I absolutely love Lynn Painter's YA books and this is no exception! It did start off a little rough and slow but it picked up and became very addicting. I love how this captures the romanticized version of high school and makes you feel like you are right there. It's a quick and easy read that doesn't require much brain power.
This is also one of those rare moments where I was left off wanting more book, I feel like Dani and Alec could have been fleshed out a bit more. Also I was not of a fan of the random song lyrics but they could have been arc typos? Alec's POV were not as strong as Dani's because most of the time I had to go back to confirm the POV since it felt like it was all Dani.

Thank you to NetGalley and Simon & Schuster for this gifted arc!

Rating ⭐️: 4.75/5
Spice 🌶️: 0.25?/5 (Some comments being made but still very much YA)
Expected Release Date: September 30th 2025

Hockey Romance AND Childhood friends to lovers to strangers back to friends to lovers... PERFECT.

Lynn Painter the queen of YA Romance has done it again 👏

I have yet to read a YA book that hits just like Lynn Painter's books do. I loved it so much, I need the physical copy so pre order has been made.

This book was so cute and I couldn't put it down! As I was reading it I felt so protective over both characters. I just wanted them both to finally have the happy ending and closure they both deserved and needed.

Only reason it wasn't a 5/5 is because I feel like they never talked about the miscommunication that occurred. The ending was a bit rushed but I still loved it regardless.

Side Note: I loved the representation of mental health in the book. As someone who started having panic attacks back in high school. I felt like this book healed a part of high school self me and felt seen.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publishers for providing an e-ARC in exchange for an honest review

I AM UTTERLY OBSESSED YOUR HONOR. Thank you Netgalley for the opportunity to receive this ARC because I loved every minute!

I enjoyed Better than the Movies, but there was just something about this story, these characters that truly shined. Not only did I love seeing the relationship between Dani and Alec become something new while also mending their past, but I loved seeing the interactions with the town, the parents and Dani's grandfather. Everything flowed and everything made sense to me - even the miscommunication of young teenage love lol. I can't wait for my daughter to read this when it comes out!

This might be my favorite Lynn Painter YA yet. So many emotions threaded throughout these pages, and yet still a quick easy read! If you are an empath, have tissues handy; Lynn is a queen of writing characters who you connect with on a personal level, and Fake Skating is a masterclass in “all the feels.” Humans are complicated, and characters reflecting that experience successfully make a difference in today’s world. Thank you, Lynn Painter, for writing humor and heart into this book! I received it as an ARC, and cannot wait for it to be shared!

*ੈ✩‧₊˚Rating*ੈ✩‧₊˚
5/5 Stars

˗ˏˋ ♡ ˎˊ˗Tropes˗ˏˋ ♡ ˎˊ˗
⛸️ Fake Skating
❄️ Friends To Enemies To Lovers (Type Thing, I Think?)
⛸️ Miscommunication…😭
❄️ Childhood Sweethearts

𓂃🖊Notes and Highlights-

ˋ°•*⁀➷” ‘Call me later?’ I could tell by the quick blink of his eyes that I’d surprised him, but he quickly recovered.
‘Try and stop me, Collins.’”

ˋ°•*⁀➷” She’d always been it for me.
The standard.
I hadn’t realized it then, but she’d been laying the groundwork during every one of those summers we’d spent together, setting the precedent for what my type was.
Dani Collins–that was my type.
Period.”

💭 Thoughts-

-ˋˏ✄┈┈Definitely the best Lynn Painter I’ve read yet!!

-ˋˏ✄┈┈Oh my gosh, the banter was so amazing! Like for real, the banter was bantering!! I literally could not stop smiling from how incredible this book was the whole way through!!!

-ˋˏ✄┈┈I do wish we knew a little more about the side characters like Cassie who are actually her best friends. I get it that she was stressed and all but I think we could have gotten some more moments with them.

