Thank you, @berkleyromance and @berkleypub , for an advanced digital copy of this book!

Spiral had me smiling, laughing, and tearing up all the way through. The love story between Elias and Sage exceeded all expectations—genuine, sweet, and so incredibly special.

Elias is an absolute sweetheart and definitely a new favorite book boyfriend. I loved how he consistently showed up for Sage, making her feel valued. Their chemistry was electric, and their moments together had me grinning like a fool. Watching their romance unfold, despite all the obstacles, was both heartwarming and emotional. The slow-burn tension was perfectly paced, and I loved how their connection deepened with every page. Their relationship was healthy and built on strong communication and reassurance, which was so refreshing.

I adore the fake-dating-turned-real trope, and watching their friendship blossom into something more was heartwarming. The secondary characters were also fantastic, and I’d love to see more from this series. Overall, Spiral is a charming, steamy sports romance that’s both easy to read and impossible to put down.

4.5⭐️ there is just something about a fake dating, hockey romance that i always eat upppppp. Eli deserves the whole freaking world. My god that man is perfection and so so so sweet. And his relationship with Sean and the things he did to help him without Sage knowing?😭 I loved Sage’s sense of humor and take no shit attitude, and refusal to give up on her dreams no matter what. Reading about these two falling in love and overcoming the things they went through in their pasts was everything. These are two characters who i honestly think would last after the last chapter.

That bathtub scene will live rent free in my head forever.

Sage Beaumont is a hardworking ballerina who aspires to be a principal in the Aurora Ballet Theater. Elias Westbrook is a rookie, recently drafted hockey player for the Toronto Thunder who has yet to score a goal. They both could use a career boost, and pretending to be dating to enhance their social media presence is the way to go. In the process they find so much more. Sage has learned to rely on herself, denying her own needs to provide for her brother; and Elias has closed himself off from romantic relationships because of a past mistake. But being together provides a profound emotional bond that has been missing from their lives. When they achieve their career goals, how will they be able to end their fake relationship that has become very real?

Spiral is a fake dating relationship book with authentic characters and real emotions. Elias is a wonderful guy. His degree of caring and consideration for Sage makes readers sigh with contentment. Although he guards and exercises so much control over himself, his actions speak larger than words, such as cooking and baking for Sage and giving her massages, showing what a real sweetheart he is. Sage is plain-speaking, nurturing, and fun, with a unique ability to bring Elias out of his shell. Watching them fall in love provides that serotonin boost that romance lovers crave. The way they watch out for and support each other is relationship goals. Khabra establishes an emotional connection that makes their sexual encounters so satisfying, which is great as this book gets very steamy. Their friends and family are intrinsic to their story, because it’s very apparent how much they love them, and both Sage and Elias work so hard to make their families proud of them. Readers are sure to fall in love with this couple and their relationship. The inclusion of diverse characters is great, but more exploration of Sage’s ethnic heritage would be appreciated as she seemed very racially ambiguous for most of the book. This book incorporates tidbits of the lives of hockey players and ballerinas in a way that is naturalistic, adding to the three-dimensional feel of the characters. Spiral is a thoroughly enjoyable steamy contemporary romance with real heart.

4.5 stars.

“𝘠𝘰𝘶 𝘥𝘰𝘯’𝘵 𝘩𝘢𝘷𝘦 𝘵𝘰 𝘱𝘳𝘦𝘵𝘦𝘯𝘥 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘺𝘰𝘶’𝘳𝘦 𝘰𝘬𝘢𝘺, 𝘣𝘶𝘵 𝘐’𝘭𝘭 𝘯𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘳 𝘭𝘦𝘵 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘥𝘰𝘶𝘣𝘵 𝘺𝘰𝘶𝘳𝘴𝘦𝘭𝘧. 𝘛𝘩𝘦𝘳𝘦’𝘴 𝘯𝘰𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘤𝘢𝘯 𝘥𝘪𝘮 𝘺𝘰𝘶𝘳 𝘭𝘪𝘨𝘩𝘵, 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘪𝘧 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘬 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘳𝘦 𝘪𝘴, 𝘐’𝘥 𝘤𝘳𝘶𝘴𝘩 𝘪𝘵 𝘣𝘦𝘧𝘰𝘳𝘦 𝘪𝘵 𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘳 𝘵𝘰𝘶𝘤𝘩𝘦𝘥 𝘺𝘰𝘶.”

