Hockey player, Mike, is picking up his life after the devastating loss of his wife, which includes getting his daughter back into her dance classes. Imagine, dance instructor, Rory's surprise, when Mike is the fake Canadian boyfriend she made up for after a chance one-time meeting at her job at the Mall of America. Rory is dealing with her losses, after dropping out of ballet school and having to return home to Minnesota and piece her life back together. Rory is drawn to Mike's daughter and agrees to help him out while he is at away games. What neither expected was for them to be drawn to each other.

I loved both Rory and Mike. This was a slow-paced romance, but it was necessary as both were healing from their past. I appreciated how much time passed in this book too, it allowed the healing and work they needed to do separately to happen. I loved the trust that they built and had in each other. I thought that these two gave each other the strength to do the hard things in their lives and become better people for it.

This book packed a punch. It is not an easy read, and I think I cried for the last third of the book. It was so good though. We explore issues of grief, loss, toxic parenting, eating disorders, trust and so much more. I didn't love how the ending conflict happened, but I also thought it worked out the best way it could.

Jenny Holiday did it again, pulling me into this book and I loved so much of it. It is not often an author can drop Portage La Prairie and Thompson, Manitoba, in it, but she did it and I loved it so much! Thank you to NetGalley and Forever Publishing for a copy of this book. All opinions are 100% mine.

Former ballerina and a hockey player!

Aurora (Rory) Evans had made up an imaginary Canadian hockey player boyfriend in high school so she wouldn’t feel out of place in high school because she would probably never see him again. But Rory was back in Minnesota after dropping out of ballet school teaching dance dealing with her demons and her imaginary boyfriend was the widowed father of her new student.

Hockey player Mike Martin was trying to move on after the death of his wife between taking care of his daughter and getting back to playing hockey. He never expected to make friends with Rory before changing to some more than friends but would Mike understand about her Canadian Boyfriend.

Canadian Boyfriend deals with some serious issues so you need to check the author’s note.

I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book from the author and NetGalley. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

I loved the premise! Rory, while a teen working at a mall, meets a Canadian hockey player Mike Martin, she proceeds to claim him as her Canadian Boyfriend even though they only met briefly twice. She writes him letters she doesn't have anywhere to send and take trips to see said boyfriend. She wants to be seen more than just a ballet dancer.

Then as an adult, she meets him again though she only has inklings that he's the same guy. His daughter is in her dance class and they lost their wife/mother not too long ago. She is befriended by him and his to live with him to take care of his daughter while he's on the road for hockey.

There is a lot to deal with with these two. Grief and raising a kid alone for him, an eating disorder and toxicity from a parent for her.
But I loved the journey of healing they both go through. I loved the "we can PDA and more while daughter is away but keep it clean while she's around". I was so happy when Rory finally stood up to her Mom. I really laughed at how she always called Mike by his first and last name in her head.

3.5 Stars
I wasn’t a big fan of this book. It was extremely SLOW, not like a slow burn, but just slow. The romance factor was extremely lacking for me. There was a big element that this book missed out on, how the hero’s daughter felt about him dating the heroine. One thing this book dealt with very well was exploring mental health.

3.5 stars

I went into this expecting a light romance filled with Canadianisms, but instead this book is so much more. Covering grief, therapy, disordered eating, amongst other topics. It was such a pleasant surprise!

The MCs were fabulous, and other than the third act break up which was silly I adored majority of the book. I'm looking forward to Gretchen's story coming next year!

Thanks to NetGalley & Forever (Grand Central Pub) for an advance copy in exchange for an honest review.

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. 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.

I DEVOURED this book! I read it in one day! I had a lot of connections to this book. I grew up in Minnesota and had family in Winnipeg just like the main characters. I grew up going to dance classes that felt very familiar with where Aurora worked. I loved the dual perspectives and the dimension both main characters had. While there were some heavy storylines it never felt overwhelming or overdone. I love that it normalized therapy and both main characters were vocal about bettering themselves even when they made mistakes, instead of being stubborn. One thing I didn't love is that she always called him Mike Martin. At first, I thought it was cute and quirky but then the longer it went on the more weird it got. Like you're in a relationship with this man and calling him his full name.

