I’ve been on a hockey rom com kick lately. And have been reading all of the ones that I can get my hands on. And I have yet to find one that I don’t like. And I loved Canadian Boyfriend. I can’t wait to read more book by this author.

Thank you to netgalley for my advanced copy of this novel!

Canadian Boyfriend follows Rory and Mike. Rory is a dance teacher, and one of her favorite little-girl students, Olivia, is the daughter of Mike; her imaginary hockey playing boyfriend from high school - except as it turns out, he’s not imaginary.

I did enjoy the book, but the middle of the book moved a bit slow for me at times. There was a lot of thinking and processing of grief in this book and character self realization for growth for the characters to move on and pursue a romantic relationship together. I thought this offered a unique perspective on a hockey romance story - the non-smutty kind, but I also think it was so character driven that it slowed down the pacing of the book at times.

Olivia was the glue that kept Mike and Rory going (and going together as well), and she was such a smart, insightful 10 year old (?) who also was processing the grief and loss of her mom, but had room in her heart for Rory as well.

I’ll definitely read more from this author and overall I would recommend!

TW: eating disorders, panic attacks, loss, grief, car accident

This was the first hockey romance book I've ever read so far! I like when both characters have something related to the other. In this case the MMC was a hockey player and the FMC was a ballet dancer

This was a hard book to read not because of the style or that it was bad or anything. On the contrary. It was so powerful and it held a depth I couldn't quite grasp. There's so much grief and loss and heart break..

The author did a great job writing very sensitive topics with so much care and accuracy; in my opinion

I usually like fast paced books but if this was fast paced, I wouldn't have liked it. The slowing in the pace of this books was very much needed. They both had the right amount of time to heal and get over what had happened TOGETHER.

The intimacy was also so natural. Just the way I love it

No relationship works without loving yourself and dealing with your things aside from the relationship. I think they both knew that and that's what makes their bond so much stronger

However, I had to give this book 4 stars though because I felt like some things weren't connecting as much and that Mike was being unnecessarily mean and harsh and cruel and I really hated that

REVIEW✨
Canadian Boyfriend
By Jenny Holiday

This book was everything that I needed and more. I haven’t read a hockey romance in a while, and this one was perfect! Not only does this book deal with dramas (losing a spouse, eating disorders, and panic attacks) but it has a beautiful love story at his core. I loved how both of these characters were able to deal and handle their grief and grow themselves. This book was everything! As someone that just lost my pregnancy/baby and has a history of both panic attacks and eating disorder, I loved how accurate these topics were dealt with. It was exactly what I needed! Excellent plot pacing, character development, timing and the slow burn romance between Aurora and Mike! I felt it was a little rushed at the end, and would have liked it to be a little flushed out more. But I loved this and highly recommend it!

When Aurora was a teenager working at the Mall of America coffee shop she met a hockey player from Canada. He became the perfect fake boyfriend, that she would tell people from her school on why she couldn’t attend events. He was the perfect cover for any awkward social situation. He never had to know and it wasn’t like she was ever going to see him again.

Years later, when Aurora is teaching kids’ dance classes while battling panic and eating disorders from her time in the ballet in New York. When Mike Martin NHL hockey player walks in with his daughter, who’s been out of her class as her mother passed away in a car accident everything changes for Aurora. An unlikely friendship is formed between Mike and Aurora as they help each other with their struggles and demons. The only problem is Mike is the boy that she met in the mall and pretended was her “Canadian Boyfriend”. The longer that she keeps this secret the harder this is going to hurt.

Aurora Evans spent most of her youth not fitting in. Her demanding ballet training meant that she didn't have much time to make friends; her weekend job making coffee at the mall was her one bright spot. A chance encounter with a dreamy customer inspires her to create an imaginary Canadian Boyfriend, to give her an excuse for not going to school dances or for sitting alone at lunch. Lunchtime letters to the boyfriend evolve into a journal chronicling her experiences, and she keeps up these missives until she drops out of ballet training as a young adult.

