Collide (Off the Ice #1) by Bal Khabra – upbeat hockey romance

Collide is an engaging and upbeat hockey romance that hooks you early and keeps you invested with its charm, chemistry and heartfelt character growth.

Synopsis

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.

Review

Collide is an engaging and upbeat hockey romance that throws you right into the life of Summer, a smart and hardworking grad student who wants nothing more than to get into Dalton’s prestigious master’s program for sports psychology. She is willing to do anything for it… except work with hockey players. Unfortunately, her thesis adviser hands her an ultimatum and she is forced to confront her biggest academic nightmare. She must work with Aiden, the captain of Dalton’s hockey team and the poster boy for everything she thinks she hates.

Aiden, on the other hand, is living the life he has always dreamed of. He loves hockey, he works hard, he trains even harder, and his rising fame has girls lining up for him. He takes his captaincy seriously, which is why he ends up taking the blame when his teammates screw up at a party. His coach notices the cracks forming in his routine, the burnout creeping in, and his tendency to be late. So the punishment is simple. Either he becomes the subject of Summer’s research project or he sits out the entire season.

Summer is a girl who has her life mapped out with a very serious twenty five year plan. Aiden lives for the moment and for the game. Their first meeting is not exactly cute and Summer makes him work to earn his place in her project. Once they accept their fate and begin working together, the ice around Summer’s heart begins to melt and sometimes even sizzle.

It was fascinating to see how Summer helps Aiden control his burnout, rethink his priorities, and imagine a future that is not only about hockey and how Aiden slowly chip away at her assumptions and show her that not all hockey players are the same.

The writing is entertaining and easy to fall into. It has been a long time since I read a college romance with twenty year old characters and I forgot how fun this kind of setting can be. The banter is fun, the tension is delicious and the emotional beats land exactly where they should.

I found myself smiling like an idiot reading the banter between the main characters and laughing at the side characters who bring so much life to the story. Summer’s friends and Aiden’s teammates are chaotic in the best way.

Summer is brilliant, focused and stubborn. She knows exactly what she wants from life and hockey players are not part of the equation. That anger and avoidance goes back to her strained relationship with her father who always put hockey first and pressured her into figure skating. He never celebrated her academic achievements, which hurt more than she likes to admit.

While I understood her feelings, I also thought she was a little too hard on him, mostly because she refused to talk to him and kept her real emotions locked away. Her resentment spilled into other areas of her life, including her hatred for all hockey players.

I absolutely rolled my eyes every time she let her ex stick his nose into her academic work. She kept asking for his feedback even when it was obvious he was a walking red flag. Honestly, Aiden should have punched him once. For science.

It takes Summer a long time to let Aiden in and accept her feelings, but once she does, she is all in. I also liked the way her relationship with her father shifts by the end.

Aiden is lovable from the start. He is a bit rude in their first meeting but it is understandable, and he makes up for it with the effort he puts into convincing her to work with him. He is charming, kind and responsible. He puts his team first and he puts Summer first too.

I loved watching him win her over step by step. What stood out most about him is how he never invalidates her feelings. He lost his parents when he was a kid, yet he never once tells her she should be grateful for having a parent. That alone says so much about his character.

His burnout could have been explored a little more, but I did enjoy seeing him slowly create a life outside of hockey and learn that balance both hockey and life.

The romance is a mix of slow burn and instant attraction. They have chemistry right away, but they take their time falling for each other. The spicy moments are plenty and fun, and the cozy soft moments in between make the relationship feel even better. Watching them change because of each other is heartwarming.

The climax is both predictable and surprising at the same time. Some parts felt a little dragged out, but I appreciated the lack of a dramatic third act breakup. The ending is sweet and satisfying. The epilogue is adorable. Now I am ready for the rest of the teammates to get their own books because this series clearly has more to give.

Overall, Collide is the kind of hockey romance that hooks you early and keeps you invested with its charm, chemistry and heartfelt character growth. If you enjoy college sports romances with slow burn heat, lovable side characters and a couple you genuinely root for, this one is absolutely worth reading.

Book Links

Goodreads | Amazon.in | Amazon.com | Amazon.co.uk

Have you read this or any  book by the same author?
What was the last sports romance that you loved?

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