Ellie Hall gave us a fun, friends to lovers, small town, hocky romance. How could it go wrong? Ellie is always so good at developing the emotional connection between the characters and she give her readers the fun banter that leaves us smiling and wanting more. This is a sweet romance and while I read spicy romance, too, I never feel like Ellie's books are lacking because they don't have the spice. She is a great story teller and her characters draw me in ever time. I find myself routing for them and this book was no different.

Teddy and Harlow have been best friends forever, but recently they each have begun looking at the other differently and wondering if there could be something else between them. At the same time, each of them is worried about losing their best friend. Teddy is "The Bear: on the ice, but with Harlow, he is a giant squishy teddy bear and I absolutely LOVED him. The interactions between them are sweet and leave you routing for them as a couple.

This is a fun, easy to read rom-com told in dual POV with a cinnamon roll hockey player and a quirky, roller blading lawyer. This book will draw you in and make you want to finish it in one sitting. It's a perfect, fun fall read.

Friends to lovers.
Small town.
HOCKEY!
Forced proximity.
Genuine FUN!

I highly recommend this book!

⭐️ 3/5
🌶 0/5

Well, this was cute and quick. A comfy filler.

This was Harlow and Teddy's story. He is smitten AF, and she is hesitant. They find friendship and comfort turns into lust and love.

This was readable, but it just didn't quite give me the pining, tension, and mood that I wanted. It felt very predictable and low mood. Like I said, comfy.... cosy.

Did it make me happy? Sure.
Was it soul changing? No.

But still, I recommend to anyone who is already reading the series, you may as well as this one in too.

🏒 Hockey Player MMC
🏒 Friends to lovers
🏒 Comfy Cosy
🏒 Kissing and flirting
🏒 Standalone interconnected

First of all, Thank You Netgalley for the ARC granted. Another great story from this series, and this time We have of of my best tropes to read: Best friends to lovers, and it didn't disapointed! Harlow and Teddy had all my attention troughout the entire journey of the book. Possibly my second favorite story of them all.

This was a fun best friends to lovers, grumpy x sunshine, small town hockey romance. Teddy and Harlow are best friends since childhood who secretly are in love with eachother. Harlow wins a romantic getaway weekend but since she has no one to go with, she decides to go with her best friend. This is where they slowly start acknowledging their feelings. I really enjoyed this book and maple falls is the cutest little town. I just found out this book is part of a series, can’t wait to read the other books as well.

I love sports romances. I love a good series but until this book I had never read best friends to lovers. However, I felt like this fell a little flat. There was just not enough tension or angst. This trope has so many angsty possibilities and this book did not use any. I really like the idea of a series in which each book is written by a different author but there was so much backstory and history that I did not follow or understand. I feel like a few more pages fleshing out other characters would have been worthwhile. I will still go on to read others in this series and other books by Ellie. This book is really for anyone wanting a sweet story with no spice (well, just kisses - not even a closed door scene) and an HEA. 

Big thanks to Netgalley and Ellie Hall for a copy of this book. This is my honest opinion.

🩵 Grumpy-sunshine, friends to lovers, hockey romance 🏒

This is book 6 in the Maple Falls series but can easily be read as a standalone. Although I highly recommend starting from book 1.
Harlow and Teddy have been friends since grade school but made a vow to never date each other’s siblings, they just never actually said they couldn’t date each other. That is until Harlow quits her job as a lawyer and escapes to Maple Falls with her bff Teddy after winning a free romantic getaway for 2. Something is in the air in the quaint little town that makes couples fall in love and never want to LEAF.

This was a shorter story in the series but no less cute. Picture Hallmark meets Gilmore Girls meets the NHL. A perfect fall happy story with 0 spice but a bit of angst.
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

2.5 If You Wish Stars ⭐️
Spicy Level: 0/5

I wanted to like this but just couldn’t get into it! I do think it might be a bit of a disservice to this book, having just come off an EPIC friends-to-lovers romance. I know I shouldn’t be comparing, but my brain is a crazy person and doesn’t want to listen to logic...

