Logan doesn't need some tiny figure skater telling him what to do. Although he's a fourth-liner, he wants more ice time. Learning from Annie Bang, who hates his guts. She’s a pint-sized badass, that's sexy as hell.
Best Quote From the Book
“Your cold hands aren't getting anywhere near my beefy baloney"... my man-sized manicotti... zipper sausage? How about love stick? Magic wand?"
My Thoughts
I adored this story for including a badass woman doing better than all of the men around her. Of course she's faster with less effort, that's how queens do it! But seriously, she's a FMC we can all look up to who knows her worth and doesn't take any flack from the boys. I love to see it. While she is a petite woman, she doesn't let that become her whole personality. She is also iconic for standing up for figure skating and getting some skin in the game. Overall she's a fun character who I would love to be friends with.
Speaking of iconic, Logan and Ivan are iconic for loving country music. I love seeing two strong men in sports unafraid to show their love for music which is often teased. I adore Ivan, he needs his own series just so he can be his amazing quippy self. Another character I would adore being friends with. This book does a great job of demonstrating a platonic relationship full of trust with physicality purely from the nature of figure skating. We need more really close best friends who really have no feelings for each other.
The only thing I wasn't fully in love with was how there were moments that highly promoted good communication amongst everyone but it felt like it wasn't as fleshed out as it could be. The moment everyone starts talking, it all gets resolved. In reality, I feel like there would be more pushback and would take more time to get there, especially for Logan and his father.
This book seems to me like it would be fantastic adapted into a movie. I'd especially love to see Annie and Ivan's skating routine to the song Beggin' as I just know it would be incredible. Or all of the cute moments such as Logan's jealousy that I will not spoil despite how much I want to gush about them.
I will say this book does include open-door spice and a good bit of it. That said, if you don't find that cumbersome, it can be skipped
Overall, this book does a great job with lovable characters with personalities, flaws, and complex character dynamics more indicative of real life than the average romance. It would be fantastic as a movie and was an engaging read from cover to cover.
I received this book as part of a Literary Media Tours arc team. My review is honest and voluntary
