Savannah is a semi-pro hockey player and a veterinarian when she’s not on the ice. Her mothers (yes, plural) continually harass her about her perpetually single status, going so far as to set her up on a number of disastrous blind-dates.

Maddie has been burned by a relationship that went sour and is not looking for a relationship either. Nevertheless, Savannah’s teammate and best friend Kelly hits on her relentlessly. She and Savannah decide that the best way for both of them to stay out of relationships is to get into a fake one.

This story is told in third person, alternating POV, so we see Maddie falling hard for Savannah, who remains clueless for a while. The relationship is cute, with a bit of sexual tension. The supporting cast is interesting, but don’t really seem to have much going on outside of being Savannah’s and Maddie’s incredibly intuitive support system. The sports scenes didn’t overwhelm the narrative, and I thought we would see more of Savannah the vet, but the focus is on the romance.

The ending wrapped things up nicely but left just enough loose ends that I feel we may see these two again, maybe not in their own book but as supporting characters in another one.

My rating: 3.5 stars

I received this ARC via NetGalley and the publisher in return for an honest review.

This is the story of Savannah Wells, a semi-professional hockey player and Madison Scott a professional photographer. This story takes place in the same universe as Trebelhorn's "On the Fly," with the same hockey league as well as the main characters in that novel Court and Lana making appearances.

In "Face Off," Savannah and her new next-door neighbor Madison cook up a fake dating plan in order to get Savannah's mother Lisa to stop setting her up on terrible blind dates. Savannah is perpetually single and is still hurting from her last real relationship in college. Madison has moved from Chicago to flee the end of an abusive relationship. Over the course of the book, the characters find fake dating isn't enough as their attraction builds but will their pasts continue to haunt them?

I enjoyed the relationship between Savannah and Madison but the real star of this novel for me was Savannah's best friend Kelly. Having read "On the Fly" recently I found the similarities between the two novels pretty striking and had a little trouble keeping the stories straight. I would have liked Savannah to have a bigger personality aside from being plagued with insecurities of her college relationship. Still, an enjoyable read, especially if you like hockey!

Nice enough read. Super hot scenes, very likable characters, both the main ones, Savannah and Maddie, but also all the minor ones as well. It's an easy read, you go very quickly through it, which has its own advantages. I wasn't very sold on this particular fake dating reason - to me it wasn't convincing enough, but it's a quite decent read.

This was an okay read that could have been so much better. One of the best parts is the characters, both the MCs and the secondary ones, from Savannah’s two mothers to her best friend Kelly and Maddie’s family.

Savannah West is a semipro hockey player and a veterinarian. She’s « perpetually single » and is content with one-night-stands with women she meets clubbing with her teammate and best friend Kelly, an unrepentant flirt. Madison Scott is a photographer who just moved next door to Savannah and has been hired to be the official photographer for the team. After Lisa, one of Savannah’s mothers, tries to set them up, they decide to pretend to be dating so that Lisa will stop her matchmaking and Kelly won’t hit on Maddie (which is probably the less plausible motive for a fake romance I’ve read in a while).

The way Maddie and Savannah meet is a bit absurd. Who asks to take a shower at a neighbour’s they’ve never met? Maddie is going to her sister’s, I know all families aren’t close but these sisters are, and she totally could have arrived all sweaty after just moving in, it wouldn’t have been a problem.

There are really good things too. I liked that the fake romance plot was more Maddie and Savannah trying to convince themselves it was fake when they were obviously attracted to each other from the start. Later, there’s this moment where their not-fake-anymore relationship is on the verge of breaking up because of Savannah’s issues with trust, and both MCs’ backstories have been skillfully laid out so the situation makes sense and doesn’t seem forced for the sake of angst.

The blurb doesn’t mention this, but it seems Face Off is a spin-off of On the Fly, whose main characters, Court and Lana, are getting married in this book. I read it as a standalone and don’t think I missed anything vital, but I’m a bit anal about reading series in order, so I wish I’d known beforehand. Then again, I really don’t think it would have changed anything.

