REVIEW
cw: mentions of disordered eating, bereavement, grief, anxiety, controlling parents
At sixteen, Rory briefly met Mike, a hockey player from Winnipeg. For years afterwards, she would pretend he was her Canadian boyfriend. It seemed harmless, and helped her through tough times. But when Mike unexpectedly reappears in her life thirteen years later, they quickly become friends. But an old secret could tear everything down.
This was my first book by Jenny Holiday, and I was immediately invested. I would categorise it as a romance with a hockey player in it, rather than a hockey romance, but that didn't affect my enjoyment. I loved the pacing. Too often in nanny/single father romances the FMC is meeting, moving in, and becoming intimate almost immediately. Here, Rory and Mike actually got to know each other first. The development of their relationship felt organic and I was rooting for them both throughout. As they became closer, they only became more adorable together. Their evening at Tomfoolery, and their time at the dance were both so sweet. I particularly loved their time camping in Canada. Both characters were dealing with a lot of emotional baggage, and there were so many well-observed and emotionally nuanced moments in this book. I loved Mike's internal dialogue as he battled with grief, single parenting, and beginning to understand just how many things his deceased wife had done on a daily basis. Rory's experience with toxic ballet culture broke my heart, yet was sadly realistic. I was cheering when she finally confronted her overbearing mother. Conversely, I absolutely ADORED Mike's mum, and it was easy to see where he learnt his kindness and humility.
The only thing that became annoying was Rory constantly referring to Mike by his full name in her internal thought. I never really understood why Rory kept the secret for so long, but the conflict wasn't dragged out, and the ending made up for it. And as for the epilogue? It was so them.
A moving and romantic story about self-acceptance.

Overall Rating: ❤️❤️❤️❤️.5
Heat Rating: 🔥🔥

*Thanks to NetGalley for the opportunity to leave an honest review*

Favourite Quotes:

“I have a history of bending myself to please other people, and sometimes, when you stop doing that, it’s an unexpected relief.”

"...when you leave a kid, you leave a lot of potentially great stuff behind. It’s a dumb move. Kids aren’t responsibilities, or aren’t only responsibilities. They’re opportunities.”

I’d started thinking of her with her whole hippie name. Aurora Lake. The skies of my original home and the lake of my adopted home. Rory didn’t seem big enough, or beautiful enough, for her.

“One of the things I’ve learned about grief is that there are these milestones you’re supposed to care about, like birthdays and holidays. I find myself passing them without fanfare. But then there are milestones you don’t know are going to be a thing until they rise up and slap you in the face.”

I wanted to remember this moment, to create enough of a sense memory that I could revisit it. Because I was happy.

I wanted to be the one who said things that made her smile like that.

“If this was a movie, this would be the part where I’d say, ‘I loved you before I knew you.’ And that’s true. But what I hope you’ll see is that it wasn’t actually you. It was an idea of you. I know how much you don’t like people reacting to an idea of you. Please understand that now I love the actual you. And you—you—are so much better than the idea of you.”

"What has been my big lesson of the past year? That it’s OK to want things. It’s OK to ask for what I want. And I want you, for real.”

"You can love a person, and that person can be, fundamentally, a good person, but you can still enforce standards for what you will and will not accept.”

I think everyone - at least everyone in the northern US states - has heard of mythical Canadian boyfriends. In case not, they’re a made up relationship to save face or gain clout. Canada being close enough one or the other could have border crossed to meet, but far enough to justify the long distance relationship where they wouldn’t be expected to seen around.

Rory’s was modeled after actual Canadian Mike, who she met while working at the Mall of America. Unlike real Mike who went off to become a hockey player of mid level fame, fictionalized Mike became the boyfriend she told her friends about and wrote endless unsent letters to. For years.

13 years later she literally falls at his feet as the dance instructor for his daughter.

Being a newly single father due to the loss of his wife, and with a hockey career that requires a lot of travel he strikes a deal to fill the gap in daughter Liv’s schedule. They trade the use of a car for the after lesson care of his daughter when he’s away. Not long after and she’s moved into the house in quasi-nanny type arrangement, and the lines being professional and personal blur even further.

I wanted to love this one more, but there were still a lot of things I liked. Kind of spoilery review so quit reading if you don’t want to risk it.

