3.75 stars.
I love how this book has a realistic approach of panic attacks and life after loss for a child. There were quite a few heavy topics, but executed well in my opinion. The topic of moral failure has got to be one of my favorite parts of the book. The pacing was a little off throughout the book. The beginning-middle felt a little dragged whereas the ending felt very rushed. I was drawn in, but rushed. The third act breakup and Rory revealing the binder—was a little more dramatic than how I would’ve pictured the reaction.

This was lovely. I had plenty of moments when I couldn’t stop smiling. Mike and Rory’s relationship is refreshing. Rory and Olivia’s relationship is too adorable.

Thank you NetGalley & Jenny Holiday for this ARC!

Many thanks to Forever and Hachette Audio for the advanced copies via NetGalley in exchange for my honest opinion. This romcom will be available on Tuesday, and I recommend it - especially the audio!While mostly set in Minnesota, one of the main characters in this book is from Canada. Canadian Boyfriend is a romance that remains lighthearted even though it tackles some heavier topics including death of a spouse, parental pressure, and disordered eating. Mike is an NHL player whose wife recently died in an accident, leaving him a single dad to pre-teen Olivia. Aurora aka Rory is teaching dance classes and working at Starbucks, after leaving her training as a pre-professional ballerina. Olivia is one of Rory’s students, hence the meet cute - but Mike doesn't remember meeting Rory many years before at the Mall of America. I read the first half and then switched over to the audio for the second half because Joshua Jackson (who I will forever refer to as Pacey) narrates Mike’s portions 😍 The female narrator, Emily Ellet, does a great job, too.

As a teenager, Aurora Evans had a brief encounter with a Canadian hockey player while working at a coffee shop in the mall and later took an opportunity to use him as inspiration for her fake Canadian Boyfriend. Aurora was known around her school for being someone who thought she was better than everyone else and because of that, found herself lacking in the friend department. So she conjured up the story of her Canadian Boyfriend to help her in awkward social situations. Prom? Can't go because my Canadian hockey player boyfriend has a thing. Perfect right? But for Aurora Evans, it turned out to be more than just a harmless excuse. Years after she made up a boyfriend from Canada, she found herself in a complicated situation, hurting people on both sides.

Fast forward to the present, Aurora is now an ex-ballet player turned dance teacher who meets a pro hockey player named Mike Martin. Recently widowed and struggling with his daughter's behavior, Mike seeks Aurora's help in navigating the upcoming school year and hockey season. They quickly develop a strong bond, with Aurora proving to be a perfect nanny and a great support for Mike emotionally.

However, things get complicated when Mike finds out about Aurora's secret, leaving him unsure about trusting her. Despite this, their connection is undeniable and he discovers that Aurora truly understands him, even beyond his professional persona.

"And you - you - are so much better than the idea of you."

I went into this book with zero expectations other than the vibe that the cover gave off and honestly what a cute cover for such a wonderful story. This book had me feeling all of the things; I laughed, I cried, I was frustrated but mostly I was just so happy. Canadian Boyfriend was my first book to read by Jenny Holiday and because I enjoyed it so much, I'm definitely going to be picking up her backlist. This book is the perfect amount of sweet romance mixed in with healing trauma and growing as individuals.

Aurora aka "Rory" is a character that I would fight for. I love her so much and love the journey that she takes throughout this story. I think that the way that Jenny Holiday wrote about Aurora's experience with ballet felt real and made me want to scoop Rory up and protect her at all costs. The way that her anxiety manifests and how she dealt with it also hit super close to home and specifically the relationship with her mom I think was written in a really relatable (unfortunately) sort of way that I think a lot of people will resonate with.

Mike is genuinely such a good guy. I loved seeing his perspective but also getting to see the perspective of Rory regarding him because you can just see that he's a great sort of guy and it's honestly impossible not to fall for him and want the two of them together. I think his chapters navigate grief in a really beautiful way, especially with it being the loss of his wife while he's also navigating being a single dad.

I loved the slow pace of their relationship and how they would sometimes take a step forward only to take a few steps back. It just made it feel all the more genuine due to their particular circumstances. These two are probably one of my favorite literary couples. The chemistry is fantastic and I love how they just . . . sort of happen but not in a forced way, just like it made sense for them to be together.