I received a copy from the publisher and I am voluntarily leaving a review.

Received an ARC from Netgalley in exchange for a honest review. I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own

The only bit I really liked is the opening of the book, the banter between Savannah and her moms.
What bugs me is when I’m 15 minutes into reading a book and there is already a thought about shoving someone against a wall and having their way with them, or fantasies about kissing them. I’ve notice this in several lesfic, and each time it kills my excitement a little. It feels too soon, I’ve barely started the book. Let me get to know the characters before all that. There needs to be some build up. They had one meet. 15 minutes, maybe 500 words exchanged in that time. I don’t buy that instant attraction and connection.
And I don’t understand their weak reason for fake dating. Just date for real!
Of course they both have a sad backstory love wise. The story is predictable and and somewhat boring. It falls very flat.
How the hell did this span over 6 months? It only read like a month or two. Not once during the six months did they discuss their feelings. And omg I hated that ending! It feels like it came out if nowhere.
It couldn’t keep my attention and I had to put it away for a few days before I could finish it.

Fake dating is one of my favoritt tropes and this was one of the book I was most excited about in dec, and I just ended up feeling disappointed

I was looking forward to this book so much since I love fake relationship. However, I was kinda disappointed in the way it was presented. I dont mind them liking each other from the get go. it's just that it was super fast for me I did not get to enjoy or feel the fake part not to mention that many things were, well unrealistic that made me not connect with them, it's not about the author writing, it's great but this book was not for me. Having said that, i finished it quite quickly and i liked the supporting characters.

ARC received via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

This is a follow-on from On the Fly and features MC Savannah, who is a hockey player/veterinarian and friend of Court from On the Fly. The other MC is Madison, a photographer who has just moved in next door to Savannah. There’s instant attraction between them but Savannah had her heart broken in college and has refused to get involved with anyone since and Madison just got out of a toxic relationship.

The two agree to ‘fake date’ to stop Savannah’s mother from trying to set her up and apart from Court and Lana from the previous book, lie to everyone else about the relationship. There’s plenty of secondary characters, mostly family members of both MCs and some of Savannah’s teammates. Unlike other fauxmances, these two actually like each other and spend time together even when not in the company of people they’re trying to convince. They build a solid friendship before decided to make their fauxmance real. Some of this happens off screen and there’s a good passage of time so it unfolds fairly organically.

Court and Lana feature quite a bit, and I enjoyed catching up with them. There’s also some hockey, but it’s not the focus of the story. I did think the last 20% of the story was a bit rushed, so that affected the rating. I didn’t see the point of including Maddie’s ex, it just seemed to be inserted for the sake of some drama, but thankfully didn’t last long. I also felt the HEA was very quick, I was actually surprised when it happened. I assume there will be a third story featuring Savannah’s BFF Kelly, it seemed to be being set up here.

This is a fairly sweet romance, and a nice follow up to On the Fly. 3.75 stars.

I was really looking forward to this read, being a huge sports fan and a fake relationship fan, but something about this book just didn't' work for me.

Although this isn't really flagged as a series, it's really set in the same universe as Trebelhorn's book On the Fly. I'm usually a stickler for reading books in order, but I didn't get the chance to read OTF, and it didn't matter one bit for my enjoyment of this story. Yes, there's cameos and references to characters from OTF, but this story is a complete standalone novel all by itself.

As the blurb states, this book features hockey player Savannah and her new next door neighbor Maddie. For some odd reason, they decide to fake date, and I'm still trying to wrap my head around exactly why this had to be done. Yes, it's explained, but I really didn't see the point. The relationship itself doesn't' move too fast, covering what I think I remember as around 6 months or so, but the book felt too quick. It felt like it really lacked character development and was actually way too short. Overall, this was a very quick read for me and I think that Trebelhorn should have added in more pages just for more character development because this felt lacking.

Overall, it's not a bad book, it just left me with the feeling that it could have been so much more. 3.25 stars.

**Many thanks to Bold Strokes for providing me with an ARC in exchange for my honest review.**

This book was a fun read, the suspense was just delicious. I would have liked a bit more effort when coming to the back stories and the antagonists.