-ˋˏ✄┈┈In short that was AMAZING

Now Playing:

⊹ ࣪ ˖Miss Americana & The Heartbreaker Prince˖࣪ ⊹
0:01 ❍─────── 4:28
↻ ⊲ Ⅱ ⊳ ↺
Volume: ▁▂▃▄▅▆▇ 10000000%

5 🌟
Spice: YA, one hot and heavy make out
Format: ARC

Thank you to netgalley and the publisher for the arc in exchange for an honest review.

This was a highly anticipated read, and it lived up to my hype for sure. If you loved Better Than The Movies, I feel you will equally love Dani & Alec. Is it maybe a little predictable? Yeah, but it didn't bother me a bit. I loved Alec's POV. He's such a boy obsessed trying to loe to himself about being obsessed 😅 I loved the banter and all of their friends. I was happy to not see any mean girl drama, we love to see healthy female friendships. Grandpa Mick is top tier, love that he stood up to Dani dad. Gah, I miss them already.

Dani and Alec became inseparable as kids when Dani would spend every summer at her grandfather's in Minnesota. The pair looked forward to that one month a year where they could be together, until everything fell apart. Now, Dani and her mother have moved in with her grandfather, and she is looking forward to reconnecting with Alec, but he's nothing like the chubby, nerdy boy she once knew. Alec is now a cocky hockey god, and most surprisingly, seems to hate Dani. When the pair gets caught in a compromising position, Dani and Alec have no choice but to pretend to date, and their complicated relationship becomes even more complicated. As the weeks pass, the pair can't help but start to develop real feelings for one another. However, with so much tension left unsaid, will they be able to make it work, or is it game over before it even begins?

Leave it to Lynn Painter to get me invested in a YA contemporary romance. I'm so far removed from the target audience, but she has a way of sucking me in and keeping me engaged. Her writing is always so witty, humorous, and sweet. Dani and Alec had such a fun teasing banter that I couldn't get enough of. They were so adorable together, and all their flirting had me kicking my little feet. As an anxious girl myself, I could relate to how Dani thought and acted. It was precious watching Alec be there for her in those moments, even when he wasn't fully her biggest fan. The misunderstanding between them went on a little too long for my liking and was a tad predictable, but it didn't hinder my overall enjoyment of the story. If you're in the mood for a cutesy fake dating romcom, then I recommend checking it out.

3.5 stars. Hockey, high school romance between a book girl and a hockey star.

~Tropes~
🏒 Hockey romance
📖 Bookish girl x sporty guy
🥅 Childhood friends to strangers to lovers
🎧 Fake dating

Overview: Dani Collins is moving to Southview. As the daughter of an Air Force colonel, Dani has never stayed in one place for longer than a few years. But with her parents going through a divorce, Dani and her mom are moving to Dani’s mom’s hometown, a small town in Minnesota. That just so happens to be the town Dani’s ex-best friend lives, but after he stopped sending post cards, their friendship went down the drain. Alec Barczewski is now a hockey god, who is now known as Zeus, and is still mad with Dani. She had stopped sending post cards and tossed their friendship away. But despite that, they’re forced into fake dating each other and Dani learns about this new, athletic version of Alec, while he learns about the introvert version of Dani. Can they become friends again, or even more?

Thoughts: I’m sad to say this might be my least favorite Lynn Painter book. I’m not sure if it’s because my expectations were so high and they weren’t met so it seemed worse than it is, or what, but I just didn’t like it as much as I had hoped I would. It was definitely a lot more plot heavy, with a lot of family drama, expectations, and friendship struggles, and that just wasn’t really what I was expecting. Don’t get me wrong, I really enjoyed some parts of this book, Mick and Cassie were really the highlights of the book for me, I was just hoping for a bit more romance. The main characters barely even talk for the first 40% of the book, and when they do, there’s some cute flirting, but the attraction is very physical based, or so it seemed to me. There were some cute parts, but they just didn’t outweigh the more boring parts in my opinion. So if you’re looking for a story about family dynamics, the weight of expectations, and some light flirting, this is for you. Other than that, I hate to say it, but I might pass on this one. I am a huge Lynn Painter fan, just finished Maid For Each Other and it was great, and I love her music taste, but this one just wasn’t it for me. Anyway, thanks for reading and a huge thank you to Simon and Schuster Children’s Publishing and NetGalley for the ARC! 💙

