Home Ice Advantage is one of the more unique hockey romances I've read as it's a romance between the head coach and assistant coach of a fictionalized Boston hockey team. On the day of his 45th birthday, Ryan "Sully" Sullivan finds himself with a newly estranged wife but also thrown into the opportunity of a lifetime to return to his hometown of Boston and be the head coach of their professional hockey team the Beacons. Eric Aronson was expecting a promotion from offensive coach to head coacht when the position opens up, so he's frustrated and angry when Sully gets handpicked for the position. While both played in the majors at the same time, the pair had vastly different reputations and experiences. Sully has already been inducted into the hall of fame, won the Stanley Cup, and was part of a golden boy duo with his former teammate and best friend. Eric is known for his two biting incidents and his unnecessary fighting, never won the cup, and his challenges of being one of the few Jewish players at the time. The pair immediately clash because of their differences in coaching style and personality. But when a massive argument ends with making out rather than punches thrown, Sully now has to navigate his overbearing father, his newly discovered attraction to men, and how to deal with the focus of this attraction being directed to someone he has to work alongside.

I really enjoyed how they complemented one another. Eric is immediately frustrated by Sully's earnest nature thinking it's an act, but Sully is able to bring out a softer side of Eric. He's held onto so much angst from his time as a player and has a mindset that he's not good enough for good things to happen, and Sully is able to see through that hard exterior and prove to Eric there's a good inside of him. I was on the edge of my seat waiting for the pair to admit their feelings for one another. We see such a beautiful progression in their relationship from where it goes from burning off the sexual tension between them to staying together nightly and Eric facing a decades long battle of coming out to his mother. It's clear to one another as the story goes on that there's something real and special between them but it was killing me having to wait for them to actually communicate it to each other.

I wish we got to see a little bit more of the pair post truly getting together, and how they are going to navigate being a couple in public and working together. The Penalty Box series has been on my tbr for a while and this is the first book I've read in it. There's enough of stand aloneness of the books that I could follow this without having read the other 2, but I am interested in going back and reading them to see if that gives a little bit more context to the fractured nature of the team at the beginning of the story.

Thank you NetGalley, Carina Press, and Harlequin for an arc of Home Ice Advantage!

Thank you to Netgalley and Carina Press for a copy in advance.

One sided enemies to lovers always hits. Assistant Coach Eric cannot stand Ryan for getting the head coach job and rewards him with the full force of Eric’s attitude. Ryan is constantly baffled and stung that this guy he doesn’t think about ever deeply dislikes him.

They're snarking at each other after a loss and boom, making out against the coaches’ white board they go. I loved that these dudes managed to fall in love with each other without realizing. Like they basically live in each others pockets and spend every night sleeping next to each other but feelings? Never heard of them. That’s my favorite.

No one does a final epilogue like Ari. The books in this series usually end up with an article or a series of photos and it just shows the mains off being happy and it’s a lovely send off.

I'm always excited to read something new by Ari but know that I am not exaggerating when I say that this may be their finest work yet. As someone who has grown up loving hockey and as someone whose love of hockey has grown exponentially recently, I can sometimes find any work of fiction I read that involves hockey to be really really hokey, and not always in a good way. That's never my experience with Baran's books and especially wasn't my experience with this one. I like could not stop from breaking out into a grin while I was reading because it just felt so fundamentally like ah yes you GET this. You get the sport and you get the people in it and you love it the same way I do. The book was so funny I burst out laughing more than once (sometimes inappropriately loud in public places) and was endlessly charmed by the characters. I tore through the whole thing in almost one sitting (it would've been all in one go but I made the mistake of starting it while my car was in the shop and then had to race furiously home after so I didn't have to wait too long to start up again). This book is a triumph and I'm being completely earnest when I say I'll be telling everyone they should pick up a copy too.