10 Things I Skate About You by Kayley Loring is live!

The second novella in the Quick Pucks series, this is a short, funny enemies-to-lovers romance.

 

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Blurb

Do they love to hate each other, or do they hate to love each other?

Kate Pogue and Adam Foley have been competing for early-morning solo rink time since they were in high school. She’s a grumpy figure skater who had good reasons for deciding not to compete nationally. He’s the grumpy center of a local beer-league team after a hockey injury ended his brief career in the NHL.

The hockey podcast Kate does with her brothers went viral because of how she trolls the Icebreakers center. Just because she’s made up seventeen different nicknames for Adam and has tracked his hockey career since he was sixteen, that doesn’t mean she’s obsessed with him! He only hate-listens to the podcast because it’s so terrible—not because Kate is hot and hilarious and she wasted a decade of her life on a guy who didn’t deserve her.

Now that Kate is finally single, their chemistry is ablaze and no ice rink is safe from melting.

The small town of Kenton, BC isn’t big enough to hold all the tension between these rivals, so their family and teammates set up a Valentine’s date charity auction to finally get them together. As the whole town watches on, the hope is that their fiery banter doesn’t burn down Main Street.

Because mostly they hate the way they don’t hate each other…

 

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Review

3 stars

The second novella in the Quick Pucks series, this is a short (97 pages), funny enemies-to-lovers romance.

Adam and Kate were in high school together and have hated each other almost as long. He is an ex-NHL player who now plays in their small-town local league, while she runs a hockey podcast with her brothers where she trolls Adam constantly. After years of snark and bickering, Kate has broken off her long-term relationship and is single for the first time in ten years, and things are about to change.

When their friends and family have had enough of them ignoring the obvious and dancing around each other, they get set up on a Valentine’s date during a charity auction. They may hate each other, but there is definitely attraction there and it’s the perfect opportunity for some very entertaining hate-flirting. And with the whole town watching and hilariously cheering them on, all of those years of pent-up tension turn into a whole different kind of chemistry.

When I walk out of the front door, I attempt to stand still without fidgeting while Foley proceeds to do a long, slow visual sweep of me from head to toe and back up again. He scratches his chin with his thumb, nodding and sighing.
“Well played, darlin’. Well played.”

It’s a fun set-up with enjoyable characters, sharp banter, and lots of funny moments. The love story has a great sense of inevitability about it, their chemistry is sizzling, and the sexy time is wild. They argue through it all, of course, but neither of them can deny how much they want each other, or their long-buried feelings, and I love watching the shift.

“I hate that I’m so attracted to you,” she says sweetly. She kisses the tip of my thumb, and I cup her face in my hand. She nuzzles into it.
“Same, girl. But I don’t want to fight it anymore. Do you?”
Her pouty lower lip trembles, and then she whispers, “Not tonight.”

Being such a short read, the story moves at a fast pace, so there’s not a lot of time to get really invested. The involvement of their friends, family, and random people from around the town is fun, and there is a romantic climax that has a fabulous nod to some of my favourite 90s romcoms, which left me with a smile on my face.

A quick, enjoyable read – 3 stars.

An Advanced Reader Copy was generously provided by the author for an honest review.

Quick Pucks

 

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