An ultimatum from her professor thrusts Summer Preston into an unexpected collision with hockey captain Aiden Crawford. She’s caught in a delicate balance between fulfilling her lifelong dream of becoming a sport psychologist and veering far away from this god-awful sport.
For Aiden Crawford, being the captain of the college hockey team has its perks, except when a reckless mistake by his team threatens to jeopardize their entire season. Consequently, his coach nominates him as the subject of a research paper. It's the last thing he wants to do, especially since the girl leading the project looks like she could wield his skates as a weapon.
Summer can't stand his blasé approach to life, and Aiden doesn't understand her uptight, scheduled one. They are off to a rocky start, and provoking each other is what they do best, but defeat isn't something either of them is willing to accept.
For Aiden Crawford, being the captain of the college hockey team has its perks, except when a reckless mistake by his team threatens to jeopardize their entire season. Consequently, his coach nominates him as the subject of a research paper. It's the last thing he wants to do, especially since the girl leading the project looks like she could wield his skates as a weapon.
Summer can't stand his blasé approach to life, and Aiden doesn't understand her uptight, scheduled one. They are off to a rocky start, and provoking each other is what they do best, but defeat isn't something either of them is willing to accept.
Title: Collide (Off the Ice #1)
Author: Bal Khabra
Publisher: Berkley Publishing Group
Expected Publication Date: May 14, 2024
Review:
Thank you to Berkley Publishing Group and NetGalley for providing me with an egalley of this book to read and give my honest review. The opinions expressed here are my own.
Summer Preston dislikes hockey so when she's given an ultimatum from her advisor to take on a hockey player for her project that will help her get into graduate school, she begrudgingly sucks it up. Saddled with Adien Crawford, the hockey's teams senior captain, she's determined to dislike him but still make the project work so she can pursue her dream. What she's not expecting is to find a warm hearted, genuine guy, who is loyal to a fault. They have a rocky start but then form a tenuous friendship that finds them spending time together and being drawn to one another.
I love me a good sports romance but there is just something about hockey romance that gets me every, single time. I will always add it to my TBR. I was excited to see this one offered when the author got picked up by Berkley and had to have a crack at it as I'd heard some great things about it. I was pleasantly surprised by this new author,
If you're looking for a book with heavy plot this one doesn't really have that. There is an underlying plot that kind of blows up at the end, true to any romance book of this type, But if you are looking for fluff and romance and swoon, then you've come to the right place. If you're looking for a frenemies, forced proximity, reverse grumpy sunshine book, this is for you!
Summer Preston is my girl. She knows what she wants. She's not afraid to ask. And I loved how her character morphed and changed to go from someone who doesn't want to burden others with her stuff to taking the help she might need. I was a little surprised with her acceptance of how Donny Rai, her ex, treats her pissed me off. I wanted to see her stand up to him more and realize he was playing her but it didn't happen. I will say given her hate of hockey, and hockey players, she does easily integrate into that life without much push back. Her Daddy issues come through but not enough to really stop her from immediately accepting and interacting with all the guys from the team. This is something I would have liked to see more: her struggle with accepting being part of it all. Her childhood friend is on the team, her friend from her classes is on the team, so she does associate and it seems not in line with what she says about it from the beginning.
Adien Crawford is a warm hearted, golden retriever of an MMC. He's not at all what I thought he would be at first, which was cocky and full of himself. Instead, he's a caring guy who wants to make sure everyone is safe and happy. It totally took me by surprise. But I was happy to see an MMC with such a big heart. He wears his emotions right on his sleeve and I adore that he's not afraid to show them. I will say, he was quick to turn from never settling down to suddenly finding the one. Going from more of a hook up player to someone who is ready for a real relationship kind of seemed like a jump for me. I would have liked to see this explored a bit more. But I guess when you find the one, you just know. He had so much patience with Summer though I do think at times he let her walk all over him because he wasn't willing to hurt her.
As with most romance books like this, we see a slew of side characters: particularly Adien's hockey team friends and Summer's dorm mates. I loved how the story wove them in and gave opportunities for them to have their own stories in future books. I'm looking forward to more Tyler, Dylan, Kian, Eli,
I loved all the smut and fluff in this book. But my biggest love was the banter. It was everywhere. If a book has me laughing out loud, I consider that a huge success. The writing was good. From the reviews of this title as an indie publication, you would think it didn't make any sense, but editing must have done this book well because I liked it.
I liked the diverse cultural representation in this book, as well. My past experience with sports romance have never shown such diversity. But Khabra wove in so many different cultures in this book, I was happy to see it. I'm hoping she continues this diversity for her future books. I will definitely be following this series and other books written by this author.
Fans of Elle Kennedy 's Off Campus/Briar U/Campus Diaries and Hannah Grace's Maple Hills series will eat this story up.
RATING: ⭐⭐⭐⭐
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Bal is a Canadian writer, romance enthusiast, and book lover. Before she decided to jump into the romance pool, she spent her time gushing about books on social media.
She loves reading about love, watching movies about love, and now, writing about it herself. There really isn’t much else that gets her heart fluttering the way HEAs do. She fell in love with writing and hopes to continue living out her romance author dreams.
She loves reading about love, watching movies about love, and now, writing about it herself. There really isn’t much else that gets her heart fluttering the way HEAs do. She fell in love with writing and hopes to continue living out her romance author dreams.
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