Likes:
• the on-page therapy sessions - can see both MC’s growth and development
• Wholesome, charming
• appreciated that the eating disorder was addressed. 🙌🏼
•Mike’s (MMC) personality was endearing in the last 25% which made me connect with him more.
•Mike’s mom, Diane and Rory’s BFF, Gretchen are my fave!
• Tim Horton’s cameo


This was a cute, wholesome romance with a fair bit of Canadian-isms, including hockey and Tim Horton’s (iykyk). But I missed the swing-your-legs-in-the-air moments. I wish there was more time spent on establishing their connection/spark than their individual character development. The vibe and tension showed itself around 70% in. I can see this being a comfort read. I look forward to Gretchen’s book!

3.5 ⭐️
TW - disordered eating and past death of spouse

EDIT: listening to the audiobook version right now…hello; PACEY narrates the part of Mike??? How did I not know this. Him and Emily Ellet are perfect as Rory and Mike (dual narration). Now I’m getting the swing-your-legs-in-the-air moments. 🥰🙈

3.5 stars

Things started off really well with Canadian Boyfriend and I was so intrigued after the first chapter. The set up was fun and unique and I thought the depiction of grief and loss were really well done. I also appreciated the emphasis on mental health and well being. I would consider the book more women’s fiction (with romance) because of this, and readers should check CW’s prior to reading.

Widow/er stories are always a bit tough for me. I need time to believe that the character is ready to open their heart again. I think Jenny Holiday achieved that here (with the help of time jumps and tender scenes of connection - the pies! The ball pit!), but ultimately the imbalance of power between Mike and Aurora and their continued back and forth were a bit too much for me.

The third act conflict (I’m not even sure it can be called that since it happened so late in the story) was borderline ridiculous and felt so unnecessary. There was enough going on with Mike’s grief, his relationship with his daughter, Aurora’s emotionally abusive mother, Aurora’s relationship with food, etc. The epilogue was very, very cute though and while I didn’t love this one, I think others might really enjoy it.

I mainly read this via audiobook and it was fantastic! I loved that it was performed duet style. Emily Ellet and Joshua Jackson were amazing together and I look forward to listening to more books that they narrate.

Audiobook Review
Overall 4 stars
Performance 5 stars
Story 3.5 stars

CW: death of spouse (past), references to disordered eating, emotionally abusive parent, strained relationship with parent, grief, panic attacks (on page), parental abandonment (past), discussion about: pregnancy, children, and disagreement regarding future pregnancies

*I voluntarily read an advance review copy of this book. The audiobook was borrowed via my library/Libby*

I tried really hard, but at the end of the day, I couldn't get past the
1. Long delayed
2. Wildly unlikely
overreactions to "I served you coffee once a decade ago and fantasized about you for years after" from BOTH the MC and the love interest.
A fascinating premise, but not the greatest execution.
Also, for the record, I preferred the original cover with the hockey player on it. When I downloaded it to my kindle, it came with a cover showing a man and a woman from the back on a beach. I guess that's the lake? But it didn't match the vibe of the book to me.

Parts of this book I loved, others I did not. What I loved was the lovely relationship that developed between the characters. I also loved how the author navigated the dancing world, its pressures and problems, and how she portrayed the loss of a spouse and all the aftermath. A few things I didn’t love was how the author took me out of the story by breaking the fourth wall, in some cases telling me what was going to happen before it happened. I wanted to be immersed in the story, not a bystander. I also didn’t like being kept out of critical moments, like the first kiss. It was rather fade to black. I wanted to experience it with the characters, since it was such a long time coming.

3.5 stars rounded up to 4. I loved all of the characters!! However, I felt like it was a little slow. It was such a cute read though!

If the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation ever made Hallmark Movies this could surely be the plot of one. Thanks #NetGalley for the chance to preview.

This book was a super cute cozy story. It's a nanny/single dad hockey romance. The story followed Aurora, who grew up as a talented ballet dancer. One day, when she was in high school she met this kid at her job, Mike. As a girl who didn't have much time for anything except for ballet and her job at the coffee shop, she invented a fake Canadian boyfriend. It was her get out of jail free card, if she couldn't go to an event, she would use her fake Canadian boyfriend, Mike, as the excuse. An excuse she continued to use all through college. She never thought there was any harm in making up a fake boyfriend based on someone she met in high school. It wasn't like she was ever going to see him again.