Let’s just say this book was not for me. While I appreciate the author’s writing style, the storyline was not believable from the start and I think this is the reason why I couldn’t connect to the MCs. I did really like the idea of the book and I thought it could’ve been a great one.
I just questioned so many things that happened starting with the fact that the first time the MCs meet is when one of them moves next door to the other and knocks on the door to ask to have a shower ! I personally have not ever seen or heard anyone do that in real life. After the shower was done, she borrows clothes because her clothes are still packed in boxes.
The story did get more entertaining after that I have to say, and I did like the supporting characters and dialogues. I’m not a big fan of hockey but I would’ve liked to see more of the team/sports side of this read. But it also didn’t bother me that it didn’t play a big in the plot.
My rating is a 2.5.
“I received an ARC for an honest review.”

3.5 stars This was an easy short read. I typically like fake romances but this one barely qualifies. Usually you have more angst between the fake lovers but these two fell much faster than usual. I anticipated more drama with Maddie's ex and felt like there was a missed opportunity in the last few chapters of the book. I liked the sports aspect. It was enough to make it a sports themed storyline but not so much that it felt like a written play by play that some lesfic books end up as. If you like sports, ex drama and instalove this book is for you.
I received an ARC of this book from the publisher via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

Fake relationship sometimes tend to be popular when it comes to some lesbian romances and I do secretly enjoy reading them. As I was reading this one, I knew it wasn't going to be one of my top favorites in the fake dating romances because the reasoning for the fake relationship wasn't that great. Despite that, I still liked the cheesiness of it. I did like both Savannah and Madison and there was some chemistry between upon them meeting. Again, this isn't the strongest fake relationship, but I liked that they didn't really dislike each other or that they had to grow on each other. They pretty much knew from the beginning that they would have a hard time keeping their hands off of each other. I do think it started out stronger than it ended. The ending was rushed and maybe an epilogue would have been better in place of the last chapter.

3.5 stars.

I received an ARC copy of this book from the Publisher via Netgalley and voluntarily leaving my review.

Savannah is a vet and hockey player which is really her passion she swore off relationships because of what happen in college with her girlfriend Shauna and it causes her to put walls up she doesn't mind hooking up with a woman which she usely does when she hanging out with her best friend Kelly.

Maddie just move in next door to Savannah she coming off a bad breakup she a photographer when they meet is when Maddie needs to use Savannah shower because her gas wasn't turn on and they both are completely drawn to each other.

They learn they have friends in common which put them into each other orbit more when Savannah mother Lisa keeps trying to set her up and when she meets Maddie she tries to get them together. When Maddie suggest they pretend to date to get Savannah mother off her back it becomes a struggle when over the six months of pretending seems to be not pretending at all when they develop real feelings for each other.

I like this read even though I think it shoulda been more development between because in the first book which was On The Fly we was introduce to Courtney and Lana we had more to invest in them and we do see them in this book but overall it was good book to read little bit of asgnt with Maddie ex coming back to make trouble and Savannah thinking Maddie like Shauna her ex. Hilton is still an a** and if this is a series I hope the next book is about Kelly.

You could say this is the second book in the hockey series, the first one being On the Fly. On the Fly was pretty good and I really wasn't sure what to expect with this one. In the first one we were introduced to Savannah and Kelly and this book is about Savannah. She gets a new next door neighbor, Maddie, who is gorgeous. As the synopsis says they decide to "date" each other to get Savannah's mom Lisa off her back.

Overall, I liked the book for what it gave me. I didn't like the book for what it didn't give me. It just didn't give me enough. It didn't give me enough reason that a stranger would offer or accept a "dating" agreement. It didn't give me enough to believe Savannah would change her "dating" ways. I like how the story moved along over the course of over 6 months or more but I felt that it didn't develop the characters enough for me to care about them. Like I said, I liked it for it gave but it didn't give me enough to really love the book. An easy 3 stars for me. Oh and hockey, unlike the first book, is not a primary thing in this one which is ok but I thought I'd give a heads up.