The hockey player angle is always good, but I wished there was more content to it. I lived for any mention of Earl 9.
Most of all, I really liked that the dance studio she teaches at was so far removed from the hyper focus hell she grew up with - that she didn’t pass on the toxic level of dedication to it that she was brought up in, an actively told the girls how and why it was harmful.

People getting the therapy they desperately need. Mike and Olivia dealing with loss. Rory dealing with the ED and continued food issues, the guilt and anxieties her mother had been pushing her towards her entire life. Yes. Therapy was a necessity all around. Do I wish they were further along those journeys before the story picked up? Possibly.
Surprisingly, this is one of the few times I haven’t had an issue with a third act breakup, and in fact think it made things better.

Mainly what held me back was that there was a power imbalance that bothered me for some reason I can’t quite put my finger on. One of my favorite romance series is about a group of nannies joining the families they work for one by one, so I think it was that she worked for him…I just kept getting red flag feelings.

Even with the messiness of their situation, in the end everything works out to a HEA - and I wouldn’t forgive it if it hadn’t - so it’s securely in the like category for me, even if it missed love.

Thanks to NetGalley and forever for the arc

Plain boring.
Didn't see the chemistry at all and the characters felt one dimensional.

If I had a dime for everytime the FMC said "Canadian boyfriend," then I'd be super rich now.

Also what's up with addressing him as "Mike Martin" all the time? Could she not be just call him Mike??? Did I miss something?

And the 3rd act pissed me a lot. Even when I knew is was coming and the reason for it. Felt weird somehow.

Safe to say this book wasn't for me.

Thank you Netgalley and publisher for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Jenny Holiday has written a book just for me! At least that’s what it felt like. It was so Canadian, and addressed therapy and mental health issues. There was romance and the Northern Lights and hockey. What else could you ask for?
High school ballet prodigy Aurora (Rory) is isolated and lonely at school because she’s gone so much the others think that she thinks she’s better than them, but that’s not the case, she’s just shy. So when she meets Canadian hockey player Mike Martin, who comes through town for a tournament, she uses the idea of him as her fake boyfriend to seem like she’s busy when she doesn’t have a date for the big dance.
Fast forward years later and he comes into the dance studio she’s working at with his daughter and she can’t believe that after all these years it could really be him. He’s now a famous hockey player who doesn’t love the price of fame. He’s also widowed and he and his daughter are struggling with the loss. She can’t really tell him about the diary of letters she wrote to him and never sent when she was feeling her loneliest, especially since she can’t be sure it really is him. When he hires her to be the nanny, their relationship starts out tentative but as they spend more time together and sparks fly and she realizes that it is in fact, the boy of her teenage fantasies. How can she tell him now after all this time, especially since he makes a point of surrounding himself with people who don’t want to be around him because of his fame? They both had a lot of work to do in order to try to be together as a couple and several obstacles to overcome.
This was a very character driven story and there is a lot of inner conflict in both the MC. Both have mental health struggles (there are some triggers: death of a spouse, eating disorders, panic attacks) and they didn’t rush into their relationship which I loved. This was no case of insta-romance. The intimacy happened slowly, naturally and felt like it gave them both time to heal from their past.
I hope this book gets loads of love when it hits shelves on January 30
Thanks to Forever Books and NetGalley for this eArc in exchange for my review.

What started out as unexpectedly sad turned into a good book. It took a little while for the characters to develop but the plot was good and overall I enjoyed the story!

This was my first book by this author and definitely will not be my last! Give me a single dad book and I am sold. But give me a single dad, hockey romance and I am ALL about it.

I loved the way the author wrote Aurora and Mike's story. I felt like it flowed well and the characters connection stood out. Just a super cute read overall!

I can't wait to read more by Jenny Holiday in the future!

So good!! This was such a good comfort read. The characters were super relatable and very realistic! This books doesn’t shy away from the everyday things that people go through and I am here for it.

It is a super fun and quirky read that will have you kicking your feet and giggling !

This was JUST the book to pick me up and get me through a rough week!

I love Jenny Holiday - her holiday series was one of my FAVES. So it is no surprise that I squealed when I got an Advanced Copy of her latest, Canadian Boyfriend, and DEVOURED it in less than 24 hours.

Aurora Evans' life has been defined by being a ballerina. It was her childhood and adolescence - pushed incessantly by her mother. It meant she didn't have a normal youth, so when a cute Canadian Hockey player shows up at her coffee shop, she dreams of him being her boyfriend - and serving as her excuse to skip social functions. She writes letters to him, that she never sends, as a way to process the tough moments.