I am not the demographic for a high school “fake dating” ya novel. Here I am eating up another Lynn Painter YA book kicking my feet and healing my inner once upon a time high school swoony heart.
Dani moves to freezing Minnesota after her parents split. Reuniting with her childhood boy crush, Alec, who she’s lost touch with for the last few years.
Alec is now the high school hockey god, who can’t get into any trouble without messing up his future hockey prospects. The solution?? Fake dating the good girl, Dani, who needs extracurricular activities for her Harvard applications.
Beware there is miscommunication, Taylor swift references, and lots of cursing. But somehow Lynn makes all of these things not cringy and you will find yourself rooting for Dani and Alec to figure it out.

Thanks to Netgalley and Simon & Schuster for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This was absolutely fantastic from beginning to end… but it is Lynn Painter!! The only thing I want more of is them together in the end, like more time with their REAL togetherness!! I loved their chemistry and childhood friends to strangers to “fake dating” to real dating… but come on, was it ever really fake?? I don’t think so 🤭

Lynn is the queen of YA rom com and she delivered in this sweet little hockey romance. .. Alec & Danny were just so meant to be, it’s too bad they had some unresolved things to get through to finally see how much they both meant to each other, but then again that kept me on my toes as I read. Thank you Net galley for the chance to read and review this book, I’m forever grateful!

4.5 ⭐️

I’m beginning to think there isn’t a Lynn Painter book I won’t love. This one was adorable and I genuinely loved both characters! The romantic tension and banter were top-tier, and Alec’s longing? So, so good.

I especially loved watching Dani grow. Her journey felt real and personal. I definitely saw parts of myself in her. And even though second chance romance isn’t usually my thing, this one was done really well!

My only complaint? If these two had just talked to each other, they could’ve avoided like 99% of their problems. The miscommunication dragged on a bit too long and got frustrating at times.

Still, this was such a fun read!

Thank you Simon & Schuster and Lynn Painter for an ARC copy in exchange for my honest review. 💛

infinity stars!!

lynn painter so back! at first i was worried as her last two books were a let down but she really turned the tables when she wrote this!! i binged it in a day and a half, it felt so good reading a taylor swift song!!

i loved how different it was, the way the mmc was the one who hated her + had the pressure as it's usaually the fmc that gets that but it was so well written!! it wasn't cringey or too cliche! it was perfect in every way

the grandpa mick was my favourite, the character development was insane!!!! he went from this grumpy man to this proud grandpa to dani. also on the note of dani, she was such a breath of fresh air!! book girlie, we found our girl. she wasn't infuriating or annoying she was just a mirror of what we book girlies are like.

i really recommend reading this book when this comes out, the banter, the dialogue, the drama, the fake dating jsut everything was 10.10

thank you so much net galley and lynn for trusting me!!! also i'm glad i begged for this book ngl

Fake Skating by Lynn Painter is a perfect young adult romantic comedy and a master example of the fake dating plot. This story is so cute; I loved so many things about it. The main characters are fabulous. Dani is smart, funny, and dealing with family issues. Her dad is in the military and their family moved a lot. Now her parents are getting divorced, and she is moving back to her mom’s hometown in Minnesota. They move in with her grandpa, a locally famous hockey player, Grandpa Mick (he’s my favorite character!). Dani’s childhood bestie, Alec, is a former non-athletic boy, that blossomed into a hot, star hockey player. Alec is dealing with a lot, too. His dad was in a horrible car accident and Alec feels like he must make it big in the hockey world to help his parents financially. Dani and Alec lost touch during one of Dani’s many moves, and both feel like the other ghosted them. When they reconnect, there is tension, confusion, and sparks.

Lynn Painter is a master of romantic comedy. This book felt like a fresh piece of Juicy Fruit gum, sweet, juicy, and comes on strong. The pacing for the book is well done. The plot moves a long, with never a dull moment. All characters are strongly developed, even several of the supporting character. The romance is spot on and sure to give readers all the tingles!