Fast forward: Aurora is teaching local dance classes and trying to break all of the bad habits instilled in her by her dance training and her overbearing Dance Mom. When a handsome widower, hockey player Mike Martin, shows up to the dance studio one day, bringing his daughter back to classes six months after the death of her mom, Aurora thinks she's seeing things - is that her Canadian Boyfriend, in the flesh? One thing leads to another, and Aurora ends up agreeing to serve as a nanny, moving in to help Mike with his daughter Olivia during the hockey season. Sparks fly, and the romance blossoms between Aurora and Mike - but will he still care for her when he learns about her secret Canadian Boyfriend?

I loved the chemistry between Aurora and Mike, and appreciated the complex emotional baggage both were working through. I will say, heed the trigger warnings - Aurora is trying to overcome her damaged relationship with food, and that can be hard to read at times. There's also a lot of dealing with grief, guilt, and complicated family relationships. It adds a depth to this romance, but may be hard for some readers.

Overall, I really enjoyed this latest release from Jenny Holiday, and would absolutely recommend it!

This was a great novel! For me, this was a little less about the romance, and more about grieving how you thought your life would look and moving forward. Aurora is dealing with life after ballet, and the traumatic experience she had with it and with her toxic mother. Mike is dealing with raising his teen daughter on his own after the death of his wife. I love how these two became friends first, and became romantic partners later. Olivia was present enough for the story to make sense. Though the final conflict started off as a snap reaction to what was going on, it became something where both characters learned from it, and decided what they wanted out of the relationship. I am excited for the next book in the series!

Sixteen year old Aurora "Rory" Evans met and fell in love with "Mall Mike", a Canadian teenager traveling with his hockey team, when serving him a drink at her kiosk coffee shop job. She made the idea of him - a fake Canadian boyfriend - her shield at school to deflect the judgement of her classmates, and a pretend relationship won't hurt her like the very real social ostracism she faced everyday.

I was eleven years old when I declared Wayne Gretzky my first husband. It wasn't the best choice of first husbands though when my classmates were picking guys like Luke Perry and Joey Lawrence. I was already a poor nerd but now I was extra othered being a fan of something no one else cared about.

My hockey husband Wayne Gretzky, the hero I built in my head, could encourage me after surviving days of cruel words and harmful pranks. In my dreams he could come to my school, and in front of all my jerk classmates, invite me to lunch in his limo. The idea of him would never hurt me like the very real social ostracism I faced everyday.

Twenty-nine year old Rory meets the real Mike Martin again when he walks his daughter into the kid's dance class she teaches. Rory & Mike both have lived a lot of life in the inbeteeen years.

Rory is recovering from the emotional abuse she experienced when training to be a dancer. She's on course now though to live a life of her own making.

Mike is navigating the new role of being a single parent after losing his wife in a car accident. His NHL career is staring back up after a personal leave of absence and he's in need of support.

Both of them could use a friend who won't see them for their trauma or their perceived pedigree. They need help and encouragement and a solid foundation to trust again. Their story is heartwarming as we see them do the physical & emotional work to love themselves and each other.

Rory & Mike Martin have a chance to make something real. And not the parasocial kinda real I had/have with Wayne Gretzky. Mike Martin gives her space to try life without judgement. Rory bonds with his daughter and fits into their life like she's always been there. The first meet cute helped Rory survive, but its the very real connection they make later that brings them to life.

I was sixteen when I was lucky enough to meet Wayne Gretzky (on September 25th, 1999 at 1:15pm PST btw). I handed him a novella sized fan letter. I hugged him. I took the most important and most embarrassing photo of my life with him. I also knew I had to walk away eventually or my mom, most likely security though, would do it for me. But I did it! I got to tell Wayne Gretzky, "You're my hero and you've helped me survive being in school."