elias and sage unfilitered is my new mantra 😭😭😭💗 you can write that on my tombstone please and thank you

get you a hockey player who buys you a different bouquet of flowers every week while you’re fake dating just to help you decide which ones are your favorite (because you’ve never received any in your life)

get you a hockey player who can cook and experiments with sugar-free ingredients to help feed your diabetic little brother

get you elias westbrook.

i genuinely loved the hockey player x ballerina story. both tough careers, both hitting rock bottom, and yet they lifted each other up and kept hope alive for one another 🫶🏻❤️

fake dating used to be my all-time favorite trope when i got back into reading and there’s a reason why it’s still top 3 to this day. THE TENSION BETWEEN ELIAS AND SAGE WERE 😮‍💨🤤

lastly, the found family between the hockey team and sage? for the girl who got abandoned by her own parents and had no friends because all she ever did was work to provide for her little brother? 😭😭 absolutely heartwarming !!

if a sports romance doesn’t have found family in it, don’t even give it to me.

i loved this book so much and was the cutest palate cleanser! add it to your tbr if you need a simple, sweet romance read 💗

I read about a third of this and was mildly entertained but just feeling kind of bored. The lesson for me I think is that I just don't find new adult engaging as a genre and I shouldn't read them. I liked the relationship between the characters, but just didn't really feel compelled or excited about their romance. I love a fake dating story, but this one just wasn't capturing me. Thanks to Berkley for this arc.

I really enjoyed the first half of this book! I loved all of the communication between the two and that they were sharing feelings/reassurances. I felt like the relationship developed/progressed pretty naturally. The slow burn and found family tropes were perfectly done which is not an easy feat.

If you like slow burn, sports romance or found family i highly highly recommend.

I took my time reading Spiral by Bal Khabra, and it was SUCH a good decision! Sage and Eli are my new favorite book couple and their story was just what I needed this week! Both are high-level athletes (ballet and hockey) with something to prove. What’s the solution? Fake dating, of course!

There’s so much more and I read it *mostly* without any pre-reading and was so glad with my choice. Both had so much character development throughout, and I loved the care and devotion they show each other and their family - including found. A joy to read and sports romance lovers will want to snag this series asap! I Received an advanced reading copy, receipt of which did not impact my review.

Spiral shoots and scores with its fake-dating, found family love story. A perceived bad boy on the team, aligns himself with the niece of the teams front office staff, to solve problems each are facing on and off the ice. As lines get blurred, these two realize their smitten with each other.

The caring nature of Elias was the sweetest. The love story featured mature communications and realistic thoughtfulness. The hockey family delivered needed friendships and a found family for this couple to move forward. Spiral, much like book one in the Off the Ice series, gives the reader humor, angst and some steamy scenes.

A must read for sports romance fans!

Thank you, Berkley Publishing Group | Berkley

Thanks so much to berkley romance for the free book!

i pulled an all nighter to finished this book… I really liked the book it was cute to pass the time but I wish sage race was more clear as it a back and forth of black and moroccan? I dont know

overall the story Is very funny and cute. want to read the next one!

I enjoyed this one. It was a cute, fun, fake dating, hockey player x ballerina romance. Sage was abandoned by her parents and left to raise her younger brother on her own, so she’s not used to relying on anyone or asking for help. She’s strong, but also has a hard time believing in herself. Eli is sweet, caring, and protective, but is closed off to relationships and romance because he had a bad experience four years ago. They agree to fake date to help his hockey career and her ballet career, and they inevitably fall in love. Eli fights it, but Sage is loving and patient with him, and I loved how she supported him and his decisions. If you want a sweet, short read, you’d like this one.
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My rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️
Spice level: 🌶️🌶️
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Read if you like:
▫️he’s a pro hockey player
▫️she’s a ballerina
▫️fake dating
▫️found family
▫️dual POV
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Thank you to Berkley Romance, Bal Khabra, and NetGalley for the ARC. I received an advanced copy for free, and am leaving this review voluntarily.

I had the absolute best time reading SPIRAL!
I am a fake dating girlie and I ate this up
The pining was everything!

