3.5 stars, cute and fun hockey read. poppy stole the show for me in this one, she was adorable! very much insta-love which i’m not a huge fan of but logan was great. the third act break up was very trivial, and i could see it coming from a mile away but the characters did have some good communication and resolved it fast which i enjoyed. however i felt like there was a massive focus on logan’s career and very little about cocos? i would’ve liked to see more of the hard work she put into being a literal olympian. finally just some grammar and spelling issues, i think the name ‘markham’ was spelt differently every time. overall, a light and very fun read. thank you netgalley for this one!

At the top, let me just thank NetGalley for this ARC in exchange for my honest review.

The Cutting Edge by Lisa Daily is a sports romance between an Olympic figure skater, Coco, and an NHL hockey star, Logan. When Coco ends up in the ER after a puck straight to the head, thanks to her skating students sports star dad, Logan Rivers she is swept off her feet by the attraction she feels towards the hunky hockey player.

Before I head into my review I want to preface it by saying I am a romance reading junkie, though my first love will always be fantasy. I devour romances and read them at an alarming rate, usually as palette cleansers between long fantasy series and also as a way to just enjoy my life. I’ve read many sports romances by authors like Mariana Zapata, Elle Kennedy etc. and I find that this particular genre of romance scratches a very intense itch I have.

All that being said, I did not enjoy this book. Beyond the insta-love attraction of the two main characters and the weird premise of having Coco hospitalized for the first half of the story, I felt that the devices used to cause tension in the blooming relationship between the main characters made my head want to explode.
**I’ll pause here to put that my next few paragraphs may contain spoilers***

The reader is lead to believe at the beginning of the book that Coco, a professional and Olympic figure skater and skating instructor was completely unaware of her students VERY FAMOUS hockey star dad who literally WORKS IN THE SAME BUILDING AS SHE DOES. On top of this the reader is then led to believe that Coco, who is a PROFESSIONAL SKATER does not know or realize that she shouldn’t walk into and onto a closed rink while HOCKEY PLAYERS ARE PRACTICING. Not only that but she brings along a five year old. Out onto the ice, in a closed rink. No. I’m sorry but that is beyond my ability to suspend my disbelief. I think I’ve skated like 5 times in my entire existence and would have the where-with-all to know that would be a very dangerous thing to do.

Then, when Coco finds out that she has a skull fracture and will be missing a lot of work on top of not being compensated (rightfully so because it was her own misguided decision gave have her the injury) she decides to blame Logan for all her woes. How dare he be on his practice ice. How dare he be frustrated and hit a slap shot that accidentally goes flying straight into the head of a grown woman who should not be there. No. That is immaturity to an extreme. I will say that I bet there are some people out in the world who would and do think this way but my issue stems from how Logan responds to her outrageous and ridiculous treating of him.

Logan proceeds to ‘woo’ her because of course it was all his fault right? Let’s not take into account that Coco not only put herself in danger by disregarding any rules but that she led his own daughter out onto that ice as well and it could have been her head cracked open. No. But Logan is already completely in love with this person he only just now has started getting to know and he’s a millionaire because he’s just the most amazing hockey player to ever skate onto an ice rink when he’s thinking about her so of course he needs to creepily send her a million outlandish gifts to convince her of his regret. And she will obviously feel ‘bad’ about receiving so many special things but will accept Every. Single. One. And this is only the first half of this story.

I could pick it apart more but I’ll end here and say that obviously this one was not for me.

*I received this through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review*

DNF at 30%

I might try to read it again, but the pacing of the story was too slow for me.

The tropes within the book are in my wheelhouse, so I was very interested to see if the plot would hold up beyond the tropes. It was an okay book, with a handful of small issues I noticed throughout:

1. Grammar or technical issues: misplaced or missing quotations, commas missing, formatting issues, etc. While minor, having dozens of instances (probably hundreds if I had finished the book) throughout made it hard to read.
2. While reading the book, the words switched between italics, all right-aligned to normal font, and left-aligned (like normal), and it was very difficult to read, especially when the characters texted. That could have been because of a technical issue, so don’t let that stop you from checking out the book.
3. I’m sure the plot written in the description did match up with the plot of the book, but when I DNF'd it at 30%, the story had not reached the main plot yet.

This book was like catnip; I had such the biggest smile on my face while reading it. The blurb doesn't really do it justice, so let me add a few of the key selling points (of me at least):

Single Dad
He falls first
Hard working determined FMC with a dream
Hilarious side characters
Great Banter and Chemistry
Fake Relationship

This book was billed as a 'steamy hockey romantic comedy' and I would say it was heavy on the comedy and light on the steam. Which is not a bad thing at all. If you are looking for a hockey romance to make you smile, this is the book for you. But if you were looking for a book slightly heavier on the steam, this book is more sweet that steamy. Again, not a bad thing-I love sweet books-but felt it was worth pointing out.

Super cute story. I was rooting for Coco and Logan the whole time, and loved the relationship between Logan and his daughter, Poppy. Overall, it was a quick, feel good read. That said, the text was super repetitive at times, and it's Phil Kessel, not Phil Kessler.

As a former figure skater I loved the trope of this plus my all time fave trope fake dating and you had me there but there were some boring parts that lagged a bit so would have been better without those.

1/5 ⭐️

I am sure as the writer, this book must have been so fun to write because who doesn't love to write about love.