Thanks to the publisher for the ARC in return for an honest review. This book releases 1/30

Going into this book I thought it was going to be a cute fun hockey romance but it was so much more than that. I LOVED that this book focused on the two main characters were on their individual healing journeys. Both Mike and Rory have very realistic healing journeys. What lost me though was their relationship. They never seemed to have a deep connection. Rory through the whole book only called him by his full name which started to bother me about half way through the book. The third act conflict was a lot. His response was intense & then the whole thing was resolved so quickly. I’m glad I read this book but just be prepared for the romance to not be the central focus.

TW: death of spouse, disordered eating, anxiety, parental neglect, & panic attacks

Thank you to Forever and Netgalley for an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you to NetGalley and Forever Publishing for the ARC of this book.

This book was very much 'Invisible String' by Taylor Swift - Aurora and Mike met when they were young and reconnected over a decade later when they needed each other most. Rory is a complex and relatable FMC & Mike is a struggling single dad who just wants the best for his daughter. There was a lot of talk of eating disorders and grief, which I think were handled really well.

I loved Rory's relationship with Olivia; she took on this caregiver role without replacing her mom and Olivia really loved having Rory around. I loved how she called him Mike Martin in her thoughts and he called her Aurora or Aurora Lake when everyone else calls her Rory. The two of them just fit together and I love it.

Dnf @ 22%

I wasn’t sure what to expect going into this one. I was excited because it has a Canadian MMC bur it fell flat for me. In the 22% I read, nothing happened but also so much happened. The pace of the story moved slowly but the timeline of the story moved very quickly. I liked the dual POV as it was interesting to be in both the MC’s heads but what was weird was that the FMC referred to the MMC by his full name. “Mike Martin” not just Mike. It was quirky the first couple times but it got annoying really fast.
For some reason I thought that this was going to be a cute fluffy romance but it’s not. It deals with some tough subjects including death of a parent/spouse, eating disorder, anxiety, and grief. That’s on me for not reading closer but I don’t think this one is for me unfortunately.

I can see a lot of people enjoying this one but it’s just not for me.

This was a cute read! While romantic, it was largely a journey of two people navigating grief, anxiety, and an eating disorder. The growth shown by Aurora throughout the book was really heartwarming to read!

That being said, the conflict and third act breakup came way too late, and the resolution came quickly (while reading - the timeline felt appropriate for what it was). 3.75 stars for me!

I read this book in two days. I was hooked right away. I could relate to the female main character. I was a dancer and I struggle with pain attacks. Even though there was romance in this book I feel like it was more about how the characters were dealing with the trauma they had been through, I am a late 80s baby so I loved the Full House and Little House on the Prairie references. The book got a little slow toward the end but I enjoyed the story.

Canadian Boyfriend by Jenny Holiday is a delightfully charming but simultaneously deeply emotional journey of a romance. A widowed single dad meets his daughter’s ballet teacher with a one of its kind history that will create an unforgettable present as their lives mix.

Canadian Boyfriend is great for fans of…
🏒 Hockey Romance
🏒 Widowed Single Dad
🏒 Ballerina Turned Ballet Teacher
🏒 Forced Proximity
🏒 Dual POV

Two struggling souls finding solace & strength along with an easy camaraderie & friendship. They became a judgment free zone for each other that encouraged each other. It got me in the feels. The premise may sound silly with the pretend boyfriend aspect but when things unfold, I thought it all turned out to be quite lovely.

I love that they each were going through difficult personal journeys but doing so by learning healthy coping & growth strategies bolstered by therapy. I always appreciate normalizing mental health & the use of therapy & I thought this book did a fantastic job of that.

I thought this book had a great cast of characters with his wonderful daughter, their pet dog & the electric best friend, Gretchen. I am so curious to see Gretchen’s story unfold & I will undoubtedly be putting this on my ‘Can’t Wait to Read’ list.