Fast forward a few years, where she teaches dance at her friend's studio, and in walks Mike. The father of one of the girls in her dance class. With Mike struggling to balance life after the passing of his wife, Aurora signs on to help him out by being a nanny to his daughter. To both of their surprise, Aurora seems to be much more than a nanny, but a genuine friend. And things go from there. They delved in to a lot of deeper topics, which I really enjoyed. Overall, I liked this one. 3.75 stars.

Cute. Wholesome. Fun. Heartwarming. And love the cover so much. Perfect sports romance vibe but different in a refreshing way.

I was a fool. Okay, I’ll give myself some grace; I was a fool because of a horrific reading slump. I started this book a month ago, and I put it down within a few pages. Let me clarify quickly, this is not the fault of the book! My head has cleared, reading is fun again, and I stayed up until 3:00 am finishing this incredible story. I’m in love with the kindness and grace that was infused into this story. Each character had their demons but they showcased the ups and downs, the trials and the braveries of, well, just life. It was refreshing, relatable, and enthralling. Don’t do what I did, and get to this book sooner than later!

I thought this had a good start, it definitely got my interest unfortunately just couldn't keep it. It just felt like so many romcoms out there.

DNF @ 54%

It really says a lot when you're SUPER excited for an audiobook and then it's like pulling teeth to make yourself read it.

This book had the promise of a cute premise: running into the boy you used as the inspiration for your fake high school boyfriend later in life? Like - what are the odds!? So I was really excited to see how Holiday would take that and run away with it. As I was reading, though, I found it hard to get into the story. And, honestly, the breaks where the diary entries were took me out of the narrative - which was probably the opposite of their intended purpose.

Once I realized I knew exactly what the third-act breakup would be, and it made no sense to me, I knew I had to DNF, and I don't regret it.
You might like this one - but it didn't work for me.

This is my first read by this author and I ended up loving it!

CANADIAN BOYFRIEND has so many funny moments where I snort-laughed while I was reading, but it's a pretty heavy read throughout. This book tackles some seriously tough topics, but in a wonderful way (including positive representation of therapy).

I loved Mike and Rory so much! They are one of those rare fictional couples that I was just desperate to be together. CANADIAN BOYFRIEND is a slow burn and really takes the time to show the reader the emotional connection that grows between Mike and Rory.

I took off a star from my rating because, especially in the last third, this book was really heavy on the therapeutic introspection. I appreciate the depth these characters had, but it got to be too much and made the story lag at parts.

Overall, I really loved this story of grief, self discovery, healing, and love. CANADIAN BOYFRIEND was a fantastic read.

𝗦𝗣𝗜𝗖𝗘 𝗟𝗘𝗩𝗘𝗟: Rated R / 2-4 descriptive sex scenes, may have harsh language.
𝗧𝗥𝗜𝗚𝗚𝗘𝗥𝗦: disordered eating, past death of spouse, emotionally abusive parent
𝗙𝗘𝗘𝗟𝗦:: 4/5 - Tackled some seriously tough topics.

Jenny Holiday has a natural way for making you fall for her characters! CANADIAN BOYFRIEND was sweet and sexy but also a heartfelt story that made me care for the characters as if I personally knew them. The way in which Aurora and Mike connected, how their relationship grew, was just perfection.

This book certainly packed a lot in, from fun tropes to heavier topics. I think overall the author did a great job at giving us depth, delving into hard topics in a real and relatable way, and still making us cheer for that happily ever after.

Great chemistry, great banter and a fun ride! And on the plus side, the audiobook being narrated by Joshua Jackson was a treat. It needs to be repeated. :)

🩰Arc Review🩰

This was so bittersweet and it was full of growth and healing from both Mike and Aurora. I really adore and admire them as individuals and they are such a force when they are together! I also really enjoyed Mike’s daughter Olivia and Aurora’s best friend Gretchen they both were such great secondary characters, and they helped our main characters and many ways with their healing and grow and they were both just very funny. there was a few things that I did not enjoy about this book the main one being how aurora throughout the whole book constantly called Mike by his full name. also, the conflict with the letters just felt unnatural and for that reason I felt the third break up was unnecessary, but all I’m really enjoyed this book!!

Thank you so much Netgalley and Forever Grand Central Publishing for and ARC to review this book honestly!

3.5

Aurora Evans did not have a great childhood. Spending most of her time in her ballet training kept her apart from her peers, she always felt like an outsider. This wasn't helped by her mother's overly-critical view of her body and her talent. So, Aurora does what any young girl would do....she makes up a Canadian Boyfriend. Someone who's around yet inaccessible enough that Aurora can use him as an excuse when she misses prom or other teen events.