Now that I've gotten the soul bearing out of the way.

You're gonna enjoy Canadian Boyfriend for:

Slow burn
Self-determination
Hockey player / Single dad
Former dancer / Teacher
Healing traumas
Let me take care of you
Hard but doing it anyways
Therapy positive

To be mindful of:

Disordered eating
Death of spouse/parent (not on page)
Toxic parenting
Emotional abuse

Thank you Netgalley & Forever (Grand Central Publishing) for this advance copy in exchange for my honest review.

Canadian Boyfriend is my fourth read by Jenny Holiday. As this novel is outside the Christmas in Eldovia, I was curious about her expansion to a new literary world. This story follows ballet dancer and teacher Aurora Evans who met Mike Martin at the Mall of America when they were teenagers. As he was from Canada, she used his name as the perfect excuse to get out of situations growing up. Years later Mike walks back into her life as his daughter, Olivia, is attending Aurora’s dance class. The two begin with a friendship as he offers Aurora a nanny job while he is away at hockey games and get to know each other over time.

This story contains a lot of heavy topics in addition to the lighter romantic side. Mike is dealing with grief after losing Oliva’s mom. Aurora has her own trauma from the past, such as abuse, anxiety, and an eating disorder. Together the two characters have a lot of baggage in this story, but Holiday does a great job at balancing the lighter and heavier topics. There is an issue that comes up and needs to be worked through between them. While the novel tries to explain it to the reader, I still do not fully understand it. I can’t see the perspective of the character who got upset no matter how many times I tried and since it is resolved quickly, I think more time needed to be done to explore it. On the other hand, I love the time taken for Mike and Aurora to get to know each other. Both are healing from their pasts and were not able to jump right into a full relationship. Overall, this was a lovely romance and I continue to look forward to reading more from Holiday in the future.

**I give a special thank you to Netgalley and the publisher, for the opportunity to read this entertaining novel. The opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.**

This is a wonderful story that captures everything I love about romance novels. It has humor, sexiness, and heaviness. It deals with complicated issues like death and grief and eating disorders while still remaining sweet and fun.

The one thing keeping this from being a five star read is that the heroine refers to the hero as his full name every single time. It's repetitive and unnecessary. This is an ARC, so maybe they will fix that before publication. I'm not sure why she does it but it got to be really annoying and distracting.

Other than that, I enjoyed the book. Aurora and Mike are great for each other in so many ways. It's a slow burn but they have such chemistry that it was worth it.

I definitely recommend this one for romance readers.

I'm sorry but the phrase 'Canadian boyfriend' was used 17 times just in the prologue, so I decided this was not for me.

The plot of this book was awesome, I had a feeling I was going to love it, Mike and Rory meet again after so many years from their first meet where she worked at a coffee shop as a teen. His daughter is one of her dance students, he’s a widow going through the motions of trying to keep his daughter happy and also living with the lies he uncovers about his late wife. He takes a liking to Rory and ends up moving her into his home while he’s away to keep an eye on his daughter and the such. It was a little hard for me to really fall for this book the way I wanted, there are so many trigger warnings to look out for just in case, and Mike is all over the place with huis emotions, as a matter a fact they BOTH have a ton going on. The middle was very repetitive, but the ending was rushed and also adorable, I’m a sucker for a good happy ending.

My ARC was provided by the publisher via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. The hockey theme is super popular right now snd have never read anything else by this author so I wasn’t sure what I had signed up for but the fake Canadian boyfriend who she meets later in life is a new trope for me, so why not?! I loved this book! The main characters were super vulnerable and lovable which gave them depth and allowed me to connect with them both as a reader. I’ll definitely read more by this author as a result.

Loved this one! It has some pretty heavy topics in it, like parental abuse, grief and a difficult relationship with food, but it also encourages therapy and has mental health representation I loved. Open door but not terribly descriptive so it'll appeal to all types of readers. A few Canadian clichés in there, but not so much that I got offended as a Canadian myself.