Both characters have past trauma but they helped each other heal and move on!
Being each other’s biggest cheerleaders too 😭

I really enjoyed Collide and was super excited for more of the friend group!
Y’all he removed her makeup for her because she was too tired & I was deceased 😍

Spiral follows Elias as he is playing his rookie year in the NHL and Sage as she struggles to get auditions as a ballerina and therefore struggling financially. Elias has yet to score his first career goal which has caused the media to question his ability to play the game and question his "party boy" lifestyle which is totally fabricated. Sage is told that if she had more instagram she could get an audition. When they meet an an auction because Sage saves Elias from his stalker they go out on a charity date and the idea is planted: we should fake date. Now let me tell you something about fake dating, it is my favorite dating trope.

I wanted to love this book so bad but I ended up liking it a lot. I thought the entire setup was so clever but I thought that their backstories were comically tragic. Summer and Aiden had their sad stories but they were just silly goofy, for some reason in the BKBU (Bal Khabra book universe) Elias and Summer's backstories were Greek tragedies, like what was that? Don't get me wrong, the book was really fun whenever we had the fake dating, the forced proximity, and the yearning. I loved the yearning so much! I feel like there's not enough yearning in books nowadays. I would recommend this book to anyone who can just look past the tragedy and focus on how fun the rest of the book is.

Tropes: slow burn, fake dating, forced proximity, one bed

Thank you to NetGalley, Berkley Publishing Group | Berkley, and Bal Khabra for giving me the opportunity to read this ARC in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

Thank you so much to Berkley Romance for an advance copy of this!

I first read Bal Khabra's book Collide last year through Berkley and comparing the way that one was written to this one, you could see Khabra's growth! Collide felt like it was a debut book and I know it originally was an indie turned traditionally pub so I'm not sure how much was changed from the original format. But this one felt so much more polished!

"You shouldn't look at me like that, you know?"
"Like what?"
"Like I'm yours to look at."
"What if I want to?"

Without knowing it, I read two romances simultaneously that started off with a the FMC bids on the MMC at a charity event and yet they both were done so differently and well done. Sage bids on Eli while working at a charity event which leds to them hanging out. Eli is smitten with Sage from the start.

I thought this was such a cute read! Sage had been through a lot and had to grow up quickly. She felt like she had to be the one to take care of her brother and put everything for him before she could focus on herself. Ballet was her life and her dream was to play the title role in Black Swan. When a fire at her apartment caused her to be displaced, sweet Eli was kind enough to let her stay with him. I love the found family feeling that came across on how his group of friends took her in.

Eli doesn't have the best reputation in the NHL and is painted as a playboy. But playing hockey is what he wants people to be talking about except he has yet to score a goal. Once him and Sage start seeing one another, his luck changes, There was an incident that caused him to be a little extra cautious in his love life. Eli is very very into Sage but doesn't allow himself to indulge. I thought that was an interesting choice by the author! Especially for someone who has written very spicy scenes in the prior book. But don't worry Eli could only resist for so long because he knew Sage was different than other women that had been in his life. I love how supportive he was of Sage and knew that she could achieve her dreams. And don't get me started on how sweet he was towards her brother!!

Overall I thought this was a fun, quick romance and I recommend if you are looking for a romance buffer between heavy reads! You do not need to read Collide to understand this. Summer and Aiden do make appearances throughout the book.

4.5

The perfect second book because it's so entertaining. I love the way Bal Khabra adds personify into her characters.

3.75 stars rounded up

This was really cute and fun and I enjoyed reading it. I love a good fake dating hockey romance and this was a very solid one. There wasn't anything sure unique about it. I really enjoyed Elias when I read Collide. I will say that I enjoyed this book more than I did book one and I definitely recommend it if you are someone who likes fake dating hockey romances. There was that familiarity there that for me can be very comforting.

Thank you to NetGalley and Berkley for the advanced reading copy

Can you hear that? It’s me gnawing at the bars of my enclosure because this was so unbelievably good!!! Hockey player x ballerina with fake dating and a rule that there’s no pda whatsoever and oh they can’t fall in love with each other either. SHUT UP!!! I don’t even know where to begin on what I loved the most, the most deliciously mouth watering slow burn ever, tension and angsty parts that came with the forced proximity or the fact that the Elias had me barking like a dog the entire time. There was so much vulnerability between Elias and Sage, the pair of them having gone through so much and opening up to one another had me genuinely sick to stomach. I LOVE THEM YOUR HONOUR! This book was a top tier hockey romance.