Years pass. Aurora's only interaction with dance is teaching at a local studio. What Aurora doesn't count on is meeting her pretend boyfriend as an adult in person in the form of hockey player Mike Martin.

Mike Martin is just trying to get his and his daughter's lives back on track after the death of his wife less than a year ago. The one place his daughter, Olivia, feels happy is in dance class with Miss Rory. But with the hockey season starting soon, Mike needs more help than he knows, so he asks Aurora to help with afterschool care for Olivia.

I liked the setup of this one. I mean how intriguing is it to actually meet the person you supposedly made up as your boyfriend? But what I found when I actually started reading is that this hook doesn't really land. I think the story could have been just as, or more, compelling without that setup.

Further in that regard, I didn't really feel like the romance landed either. I wasn't feeling the chemistry between Mike and Aurora beyond a strong friendship-type bond. I almost wish the story had bucked the norm and actually kept these two as friends instead of feeling like a relationship was mandated territory, or if this was the type of book to utilize the slow burn romance that could develop over multiple books in a series.

What I did like and appreciate about the story was how it dealt with grief and trauma. Showing Mike going through therapy, showing Mike coming to terms with the death of his wife and being able to look back on their relationship without blinders on was fantastic. Oftentimes we read these stories of loss and there's this idolization of the person lost and relationship past. It's put on a pedestal that no one can hope to scale. But this story takes a very real view of what moving forward means. It means the good and the bad. It means looking inward.

On the other side of that we have Aurora who is still dealing with some heavy issues from her days as a professional dancer. Most of those issues were imposed upon her by her mother including body image issues and problems with food, hindering her from having healthy relationships and a healthy view of herself. Aurora has removed herself from professional dancing, choosing instead to teach and hopefully have a positive impact on younger girls - something that was denied to her - but seeing her begin to pull herself out of these imposed ideals was honestly the best part of this book. To see her break out of the structures imposed upon her, to get the help she needed, was like a breath of fresh air. You could feel how stifled she was as a character almost stuck in a perpetual state of young adulthood unable to grow until she dealt with her trauma.

That was the journey I was more invested in rather than the romance aspect. I understand that being in the romance category, the story had to have certain signifiers, I just kinda wished that could have been subverted a bit. Still a strong story and there are a few secondary characters I would love to see in the spotlight should Jenny Holiday decide to continue on with the series.

This book was not what I was anticipating, but I enjoyed it nonetheless. I thought there was going to be more focus on the fake-boyfriend element, but I loved how Mike and Aurora’s relationship evolved and became such a strong friendship before anything else got added into it. I also absolutely loved Olivia’s character and she brought so much life and nuance to the book. It did seem like the author couldn’t decide whether this book was meant to be a closed-door romance or not, since a lot of the intimate scenes cut off abruptly or skimmed through things very quickly and then lingered on other elements of the scene. I also think that the ending felt a little bit unfinished purely because we never got a reaction from Olivia when Mike and Aurora told her they were dating. Other than that, I thought it was a fun setting and had a lot of really important themes running through it.

3.5 ⭐️

This book was different than what I expected, but that’s not a bad thing. I thought it’d be a typical rom-com, but it ended up touching on some pretty deep topics. There was some great therapy representation!

Both of the main characters were really likable and genuine. I loved how deeply the male MC loved and fought for his daughter’s happiness.

The book was a little too long and I didn’t love the third-act breakup. It felt unnecessary and childish to me, especially at such a late stage in the book after they’d already developed a good relationship. Overall, I did enjoy this book and would read others by this author.

Thank you to NetGalley for the eARC.

I really enjoyed Canadian Boyfriend. There were a lot of heavy topics dealt with throughout the book, but I think they were handled well. Plus, the romance helped to balance out the more serious topics. My favourite part of Mike and Aurora's relationship was how much they supported each other through their individual challenges. I only wish there had been more spice. Especially in the northern lights scene 😭🌶

There were a lot of rich character relationships in terms of friends and family that supported Aurora and Mike through their challenges. I really loved Gretchen. She was so loving and supportive of Aurora while also giving her some tough love when she needed it.

Thank you Jenny Holiday, Forever and Netgalley for this ARC in exchange for my honest opinion.

Canadian Boyfriend by Jenny Holiday is a well written romance that I really loved.
The banter betwen the main characters is great.
I love sports romance and the author really adds a unique twist.

Such heartfelt characters with real issues.

Well written plot and characters.

This book was super cute. I really loved the story. Some of the Canadian stereotypes were super specific and extra, though. Especially as a Canadian. Other than that it was such a sweet read.