If you are looking for an emotional rollercoaster of healing journey mixed with a simmering slowburn of a forced proximity friends to more romance, I highly recommend Canadian Boyfriend.

Massive thanks to NetGalley & Forever Publishing for the gifted copy, which I voluntarily read & reviewed.

Content Warnings: This book mentions &/or contains references to disordered eating & to the death of a spouse that happens prior to this novel.

I will post to social media & Amazon around pub date & add links once I do.

I enjoyed Canadian Boyfriend enough! The mental health, eating disorder, grief, and therapy representation in this book really shined for me, as someone who has encountered many of these things in my own life as well. I liked watching a lot of Aurora and Mikes relationship develop through caring for his daughter, Liv, who was surprisingly not an annoying kid (I tend to find a lot of kids in books annoying).

While the premise of this book held a lot of potential, the culminating conflict of the novel and the third act breakup felt like an overreaction from the male main character. It completely ruined my opinion on the romance between the characters, finishing the book actively not liking Mike and wanting better for Aurora. Due to the conflict and resolution happening in the last 10% of the book, my distaste for it isn't enough to tank my rating for the book as a whole but it definitely knocked my rating from a 4 star to a 3.

This was as sweet as a double-double! Although to be fair I abhor sugar in my hot drinks so truly I wouldn’t know, but it’s an educated, well-founded guess and it sounds good ;)

This is a beautiful story of two unlikely people coming together, kind of a spin on live-in nanny for a single dad (widower), so lots of forced proximity, somewhat forbidden romance vibes. It’s also a bit of a dance novel which has kind of become my thing so that part (Aurora, our leading lady was a ballet dancer as a child and teen and now teaches Olivia, the child of aforementioned single dad, at a local dance studio). There is such great mental health rep in this book, like I cannot even begin to describe how good it is. Both main characters go to therapy, while acknowledging its inaccessiblility for so many due to lack of insurance, and we get to see big changes in our main characters as they live through a year or so of their lives in one another’s orbits.

That’s something else I’d like to touch on here - the period of time. There is something exciting about fast-paced romances, hot and heavy in every sense of the word. And yet Holiday makes this novel just about perfect in how she pulls out the story, the relationship and the love slowly but surely, and honestly more realistically, over the course of 1 - 2 years (if we count the epilogue like ending, which we should!).

Read this if you:
•live in MN
•were a competitive dancer
•like hockey

Always love reading books from MN authors. The MN references were spot on and had me laughing. I liked the depth of this book with mental health topics as well as eating disorders. This one will be out in Jan!

Thank you Forever pub for the eARC in exchange for an honest review.

I admit I'm a sucker for a hockey/sports romance, so I enjoyed this very much. I also enjoyed the imaginary boyfriend becomes real boyfriend aspect since fake dating is one of my favorite tropes. The story had good pacing and witty banter and it was a very fun read.

This was a 3.5/4 star read for me - I loved a lot of things about it, but there were a few things that kept me from really vibing with it.

Jenny Holiday is so good at writing characters that have depth and complexity and I think that Aurora and Mike are no exception - they are both working to heal from some pretty serious trauma and deep wounds and I appreciated that you could see some of that growth happening on the page and I thought the inclusion of their time in therapy was a plus. I will say that I felt like some of the side characters - even Mike's daughter - didn't have enough air time to really thrive and feel like fully developed additions to the story.

The story is a slow burn and it's fun to see these two start to get close, but the two steps forward, three steps back was starting to feel a little tedious by the end. I loved the moments where we got to see their intimacy and chemistry really sparkle!

The biggest issue for me was the framing of Aurora's Canadian Boyfriend - I don't feel like the reader ever gets to see just how critical this invented boyfriend really was to her. The letters to him and the big reveal just fell a little flat for me.

You might like this if you loved Jude Law in The Holiday, still have a DVD of Center Stage tucked away in your entertainment center, or have experienced the joy of a Timbit and coffee on a very cold winter morning!