I do want to note that although this cover is so cute, it does deal with some heavy-hitting topics like the above-mentioned loss of a spouse but also an eating disorder. I often struggle reading this particular topic because I don't always think it's handled in a way that it should be but Jenny Holiday wrote it in a really great way that didn't leave me feeling shamed by the author or glorified in any way.

I definitely think Canadian Boyfriend is going to be one of those books that blows up so make sure you read it!

- hockey player/single dad mmc
- ex ballet dancer/dance teacher fmc
- slow burn
- healing trauma
- let me take care of you
- therapy positive
- anxiety rep/panic attacks
- friends to lovers
- forced proximity

This book was lovely! I loved how this book wasn’t afraid to tackle tough issues like loss of a spouse and mental illness. It is not a lighthearted read, but I didn’t mind because I thought the author did the heavier stuff very well. The love between Mike and Rory was so cute and I loved that they became close friends before they began their romantic relationship. I was really loving this book up until the last few chapters. The third act breakup made no sense to me and it just threw me off from the entire story. Overall though, I enjoyed this one!

Thank you so much to NetGalley and Forever (Grand Central Publishing) for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

A cute, family oriented hockey romance that tackles important topics such as grief, panic attacks, eating disorders and normalizes therapy.

I didn’t love this one as a whole but what I did really like included:

✨Single Dad
✨Hockey Player/Romance
✨MMC + FMC Growth Through Therapy
✨Doing Things Because You Love Or Enjoy Them without strings attached
✨Boundary Setting
✨Letter Writing
✨Overcoming Food Trauma/Disordered Eating

What I didn’t love:

✨FMC always referring to the MMC by his full name (Mike Martin)
✨MMC Seemed Way Too Trusting before inviting FMC to move in/watch his child
✨The Fake Canadian Boyfriend thing seemed very juvenile to me
✨The Pacing felt way off to me

Umm I’m waiting for my Canadian hockey boyfriend too please!

No, but seriously, I loved this one. It takes you on an emotional rollercoaster, but don’t worry you’ll be happy by the end.
I’m a sucker for the single dad trope, but I absolutely loved this one. Mike was such a caring dad, I loved his and Olivia’s relationship.
Now, Rory is amazing too. The way she’s described in the book, this girls been through a lot. Though, that didn’t stop Mike from showing her she could be loved. That she was more than what anybody thought of her. In every aspect, Aurora was very relatable and one of my favorite fmc’s I’ve read in a while!!
Now, that epilogue! It might just be perfect, it was everything and more.

Wow. I went into this one expecting a cute light romcom. Which I got, but we also get a good dose of some heavier content. And Holiday did a great job of balancing both. We also get a lot of good mental health/therapy rep. Something I find is trending lately in books and I'm here for it.

I really liked the relationship between Aurora ( love the name by the way) and Mike. As well as how they brought each other out of their respective traumas. Normally a slow pace would bug me but it was just right for this plot. Allowing for the relationship to build naturally. How it progressed was also realistic and well done. They fought, the talked things out, and made their way to the HEA.

Where I struggled was with how the inevitable 3rd act breakup happened. I think Mike was a bit over dramatic about it. The other thing that drove me absolutely crazy was Aurora's inner dialogue always referring out MMC but his full first and last name. It just got old.

It was an overall fun and enjoyable read, minor struggles aside. And I loved the Canadian content. would recommend picking it up.

Hello Mike and Aurora nice to meet you in such a marvelous way!

Young ballerina Aurora meets a hockey player at her high school job and he becomes her whole life. She writes to him for years and he is a safeguard for her among her peers. But he doesn't know. Zero idea.

Years later a kid is in her ballet class and the dad who is named Mike reminds her a lot of her faux Canadian hockey boyfriend all those years later.

Could it be fate? Especially when Mike needs her help with his daughter. And they settle with fake dating. And fake this and fake that .....and I was SO STRESSED.

Things ended beautiful as the rom com formula did its thing, but man what a ride!

Thank you to the Forever team for this wild one.

Who didn't have a Canadian boyfriend?

Convenient, Handy. The ever elusive Canadian boyfriend. The original fake boyfriend.
Aurora met Nike ages ago at the Mall of Ameticas.
Since then, she's used his name as her fake Canadian boyfriend long time.
Until the day Mike shows up with his kiddo and they actually develop a for real relationship.
But secrets,
Fun but with some serious topics.
Recommend.
More Canadian Boyfriend books, please!

