He’s on edge while she’s en pointe in this fake-dating sports romance from the author of the smash hit Collide.
Elias Westbrook, a newly drafted hockey player for the Toronto Thunder, is facing the challenges of fame and media scrutiny. With a growing fan base and too many expectations on his shoulders, he’s struggling to make his first career goal. The tabloids are reporting on his every move, including which woman he was last seen with, but all he wants to do is escape the spotlight.
Enter from stage left Sage Beaumont, an aspiring ballerina with dreams of joining the Aurora Ballet Theatre, but her lack of popularity online leaves her at a major disadvantage for securing the lead role. When Sage finds herself with the perfect opportunity to make her dreams come true by fake dating Elias, she takes her shot.
Soon enough, the flimsy fake-dating rules they set in place fall away in the face of their sizzling connection. But before things spiral out of control, Sage and Elias will have to decide if they’re willing to take the leap together or if they'll call it quits.
Elias Westbrook, a newly drafted hockey player for the Toronto Thunder, is facing the challenges of fame and media scrutiny. With a growing fan base and too many expectations on his shoulders, he’s struggling to make his first career goal. The tabloids are reporting on his every move, including which woman he was last seen with, but all he wants to do is escape the spotlight.
Enter from stage left Sage Beaumont, an aspiring ballerina with dreams of joining the Aurora Ballet Theatre, but her lack of popularity online leaves her at a major disadvantage for securing the lead role. When Sage finds herself with the perfect opportunity to make her dreams come true by fake dating Elias, she takes her shot.
Soon enough, the flimsy fake-dating rules they set in place fall away in the face of their sizzling connection. But before things spiral out of control, Sage and Elias will have to decide if they’re willing to take the leap together or if they'll call it quits.
Title: Spiral (Off the Ice #2)
Author: Bal Khabra
Publisher: Berkley
Expected Publication Date: January 28, 2025
Review:
Thank you to NetGalley and Berkley Publishing Group for supplying me with an egalley of this book to read and give my honest review. The opinions expressed here are my own.
I adored the first book in this series, Collide. It was unexpected from an author I hadn't heard for before. That made me really want to continue on to see the story lines of the other characters I met there. Sprial is the story of Elias Westbrook, who we met in book one, and Sage Beaumont, a newly introduced characters.
I will say, I went into this book with high expectations given how much I loved the first book. I wanted it to give me the same feel. Unfortunately, that was not the case.
Elias Westbrook, definitely a grump in this grumpy/sunshine book. He's had some trouble in his past and is paying for it, literally. Being the handsome young rookie on the Toronto Thunder team has has thrust him into the media spotlight. And the media has painted him in a playboy light, when he is nowhere near what they are trying to show the public. He doesn't want to open up for anyone. And he certainly doesn't want to be romantically involved with anyone. His focus is on his career and keeping his nose clean. He doesn't expect Sage Beumont, and he certainly doesn't expect how she makes him feel. However, the amount of tease with him was just annoying for me. He had this big secret he was holding back and I felt like he was stringing Sage along for much of the book. When the big reveal finally happens, I was not impressed. Plus, the actual reveal made no sense given what they had already done together. I don't want to spoil it so I'll just leave it at that.
Sage has one sole focus: get the lead role in the ballet company's showing of Swan Lake, She will do whatever she needs to make sure she can secure that role. Even if it means fake dating the man she won a date with at an auction. Social media will help her be noticed and recognized. Fake dating Eli will help with this. What she doesn't expect is to actually fall for the man. Having spent her life around hockey players, she's always kept her distance. But Elias offers her the support she needs to get her career on track. Sage is supposed to be a POC but I just don't see that worked in to where it made sense to even introduce that. If you're going to introduce this, there needs to be reasoning for it: showing socio/economic differences, showing how this may affect her ability to move forward in ballet, etc. We get a bit of the socio/economic but not enough. I felt like this part of the story fell short as the wealthy white hockey player swoops in to take care of her. It was way too superficial. I enjoyed Sage's relationship with her brother, but I just found it a little unrealistic, to be honest. How is she caring for him when she has the mess of her life? I understand he's at a boarding school but she's just not as involved as I feel like she would be if she were like his guardian.
I wasn't totally comfortable with the relationship between Sage and Eli. The potential was great. I loved the idea of them being forced together. But I wanted more of a slow burn with antics and banter and it just didn't hit for me. There was so much that could have been done to show them growing towards each other but it just felt forced to me. I needed to see their relationship grow more organically and it just didn't. I didn't feel invested in them ending up together. The slow burn was done well enough but not to the point that I felt the emotional connections I would have liked to between the characters.
I felt like the author didn't truly understand the ballet world. I feel like more research was needed to truly show what that world is like for Sage. It's just not realistic the way it's presented. And I'm confused as to why there needed to be a fake dating trope. Was it supposed to be because of Eli's background and he's vow? I don't really get why it was necessary expect to make another story line to follow that didn't really make sense for the plot line.
Overall, I was more disappointed than not with this installment of this series. I wanted to love it but there were just so many plot holes and things that didn't make any sense. I felt like I spent the entire book waiting for something to happen and it never really did. I will still pick up future books from Khabra, as I like her writing and think she has great potential as a romance author.
Author:
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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