This was really good! It took me a minute to get into it, but once I was in, it was really good! The professor aspect was INTERESTING. Really enjoyed these characters and their storylines!

Give me a hockey romance any day and I will devour it in one setting

This is one of the rare books that truly feels like these characters are college students. Their mannerisms and dialogue are exactly what I envision college students to act like today, and I appreciate that this author wrote, and executed this perfectly with Aiden and Summer. They felt authentic and real without being over exaggerating or immature. Their growth felt authentic and their relationship blossomed in the perfect way.

This book is fun it’s so much fun. I was laughing so much that I had tears, but it also is extremely sweet and emotional and endearing. There is so much heart in the story and you cannot help but fall for both Aiden and Summer. I wanted to live in this story and I’m a way I did because the author has a great way of bringing her words to life. She’s vivid in her descriptions and does a really great job of pulling the reader into the story.

I cannot wait to go back into this world and with all these characters and I cannot wait to see what’s next. Thank you to NetGalley and Berkley for this ARC

ARC REVIEW
This book reminded me a lot of Icebreaker. However you felt about it, I would almost guarantee you'd feel the same about this book. This was my first book by this author and I definitely enjoyed it enough to read another. Was this the most deeply written book l've ever read as far as a solid plot? No. But it was cute, had plenty of moments that made me snicker with the banter between Summer and Aiden, and a decent amount of smutty moments. Besides, any hockey romance is better than no hockey romance!!
4⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

I really enjoyed this book! It’s an opposites attract story and so cute! Jock versus scholar! I haven’t read a book by this Author before but can’t wait to read the rest of this series. This Author has a new fan, in me! Thanks you….

I enjoyed this book for what it was (a hockey romance I used as a palette cleanser). I feel like there are other books just like it, but I read it quickly and enjoyed it for the most part.

I looove sports romances but I feel like I’m getting really picky with them lately bc there’s just too many to wade thru and few of them are really great. I unfortunately did not really like this one. Summer was super dramatic and kinda immature, and the way she acted towards her dad and Aiden at times really annoyed me. The writing style wasn’t for me, it was a bit clunky at times.

It was super cute, especially towards the end. However, it took quite a while to pick up. It served its purpose as a hockey romance.

Overall, this was a very enjoyable read. It had equal parts rom and com, and there was a great found family dynamic (which happens to be my favorite part of hockey romances). I will say that I was annoyed by the enemies to lovers aspect that was sort of introduced at the beginning of their relationship, however it fizzled out pretty quickly, which I am eternally grateful for. As for the Icebreaker comparisons I've seen, it's definitely there. Especially in the way that they are forced to work together and hate each other at the beginning, then have a friends with benefits moment while the fmc refuses to admit her feelings for the mmc. There's also a toxic ex/male figure that's a reocurrring issue but gets put in his place at the end. Also the house full of lovable hockey players. Now that I'm thinking about it, it definitely has a lot of similarities to Icebreaker, but I didn't really notice it while reading. To conclude, if Kian doesn't get his own book I'm fighting someone.

This is a standard, classic, hockey romance. Boy falls first, girl is strong and determined and doesn’t want to let boy district her, boy needs her help and she needs his help, they fall in love. It’s a standard formula for a reason: it works. We do get some intricacies with Summer’s father that are never fully fleshed out, but are there to add some depth. Aiden has an actually pretty traumatic backstory that I wish was more fully addressed. I guess what I’m saying is that this is a pretty surface level hockey romance with standard tropes and spice, and it’s a perfectly predictable read. It’s enjoyable. If you liked Icebreaker, you’ll like this.

I will say: it’s entirely too long. Like 150 pages too long.

I love a good; student x hockey player they have to tutor/do a joint study with, like that’s a whole genre I love it. Although there is a mass amount of these type of books out there this was really creative and well thought out! It didn’t feel repetitive at any parts like most modern sports romance go, the author also wins points for including not just a man who isn’t a jerk to his girlfriend and excusing it but for including pop culture references without being cringy. I stop a book once I get to an Ellen degenres obbsession or Harry Potter reference but this was a really nice blend without making it seem like a tiktok based book.

The romance was nice and sweet, the plot got a little lost somewhere in there but I usually end up getting a little fuzzy memory wise in romance based books because I’m not here for that part anyway:)) but it gets back on track near the end and there’s a nice ending that doesn’t feel too abrupt or sudden, aiden and summer are one of few sports romance couples I can actually full heartedly support and will be reccomending to friends!!

Thank you to NetGalley for this arc in exchange for an honest review!

I've been in a big hockey romance era and I was excited to read this one, but yikes it wasn't for me. I can see sooo many people loving this, but I just wasn't jiving with the characters and the flimsy plot would've been fine, but the characters themselves couldn't quite match the Well, I didn't like it, obviously. Honestly, I think this just comes down to personal preference. I don't think it's an inherently bad book and I can see why so many people like it, especially if you're a hockey romance girly. I love hockey romances myself, but I DNF'd Icebreaker, so I think there are just certain ones that aren't for me. Personally, I think (from what I did read of Icebreaker) these two books have similar vibes. This one, I did like a little more, but the love/hate relationship I had with the characters grew tiresome. Summer was a good MC, flawed and grumpy, but sometimes she was so irritating, I was rolling my eyes at her on the page. Also, this book kind of had a hate-to-love situation going on, but it felt so pointless? Like their banter was a lot of fun, but I felt like we could've had that banter without the unnecessary animosity between them in the beginning. The way they reacted to one another when first meeting felt so forced and random. Also Aidan was just fine for like the first half of the book to me. He did get better and make me giggle and kick my feet eventually, but it took awhile to get there. Idk there were a lot of little things that perhaps on their own wouldn't have hindered me enjoying this too much, but all of them together made this tough to get through. The epilogue was cute and there were some bright moments in this, but overall this wasn't for me!

