I am a sucker for hockey romances so there was no way I wasn’t going to adore Collide by Bal Khabra!

Summer Preston, an honors student and self proclaimed hockey hater, is given an ultimatum from her academic advisor and finds herself observing Aiden Crawford (the captain of the hockey team) for her grad school thesis application. Not one to derail her carefully laid plans, Summer finds herself in close quarters with charming, flirtatious Aiden, and her disdain for the captain starts to transform into something new. As Aiden and Summer get closer, they discover how wrong their first impressions were and how good they might be if they gave into their growing attraction.

Summer and Aiden had me wrapped around their fingers! I was so obsessed with this couple, and their sizzling banter, that I was internally begging for them throw caution to the wind and give into their budding interest. Khabra delivered on the intensity, and once the spice kicked in, I was fully captivated. I loved the side characters so much and see a lot of potential for continuation in this universe. Khabra laid some groundwork for subsequent potential couples and I need to see if my existing theories come to fruition.

Read if you love sports romances, grumpy x sunshine trope, or college-set stories!

Thank you Berkley and NetGalley for providing me with an ARC in exchange for my honest review.

Overall the story was cute, the first 55-60% felt like I was slogging through a will-they-won’t they ping pong as they went from I like you to I hate you to I like you again which left my head reeling a bit. The last part made up for a lot of it, very cute, and touching in points. I think the story was too long for what it was and I felt some plot points were shoehorned in. A decent debut but I ultimately wish the story was streamlined and the characters were less surface-level.

Thank you Berkley for the eArc!

IT’S A HIT.

This book gripped me from the first chapter. I could not put it down. A stay-up-late, kicking-my-feet romance. I cannot wait to read more of this authors books.

Five stars. I will be telling all of my friends to pause their current reads to pick this up immediately.

This may be one I come back to. I love the premise but wasn't feeling our MCs. There just seemed to be something that made them seem even younger than they were and I couldn't get through it.

Thank you Berkley for the opportunity!

This book was a solid addition to my bookshelf while I am in my hockey romance era. This book was a solid four-and-a-half-star read until I reached the end and knew that five stars was the right choice after all. I initially thought that the progression of their relationship in the beginning was not very convincing but, in the end, there was no doubt about their relationship regardless of how it started. The romance and falling in love in this story was so satisfying. I thought that some of the female lead character's actions and choices were annoying but by the end, I could see that it was all part of her character development. Both main characters were so multidimensional and fleshed out with distinct personalities. I loved all of the secondary characters but admit to having trouble keeping them straight in my mind at times while reading. I really hope to see more of them in future books in this series. Overall, this book was very addicting and put a huge smile on my face. I will definitely read this author again.

I originally was interested in this book because I loved the cover but after reading it I’m just as obsessed with the story too! I absolutely love Aiden and Summer too! They have such a sweet relationship and I also love their friend group! So happy this one was picked up by a trad publisher!

Another fun hockey romance. There wasn’t anything new or revolutionary to the genre, but it made my hockey romance heart happy.

I really wanted to enjoy this book more than I did, but I cant help comparing it to Icebreaker which I found was easier to read. In this book the dialogue was clunky, and I was not gripped with any urgency. I did not like the attitude of the main character in the beginning, and I was overall just not into the story.

Huge thank you to @berkleypub @berittalksbooks @thephdivabooks @dg_reads and @netgalley for an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.

A fun hockey romance always seems to start with enemies to lovers and boy does Summer really dislike Aiden but it makes it all the sweeter when they eventually fall in love. I loved seeing this couple grow seperate and together from college to adults. This book had such a sweet epilogue that had me cheering for these two!
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Icebreaker dupe!!! So fun, sweet, steamy, and everything you could really want in a rom-com! However, I just personally was not in the greatest headspace going into this and think this impacted my thoughts a lot. I thought it got a little cheesy and felt like it dragged on a bit.

Still super fun and I would absolutely recommend this to anyone who loved Icebreaker or who loves hockey romances! Excited to see what this author comes out with next!

“𝘠𝘰𝘶 𝘸𝘢𝘯𝘵 𝘵𝘰 𝘵𝘢𝘬𝘦 𝘤𝘢𝘳𝘦 𝘰𝘧 𝘮𝘦?” “𝘈𝘴 𝘭𝘰𝘯𝘨 𝘢𝘴 𝘺𝘰𝘶’𝘭𝘭 𝘭𝘦𝘵 𝘮𝘦.”