Fake Skating is a super cute fake-dating story about Dani who spends every summer visiting her mom’s hometown where she befriends Alec, the son of her mom’s best friend. They’re inseparable until they’re not which coincides with the mother/daughter pair not returning for several years. When Dani’s parents divorce, her mom moves back to her Minnesota hometown and takes Dani with her where she has to face the boy she’s convinced ghosted her (there’s a definite misunderstanding here of “well if they just had a conversation this would be fixed). He’s gone from being a nerdy, pudgy kid to the local hockey star while her outgoing personality has been tempered by too many schools and having to be the new kid too many times.

Needing to rehab his image for hockey scouts, he realizes fake-dating his former best friend, a quiet intellectual girl who aspires to attend Harvard, is the perfect way to rehab his image and simultaneously boost her social standing with his own reputation. Unable to say no, she agrees and the more time they spend together, the more they realize how much they mean to one another.

This was such a great YA romance and while I was a little frustrated that their miscommunication dragged out through most of the book, overall I really enjoyed the story.

Thanks to Netgalley and Simon & Schuster for the ARC.

Lynn Painter has got YA down to a beautiful science. When I pick one up I know that I'm going to get the cutest main characters in existence and that they are going to banter and pine for each other until I can't stand it any longer. (We're only mortals Lynn!)

There's just something about childhood best friends coming together again that hits the spot. And as probably everyone could hypothesize from the title...yes there is fake dating and there's definitely hockey involved. And both those elements were fantastic.

You can also expect plenty of family drama, rivalries, delicious romantic tension, dare I say... *whispers* glasses, and some of the best kissing in a YA novel I've ever read.

I will be posting this review on goodreads one month before pub day. Thanks to NetGalley and Simon and Schuster Children's Publishing for the ARC!

“Fake Skating” by Lynn Painter was my second book by this author. This is a cute YA romance with second change and hockey star troupes. I would say this is upper YA, so if you’re looking for your teen, make sure you preview the book first as there is quite a bit of language. This was a quick fluffy read that would make a great pallet cleanser between more heavier reads. Adults who like Lynn Painter or just enjoy YA romances will like this book too.
Thank you to NetGallery and Simon and Schuster Children's Publishing for an advanced copy of this ebook in exchange for my honest review.

4.5 💫

I screamed when I got this ARC!!! Lynn Painter never misses — there’s just something about her YA books that feels so nostalgic and comforting. I’ve loved every single one that I’ve read, and this was no exception 💘

It was sweet, and full of heart. Watching them reunite had me smiling the entire time 🥹

Alec was literal perfection, the way he longed for Dani?? I swooned every other chapter. And Dani felt so real. As a fellow overthinker, I saw so much of myself in her 💞 I think a lot of YA readers will relate to her deeply.

There was a bit of miscommunication, but it didn’t take over the whole plot.

I think this is my new favorite Lynn Painter book! I loved all the characters, dual POV, found friendships, and certain topics that anyone could relate to. Plus, nothing beats a Midwest setting.

Dani Collins was the perfect main character. This girl has big dreams of Harvard, but being a military "brat" is hard. She hates the constant moving and not having a place to actually call home. She second guesses everything but is loyal to a fault when she trusts you.

Alec is a stubborn, hockey player that will do anything to ensure that his family has enough to make ends meet. After his dad's injury, he's been the main
"provider" of the house, while also still being a high school student. The love he has for Dani is one for the books.

And Mick, the grumpiest grandpa one could ever read about with a heart of gold.

Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC!

This was a sweet YA read. It kept me engaged and entertained.

Thank you to netgalley for an advanced copy. My opinions are my own.

There was a shocking (to me) amount of "Praise Jesus"es and mentions of God (ish), which, idk if all of her books are this way and I hadn't noticed it before? I don't remember anyone praying in Better Than the Movies, but I could be misremembering! It's whatever, though, I love Lynn Painter, no matter what!