This book was great. I loved the character development of Aurora (Rory) and Mike. They each had their own journeys and pasts that they had to work through. I thought the use of therapy was wonderful and shown in a positive light. Mike's relationship with his 11 year old daughter Olivia was wonderfully realistic. They had ups and downs and it was great using Liv as the bridge for Rory and Mike to meet. I think there was a perfect amount of dance and hockey mentioned and that it helped the story progress. I also really appreciated that the book spanned over a year. It allowed the characters to really form a friendship first and then more later on.

The one thing that irked me from the start was that I knew what the conflict between them would be and I think it was so trivial and blown out of proportion. That being said, the way Mike worked through it by going to therapy and talking to friends made it feel more realistic. I also don't understand why she always referred to him as Mike Martin, it was a bit weird.

I can't wait for Gretchen's book!

This book was so real and raw in some many ways. I loved seeing Aurora and Mike heal and slowly grow, I think it makes this book really special. I appreciated that the romance aspect was more slow burn because it felt true to the characters and the story. I think overall it was a good book I just personally didn’t fall in love with it but I would recommend to others. Definitely a charming story about healing and love.

This book was a fun hockey/single dad romance, that touched on several more serious topics. The characters were well flushed out and very lovable, and you can’t help but root along for them as you follow their story.

That being said, I felt like this book was longer than it needed to be. Parts of the story dragged on, and the timeline sometimes skipped around in weird ways - the total book takes place throughout two years, but it feels like it’s more around 6 months. Additionally, the ‘conflict’ was very built up throughout the book, even though it felt like something very small that wouldn’t make a big difference by the time the truth comes forward, it does lead to an unnecessary third act breakup.

Overall I enjoyed reading this book, and will probably end up reading Gretchen’s as well, but I felt like it could have moved a little more quickly.

The premise of this book is cute, I'll admit that. I just felt this book didn't captivate me. It touched a lot of subjects like unhealthy relationships with parent, loss of partner, grief, eating disorders, (and I can't remember if there are more). In between all these hard subjects you have the quirky thing that ends up being the conflict between the main characters. Still in all that I just wanted to be reading something else.

I'm not saying it didn't handle these subjects the right way, I was just bored.

I got an e-arc of this book on NetGalley. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

This was genuinely so much cuter and deeper than I could have anticipated. The title is giving fun cute quirky romcom. The pages are filled with different types of grief, mental health, coping skills, communication skills, and THERAPY THERAPY THERAPY.

I loved watching their friendship develop, and Aurora bond with his daughter (as well as watching his daughter navigate a complicated and uncertain [to her] future.

The idea of the two reconnecting after all that time is just bizarre enough to make it delightful. Who among us has not made up a fake friend/partner/life in our heads. Rarely do we get to meet them in real life 😂

My one complaint is how everything exploded and then wrapped up within the last 3% of the book, it felt like. After all the work they put in, I think communication could have happened differently at literally any point. It went very quickly from “get out of my face” to “and they lived happily ever after” and while I don’t think we needed groveling we needed… something.

Adorable. Detailed. Complex. Lovely.

Book Review 🏒-

I unintentionally took a little break from posting as life has been busy and a nasty cold has swept through our house. 🤒 We’re all still battling germs over here but it gave me a bit of time to write up my review for Canadian Boyfriend by Jenny Holiday:

What I liked❤️:
•I loved that Mike was from my small Canadian city and a lot of the references that were made. Like going to mall of America for tournaments was very much my reality growing up. I will say, not one person I know refers to a couch as a “chesterfield” though.
•I loved the way book MC’s communicated. The book is very pro therapy and it shows in the way they share with each other.
•I feel like their relationship Arc was very realistic. It’s definitely a slow burn.
•It was very sweet!

What I didn’t like 🖤:
•Rory the FMC called the MMC by his full name through the entire book. Example “Mike Martin and I did this.” Or “I looked around the kitchen in search of Mike Martin”. It just sounded strange to me.
•A few times there was some weird phrasing that pulled me from the story.
•The “big secret” and its reaction really were a tad ridiculous and not necessary to the story.

I thought this one was really cute, lighthearted but also tackling from bigger issues of grief, eating disorders and childhood trauma. I mostly enjoyed it and will be checking out Gretchen’s story when it releases!