Fast forward several years and Aurora is back in Minnesota, her mother's dreams of her as a professional ballerina are no more. She is teaching tap at a local dance studio and is thrilled when one of her favorite students, Olivia returns after the tragic loss of her mother. But she is shocked to realize that Olivia's father is Mike, the fully grown hockey player she met and pretended was her boyfriend, And it only escalates when Aurora essentially becomes Olivia's nanny.

I fell for these characters hard and fast. The chemistry and connection between Aurora and Mike just jumped off the page. It felt both instant and had all the makings of a slow burn. This romance tackled a lot of tough issues - grief, eating disorders, panic attacks, and mental health. But it was done so well and in ways that felt natural and earned. The book didn't shy away from the hard shit, but instead embraced it as an important part of the characters' journey. The growth felt authentic and frankly was refreshing to hear characters talk about their therapy sessions, emotional intelligence and boundaries. We LOVE a mature relationship!!

Just a delightful book that I was sad to finish. Big Thanks to Forever and NetGalley for the Advanced Copy. The Canadian Boyfriend is out on Jan 30!!

Will post this review on goodreads, retail sites and my bookstagram @scottonreads

Canadian Boyfriend by Jenny Holiday
Genre: Contemporary Romance
Format: ebook
Length: 384 pages

Thank you to Netgalley, Forever Grand Central Publishing and Jenny Holiday for an e-arc of this book. All thoughts/opinions are completely my own.

I really wanted to love this book but I could not get over the obsession that Rory had with Mike after meeting him **one time** as a teenager. It just felt way too weird to me that she spent so much time writing fake letters to a real life person pretending to be his girlfriend. I knew that the letters were going to come back to haunt her and it just made me so uncomfortable the whole time.

TLDR; Jenny Holiday is always a winner for me - i cannot get enough! I'm so glad that I got the chance to read it early and will definitely be recommending it to multiple people who enjoy these types of novels. I enjoyed the characters and especially enjoyed the writing by this author. I'm excited to see what the author comes out with next as I'll definitely be reading it! Thank you to the publisher for my early copy of this book!

𝐓𝐢𝐭𝐥𝐞: 𝐂𝐚𝐧𝐚𝐝𝐢𝐚𝐧 𝐁𝐨𝐲𝐟𝐫𝐢𝐞𝐧𝐝
𝐀𝐮𝐭𝐡𝐨𝐫: 𝐉𝐞𝐧𝐧𝐲 𝐇𝐨𝐥𝐢𝐝𝐚𝐲
𝐏𝐮𝐛 𝐃𝐚𝐭𝐞: 𝐉𝐚𝐧𝐮𝐚𝐫𝐲 𝟑𝟎, 𝟐𝟎𝟐𝟒

⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️💫 (4.5)

Thank you to my friends at Forever for providing me with a #gifted copy of Canadian Boyfriend!

Canadian Boyfriend was such a sweet sports romance and so heartwarming! I loved Aurora and Mike and felt like together they were just so perfect. This is not your typical romance, and there were some difficult topics woven into the storyline, but I loved how through it all, there was hope. I also enjoyed how both characters had their own imperfections but they worked so well together. There was so much character growth that I also really loved. Overall, I would highly recommend this one. I don’t read many sports romances, but this one was pure perfection!

🏒Hockey & Ballet
🩰Friends to Lovers
🏒Dual POV
🩰Slow Burn
🏒Single Dad
🩰Second Chance

Posted on Goodreads on January 23, 2024: https://www.goodreads.com/user/show/144922955?ref=nav_profile_l
**Posted on Instagram - Full Review- on or around January 24, 2024: http://www.instagram.com/nobookmark_noproblem
**Posted on Amazon on January 30, 2024
**-will post on designated date

You ever see a stranger in public who you find so appealing, your brain conjures up a “what if” scenario? In Jenny Holiday’s latest, Canadian Boyfriend, that “what if” scenario becomes very real for former ballerina-in-training Rory.

When she was a teenager working at the mall’s chain coffee shop, Rory had a chance encounter with Mike, a Canadian hockey player in town for a junior league game, and who Rory develops an instant crush on. Though it doesn’t work out, she seizes the opportunity to cast him as her “Canadian boyfriend,” as a way to compensate for her lack of friends at school and in ballet training. Years later, she gets the shock of her life when her former one-sided pen pal Mike turns out to be a very real human being, and also the recently-widowed father of one of the girls Rory teaches at the local dance school.