I received an ARC from the publisher via NetGalley and am voluntarily posting a review. All opinions are my own.
Jenny Holiday has always been a hit-or-miss author for me, but Canadian Boyfriend has me prepared to never read her again, unless she comes out with something that checks all the boxes for me. The overall premise was good, but it was wasted through the use of a couple pet hate tropes, making this an awful reading experience, one I probably should have anticipated and jumped ship from sooner.
The characters by themselves are all right. I appreciated Mike’s backstory with his complicated first marriage, and how he’s navigating his life now as a single father. And Rory’s past with her mental health issues and disordered eating were compassionately rendered, and while I don’t agree with how the story handled it, I understand her reasoning behind inventing a fictional boyfriend inspired by a celebrity.
But the romance just felt super lacking to me from the jump. I did like that they bonded on an emotional level somewhat, and Olivia is a great centerpoint for their relationship. But there was this weird duality to their dynamic, with them wanting to keep things professional when Olivia was around, and then have no-strings sex when she wasn’t and of course, that wasn’t going to work. The sexual chemistry just wasn’t there, so while there was some foundation, it rang really false for me when they’d say things poking fun at their complicated intimacy dynamic, not to mention the gradual realization that flip-flopping between physical intimacy and abstaining actually did lead to feelings, against their better intentions. There are some authors that can make you laugh at the irony of this, but I just wanted to bash their heads together.
And then, there’s the inevitable reveal of her old letters, and I wanted to shake her again for not being transparent about them. On the one hand, she’s obviously become a different person since knowing him, but it’s understandable that he, as a pro hockey player who has been through not knowing who he can trust due to the attention his profession brings, would find this to be a betrayal. That, on top of just not feeling them as a couple, led to me checking out completely, as there was less than 10% left in the book, and there was no way Jenny Holiday was going to make me believe that this couple could believably be together. On the scale of Romance Novel Lead Third Act Crimes, it’s not the worst, but coupled with everything else, it was enough to piss me off and ruin what could have been a rather average book.
While this book really didn’t work for me, a lot of that is due to my own subjective taste. If you happen to enjoy the aforementioned tropes, and this book sounds interesting to you, I hope it works out better for you.

I thought it was a cute concept, but it was also a little weird. I think the blowup about the letters was way too out of proportion personally. And then the resolution was a bit weird too.

I did think that the title is hilarious, especially as a Canadian!

The discussions around how ballet can impact young girls lives was important and I did value those sections of the book.

Overall though, not really my favorite kind of book.

Two complicated people learn to rely on each other on their way to becoming friends and more. I thought a romance between a professional hockey player and a ballerina dancer would be lighter but both are slightly wounded. Aurora Evans loves teaching dance at a children’s dance studio in Minnesota. Once a student at a premier NYC ballet school, she quit and gave up on the career her mother envisioned. She is still dealing with panic attacks and recovering from eating disorders. Mike Walker, is a widow of nine months with an 11 year old daughter Olivia. He is adjusting to being a single father. For a win-win situation Mike asks for Aurora’s help in caring for Olivia in exchange for living in his basement and him providing her a car (no salary).

First I love that both characters are seeking help for their situations and that moments with their therapists are included in the story. And I like that the story takes place over more than a year so it isn’t instant romance. There is genuine sweetness between the two. Him giving her moments that she missed during her growing up years. The quiet, honest talks and check ins are wonderfully done. And I love seeing the growth in Aurora through the story. I like the idea that she met him once when she was in high school and wrote letters to him. I thought the only thing that didn’t ring true was that she was in anyway being dishonest with him by not sharing it. It wasn’t a lie in my mind at all. And Olivia is great as a real child, who can act out, be sad over losing her mom.

This is sweet and a lot more thoughtful and mentally caring than I was expecting. It is open door at times but with minimal descriptions. Thank you to NetGalley and Forever Grand Central for the ARC and I am leaving an honest review.