I am 100% unapologetically in my hockey romance era, and Jenny Holiday most certainly delivered. I ended up listening to this one on audiobook because…hello…Joshua Jackson (aka Charlie) narrated, and it was perfection.

Many thanks to the author, publisher, and NetGalley for sharing this book with me. All thoughts are my own.

I really thought this was going to be a romcom, but it had some emotional depth to it. I thought the fake Canadian boyfriend was going to be the whole plot, but it seems like it was just a side plot. I enjoyed Rory and Mike on their own and then I loved the two of them together. I think there were some holes in the plot, but overall it was a good read for me.

Thank you NetGalley and the publisher for the eARC

I loved this book so much that I bought the physical copy as well so I could not only read it again but also loan it to friends to read.

Did you know the leading male is named Mike Martin? If you didn’t, don’t worry, it’s mentioned in the book over 270 times — 42 times in the first 12% of the book.

Why is this not something a professional in the book world catches? It’s such a glaring issue yet here we are, reading a book so horribly edited.

I think the best part about this book is not the fact that it's a contemporary or sports romance... What I like most about this book is that I connected with the heroine so much!! Rory is a lovely woman, and yet she doesn't have a ton of close friends just through life circumstances, and she learns to stand up for what she really wants in life!!

First off , I will always read a single dad / hockey player Romance so you had my attention since the very beginning. . I felt every emotion reading this book . I really think Jenny did a good job executing the heavier details . All and all I really enjoyed this book. Thank you for the ARC!!

Rory is such a nuanced and well-crafted main character, whose vulnerabilities help make this romance all the more satisfying and sweet.

This was a funny rom com. This girl meets a hockey player at a mall one day and she uses him as her fake Canadian boyfriend excuse. She later meets a guy and he's a single dad and he ends being her fake Canadian boyfriend.

A contemporary romance as lovely as its cover! The only pairing better than Jenny Holiday and Leni Kauffman is Aurora Evans and Mike Martin. This delightful ballerina/hockey player romance swept me off my feet and had me enamored with the characters and the story all the way until the final pages.

I have a new book boyfriend and it is Mike Martin 🥰

In this one you follow Miss Rory (Aurora) who is a dancer teacher in a Minnesota town. Dance has always been in her life, but while in high school working as a barista she met a Canadian hockey player and decided ti imagine him into her Canadian boyfriend. Now she is a ‘failed’ ballet dancer, something her mother holds against her a lot, just got broken up with in a terrible relationship, and doesn’t quite know where her life is going. When Mike Martin, local hockey star, brings his daughter back to dance, he realizes how much his daughter likes Miss Rory and decides that they can come up with a deal that will help Mike with his busy hockey schedule and Rory with her financial stress. 🩰🏒

This one has an obviously love story, and i keep saying that i don’t like romances, but I think I might be wrong. I don’t love romances that have too much smut, and this one with minimal smut makes it so enjoyable and one-of-a-kind book. My only negative is that i believe the ‘lie’ just doesn’t seem like a big deal to me. 😘

I am in my sports romance phase and this did not disappoint. This book is sexy, fun, and a great read.

I'm a fan of Jenny Holiday's writing and when I heard Joshua Jackson was one of the narrators of the audiobook my hands flew to Librofm to grab it. My teenage heart was extremely happy to hear Pacey narrate a love story to me. I really enjoyed this book and it brought me back to growing up in South Dakota, hello De Smet. I also lived quite awhile in Minnesota so it was nice to go back there in the majority of the story.

The story is simple but has a lot of heft to it. Mike is dealing with the sudden passing of his wife and Aurora, a.k.a. Rory, is dealing with a recent break-up. When Mike needs help with his teenage daughter, he asks Rory to help. It doesn't hurt that he has a crush on her. As they get to know each other more their equal crushes turn into more. Rory has a secret. When she was a teenager she made up a Canadian boyfriend to help ease the pain of being an outsider. As she gets to know Mike more she thinks he may be the inspiration for her teenage invisible boyfriend. Mike doesn't like when people lie to him and knowing this secret could be the end of them.