Canadian Boyfriend comes out January 30th.

Thank you to @readforeverpub for my advanced copy.

Oh I adored this lovely novel. Aurora- Rory-grew up in ballet until she dropped out and moved home where she was rejected by her mother. The only joy she had as a kid was working weekends as a barista in the mall where she meets the man who changed her life. Rory writes letters to the hockey player she's pretending is her Canadian boyfriend and then he walks into the studio where she teaches tap to kids. Mike Martin and his daughter Olivia are struggling, really struggling (but with help from a terrific therapist) after the death of his wife. He's taken the year off hockey and he's discovering all the things he didn't know about being a parent and running a house. And how he and Rory are connecting. How these three work through their challenges is the charm of this novel which is sensitive and then eventually a bit steamy. Olivia is great, Rory is great, Mike is great. So is Rory's friend (her first ever friend) Gretchen. Not so much Rory's mother and points to Rory for finally standing up to her. This is a family I rooted for. Thanks to netgalley for the ARC. Thoroughly enjoyed it.

REVIEW
cw: mentions of disordered eating, bereavement, grief, anxiety, controlling parents
At sixteen, Rory briefly met Mike, a hockey player from Winnipeg. For years afterwards, she would pretend he was her Canadian boyfriend. It seemed harmless, and helped her through tough times. But when Mike unexpectedly reappears in her life thirteen years later, they quickly become friends. But an old secret could tear everything down.
This was my first book by Jenny Holiday, and I was immediately invested. I would categorise it as a romance with a hockey player in it, rather than a hockey romance, but that didn't affect my enjoyment. I loved the pacing. Too often in nanny/single father romances the FMC is meeting, moving in, and becoming intimate almost immediately. Here, Rory and Mike actually got to know each other first. The development of their relationship felt organic and I was rooting for them both throughout. As they became closer, they only became more adorable together. Their evening at Tomfoolery, and their time at the dance were both so sweet. I particularly loved their time camping in Canada. Both characters were dealing with a lot of emotional baggage, and there were so many well-observed and emotionally nuanced moments in this book. I loved Mike's internal dialogue as he battled with grief, single parenting, and beginning to understand just how many things his deceased wife had done on a daily basis. Rory's experience with toxic ballet culture broke my heart, yet was sadly realistic. I was cheering when she finally confronted her overbearing mother. Conversely, I absolutely ADORED Mike's mum, and it was easy to see where he learnt his kindness and humility.
The only thing that became annoying was Rory constantly referring to Mike by his full name in her internal thought. I never really understood why Rory kept the secret for so long, but the conflict wasn't dragged out, and the ending made up for it. And as for the epilogue? It was so them.
A moving and romantic story about self-acceptance.

Overall Rating: ❤️❤️❤️❤️.5
Heat Rating: 🔥🔥

*Thanks to NetGalley for the opportunity to leave an honest review*

Favourite Quotes:

“I have a history of bending myself to please other people, and sometimes, when you stop doing that, it’s an unexpected relief.”

"...when you leave a kid, you leave a lot of potentially great stuff behind. It’s a dumb move. Kids aren’t responsibilities, or aren’t only responsibilities. They’re opportunities.”

I’d started thinking of her with her whole hippie name. Aurora Lake. The skies of my original home and the lake of my adopted home. Rory didn’t seem big enough, or beautiful enough, for her.

“One of the things I’ve learned about grief is that there are these milestones you’re supposed to care about, like birthdays and holidays. I find myself passing them without fanfare. But then there are milestones you don’t know are going to be a thing until they rise up and slap you in the face.”

I wanted to remember this moment, to create enough of a sense memory that I could revisit it. Because I was happy.

I wanted to be the one who said things that made her smile like that.

“If this was a movie, this would be the part where I’d say, ‘I loved you before I knew you.’ And that’s true. But what I hope you’ll see is that it wasn’t actually you. It was an idea of you. I know how much you don’t like people reacting to an idea of you. Please understand that now I love the actual you. And you—you—are so much better than the idea of you.”

"What has been my big lesson of the past year? That it’s OK to want things. It’s OK to ask for what I want. And I want you, for real.”

"You can love a person, and that person can be, fundamentally, a good person, but you can still enforce standards for what you will and will not accept.”