𝙎𝙮𝙣𝙤𝙥𝙨𝙞𝙨:
Harlow has just broken up with her boyfriend, but she’s not that sad about it. She’s also quit her job because her boss is a total “bro” and takes advantage of her. At a work conference, she wins a romantic getaway where she can choose where to go. She asks her best friend, Teddy, to come along, and they choose Maple Falls—where Teddy has been asked to be part of a charity hockey team, as he’s a professional hockey player and ready to come back after healing from an ACL injury. The two start to realise that maybe they think of each other as more than friends, but don’t want to upset their friendship dynamic... or do they?

𝙏𝙝𝙤𝙪𝙜𝙝𝙩𝙨 𝙖𝙣𝙙 𝙁𝙚𝙚𝙡𝙞𝙣𝙜𝙨:
I really, really, really want to find a Friends to Lovers where the characters are actual friends to lovers and not already in love with each other and just afraid to tell each other. I think that the problem with this is that both these characters are already irrevocably in love with each other and they need to try and save their friendship while exploring a "new" relationship. They are both scared to ruin what they have.

What I did like though was that even though Harlow has a little past trauma from an accidental almost drowning and some family issues that make it difficult to deal with certain situations, Teddy is absolutely adorable as he helps her deal with this!

It is very clear that these two are best friends, but it's because they were such good friends that I felt like I didn't like this that much. The whole time they're together they keep sharing these inside jokes that half the time I didn't get, and just ended up feeling like an awkward outside third wheel creepily watching their relationship. They would reference things or talk about things that happened in the past or say things that were funny to the two of them but made no sense to me. But besides this, the chemistry between them felt forced or just had to be believed because they had been friends for so long.

The writing also felt very chaotic, and it was very difficult at times to sometimes keep up with Harlow's sporadic thoughts because she 'squirrelled" in terms of ideas. It was very choppy to keep up with what was happening and at times I felt like the main character acted like a 12-year-old girl who'd never seen a boy before, not someone who was nearly 30 years old.

Something that also kinda weirded me out is this felt like Icebreaker Fan Fiction... The TOWN is called Maple Hills... which is the University where Icebreaker and the rest of the books are set. Also, the Charity Hockey Team is called the "Icebreakers" with the theme song "Ice Ice Baby". I know it might all be coincidental but it was a little fishy

𝙏𝙧𝙤𝙥𝙚𝙨 and 𝙈𝙞𝙘𝙧𝙤 𝙏𝙧𝙤𝙥𝙚𝙨:
▶ Dual POV
▶ Forced Proximity
▶ Friends to Lovers
▶ Hockey Romance
▶ GrumpyXSunshine but she's the grump
▶ Golden Retriever
▶ Nicknames

Ultimately this had all the formaic things that you would see in a "friend to lovers" but it just felt very cliché and there was no real depth and no real connection. I didn't like the fact that it was basically insta-love and I didn't see much development between the two characters taking place.

This book was perfect! If you are looking for a closed door friends to lovers then this book is for you! The romance was so sweet and the main characters really cared for each other!

I enjoyed this quick read. The story kept my attention and it was clear by the details shared about the supporting characters that several of them will be getting follow up books as this series continues.

This was a cute wholesome read of Teddy and Harlow expanding their relationship from best friends to lovers. The books has some funny moments that the characters have to go through during a lovers getaway that had me laughing out loud. There is no spice in this series, but they are a nice read when you need something to make you feel good.

Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️
Spice Level: 🌶️

Tropes:
Forced Proximity
Small Town
Best Friends to Lovers
Hockey Romance
Grumpy/Sunshine

Loved Teddy and Harlow's journey.
Teddy and Harlow have been best friends since they were young. They know all about each other.
Harlow only dates men for short times and just feels single life is best.
Teddy is on the injury list for the Knights hockey team. He agrees to play on a charity hockey tra. To prove he is ready to return.
Harlow just quit her lawyer job, which she hated. Harlow ends up winning a clues trip to Maple Falls. She follows Teddy and they decide to do the couples' weekend, because they are best friends and think it will be fun.
It is a weekend of mishaps, but a time Teddy and Harlow acknowledge, there could be more than best friends.
Teddy challenges Harlow and Harlow is strong enough to take risks..
These two are so cute and what a story!

Teddy and Harrlow's story was just amazing.

I loved the push and pull between them and how the build up between best friends to lovers happened.

It was a story I felt like I could relate to and it's made me quite interested to read the other books in this series.

