Hearts on Thin Ice follows hockey player Nick Sorensen, who is trying to get back into the game after tragedy turns his world upside-down.
Nick is the only survivor of a plane crash that killed his teammates and best friends. He used to be of the fastest men in hockey, but after a season off full of physical therapy and his old team dropping him, he is ready to start new, in a new city. Thought he may be ready to get back on the ice physically, he is not doing great mentally.
After learning that Nick hasn't decorated his apartment, he only has one chair and a mattress on the floor, his coach tells him to get the apartment furnished or he will have to be cleared by a therapist to play again.
Enter, Alyssa Compton, an up-and-coming interior designer who currently works for the boss from hell. When Nick says he is only willing to work with Alyssa, who he meet at his teammates house, her boss is confused but accepts it. Alyssa wants to work enough to get her own client base, with hopes of opening her own business at some point. But Nick turns out to be a complicated client, he doesn't have too many feelings on what he wants in his space, if he even wants it decorated at all, and only has only rule, don't touch the other room.
As they continue to work together, Alyssa starts to understand what Nick has gone through, and why he is nervous to start over completely new. Nick has been keeping himself from living because he doesn't feel like he deserves it. But their partnership for decorating starts to turn into something more, but Alyssa isn't sure if she will be able to stay in the city, and Nick doesn't know if he wants to let anyone that close again.
Though a complicated path of feelings, regret and hope, Alyssa and Nick start to feel real feelings for each other, but how are you supposed to love someone who have paid to work on your place, and how is she supposed to explain it to her overbearing boss?
Overall, I thought this book was a fun twist on the 'hockey' romance genre. Nick, as the hockey player, has been through a lot more than some of the characters in the other book, instead of the book being about him being a hockey player. Nick has a lot of more deep down, complicated things going on. He has survivors guilt that effects his life in and outside of hockey. He is not even sure he can move on at some points of the story. Alyssa is good at her job, but her boss is horrible, and the more she tries to escape, the worse it gets.
Even with the interesting take on the story, there are times the book fell a bit short for me. It was still a sports romance, and mostly did a great job. I did like the running joke that Alyssa 'pretended' to know about hockey, so people would tell her the wrong things and she would repeat those to the players.
Do check the trigger warnings on this one, there is a lot of mentions of death, plane crashes, depression, anxiety, etc.
This book was a 3.5/5 star read for me.
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