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.

I absolutely ADORED Spiral. I should've known from the first mention of Misty Copeland that this book was going to be right up my alley. I could tell how much Bal has grown as a writer between the release of Collide and Spiral, and I can't wait to read more of her books! Sage and Elias were both so lovable, and if anything is true about me, it's that I LOVE a fake dating trope. This book was made in a lab for me to love and it worked.

Read this if you like:
•fake dating
•thoughtful men
•sports romance
•complicated family dynamics

Hockey player and ballerina start fake dating. This book was so sweet. I love a thoughtful man. I love fun banter. And I loved seeing both of them unravel for each other. Thank you Berkley for eARC!

This is my first ever Bal Khabra book and I am immensely impressed. The banter between the characters is so good it makes me feel like I actually want to be friends with them, specially Sage!!! The found family trope that hockey romance usually have is something I adore so much.

The slow burn on this one was burning 🔥 but the tension and the chemistry between Sage & Eli was undeniable. And every time they almost go all the way and let the walls they have up fall all the way they turn around and start doing something else—I was annoyed but I thought it was still cute.

If you are looking for another bingeable swoon-worthy Hockey Romance book, you will find it with this book.

My additional social media info:
IG—1060 followers
TikTok—2552

4.5 stars!
I went into this one slightly skeptical, because I didn't love book one (Collide), however, I was very grateful that Berkley blessed me with an ARC, so I was cautiously hopeful going in, but it blew my expectations out of the water!

I loved this book. It had some little Canadianisms without stereotypes being shoved down your throat which I greatly appreciated. I believed moving away from the college setting really increased my enjoyment of this story compared to book one.

These characters were well developed with similar backgrounds that led to life outcomes on the opposite ends of the spectrum, while still connecting them in a way that allowed for deeper understanding of one another.

The FMC has guardianship of her younger brother after her parents took off to evade arrest related to drug involvement. I respect that while she was working hard to provide for her brother, she never compromised on her own dreams as a prima ballerina for the production of Swan Lake for the company of her dreams. She worked hard to make ends meet, parented a teenaged brother, refused to take handouts from her well off uncle and eventually, learned to lower her wall to be vulnerable with and accept help from the MMC.

We often read about hockey superstars in romance books, but I loved that we had the opportunity to see more of the struggles of being a professional athlete. Our MMC is painted as a playboy even though he's the furthest thing from it. He's also struggling to perform the way he, his team and team management expected him to perform under the pressure of his rookie season. Additionally, he's dealing with his own personal life issues that no one is aware of.

I loved that there was no third act break up in this story. These characters genuinely deserved to be happy and work through some of their trials with the support of one another.

I enjoyed Bal Khabra's style in this book and noticed an improvement in her writing from book one.

Thank you to NetGalley, Berkley and Bal Khabra for the advanced copy.

I haven’t read Collide, the first in the series, but the joy of interconnected standalones 🙌This was my first book by this author and it didn’t disappoint! Sage is a struggling ballerina, Elias is a rookie hockey player who is also struggling to show his skill. She needs a bigger social media following to get the attention of ballet companies, he wants to escape the media scrutiny and pictures of him and every woman he is seen with. They enter a fake relationship, and Sage moves in with him, but it isn’t long before their friendship turns to longing.

This was a slowwwwwwburn. Probably one of the most slowburniest books I’ve read in a while. I really felt the author was putting in the work of developing their friendship and their feelings for each other which was great. I love me a forced proximity roommates situation and this delivered on the tension! Sage’s relationship with her brother was really special and I loved their moments too.

💜 fake dating
💜 roommates
💜 hockey player/ballerina
💜 found family

Different characters getting their own book in a series is one of the best blessing in the book world.

I wanted to smirk at the characters throughout this book, like yall remember this is 'fake dating' right. *wink wink*
Elias and Sage were very sweet and fitting for each other. The communication between the two of them was there right from the gecko.
Would I have loved more spicy scenes (especially because of the hot tension scenes)? Yes
But I loved the emotional connection and the character development with Sage & Elias is the true heart and what really pulled the reader in.

I LOVED THE SUMMER & AIDEN APPEARANCES!

I LOVED everything about this book! It hooked me right from the start—the plot was so cute, and I couldn’t get enough of the hockey player x ballerina dynamic. Elias Westbrook is officially a new book boyfriend of mine—everything he did for Sage made me swoon so hard. He was just so adorable. And Sage? I adored her just as much. She was such a relatable, caring character, and I especially loved how she wasn’t used to letting anyone take care of her—until Elias.

Their chemistry was absolutely off the charts, and they were perfect for each other in every way. 🥹🤍

I’ll definitely be thinking about this book for a long time!

Bal Khabra is truly an author whose quick jump from indie to trad is deserved. I loved loved loved Spiral, and just like in Collide, Khabra has created deep and complex characters without forgetting to balance them with enough humor and fun to keep the story light enough.

Their "meet cute" for the fake dating feels natural enough and the way their relationship forms as friends with just enough tension had me giggling and kicking my feet, leading to a really satisfying break of tension. I really adored this version of fake dating. And Eli's acts of service? Hello? ADORABLE top to bottom.

Khabra is an auto-read author for me now!