I did not enjoy this book as whole heartedly as I expected to. It was VERY Insta...relationship I guess? Instalust would probably be a bit closer to the truth. Poppy was the best and a very key part in their meeting this disappears after Coco is out of the hospital. She is referenced some and in the final chapter but you cant have a single dad trope then effectively get rid of the child for most of it. I did not like them both lying to each other but only Coco gets to be mad about it.

It felt, to me, like a fan fiction tribute to hockey romances.

As a fan of romances, I was excited to read "The Cutting Edge" by Lisa Daily. The story is about Logan Rivers, a famous hockey player who is going through a rough patch, and Coco, an Olympic figure skater who becomes his lucky charm to pay for her training. The idea was interesting, and there were parts of the book that were fun to read.

The way Logan and Coco got along was great, and the way they talked to each other made me smile. The first time they met was fun and set the stage for what could have been a gripping story about two top athletes figuring out their jobs and relationships. But sometimes the story seemed to lose its way, and some of the plot lines didn't seem to be explored enough.

Coco's lie, which she kept secret until the playoffs, was one thing that worried me. It would have been interesting to learn more about how her acts affected their friendship outside of the hospital scenes. Speaking of which, spending too much time in the hospital meant that the ice skating part of the story didn't get as much attention as it could have.

The book could have used better writing and changes to the plot. There were a lot of mistakes, things that didn't make sense, and words that were repeated, which sometimes made me confused. Also, the story moved slowly at times, and the ending seemed rushed and left some things open.

"The Cutting Edge" had problems, but it also had its good points. It was a fun and cute romantic comedy that made me laugh a few times. I liked the characters and the general idea, but it didn't live up to its full promise because of how it was put together. This could have been a more interesting read with a few changes and edits.

2.75 ⭐️ rounded up to 3.

Thank you to NetGalley for providing an eARC of Cutting Edge by Lisa Daily in exchange for an honest review.

I read a lot of hockey romance. It’s one of my primary genres and it doesn’t take much to please me but this one threw me off kilter. The pacing and timeline of this story felt off. So many scenes and so many words are spent in the hospital that by the time we had moved on from that part of the story it felt very rushed and like suddenly plot points were being shouted at me while driving 60mph to wrap things up really quickly. I also felt like the “major conflict” was pretty disingenuous which is also felt in how quickly and easily its overcome.

I liked the premise here and I think there was a lot of potential in the characters built in this story but I don’t feel like the focus was where it would have thrived. The circumstances surrounding Logan becoming a single dad, Coco’s familial conflict, the neighbor she cares for (who is called Mrs. Markham and then randomly referred to as Mrs. Markle in a scene towards the end), the actual logistics of Coco being a skating instructor and her training, it all felt brushed over but I think they could have provided a lot more depth, emotion, and connection to this story.

This was cute and so very lighthearted, no spice you normally see in sports based romance books.
I enjoyed the characters and felt that there was some tweaking or editing that needed to happen as plots seemed to not quite hit the mark or appear from nowhere, like Coco’s ex boyfriend and yet some story arcs never seemed to fully develop Mrs Markham or Logan’s grief / becoming a parent.
I think the story was probably about 50% of Coco in hospital so distracted from the sports scene but also forced this to be a slow burn.

The ebook definitely needs an edit / read through as there were quite a few errors, inconsistencies and duplicated lines which on occasion certainly confused me!

I received this book as a free ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review

This was a nice clean romcom and I really enjoyed the book it was a fun read and I will be reading books by this author again. Thanks for letting me read this book

I really enjoyed this up until the last 50ish pages, the ending felt a bit rushed and could have used an extra 50 pages or so to feel better paced

Thank you NetGalley for an ARC of this in exchange for my honest review :)

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the eARC in exchange for this honest review.