I was late to the party, but I feel like I did the right thing this time because I got to listen to the audiobook, and it was everything I could have ever wanted!!! 😍

Joshua Jackson (Pacey!!!!!! 😍) reads the male PoV of the audiobook and it is glorious. GLO-RI-OUS! Such a cute romance. A hockey player and former ballerina - I liked that storyline very much seeing them get over their own individual issues and come together. It also made me want to go camping to see the Northern Lights and I am totally a hotel girl!

Here’s my vote for Joshua Jackson to narrate more audiobooks 🙋🏻‍♀️

Content warnings: familial death, grief, eating disorders, panic attacks, body shaming, toxic relationship, gaslighting, car accident, emotional abuse

I received an arc of this book for my honest review through NetGalley. On top of reading it, I also listened to the audiobook.

I should introduce myself - I am an awkward Canadian girl who adores hockey. And it's safe to say, I've always been awkward. Especially trying to dodge those things like proms... So I feel like I could be a good candidate for this book. Oh and Mike is from Manitoba - (I'm from Manitoba <3)

And I did connect with the FMC Aurora for those reasons above. I thought her character was likable and her insecurities were something that people could relate to. I also never found her insecurities to make her appear weak. She just seemed real and I liked her a lot.

I also liked Mike. But he didn't stand out to me like some other book boyfriends. I didn't get his connection to hockey at all. I don't think the hockey plot was that it meant he was on the road a lot and would need in-house help. I love hockey romances and this one I didn't get the same vibes. Now, as a single dad who just became a widow and trying to get back on his feet... perfect. The storyline as a father of a child grieving was really good. His daughter was the glue to this story. And the support system the three of them created was something special.

It wasn't spicy, but it was a sweet love story with a real connection both emotionally and physically.
The ending was a little lackluster for me. I just think the conflict didn't hit right for me. But I still enjoyed the story. <3 It def could be a comfort read.

Canadian Boyfriend caught my attention on Netgalley but unfortunately it did not fully live up to my expectation as a reader. I think I was expecting more of a romcom type of read and instead I found some of what I was reading to be a bit cringy. Alot of this had to do with the "huge secret" that was hanging over the two main characters. I didn't think it was that big of a secret and something that could have been brought up towards the beginning of the two characters getting to know each other.

What was the secret? It was the fact that a younger more naïve Aurora had created an imaginary boyfriend named Mike who lived in Canada and played hockey in order to have an excuse to get out of the social expectations of high school. Why was this a big deal? Well, the imaginary boyfriend was based off a brief encounter that Aurora had with a traveling hockey player named Mike. She never expected to cross paths with him again but suddenly finds herself teaching his daughter to dance and developing a friendship with him. So she keeps their past connection a secret even though their original encounter was such a brief moment in time.

Even with the cringy feeling associated with this big secret, I did enjoy watching Aurora develop as a character and fully deal with her toxic experience as a ballet student. Little by little she developed an inner strength which helped her realize that she wasn't the same person that she was then and that she could set healthy boundaries.

The boundaries between Audra and Mike continuously get more and more blurred the more time they spent together. While I did like their dynamic, I never felt that Mike was one hundred percent ready to move forward. In many ways, it felt like he was just going through the motions especially when it benefited his daughter. I did appreciate that he was going to therapy and trying to address his own trauma but, he still had work to do as was evident by his reaction to the "huge secret". I enjoyed the friendship between Audra and Mike but, their relationship left alot to be desired.

Canadian Boyfriend did a really good job at portraying personal reflection and the benefit of therapy for each of the characters. I wish that Mike and his daughter had participated in therapy together; or at least his daughter was able to voice her opinion on what was going on between Aurora and Mike. She was also affected by the unexpected loss of her mother and I think that was an important part of her characterization and her dynamic with both Mike and Aurora. Overall, there was so much promise in the premise of the story but, it just didn't flow in the right direction for me.