I think everyone - at least everyone in the northern US states - has heard of mythical Canadian boyfriends. In case not, they’re a made up relationship to save face or gain clout. Canada being close enough one or the other could have border crossed to meet, but far enough to justify the long distance relationship where they wouldn’t be expected to seen around.

Rory’s was modeled after actual Canadian Mike, who she met while working at the Mall of America. Unlike real Mike who went off to become a hockey player of mid level fame, fictionalized Mike became the boyfriend she told her friends about and wrote endless unsent letters to. For years.

13 years later she literally falls at his feet as the dance instructor for his daughter.

Being a newly single father due to the loss of his wife, and with a hockey career that requires a lot of travel he strikes a deal to fill the gap in daughter Liv’s schedule. They trade the use of a car for the after lesson care of his daughter when he’s away. Not long after and she’s moved into the house in quasi-nanny type arrangement, and the lines being professional and personal blur even further.

I wanted to love this one more, but there were still a lot of things I liked. Kind of spoilery review so quit reading if you don’t want to risk it.

The hockey player angle is always good, but I wished there was more content to it. I lived for any mention of Earl 9.
Most of all, I really liked that the dance studio she teaches at was so far removed from the hyper focus hell she grew up with - that she didn’t pass on the toxic level of dedication to it that she was brought up in, an actively told the girls how and why it was harmful.

People getting the therapy they desperately need. Mike and Olivia dealing with loss. Rory dealing with the ED and continued food issues, the guilt and anxieties her mother had been pushing her towards her entire life. Yes. Therapy was a necessity all around. Do I wish they were further along those journeys before the story picked up? Possibly.
Surprisingly, this is one of the few times I haven’t had an issue with a third act breakup, and in fact think it made things better.

Mainly what held me back was that there was a power imbalance that bothered me for some reason I can’t quite put my finger on. One of my favorite romance series is about a group of nannies joining the families they work for one by one, so I think it was that she worked for him…I just kept getting red flag feelings.

Even with the messiness of their situation, in the end everything works out to a HEA - and I wouldn’t forgive it if it hadn’t - so it’s securely in the like category for me, even if it missed love.

Thanks to NetGalley and forever for the arc

Plain boring.
Didn't see the chemistry at all and the characters felt one dimensional.

If I had a dime for everytime the FMC said "Canadian boyfriend," then I'd be super rich now.

Also what's up with addressing him as "Mike Martin" all the time? Could she not be just call him Mike??? Did I miss something?

And the 3rd act pissed me a lot. Even when I knew is was coming and the reason for it. Felt weird somehow.

Safe to say this book wasn't for me.

Thank you Netgalley and publisher for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Jenny Holiday has written a book just for me! At least that’s what it felt like. It was so Canadian, and addressed therapy and mental health issues. There was romance and the Northern Lights and hockey. What else could you ask for?
High school ballet prodigy Aurora (Rory) is isolated and lonely at school because she’s gone so much the others think that she thinks she’s better than them, but that’s not the case, she’s just shy. So when she meets Canadian hockey player Mike Martin, who comes through town for a tournament, she uses the idea of him as her fake boyfriend to seem like she’s busy when she doesn’t have a date for the big dance.
Fast forward years later and he comes into the dance studio she’s working at with his daughter and she can’t believe that after all these years it could really be him. He’s now a famous hockey player who doesn’t love the price of fame. He’s also widowed and he and his daughter are struggling with the loss. She can’t really tell him about the diary of letters she wrote to him and never sent when she was feeling her loneliest, especially since she can’t be sure it really is him. When he hires her to be the nanny, their relationship starts out tentative but as they spend more time together and sparks fly and she realizes that it is in fact, the boy of her teenage fantasies. How can she tell him now after all this time, especially since he makes a point of surrounding himself with people who don’t want to be around him because of his fame? They both had a lot of work to do in order to try to be together as a couple and several obstacles to overcome.
This was a very character driven story and there is a lot of inner conflict in both the MC. Both have mental health struggles (there are some triggers: death of a spouse, eating disorders, panic attacks) and they didn’t rush into their relationship which I loved. This was no case of insta-romance. The intimacy happened slowly, naturally and felt like it gave them both time to heal from their past.
I hope this book gets loads of love when it hits shelves on January 30
Thanks to Forever Books and NetGalley for this eArc in exchange for my review.