Fun title to add to adult romance collections. This is a similar title to IceBreaker but I would definitely recommend.

this was such a quick and fun read. I really liked this book it was really giving dislike to lovers . Summer and Aiden are forced to work on a project with each other neither of them really want to . For one Summer hates hockey players & Aiden is one. I really loved the friendship that developed between Summer & Aiden before becoming more. And omg Summer and Aiden are the cutest couple!! I seriously loved the personality growth and how they individually grew as a couple and as a person!!

“I haven’t talked to you all day. I’m thinking this punishment is a bit cruel,”

Collide was so cute!! I loved all the characters and watching them fall for each other was so sweet. Definitely recommend!

Thank you to Berkley Publishing Group and NetGalley for providing me with an egalley of this book to read and give my honest review. The opinions expressed here are my own.
Summer Preston dislikes hockey so when she's given an ultimatum from her advisor to take on a hockey player for her project that will help her get into graduate school, she begrudgingly sucks it up. Saddled with Adien Crawford, the hockey's teams senior captain, she's determined to dislike him but still make the project work so she can pursue her dream. What she's not expecting is to find a warm hearted, genuine guy, who is loyal to a fault. They have a rocky start but then form a tenuous friendship that finds them spending time together and being drawn to one another.
I love me a good sports romance but there is just something about hockey romance that gets me every, single time. I will always add it to my TBR. I was excited to see this one offered when the author got picked up by Berkley and had to have a crack at it as I'd heard some great things about it. I was pleasantly surprised by this new author,
If you're looking for a book with heavy plot this one doesn't really have that. There is an underlying plot that kind of blows up at the end, true to any romance book of this type, But if you are looking for fluff and romance and swoon, then you've come to the right place. If you're looking for a frenemies, forced proximity, reverse grumpy sunshine book, this is for you!
Summer Preston is my girl. She knows what she wants. She's not afraid to ask. And I loved how her character morphed and changed to go from someone who doesn't want to burden others with her stuff to taking the help she might need. I was a little surprised with her acceptance of how Donny Rai, her ex, treats her pissed me off. I wanted to see her stand up to him more and realize he was playing her but it didn't happen. I will say given her hate of hockey, and hockey players, she does easily integrate into that life without much push back. Her Daddy issues come through but not enough to really stop her from immediately accepting and interacting with all the guys from the team. This is something I would have liked to see more: her struggle with accepting being part of it all. Her childhood friend is on the team, her friend from her classes is on the team, so she does associate and it seems not in line with what she says about it from the beginning.
Adien Crawford is a warm hearted, golden retriever of an MMC. He's not at all what I thought he would be at first, which was cocky and full of himself. Instead, he's a caring guy who wants to make sure everyone is safe and happy. It totally took me by surprise. But I was happy to see an MMC with such a big heart. He wears his emotions right on his sleeve and I adore that he's not afraid to show them. I will say, he was quick to turn from never settling down to suddenly finding the one. Going from more of a hook up player to someone who is ready for a real relationship kind of seemed like a jump for me. I would have liked to see this explored a bit more. But I guess when you find the one, you just know. He had so much patience with Summer though I do think at times he let her walk all over him because he wasn't willing to hurt her.
As with most romance books like this, we see a slew of side characters: particularly Adien's hockey team friends and Summer's dorm mates. I loved how the story wove them in and gave opportunities for them to have their own stories in future books. I'm looking forward to more Tyler, Dylan, Kian, Eli,
I loved all the smut and fluff in this book. But my biggest love was the banter. It was everywhere. If a book has me laughing out loud, I consider that a huge success. The writing was good. From the reviews of this title as an indie publication, you would think it didn't make any sense, but editing must have done this book well because I liked it.
I liked the diverse cultural representation in this book, as well. My past experience with sports romance have never shown such diversity. But Khabra wove in so many different cultures in this book, I was happy to see it. I'm hoping she continues this diversity for her future books. I will definitely be following this series and other books written by this author.
Fans of Elle Kennedy 's Off Campus/Briar U/Campus Diaries and Hannah Grace's Maple Hills series will eat this story up.

DNF 1/2 way through (due to being open door explicit!) This book was very enjoyable. The plot was so fun and I loved the family drama in Summer's POVs. This is a great option for beginner hockey romances and perfect for anyone who liked Icebreaker by Hannah Grace. This is an open door explicit romance with multiple scenes that are not too long.

4/5 star sports romance.

Okay, when I requested this book, I thought it was the second book in the series, I had already read the first a few months ago!

Regardless, my review is below:

I LOVE sports romance. But I am picky about them. I think too many are so overly corny or the dialogue is awkward. That wasn't the case here. I thought Bal did a really great job at keeping the forced proximity, enemies to lovers trope fun and the dialogue felt natural. I'm really looking forward to the second in the series, hopefully soon!

This was such a good read and I immediately fell in love with Summer and Aiden’s characters. Loved the setting, the support, and the ending ❤️

I CAN"T wait for the next book in this series!!!

This was such a fun and cute read and definitely gave me what I was looking for. However, the main charcater summer was very obnoxious at times and I felt like she caused unnecessary drama for no reason. Aiden was good and kind to her and despite so she always put a face about him that wasn’t true. And honestly at times I genuinely thought he deserved better. But nontheless it was an enjoyable read and can’t wait for the next one!

I imagine this book was meant to be in the same vein as Icebreaker, but I felt it wasn’t as successful. I enjoyed the main characters and their banter, but the plot felt lacking. Enjoyed it enough for 3 stars, but wouldn’t necessarily recommend it to others.