The two of them strike up a friendship that eventually turns into Rory moving in with Mike and his daughter to help take care of her while Mike is away due to his NHL schedule. Of course, the close proximity means that their friendly feelings start to grow into something more, but also something that becomes tough to navigate with Mike’s grieving preteen in the house.

Both Mike and Rory have a LOT of damage that needs to be unpacked before they can even think of getting together, and it’s refreshing to see that the book actually gives them time to do that. It’s also refreshing to see that therapy as a means of healing from trauma isn’t depicted as a band-aid solution, or a one-time thing, but instead an ongoing process rife with setbacks. Their romance itself is very sweet, and very thoughtful, which is very typically Jenny Holiday, and something I love that we’re seeing more and more in romance! You don’t need to be emotionally immature in order to have conflict!

As a total aside: as a Canadian, I got a huge kick out of all the little “Canadianisms” sprinkled throughout the book, and if it weren’t for the fact that it was -15c outside while I was reading, I might have gone to Tim Hortons for my large coffee with 2 creams, purely because of the sheer number of times it’s name-dropped in the book.

Canadian Boyfriend hits shelves on January 30. Special thank you to Forever for the advance copy for review purposes.

<b>Lighthearted Warm and Emotional Romance</b>

“Canadian Boyfriend” is a somewhat lighthearted, warm and emotional romance that deals with some heavy topics but is never heavy handed. However, the third act break up is a little ridiculous and left me wishing the author had made different choices.

Rory meets Mike at the Mall of America when she’s 16 and he’s visiting from Canada for a hockey tournament. She immediately designates him as the real inspiration for her fake “Canadian Boyfriend”. A Canadian boyfriend is a fake boyfriend that she can use as an excuse for being solo or for not attending social events. Rory also begins keeping a diary and writing entries to “Mike” for the next three years.

“I started writing my Canadian Boyfriend when I was in high school. I sat in the cafeteria and wrote him letters, and in so doing, I felt less alone. He became a diary, half fiction. Half what was happening, half what I wished were happening.”

Cut to 13 years later and Rory is teaching ballet to young girls. The mother of one of the girls passed away several months prior. Rory learns that the father is a hockey player who is extremely good looking and is Canadian.

It turns out that the father of her student, Olivia, IS her Canadian boyfriend, Mike Martin, but Rory remains unsure for a while. (Throughout the book, in her POV chapters, Rory refers to Mike as “Mike Martin” - it’s a little weird)

Mike and Rory very slowly develop a friendship. He kind of hires her to help take care of Olivia as he has two years left on his NHL contract. In doing so he provides her with a sensible car, a place to stay and health insurance so she can go to therapy for her panic attacks and eating disorder. So they are living together and developing a friendship while he is grieving and she is learning to be more of her own person. I really enjoyed the way their friendship developed. It was very unrushed and natural.

At about the halfway mark of the book they share their first kiss. It was a fade-to-black kiss which I’ve never experienced previously and kind of had me wondering about the rest of the book. But the sex scenes in later chapters are not fade-to-black, they aren’t really explicit either. They are off and on with the physical relationship and it also occurs in a very unrushed and natural way. I was happy about that as it gave Mike time to grieve properly.

The third act break up was my main quibble with the book. I just didn’t understand Mike’s over the top reaction to what he believed was “lying” on the part of Rory. He himself lied to her in regards to the car and the health insurance he provided her. (He tells her almost immediately about the lies though)

I did enjoy this book and it has a lot to offer in terms of wisdom about grief, getting over emotional abuse and living up to your dreams for yourself.

When you first hear about this book, it sounds like a mishmash of tropes: he’s a recently widowed dad and hockey player (yes, from Canada), and she’s a former ballerina-turned-dance teacher who he asks to be the live-in nanny to his daughter, who adores her.

Oh yeah, and it turns out the hockey player (Mike) and ballerina (Aurora) met briefly when she was a teenager, and she turned him into her fictional “Canadian boyfriend” and wrote diary-style letters to him as an emotional outlet.