Hooooowwwweeevvvvveeerrrrr, I felt most of this was very cringe and felt a little too campy for my tastes. I felt like the tension was fun in the beginning when Coco was in the hospital but overall I just thought the book was b*d. And I HATE saying that! Because I love romance and what is better than hockey romance. Buuuuuuuuttttt here are my thoughts:

1. this arc desperately needed to be proof read, I see that the book has already been published so I hope for everyone's sake that it got the grammatical TLC it so desperately needed
2. None of it felt real after the first couple days in the hospital. I need there to be conflict other than Coco doesn't want help. Anyone in their right mind should accept financial help if she truly wants to go to the olympics?
3. I feel like I barely got to the know the characters and yet it was over 200 pages? I don't know. Also once I read Coco's full name, all I could read was Cottonelle toilet paper :/

I really enjoyed this book - Coco and Logan were great main characters and I could really feel the chemistry between them!

I love a good hockey romance and this was no exception!

Looking forward to reading the next book in the series.

This was such a fun read! I can't wait for more by this author. I would absolutely recommend! If you are looking for a book to get you back into reading. This is it!

*I received this as an ARC through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review*

I thought this was a cute story. It is my first ever hockey romance and was a good starting point into sports books. The characters were lovable and the ending was on a happy note.

It did have quite a bit of writing errors in it but I believe that may just because it wasn’t a final copy.

I have never been more bored in my life reading a book and that says something. Christ on a stick what is in this book? Sleepy time tea. Dnf at 76%

I first want to say thank you for letting me review this arc , I wanted to try out hockey romance and this arc was the perfect one to read ! It was super cute and I really enjoyed it

thank you to netgalley & lisa daily for the opportunity to read this arc!
first off, i love poppy. she’s my new spirit animal. i’m a sucker for hockey romance and loved how coco also had a prominent ice sport. a bit of a traumatic meet cute but a cute story none the less. devoured this baby in a little over a day. definitely recommend.

I don’t know how people struggled with this book! I thought it was fast-paced, kept me interested, and the banter between Coco and Logan engaged me! The only reason I docked it a star was because there were some spelling errors and I couldn’t tell if it was Ms. Marham, Mrs. Markham, or Mrs. Marhamm.

I would like to thank netgalley and Siesta Key for a free copy of the book in exchange for an honest review.

Enjoyable, but the last conflict was not convincing. It also didn't deal with their class difference very well.

I really enjoy hockey romances they are one of my favourite genres to read and this did not disappoint in that aspect.

Your typical hot hockey player meets figure skater instant lovers, the MMC can only be described as a cinnamon roll, he is the happiest person I have ever read even when he was scary and intimidating he was still a spoonful of sugar.

If you like light hearted romances with a small break up then this is for you, the smut is 0.5 at a push but is implied throughout

I did enjoy this read, as a dark romance reader this was a light palate cleanser to reminded me that there is good in the world.

Plus DILF is a win!

Thank you for sending me this Arc to review, I really appreciate the opportunity.

I love the romance story of a figure skater and a hockey player. Poppy the small child that Coco is teaching is smart and adorable. It feels like a such a cute witty story and I love the relationship with Logan and Poppy. The banter between Coco and Logan is also very cute, they're both witty and feed off each others replies which was so cute to read that they were constantly just leveling up their relationship.

Cutting Edge has a really great premise but unfortunately I was unable to finish due to the editing that kept causing me to stop and check if it was my ADHD. It turned out I was rereading the same line but it was actually just that the exact paragraphs or lines were getting repeated in a different but still similar way on the next page. There's some missing punctuation and grammar errors that kept pulling me out of the story so for these reasons, I was unable to finish. I do think the story has great potential and the characters are very cute but just needs a little polishing through editing to fully shine through.

Logan is a star hockey player with a 5-year-old daughter, Poppy. The Stanley Cup games are coming up and Logan is off his game. When he forgets to pick up his daughter after her skating lesson, Coco brings Poppy to Logan’s rink. He sends a puck right at Coco’s head never realizing she is there. Coco’s world involves ice skating, and she is trying out for the Olympic games coming up. When she ends up in the hospital Logan tries his best to make her stay pleasant. The gifts bestowed on Coco while in the hospital were creative and thoughtful. Poppy loves her and Logan is beginning to see why. I really liked this book. I thought the thrill and frustrations of the game, the family atmosphere of the team, and the love of the game were well portrayed. I loved how thoughtful Logan was where Poppy was concerned. It was fun to watch Logan and Coco’s relationship grow into a true partnership. Great book with wonderful characters.

fr :
j'ai arrêté à la page 46, malheureusement l'humour du livre ne me convient pas. Je supporte mal les moments gênants et ce livre en est rempli. Je ne pense pas être l'une des personnes ciblées par ce livre. Ce qui est dommage car le personnage de Poppy à l'air d'être intéressant et j'adore les romances avec des pères célibataires mais la plume de l'autrice n'est juste pas pour moi.
mais si ce genre d'humour est le vôtre je suis sure que le livre vous plaira

ang :
I stopped on page 46, unfortunately the humor of the book does not suit me. I can't stand awkward moments and this book is full of them. I don't think I'm one of the people targeted by this book. Which is a shame because the character of Poppy seems to be interesting and I love romances with single fathers but the writing is just not for me
But if this kind of humor is yours I'm sure you will like the book

"The cutting edge" is a very lovely story, I couldn´t stop reading. Coco and Logan are both kind and ambitious characters. Due to an accident they get to know each other and fall in love. Coco is an icesakter and Logan a very handsome ice hockey player. I really love reading this trope and Lisa Daily wrote an amazing story. Love, passion, desire, drama and a good dose of humor. What more can you ask for?