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!

To start off I am truly impressed by the research on Winnipeg
And Manitoba the author did. She nailed the province and the culture there.

This book has more depth than you would expect from the title and the quick plot description. I really enjoyed it. I appreciated that the hero is not his daughters bio dad but has been there since the beginning but due to her mothers death this has lead to a rift. She can be realistically bratty and rude and it adds layers that a perfect child would.

The heroines relationship with dance and almost learning to make friends in her 20s and dealing with her relationship with her mom is so relatable and multi layered. And their relationship is very sweet and rootable.

A solid 8.5 out of ten for a reliable author.

I live for going in blind to books and being pleasantly surprised by what I find on their pages.

Canadian Boyfriend was no different.

Separately, I loved Aurora and Mike. Both had suffered deep traumas—Mike’s a lot more fresh than Aurora’s—that they were struggling to heal from. While Aurora had spent her life doing whatever she could to please those around her and keep the peace, to afraid of losing anyone to be any other way, Mike consistently held people at arm’s length because he was afraid people didn’t love him for HIM instead of his status in the world.

There was something so magical about the way these two helped the other heal. Mike helping Aurora move on from the trauma she suffered at her mom’s hands by showing her it was okay—necessary even—to set boundaries, AND setting her up with a therapist who helped drive his point home. And Aurora loved Mike for exactly who he was, and she showed him that letting people get close was often a good thing, despite how terrified he was to do so given his pro-athlete fame.

I loved the unorthodox single dad/nanny relationship these two had, and how quickly they opened up to each other emotionally. The slow burn was exquisite, and I loved that more time was spent on the emotional connection than the physical one. These two are true soulmates in every sense of the word.

Despite my excitement for this, I quickly DNF’d Canadian Boyfriend as I had trouble with the writing style feeling too immature. That being said, I do believe that the general BookTok audience—and more specifically, romance readers on the platform—might still enjoy this book.

I was pleasantly surprised by this book because I realized after starting it that it has some tropes I don't normally like (single parent, miscommunication/not telling the truth) and talks heavily about the FMC's eating disorder but I actually really enjoyed it!
This is a story about Aurora (Rory) who was going to be a professional dancer (heavily pressured by her mother) but decides to drop out of dance school and now teaches tap and jazz at a much more low-key dance studio. When she was a teenager working at the mall, she met Mike, the attractive hockey player, who was visiting for a tournament. To cope with the stress of her mother and dance, she creates a "Canadian Boyfriend" (Mike) who she writes letters to. Years later, she meets the widower father of one of her dance students and he just so happens to be a professional hockey player named Mike...
I really enjoyed that this book tackles some serious topics like grief, loss, family, love, self image, etc but also has a light, sexy side. Not too heavy on the hockey stuff, just enough ;) and I tolerated the child so thats a good thing.