I love contemporary romance, I enjoy a sports story, I like a good meet-ugly, so in theory this book should be my jam. I finished it, but it was a struggle. It was not good. And what is probably bugging me most is that the core outline of the story and the characters she established did have promise. This is a book that needed a much heavier editing hand and some significant plot doctoring. The pacing was painful, the timeline and continuity was a mess, and I'm sorry, with two high level athletes and their career challenges as a big piece of the story, you can't have half the book take place in a hospital bed.

There was so much that could have been explored that wasn't - how would these two people, with these demanding careers pulling them in different directions, actually carry forward beyond the initial chemistry? That would have been so much more interesting as a third act "will they or won't they end up together" conflict vs. what was in the book (which was dreadful). There was so much time spent in the hospital and on the hockey, that the ice skating was a complete afterthought. Missed opportunity and frankly kind of made me want to throw this book across the room in frustration.

Also, the ARC was a mess - typos, odd formatting, paragraphs full on repeated, names that change from one page to the next. I hope the finished product is better.

Unrealized potential here, unfortunately.

My very first hockey book! Very proud and happy to choose this book. Funny, and romantic. Loved it. Thank you NetGalley for letting me read it!

Loved this book! Logan is perfect book boyfriend and struggles with anxiety and trust are familiar to me personally so it was relatable.
Few arc mistakes were left but nothing mature.

3.5 stars, cute and fun hockey read. poppy stole the show for me in this one, she was adorable! very much insta-love which i’m not a huge fan of but logan was great. the third act break up was very trivial, and i could see it coming from a mile away but the characters did have some good communication and resolved it fast which i enjoyed. however i felt like there was a massive focus on logan’s career and very little about cocos? i would’ve liked to see more of the hard work she put into being a literal olympian. finally just some grammar and spelling issues, i think the name ‘markham’ was spelt differently every time. overall, a light and very fun read. thank you netgalley for this one!

At the top, let me just thank NetGalley for this ARC in exchange for my honest review.

The Cutting Edge by Lisa Daily is a sports romance between an Olympic figure skater, Coco, and an NHL hockey star, Logan. When Coco ends up in the ER after a puck straight to the head, thanks to her skating students sports star dad, Logan Rivers she is swept off her feet by the attraction she feels towards the hunky hockey player.

Before I head into my review I want to preface it by saying I am a romance reading junkie, though my first love will always be fantasy. I devour romances and read them at an alarming rate, usually as palette cleansers between long fantasy series and also as a way to just enjoy my life. I’ve read many sports romances by authors like Mariana Zapata, Elle Kennedy etc. and I find that this particular genre of romance scratches a very intense itch I have.

All that being said, I did not enjoy this book. Beyond the insta-love attraction of the two main characters and the weird premise of having Coco hospitalized for the first half of the story, I felt that the devices used to cause tension in the blooming relationship between the main characters made my head want to explode.
**I’ll pause here to put that my next few paragraphs may contain spoilers***

The reader is lead to believe at the beginning of the book that Coco, a professional and Olympic figure skater and skating instructor was completely unaware of her students VERY FAMOUS hockey star dad who literally WORKS IN THE SAME BUILDING AS SHE DOES. On top of this the reader is then led to believe that Coco, who is a PROFESSIONAL SKATER does not know or realize that she shouldn’t walk into and onto a closed rink while HOCKEY PLAYERS ARE PRACTICING. Not only that but she brings along a five year old. Out onto the ice, in a closed rink. No. I’m sorry but that is beyond my ability to suspend my disbelief. I think I’ve skated like 5 times in my entire existence and would have the where-with-all to know that would be a very dangerous thing to do.

Then, when Coco finds out that she has a skull fracture and will be missing a lot of work on top of not being compensated (rightfully so because it was her own misguided decision gave have her the injury) she decides to blame Logan for all her woes. How dare he be on his practice ice. How dare he be frustrated and hit a slap shot that accidentally goes flying straight into the head of a grown woman who should not be there. No. That is immaturity to an extreme. I will say that I bet there are some people out in the world who would and do think this way but my issue stems from how Logan responds to her outrageous and ridiculous treating of him.