Love at First Skate offers a cozy, small-town setting that many readers will appreciate, but ultimately falls short in delivering the emotional depth expected from a friends-to-lovers romance. While the premise of the story is charming, it’s bogged down by an overemphasis on the characters’ backstories, which often takes up more space than the present-day romance itself.

The chemistry between the two main characters feels somewhat lacking, especially when compared to other books with this trope. There are moments that should sparkle with tension and affection, but they feel underdeveloped, making it hard to root for the couple. The back-and-forth dynamic between them, which could have built anticipation, instead becomes frustrating and repetitive.

Character depth is another area where Love at First Skate stumbles. I found it difficult to connect with the leads, and they didn’t stand out as individuals with distinct personalities. Despite the charming small-town atmosphere, which provided a nice backdrop, the characters themselves lacked the depth that would make their love story truly compelling.

Overall, while there are some cozy elements to enjoy, Love at First Skate doesn't quite hit the mark for readers looking for a deeper connection with the characters or a more compelling friends-to-lovers romance.


thank you Netgalley for the ARC!!

I really tried but I could not get through this one. I have enjoyed this series so far but maybe I’ve spent too much time in Maple Falls with other cute couples getting together that this one pales in comparison. I get that they’re friends but they seem so awkward and ill-suited to each other. They hem and haw about their feelings incessantly and because it’s told through a dual POV, all I get is weird longing for each other with no real chemistry, just we could be holding hands but we aren’t. Maybe if there was less establishing back story and other things going on in their lives, their romance could have been more fleshed out but there was so much going on that it seemed like they were just getting together for the sake of not being alone.

So this book is part of a series and I didn't realize that when I went into reading it and it was no big deal. Def a book of a series (Love on Thin Ice #6) that can be read as a stand-alone book.
This book was very well written, had great characters and an interesting plot. I really like this book a lot and now might need to go back and read the rest of the books in the series. I love that but hate it at the same time bc my tbr list is already sooooo long. lol
I love the part of the blurb for this book that says 'They say love is messy. Turns out friendship is too' because yes it is especially when you are in love with your best friend but also don't want to ruin the relationship bc you can't lose them.
So let's start with the main characters; Harlow and Teddy. They are so adorable and have such an amazing relationship that are best friends but kinda border-lines a bit more and they are having a hard time knowing where that line is. Which can definitely happen in a very strong relationship. But they do both have a lot going on in their lives and also a lot going on in their heads which makes things harder. So many emotions, feelings and decisions to deal with.
This was a fun book to read and it's a quick read. if you like the friends-to-lovers theme then I think you should give this book a chance and read it.

I received this book from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. This book was a quick, sweet read. This friends-to-relationship read by Ellie Hall was a great story about Teddy and Harlow being best friends, and then finally, they both admit they have feelings for each other. Teddy came to Maple Falls to play for the charity team, the icebreakers, while he heals from an injury. Harlow just quit her job as a lawyer and is trying to figure out what is next for her. They are best friends, and it was great to read about them taking the next steps in their relationship. I loved the mentions of Oklahoma as well being from Oklahoma, it is always fun to read a book with characters from your home state.

Thank you to the publisher and Netalley for an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.

Unfortunately this is my least favourite in this series even though it features one of my favourite tropes - friends to lovers. There was a lot of potential in the story, however, trauma wasn't fully explored which disconnected the emotional aspect, and there were too many miscommunications for being such a short story. The ending also lost me.

Fans of this series should still check it out though to find out how Harlow and Teddy finally come together!

Unfortunately, I did not enjoy this book. The chemistry felt forced and there was so much telling instead of showing. I also really didn’t enjoy Harlows personality and it just felt like a constant rambling of thoughts.

This was a very cute, short read if you’re looking for friends-to-lovers! LOVE how fast paced it was because it kept me interested, but it also was missing a little of the emotional elements. I didn’t feel as drawn to the characters but was still a good read.

I have been loving the Love on Thin ice series but unfortunately this one was extremely dull and lacklustre.

They say love is messy. Turns out friendship is too, especially when you’re stranded in a cabin with your best friend and hearts are on thin ice.

I’m struggling to write this review as I can’t put a finger on to why I didn’t enjoy this. Partly I don’t think friends to lovers is for me. It was frustrating me to no end that they wouldn’t just grow a pair and tell the other their true feelings. As someone who’s read the whole series; nothing new was brought to the town and it all read as extremely repetitive. Overall, it was cute but very boring