From the publisher:
Fate brings together a ballet teacher and a hockey player in this big-hearted novel about second chances and taking risks by the bestselling author Entertainment Weekly calls the “master of witty banter.”
Once upon a time teenage Aurora Evans met a hockey player at the Mall of America. He was from Canada. And soon, he was the perfect fake boyfriend, a get-out-of-jail-free card for all kinds of sticky situations. I can’t go to prom. I’m going to be visiting my boyfriend in Canada. He was just what she needed to cover her social awkwardness. He never had to know. It wasn’t like she was ever going to see him again…
Years later, Aurora is teaching kids’ dance classes and battling panic and eating disorders—souvenirs from her failed ballet career—when pro hockey player Mike Martin walks in with his daughter. Mike’s honesty about his struggles with widowhood helps Aurora confront some of her own demons, and the two forge an unlikely friendship. There’s just one problem: Mike is the boy she spent years pretending was her “Canadian boyfriend.”
The longer she keeps her secret, the more she knows it will shatter the trust between them. But to have the life she wants, she needs to tackle the most important thing of all—believing in herself.Heartwarming, engaging… the witty banter and outrageous situations keep the tone upbeat even as characters face challenging situations.”―Library Journal
https://amzn.to/3OBHP2V
“Readers looking for emotionally intelligent romance will want to snap this up.”―Publishers Weekly
This book has such an interesting premise, but for me, it went sideways. Aurora was brought up to be a ballerina by a very pushy, ambitious single mom. When she was a young teen, she had no friends to speak of. Her peers thought she was aloof, and she often missed school for dance opportunities. She worked at a coffee shop at the Mall of America, and that was the only place she felt somewhat normal.
While at work, she meets two guys who were there for a high school hockey tournament. One of them, Mike, is very friendly and kind to her. Aurora turns that chance meeting into something more. She creates a fake boyfriend named Mike who is a hockey player from Canada. He’s a convenient excuse as to why she doesn’t socialize in high school and misses the prom. He also becomes her journal, in a manner of speaking. She writes him letters about her life and keeps them all in a binder.
Aurora gets into a prestigious dance school in New York City, but after two years, she decides to drop out. She is having panic attacks and anxiety, not to mention an eating disorder. Her mother is angry and disappointed, and Aurora can’t go home. She ends up in a small town teaching tap and jazz dance to kids. Her boss becomes her best friend, and she is content with her life. Until she meets Mike.
Mike is a professional hockey player who has been widowed, leaving him with a young daughter. The only normalcy left in her life is her dance classes, which she loves. As Mike is the one now taking her, he meets Aurora. Their relationship starts off slowly; neither is really looking for anything, and Mike needs help with his daughter more than a girlfriend. Turns out Aurora needs some help, too – her car is a broken-down mess, and the boyfriend who dumped her also left her on the hook for a two-bedroom apartment she cannot afford. Mike offers her a place to stay, her own floor in his very large home, and a car for her to use, and a job – helping out with his daughter. A nanny of sorts.
Mike goes back to his hockey career, which means a lot of travel, and Aurora is a big help, plus his daughter adores her. Things are going really well until Aurora and Mike fall into a real relationship that neither one is prepared for.
Here is where things go off the rails for me; at a fairly early point, she realizes that this Mike is the same Mike that she met all those years ago, but she never asks him or even mentions it. At one point, he starkly declares that he can’t abide liars, yet he lies to her several times. When Aurora finally tells Mike that she met him years earlier, he loses it. Then she gives him the binder of her letters, and that sort of resolves the situation.
I liked these characters and was definitely rooting for them, but their big obstacle just didn’t ring true to me; it seemed forced. I usually really like Jenny Holiday books and I did like this one, but that aspect of the plot just didn’t work for me.
2/2024 Stacy Alesi, AKA the BookBitch
CANADIAN BOYFRIEND by Jenny Holiday. Forever (January 30, 2024). ISBN: 978-1538724927. 384p.
Stacy Alesi's BookBitch.com™ 