I've been a fan of Jenny Holiday for years and really love how she brings a good balance of humor and tough topics to her romance novels. Canadian Boyfriend strikes this balance very well. Aurora first met Mike when she was a teen working at the Mall of America, and to help her work through her years of trauma faced as a ballet dancer, she pretends that Mike is her Canadian boyfriend. Then flash forward to many years later, and Aurora meets the widowed father of one of her dance students... and who else could it be but Mike. As the two slowly fall for each other throughout the book, Aurora struggles with revealing this embarrassing secret, especially after Mike has told her he hates being lied to.

While I didn't love the third act breakup because I think it could have been solved by Aurora being honest earlier, I understand that the conversation might not have gone well even earlier in the story. I still think this was a fun and sweet story, with a few spicy open door scenes. And I will continue reading literally anything Jenny Holiday writes!

I absolutely loved this book. It was so much more than the cover or the title. There was emotional weight and more complicated characters. I connected with the struggles of both characters. They were so sweet with each other. Love.

originally wasn't going to read this because of the content warning but the conversations surrounding eating disorders in this book were actually quite healthy so that was great 👍 love not being retraumatized.

only problems I had was that the pacing was very awkward and I didn't really find the romance to be believable. Maybe because it felt too light/forgettable in comparison to the rest of the story (and as an anxious, panic attack having, ed recovered girly I get to say that I found Rory to be absolutely insufferable even though we are literally one and the same)

would still recommend it to folks who want a more realistic and smut free romance

I loved the story and its characters. I was left wanting more and devastated to have to end their story. It’s such a beautiful story and will have you in tears.

Aurora “Rory” Evans didn’t exactly have a normal childhood. With the amount of time she spent away from school for ballet practice, recitals, and other ballet-related activities, she didn’t really have the opportunity to join in on things like school dances. But teenagers are harsh so she felt like she needed a good reason for why she wasn’t more a part of the social scene.

Enter Mike Martin, a hockey player visiting from Canada that she meets while at the Mall of America. He’s the perfect excuse—a fake Canadian boyfriend is exactly what she needs to reason away her absences at social events. Rory doesn’t see the harm in creating this false narrative—until years later when she is teaching kids’ dance classes and in walks none other than her fake Canadian boyfriend himself.

The premise of this story is absolutely wild and strangely super believable in its wildness. The relationship that blossoms between Rory and Mike Martin feels incredibly natural despite the crazy circumstances and Holiday has a beautiful way of discussing the heavier topics while not dragging down the overall tone of the story. The presentation of panic attacks and anxiety was handle with care and consideration and, even though it was a little too real at times, it also felt so lovely to see that representation on the page. Holiday also managed to handle death of a spouse and disordered eating in a way that I was able to understand even having not gone through it myself.

As a single parent, I am an absolute sucker for romance novels that feature a single parent finding love. (If they can do, so can I, right?!) The reason for Mike Martin becoming a single parent breeds a lot of distrust and resentment, but Holiday finds a way to incorporate that into the story that allows the reader to really understand the nuances of the situation. It also allows space for people to grieve while still being upset or angry and I feel like that is something that isn't necessarily talked about or shown very often. Holiday's nuance in this situation shows readers that all their emotions are valid, even if they sometimes feel contradictory.

The book itself is worth a read, but if you’re an audiobook girlie like I am (and I use that as a gender neutral term!), you’re going to want to pick up the audiobook. Not only does Joshua Jackson aka Pacey Witter aka everyone’s teenage crush (or maybe just me?) do the narration for Mike Martin, but Emily Ellet absolutely crushes it as Rory. Both narrators embody the essence of the characters and really brought them to life.

Disclaimer: I received an advanced copy of this book from the publisher for free and have voluntarily written this review.