This was funny! I enjoyed it and it was a quick read for me! The characters were very entertaining! A little predictable in spots, but very interesting nonetheless.

Had to DNF due to the trigger warnings, would really like for Netgalley to allow users to see some pre-submitted content warnings prior to requesting!

Jenny Holiday has crafted such thoughtful, fully fleshed out characters who grow so much over the course of these 300 and change pages.

All the Canadian-isms made me chuckle. I read the book sitting beside my own Canadian Boyfriend (real, I promise!) and kept asking him to read parts of Mike's dialogue out to hear the accent or fact check the Tim Horton's/Hoser references.

There are some heavy themes like panic attacks and eating disorders and loss of spouse, so it isn't exactly a light read. But it was still incredibly charming and enjoyable.

Canadian Boyfriend is absolutely fantastic and just all around adorable. While a super slow burn, I didn't even care. I was giggling up storm and swooning

There were parts of this book that I absolutely loved (it was *so* Canadian in parts and that was beyond refreshing in a romance) and parts that worked a bit less well for me, too. The concept was cute - a high school student meets a Canadian hockey player in passing at the Starbucks she works at and uses the idea of him to invent a fake boyfriend to write to and tell her peers about - then meets him again as an adult. The therapy representation and mental health concerns and approaches to coping were spot-on and I think a lot of people may see parts of themselves in these characters, so I applaud Jenny Holiday for doing that well. I think, aside from one very sweet scene camping and an adorable epilogue, I just wanted a tiny tiny tiny bit more of their actual LOVE story. But generally, 3.5 stars and I'll always read this author (in fact, there will be a next one in this series which is GREAT news)!!

trigger warnings: desire for parenthood, death of a spouse (off page, already happened), eating disorder, anxiety disorder (in recovery from it)

3.75 Stars.

It’s not an easy breezy romance, no rom-com here. It’s a more thoughtful, slow and steady take, with interspersed heat and a lot of therapy. What builds in between is a beautiful sort of friendship and not quite co-dependence but still something dependable. It’s angsty but less sharp and entirely addicting to read.

I loved the gradual intimacy and even the coincidental circumstances, the rationalizations (quite irrational actually as book romances usually are) that bring about the proximity and close environments. The connections and relationships between Aurora, Mike, his daughter, and various friends were sweet, aching, and/or entertaining. There was a lot to take away from all the interactions, not just romantic ones. Thought best was the self-relationship of Aurora coming to know herself.

What brought it down though was the climactic actions of Mike. It was set-up from the beginning, you knew it was coming, but it never quite made enough sense. The reaction just didn’t track. And another oddity was the insistence of Aurora two-naming Mike Martin forever and ever. It was an odd tick early on and a complete annoyance by the end, taking me out of every good moment.

Overall, though, despite those things, I still enjoyed the story. The depth spoke to me and I liked a lot of what built each character, individually and together.

CW: eating disorder, loss, grief, panic attacks

When Aurora was in high school, she has a passing meeting with a young hockey player named Mike. As a shy teenager, she invented a fake boyfriend around the idea of Mike. A Canadian boyfriend that no one would ever question her on.

Fast forward to years later when she runs into Mike again. But this time, he is the dad of one of her dance students and most certainly real. Mike has just lost his wife and hires Aurora as his nanny. She has so many opportunities to reveal their shared history, but keeps it hidden. As they get closer and closer, she wonders how she's going to let him go.

What I liked: This was such a sweet story. The fact that they had previously met and connected all those years later was really need. Its very obvious how much they care for each other. I love the sort of friends to lovers, forced proximity story. It was super easy to read and I felt myself gravitating toward it.

What I didn't like: The only think I didn't like is how long the miscommunication went on. Just talk to each other, people!

I would definitely recommend to romance readers, especially sports romance lovers. I think I might need to check out more books by this author!