Kate McPhee is from hockey family, the only problem is she doesn't play anymore.
Kate McPhee works in a bookstore in Mystic Falls, her hometown that she moved back to after ending a bad relationship.
She is comfortable in her book filled world, avoiding the craziness of having a family obsessed with hockey, a sport she has long kept away from.
When her brother Connor comes home for the winter festival, and their dad's sixtieth birthday, he tries to get her back on the ice as a gift to their dad. After putting on the goalie pads and lacing up her skates on last time, she starts to feel a spark of something she lost.
At the same time, Connor has brought one of his teammates from the Glendale Magic home with him, Wes Darling. Wes, sees Kate reading near the rink and decides to flirt with her, not knowing she 1) knows how to skate and 2) is his teammates sibling.
The problem? Kate has a strict no dating hockey players rule. But Wes is determined to make her break it.
Wes is the hotshot star of the team, who goes after what he wants, and what he wants is Kate. After asking Connor if he can ask his sister out, he goes for it, only to be told 'no' unless he can win a bet against her. As they continue to flirt and hang out, Kate starts to wonder if her rule is the right way to go. They start to grow closer, keeping their relationship on the downlow, with Kate fearing heartbreak and Wes worried about her brother. When they finally come clean to themselves and their families, they have to face the demons of their pasts.
This hockey book was a bit different than some others I've read. I will also be super honest, I haven't read the other books in the Mystic Falls series, and I'm sure those characters show up in this text, but I've only read this one so far. I liked that both the main characters had a connection to hockey, with various opinions on the sport overall. Having two characters who knew the sport and seeing the sport written well were really exciting for me.
There is some mention of the toxic environment that hockey can sometimes be, especially for Wes who has to deal with the fall out of calling one of his former teammates out for assaulting someone but the story deals with that well.
Kate also has her far share of past trauma, that she must work through in order to accept the love that Wes willing to give her. One thing that really stuck out for me with this story is Kate having to work through having a past relationship take away or discount something her once loved. Her ex talked her out of liking hockey, in a time when she felt like she was losing it anyway, making it hard for her to find herself after they broke up. I think having a character go through that journey of finding what actually means something to them and learning that they were wronged in the past was really powerful.
That being said, there are some mentioned of abuse within this book, so make sure you can handle that when you go to read it. There are also some spicy scenes within the text, which definitely makes this book more for an adult audience.
I really enjoyed this book and its twist on the 'hockey romance' that has seemed to take over the world.
A 3.5/5 star read for me.
This book is scheduled to come out on Jan 23, 2024!
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