Do yourself a favor and go BUY THIS BOOK. You will not be disappointed at all with this choice, I promise.

Summer and Aiden could literally burn a building down with their chemistry and I loved every second of it! This is a slow-burn worth reading and featured a cute little bonus content chapter at the end (eek yay!) ☺️💚

Read this one if you like:
▫️hockey romance
▫️slow-burn
▫️he falls first
▫️a tiny bit of enemies-to-lovers

I truly wanted to give Collide a chance because it was a diverse hockey indie turned trad. However; I immediately felt like it was trying too hard.

Summer has always had a love hate relationship with hockey. Now, she's faced with a MUST from her academic advisor or she'll be at a loss for the sports psych program. Her subject? Hotshot hockey captain Aiden. Aiden does NOT want anything to do with Summer or her project, especially when forced by coach. Yet, sparks quickly collide and everything both of them knew about the other is shot out the window.

The crux for Collide, for me, was that I compared it too much to Icebreaker. Don't let this cute cartoon cover fool you, this is a spicy college hockey romance. However; I couldn't get behind the storyline and the book was just too long for my taste! I ended up "not finishing" at the 60% mark.

Summer Preston, a senior headed towards a career in sports psychology, gets stuck researching the captain and star player of their college hockey team, Aiden Crawford, despite her vendetta against the sport and its players.

Sports romance is not a subgenre that I frequent, so I went into this with no expectations and nothing to really compare it to. That said, I found it to be a quick, easy, and pretty entertaining read.

There were times when the main characters were frustrating and flat-out rude to each other (especially Summer) and that didn’t endear me to them as much. I also felt like there were plot elements that just got skimmed over a bit, making some of the conflict feel contrived.

Although I’m not a fan of the insta-lust type of romantic dynamic, I can’t deny that the steamy scenes in this were pretty great!

Thank you to NetGalley and Berkley for the advance digital copy!

DNF @ 50%. I read enough of it to get a sense of the book, but it wasn't enough to keep me reading the last half of the book. I wish it wasn't as long as it was. If you like college-aged hockey romances, I think this will be a book you will love. Thank you to Berkley for the advanced copy.

3.5⭐️!

the reason this book got a 3.5 was all because aiden & the side characters are literally perfection!! they are what made this book & i’m seriously looking forward to the other books in this series.

with that being said….why was summer so mean?? literally this is sadly the first book where i didn’t believe the couple would make it to the epilogue because aiden deserved so much more. she might just not have been the character for me, so still check it out! i don’t want to give anything away…so i’m going to end my review there!

A very fun, sweet, cute start to another college ice hockey romance! It hit all the right beats that made me love the subgenre!

This cover is so cute, but that's the only thing I liked about this book unfortunately.

The book had a lot of issues ranging from kind of amusing to actually dangerous. It tries to hit so many tropes, but does it in a way that is so superficial and thoughtless that it never works. So many characters/situations feel like caricatures of a bad 90's romcom because of how ham-fisted the writing is.

First off, thinking an arthritic granny could knit 20 sweaters under 3 months??? This is absolutely not realistic and even if you reduce the number to under 10 it's still questionable AT BEST. I get that the author needed a quick way to establish that Aiden's relationship with his grandparents was special and close, but this...was not the way. I only have an adventurous beginner understanding of knitting and I immediately put the book down to google for 30 minutes to figure out if this was possible.

The Dual POV in this book was awful, Aiden literally has barely any thoughts that don't revolve around sex and it's kind of gross how he doesn't see Summer as a real person until later in the book. The author basically only uses dual POV to let us know that Summer is okay with all the fucked up/stalker/toxic masculinity things that Aiden does, but Aiden would have no way to to know that and that's the issue I have. There are countless stories of men just assuming that something is ok, I don't need that in the romances I read and I think it's a weird thing to be normalizing.

Also?? There is no development for their relationship. Like it goes from they don't like each other to caring about each other a lot in a matter of pages.

