Thank you to Penguin Random House Canada and NetGalley for this e-ARC of Spiral by Bal Khabra. Let me just say: hockey romances are SO back. This book is definitely for fans of the Off Campus series by Elle Kennedy, but it's so much more diverse and Bal Khabra's writing is seriously addicting. I won't lie, I struggled through Collide because Summer, while precious and all, was sometimes SO annoying I couldn't stand it, but I knew that just came with the territory sometimes. I came in with expectations of The Deal, after all. But it's an understatement to say that Bal Khabra's writing seriously improved from Collide to Spiral. Her characterization with Sage—miss "I can do everything and must do everything myself—was so well-done, and honestly, so refreshing, because instead of taking the ice cold approach, Sage's characterization was met with an open vulnerability as a shield, and it was SO delightful to read. Also, Elias is truly everything and more and honestly, he's not real. He is sweeter than anything, and I think the pitfall here was that Bal spent too much time on his actions, and while he is a man of little words, kind of just expected us to fill in the blanks from there. He's an incredibly introspective guy, but I think the author didn't try hard enough to fully flesh him out and his feelings, which made his thoughts just kind of blurry, I guess. You could tell he would do anything for Sage, but there was just something missing as far as realizing and coming to terms with his feelings. He carries a lot of guilt for his past, but that's just told over and over to us instead of truly explored, and I think that does Elias a great disservice. Like there's a mental block. Even with his feelings for Sage because you can tell he loves her but I wish the author didn't 1) hold back and 2) just explored him further, like give me some more descriptors, more of his arc, more exploration, more thought, because it honestly felt like Bal was just scraping the surface but didn't bother to dig deeper. Which is a shame, because there was absolutely more there.

Regardless, I loved this book so much, and it was definitely 4.75 stars. (Would have been 5 if Bal Khabra would just explore my man more but!)

A cute hockey romance staring Elias and Sage! Very swoon-worthy and lots of steamy chemistry between the two mc's to create that tension us romance girlies LOVE. The emotional connection was paced super well which is very important for a good romance, which made it feel very authentic. The plot itself, apart from the romance scenes, were also entertaining! Overall, enjoyed the characters, the romance and chemistry, and the plot. It's a win for me!

Side note - I was surprised the smut was a bit more tame in this one vs book one, but I'm not complaining! Just an observation.

I had a lot of fun reading Spiral by @authorbalkhabra! This slow burn, fake dating romance is about Elias, a young NHL player who is seen by the media as a player off the ice and is struggling to get his first NHL career goal. Sage is an aspiring ballerina but is struggling to get chances to audition and has heard that increasing her following on social media is the key. Hence the perfect pair up, Eli needs a long-term girlfriend so that the media can get off his back and he can focus on the game, and Sage could use the following that would come from dating a NHL star in order to be noticed, but of course with all fake dating romances, you know someone will catch feelings!

I loved that this book is set in Canada (and the author is Canadian). I also didn't find it as predictable as similar books which was really refreshing. This is the second book in the series and you could tell there were references to the other book, but it was easy enough to follow and just made me want to check out the first book, Collide. I would definitely recommend this book to sport romance fans, and plan to check out the author's other books! Thanks to @netgalley and the publisher, @penguinrandomca for giving me the chance to read and review this book!

Spiral was a great second book in the Off the Ice series by Bal Khabra. I really enjoyed Sage and Eli's story and getting to see all the characters from the first book as well.

Thank you to netgalley and the publishers for providing me with an arc for an honest review.

A sweet hockey read. I quite enjoyed the characters. It was a quick and easy readable romance. Thanks for the read.

Super cute book!!! An excellent addition to the first book :D Had a fun time reading this on vacation and was just what I needed on the beach

This was a cute read and my favourite in the series so far. I loved Eli and Sage as characters and they had excellent growth throughout the story. I liked the slow burn of their relationship and I thought their chemistry was great. While I would have loved there to be exposition for certain elements earlier in the book (i.e., Eli's backstory), I thought everything came together in the end. I also enjoyed seeing the characters from the previous novel, and how this story took place in a different setting.