Author Bal Khabra’s second book in her Off the Ice series, Spiral, kept my interest from the first page to the last. I look forward to reading the first book, Collide, and others.

Sage and Eli are the romantic leads in this story, and the author tells their story in alternating chapters. Sage and Eli come from different walks of life and live very different lives when their paths unexpectedly cross.

Eli is a rookie hockey pro trying to make his mark. Sage is a ballerina hoping to make it professionally in a major production. She gets rejection letters galore, and he’s pushing for his first goal. Watching them support each other while fake dating was sometimes heartbreaking and other times exhilarating. Several emotions are displayed, and supportive friends and family surround them.

The book has a good flow, with multiple stories told. There are some unexpected moments, with one step forward and many more back. There is a lot of romance even when the two leads are in a fake relationship. There is closure with the epilogue that takes place three years later, but the details of the happily ever after are missing for me.

Spiral is a wonderful story for hockey fans and those who enjoy ballet. With vivid descriptions, I felt like I was there.

The book is reviewed on NovelsAlive.

Sage bids on hockey rookie Elias for one date at a charity event, thanks to a little push from Elias’s best friend. What starts as a favor to keep Elias away from a predatory woman quickly turns into an arrangement neither of them saw coming: a fake relationship. For Elias, it’s a way to dodge the puck bunnies, and for Sage, it’s a chance to gain the visibility she needs to pursue her dream of becoming a professional ballet dancer in an impossibly competitive field.

The chemistry between Sage and Elias is undeniable from the start, but their love story is beautifully complicated. Sage exudes confidence and independence, balancing her career and her role as a parental figure to her younger brother, while Elias struggles with self-doubt, both on and off the ice. His lack of confidence is reflected in his slump on the ice, much to the frustration of Sage’s uncle, the team’s coach.

What makes this story shine is Elias’s adoration for Sage. He’s drawn to her infectious confidence and finds himself wanting to be the one who cares for her, even when she insists she doesn’t need anyone. As Elias puts it: “There’s a heavy contrast between the nervous energy thrumming off me and Sage’s infectious confidence.” And wow, does he take care of her—his tenderness, patience, and love are impossible to resist.

Bal Khabra is a new-to-me author, and I’m so glad I took a chance on this book. The mix of hockey, fake dating, and a swoon-worthy romance made me want to read the first book.

Thanks to Berkley Pub for an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.

I enjoyed the first book in this series. The couple from the first book is in this book. Aiden is roommates and hockey teammates with our MC Elias. He’s new to the team and just can’t catch a break. He has female fan stalkers and this is how he met Sage. Though she saved him from one, she isn’t one.
Love fake dating! She is a ballet dancer but needs a social media following to get a job and he needs a fake girlfriend so he doesn’t have to worry about salacious headlines.
This had some twists I wasn’t expecting which added to the story. They both helped each other become successful and they fell for each other in the process.
Love when they both show up for eachother even when it’s “fake”.
Also loved how Aiden and Summer were always there to help their relationship along.

Aspiring ballerina Sage Beaumont and professional hockey player Elias Westbrook enter into a mutually beneficial fake relationship to boost their careers. But when real feelings start to arise, Sage and Elias soon find that it’s difficult keeping things platonic.

Spiral is the second book in Bal Khabra’s interconnected Off the Ice series but it can be read as a standalone. Overall, this was a cute and quick read filled with some of my favorite tropes like fake dating and forced proximity roommates. I liked Sage and Elias’ slow burn romance and thought it made sense considering the heavy burdens that were weighing on each of them. There were a few frustrating moments where Elias couldn’t get out of his own way mentally, but once he untangled his feelings for Sage, it made for worthwhile groveling and spicy scenes.

Unfortunately, Elias and Sage’s tragic backstories were completely glossed over which took me out of the reading experience. Sage and Elias both went through some incredibly difficult circumstances that shaped who they became as adults, but I never felt like either of their traumas were explored deeply enough. Sage was forced to take guardianship of her brother from their drug-addicted parents and Elias was blackmailed and extorted by his biological father. Some pretty heavy stuff, yet these situations and their effects were minimally explored. It was a lot of telling and not enough showing when it came to how Sage and Elias were impacted and I wish we had been given more.

Despite that, I did enjoy Sage and Elias’ banter and found their chemistry very believable. If you’re looking for something sweet that features dance sequences and found family, then Spiral might work for you!

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