I suppose it can be easy to boil this story down to the forced proximity, age gap, slow burn of it all, but at its core, this is a warm, gentle story about two people who are looking to heal – him from losing his wife, and her from a toxic relationship with both her mother and ballet – and help each other do just that.

To me, the “Canadian boyfriend” set-up is actually a bit wobbly. Though there are cute things about it, it could have been cut entirely and the romance would still stand on its own merit. Though, I will admit that “Canadian boyfriend” is a pretty catchy title.

Overall, this is a sweet romance – but know that it is quieter and a bit more mature than the title and cover might lead you to expect.

3.75🌟
1.5🌶️

This book was sweet, emotional, and full of so much healing. I adored both the leads as individuals, but together, they truly sparkled ✨

This book has:
• A sports romance with a ballerina heroine and a hockey player hero 🏒
• The hero is a single dad, and the heroine is his daughter's dance coach
• Forced proximity 👩‍❤️‍👨
• Found family trope 💕 (and yes, there is a dog included)

There were a few things that I did not enjoy about this book, starting with the heroine referring to the hero with his full name. It was cute at the start until she continued to use it even after they started their relationship, which felt odd to me. Beyond that, the whole conflict surrounding the letters felt forced. I didn’t think the letter reveal was a big deal, so the third-act breakup was unnecessary for me.

Thank you to Forever Grand Central Publishing and Netgalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

3.5 stars

🍁 listen, y’all better get your torques and some timmies and get ready for this adorable and amazing romance read hitting shelves this month!

🍁Aurora Evans (Rory) is an ex-ballet dancer, currently teaching dance to a friend's student (but not ballet due to previous trauma with the genre that is further discussed in the book). When one of her favourite students comes back after losing her mother, the last person she expects to be her father is Mike Martin, the guy that she met in her teen years and pretended that he was her Canadian boyfriend (like, fully would write letters to and tell others about, but would also be a way to help her get through life).

🍁 While this book is definitely a bit more on the contemporary side of romance, it is still cute nonetheless. It delves into the difficult topics of grief, overcoming ones’ past, and learning to live. There are some difficult subjects, but I felt that they were handled wonderfully, which added to the characters and their lives. I also loved the litter daughter AND the dog (Earl 9).

🍁 Overall, I enjoyed this quick read, and you won’t need a reference guide to try and understand sports terms, but it may have you craving a regular double-double and some timbits😉

Teen ballerina Aurora invented a fictional Canadian boyfriend to cope socially. Years later she meets pro hockey player and single dad Mike, the real-life inspiration of her imaginary suitor. Both of them are battling demons when they form an unlikely friendship. Can Aurora find the courage to reveal her secret?

I loved this book! It’s a slow burn, funny and emotional with well-developed characters who stole my heart. Aurora and Mike have so much chemistry, I couldn’t help rooting for them to get together. They’re made for each other.

Thanks, NetGalley, for the ARC I received. This is my honest and voluntary review.

I received an ARC copy in exchange for an honest review:

TW: eating disorder, grief, toxic parent (not the main characters)

A beautiful story of healing for both the MMC and the FMC. Aurora (Rory) Evans is the dance teacher for a recently widowed NHL player’s daughter. Rory is an ex ballerina trying to figure out life. Mike Martin is trying to raise his daughter after tragically losing his wife. Overall, I enjoyed this story, but it is a heavier read. So keep that in mind if you pick up this book.

Tropes:
❤️‍🔥Slow burn
🖤forced proximity
🖤nanny but not (ifykyk)
🖤hockey player

Overall rating: 4 ⭐️

I zoomed through this book. It wasn’t as light-hearted a read as I was expecting, with some heavy topics being discussed throughout, but I think they were handled really well and balanced out with some of the lighter moments.

This was a very slow burn that gave Mike and Aurora some time to heal and grow before they got into a serious relationship. I loved the bond that they developed and how that grew over time felt very organic. I also loved the relationship Mike had with his daughter, Olivia, as well as the one Aurora was building with her.

That being said, I didn’t love the ending. I felt like Mike really overreacted and then they made up so close to the end of the book that you don’t really get to see them together as a couple outside of the epilogue.

*Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for providing me with an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

As sports romances are becoming more popular, we all want to read them more. Canadian Boyfriend perfectly checks all the boxes of a cute hockey romance.

There are some heavy topics discussed in this bailarina/ hockey player romance. Enjoyed the slow pace as it allowed the characters to process and get together.