Logan proceeds to ‘woo’ her because of course it was all his fault right? Let’s not take into account that Coco not only put herself in danger by disregarding any rules but that she led his own daughter out onto that ice as well and it could have been her head cracked open. No. But Logan is already completely in love with this person he only just now has started getting to know and he’s a millionaire because he’s just the most amazing hockey player to ever skate onto an ice rink when he’s thinking about her so of course he needs to creepily send her a million outlandish gifts to convince her of his regret. And she will obviously feel ‘bad’ about receiving so many special things but will accept Every. Single. One. And this is only the first half of this story.

I could pick it apart more but I’ll end here and say that obviously this one was not for me.

*I received this through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review*

DNF at 30%

I might try to read it again, but the pacing of the story was too slow for me.

The tropes within the book are in my wheelhouse, so I was very interested to see if the plot would hold up beyond the tropes. It was an okay book, with a handful of small issues I noticed throughout:

1. Grammar or technical issues: misplaced or missing quotations, commas missing, formatting issues, etc. While minor, having dozens of instances (probably hundreds if I had finished the book) throughout made it hard to read.
2. While reading the book, the words switched between italics, all right-aligned to normal font, and left-aligned (like normal), and it was very difficult to read, especially when the characters texted. That could have been because of a technical issue, so don’t let that stop you from checking out the book.
3. I’m sure the plot written in the description did match up with the plot of the book, but when I DNF'd it at 30%, the story had not reached the main plot yet.

This book was like catnip; I had such the biggest smile on my face while reading it. The blurb doesn't really do it justice, so let me add a few of the key selling points (of me at least):

Single Dad
He falls first
Hard working determined FMC with a dream
Hilarious side characters
Great Banter and Chemistry
Fake Relationship

This book was billed as a 'steamy hockey romantic comedy' and I would say it was heavy on the comedy and light on the steam. Which is not a bad thing at all. If you are looking for a hockey romance to make you smile, this is the book for you. But if you were looking for a book slightly heavier on the steam, this book is more sweet that steamy. Again, not a bad thing-I love sweet books-but felt it was worth pointing out.

Super cute story. I was rooting for Coco and Logan the whole time, and loved the relationship between Logan and his daughter, Poppy. Overall, it was a quick, feel good read. That said, the text was super repetitive at times, and it's Phil Kessel, not Phil Kessler.

As a former figure skater I loved the trope of this plus my all time fave trope fake dating and you had me there but there were some boring parts that lagged a bit so would have been better without those.

1/5 ⭐️

I am sure as the writer, this book must have been so fun to write because who doesn't love to write about love.

Hooooowwwweeevvvvveeerrrrr, I felt most of this was very cringe and felt a little too campy for my tastes. I felt like the tension was fun in the beginning when Coco was in the hospital but overall I just thought the book was b*d. And I HATE saying that! Because I love romance and what is better than hockey romance. Buuuuuuuuttttt here are my thoughts:

1. this arc desperately needed to be proof read, I see that the book has already been published so I hope for everyone's sake that it got the grammatical TLC it so desperately needed
2. None of it felt real after the first couple days in the hospital. I need there to be conflict other than Coco doesn't want help. Anyone in their right mind should accept financial help if she truly wants to go to the olympics?
3. I feel like I barely got to the know the characters and yet it was over 200 pages? I don't know. Also once I read Coco's full name, all I could read was Cottonelle toilet paper :/

I really enjoyed this book - Coco and Logan were great main characters and I could really feel the chemistry between them!

I love a good hockey romance and this was no exception!

Looking forward to reading the next book in the series.

This was such a fun read! I can't wait for more by this author. I would absolutely recommend! If you are looking for a book to get you back into reading. This is it!

*I received this as an ARC through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review*

I thought this was a cute story. It is my first ever hockey romance and was a good starting point into sports books. The characters were lovable and the ending was on a happy note.

It did have quite a bit of writing errors in it but I believe that may just because it wasn’t a final copy.

I have never been more bored in my life reading a book and that says something. Christ on a stick what is in this book? Sleepy time tea. Dnf at 76%