The way this author talked about sex was awful. The sexual encounters were rough to read. There's early conversations that perpetuate rape myths and there are situations in this book that absolutely need to be talked about prior to them happening but there's zero communication before these scenes. This honestly read like someone transcribed toxic male gaze porn in every sex scene and I just personally don't enjoy or like that or ever want to read scenes like that. It's not normal for someone you recently met to slap you in the face with their dick without okay-ing it with you first. They don't even have a base level of communication or comfort to where he should at all think this is okay???

Also weird and dangerous is the relationship with a student and a professor that is just kind of glossed over as fine??? Or only not fine because it's messing with Summer's chances to get into the program she wants?

And lastly some more petty gripes: at one point there's a "he's so moody does he need a tampon LOL" joke and just an endless stream of dumb jock stereotypes. WHY??? It's 2024??? These jokes have been made and written already, let's leave them behind.

Idk, I'm so glad I accidentally buddy read this with Maddy, because there were so many things wrong with this book and idk what I would've done if I hadn't been yelling in dms with her. I am super uncomfy with this book.

Thank you to Berkley for this ARC!

"summer is my sun, and i'm the simple planet revolving in her orbit."
Thoughts: Im definitely really starting to@love sports romance (more specifically hockey
I really enjoyed this book. Summer is the grumpy studious gal who HATES hockey because of her past.
And Aiden was the most perfect golden retriever
MMC. I absolutely loved how much Aiden wore his heart on his sleeve, and also love when the guy falls first. Summer really made him work for it and really let her abandonment issues come out.
I also enjoyed the banter and competitiveness between these two. The growth by both characters by the end of the book was seriously so cute and amazing. I also LOVED that there was no third act breakup! Aiden was really fighting for them which seriously made me love him so much more.
I will say my only issue with the book was that it was like 100 pages too long. A few times i thought to myself "this is all stuff that could have been left out" and it kind of dragged a bit in the middle.
But honestly i still enjoyed it. I really loved the audio, and loved that it was a dual POV. Also the spice was niceeee. Definitely giving this a 3.8 chili peppersss. I would definitely read another book by this author. And would also love if there was another book featuring summers roommate or one of Aiden's hockey mates.
If you're a fan of college/ hockey romance i definitely recommend this one!

First, a big thank you to NetGalley and Berkley for the ARC of Bal Khabra's "Collide" – “An ultimatum from her professor thrusts Summer Preston into an unexpected collision with hockey captain Aiden Crawford. She’s caught in a delicate balance between fulfilling her lifelong dream of becoming a sport psychologist and veering far away from this god-awful sport.”

“Collide” felt a bit like “Icebreaker,” but in my opinion much better. I do feel that Collide was slightly too long and I wished that we could have seen more of the hockey dynamic for Aiden and more of the psychology from Summer. I didn’t really understand what the project was that Summer was so dedicated to that forced her to interact with Aiden. It was just some bratty professor who was maybe trying to sabotage(?) Summer? I am still not sure about everything there.

And I feel like, at least for me, that whole side plot of Summer’s professor and the student relationship kind of fell off to the wayside and was a miss for me. I understand that this isn’t a focus and was only added to create drama in the plot but with Aiden’s aloofness to it seemed like there was no real danger to him or Summer throughout the book at all. It would have been fine without this weird side plot.

Overall the daddy issues that Summer was going through felt a little over the top and at times out of nowhere. I think that if this story dropped the side plot with the professor and focused more on the family dynamics with Summer/Aiden, it would have made more sense.

I wish that we could have seen more from Summer and Aiden as individual personalities like what is the project that Summer is working on? Why is it so important? Do I want a breakdown of psychology in my romance - maybe by doing research or collecting data, how does Summer taking Aiden to swim really pair with the project? We were told a lot that Aiden was burnt out. However, the story didn’t really show that. He missed obligations because of his partying. But it never really seemed like him playing hockey or his school work was ever affected. Even his social life was intact. I would have liked to see more consequences/real danger, it felt like that was missing for me.

If you are looking for a solid romance this is definitely for you as Summer and Aiden have an engaging relationship. Will I need the second book? 100%. I am looking forward to seeing what else Khabra comes out with!

Thank you NG and Berkley for this wonderful arc and in return I am submitting my unbiased and voluntary review and opinion.

I am a huge fan of hockey romances. I really liked how the author made the story feel fresh and new and I was rooting for summer to get Aiden and vice versa