BLURB:

She’s an honors student with ambitious graduate school plans and he’s a jock with only hockey on his mind, but once their worlds collide, their connection is hot enough to melt an ice rink.

An ultimatum from Summer Preston’s thesis advisor thrusts her into an unexpected collision with the hockey team’s captain, Aiden Crawford. She’s caught between conflicting desires of fulfilling her lifelong dream of becoming a sport psychologist and staying as far away as possible from the god-awful sport. And once she meets Aiden—well, let’s just say he confirms all her worst assumptions about hockey players.

Being the captain of the college hockey team has its perks, except when a reckless mistake by Aiden’s team threatens to jeopardize their entire season. As punishment, Aiden’s coach nominates him as the subject of a student research project. Participating is the last thing he wants to do, especially since the girl leading the project looks like she could wield his skates as a weapon.

Summer can’t stand Aiden’s blasé approach to life, and Aiden doesn’t understand why she’s twenty years old with a twenty-five-year plan. But their bickering soon turns to bantering—and once they let their guards down, there’s nothing to check their feelings.

MY THOUGHTS:

Well, well, well, turns out Hockey Themed Romance Books are a whole thing! Who knew, right? I vaguely remember people on BookTok going on about hockey romance books, but I had no idea it was such a big deal. Full disclosure: I haven’t read “Icebreaker.” Anyway, guess who got their hands on an ARC of Collide by Bal Khabra, thanks to NetGalley? That’s right, yours truly! The book had just the right amount of spice, but let’s be clear, I wasn’t in it just for the spice – it’s a solid 3.5 on the spice-o-meter. Plus, it’s got that classic enemies to lovers storyline. Yep, it’s a college hockey romance book, folks. I couldn’t help but roll my eyes when I found out that Summer was only “21.” I mean, come on, I practically turned into a raisin on the spot. Summer and Aiden go from being enemies, to friends with benefits, and then to lovers. I have to confess, I was totally lost on the project Summer was working on, but hey, it all worked out in the end, right? Maybe a little more info on that would’ve been nice? The whole story moved at lightning speed, and I feel like the writer could’ve cranked up the hockey aspect a bit more. It was missing that certain je ne sais quoi for me, unless I’m just not into hockey players? But hey, I’m all about that Epilogue! However, I couldn’t shake the feeling that the book was dragging on a bit. I almost gave up on those last few chapters, but hey, Aiden and Summer’s happy ending made it all worth it. Overall, I’d give the book a solid three stars because at one point, I really enjoyed reading it.

Happy Reading Folks!