I am enjoying the varying views of Maple Falls and the residents, including the visitors. The first in the series was by one of my favorite authors, Whitney Dineen, who manages to add the right amount of humor to her romances, and I’ve been chasing that high ever since in this series. While the others were cute, I just always felt like something was missing so I was so happy to find that humor again in this one; the dad jokes were fun. There was also a lot of witty banter and chemistry with Scotty and Angel. Add in the coach instead of hot shot player angle, the slightly older characters with kids, and the work with the charity and you’ve got a well-rounded story with lots of feel-good vibes.

I would like to thank Netgalley and Xpresso book tours for a free copy of the book in exchange for an honest review.

An enjoyable addition to the series. Can’t wait for the next books.

Book #5 of the Love On Thin Ice series and one of my favorites so far! This multi-author hockey romance series is so fun! All based around a charity hockey team called The Icebreakers who play in the small town of Maple Falls. I am loving the small town fall vibes and being introduced to new authors that have so much talent!

In The Parent Playbook we finally get to see Happy Horizons which is the charity that the hockey team is playing for through the whole series. I do feel like maybe this one should have been earlier on in some ways so the reader could know more about what the team is being put together for, but with each book technically able to be a stand alone it worked fine here too.

This book was Angel and Scotty’s story and it was a fun one! I was so excited to learn more about the Happy Horizons owner and the co-captain of the hockey team. I loved the double single parent trope and their kids, Lily and Andy were such a fun comic relief. The way Scotty falls for her and shows her he cares by being there through all of the chaos and struggles was so sweet, and her support of him and his team and the way she was there for his daughter made them the perfect couple.

This was the first book of Elsie’s I have read and I really enjoyed it! I’m grateful to have had the opportunity to read and review this book for her!

This is a sweet, clean installment in the Maple Falls Hockey series. I have read and enjoyed all of the books in this series and each can be read as a standalone. This books is well written and a quick read. Not my favorite, but it is a solid addition to the series. The two kids are cute and I actually wish we had more scenes with them in it. Nicely done.

This is a sweet, clean read with lovable characters, Angel and Scotty. They are single parents and I loved the relationships that they each have with their child. The story pulled me in, kept me entertained with the growing connection between them. It made for a great read to curl up and just enjoy and shut out the rest of the world.

A cute installment in the Maple Falls Hockey series. This is my second in the series, each can be read as a standalone, and I love the small town charm.
I also loved how the two precocious kids aligned to help the couple find their way to each other. A fun and quick read!

Super cute blended family romance! I’m so happy they both found each other. This is part of a series from multiple authors but can be read as a standalone. But I highly suggest reading all in the series as they’re all so good so far! I feel like this is the first I’ve read from Elsie and I really enjoyed her writing style!


I received this as an ARC via NetGalley for my honest review

The Parent Playbook
•
eeeekk I think we can pass on this one. It was really really wholesome, which is okay, but I felt like not much was happening, there was no tension or connection between the two main characters, I honestly found our main gal Angel really annoying lol and the moments we were suppose to feel that spark felt really juvenile to me 🤷🏻‍♀️ I did end up skimming a lot at the end and I normally don’t do that unless I’m really not enjoying it! I did like that it was dual POV and overall it’s a really short book, so nice if you need help reaching your reading goals, but it was very predictable and left me wanting soooo much more…I don’t really have much else to say! ⭐️
•
Thank you NetGalley, Elsie Wood, and Puppy Love Books for this e-arc that is out now!

I received an arc from NetGalley and this is my honest opinion.

Loved this quirky/fun romance in a perfect setting. Single parent trope with small town vibes and hockey themes.

I found myself chuckling at Angel and her dialogue and then Scotty comes in and he just adds to their banter. Great small town with celebrity hockey players storyline in which even the kids get in on the romance setup.

Great, fast, and easy read that will bring a smile to your face.

Angel is the owner of Happy Horizons Ranch, a charity that helps underprivileged kids and has been selected to receive the proceeds from the Ice Breakers hockey team to build Happy Horizons community outreach. When she arrives at a high profile charity event for the Ice Breakers, she mistakes the assistant coach and former high profile hockey player, Scotty McFarland, as the coat check guy and proceeds to say a few things as to how she really feels about hockey players - open mouth, insert foot.

Even though the two initially have a rocky start, their kids hit it off and love hanging out together. The four quickly become close and the kids are ready for their parents to make the jump to being a couple, but can the adults read the signs and jump in or do they have cold feet?

This was a sweet read and I enjoyed how the kids played a factor into the love story. There were moments when Scotty thought he was making “the right” decision for his daughter, Lily, but really he was using her to deflect his true feelings. I also liked when the kids got in trouble at school and saw the dichotomy of parenting between Angel and Scotty. Most single parent love stories I’ve read have a younger child in them so this story with young tweens brought a different vibe that I really liked, where the kids were working in the background to bring Scotty and Angel together - very Parent Trap-esque.

Thanks to Xpresso Book Tours and NetGalley for the ARC. All opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.

The Parent Playbook is the 5th book in the Love on Thin Ice series, which is a series of small town romcoms with each volume being written by a different romance author. This one is by Elsie Woods.

The Parent Playbook features two characters we’ve been seeing as background characters in the start of the series: coach Scotty and Angel (the woman who runs the charity the Ice Breaker hockey team is playing for.) Both Scotty and Angel are single parents, each of them having a preteen kid, with Angel’s son being quite the character. This story has a genuine meet-cute, with Angel mistaking Scotty for something other than a hockey player and then accidentally letting it slip just what she thinks of them. Hint: she doesn’t seem to think too highly of them, lol. And he sets out to prove her assumptions wrong, naturally falling for her at the same time. I really liked Angel and Scotty, not to mention the interaction with their kids, including the minor ‘parent trap-esque’ subplot. And besides who doesn’t love a book featuring a mischievous goat? This was the first time reading one of Elsie’s books, but looking at her catalogue and how she talks about Scotty’s previous job I believe there may be some connection here to another of her series. (Finding Love at the Doggy Spa) And I intend to check that series out at some point down the road. I’d like to thank the publisher and NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review an eARC of The Parent Playbook.

https://www.amazon.com/review/R230GL43W3ZISN/ref=pe_1098610_137716200_SRTC0204BT_cm_rv_eml_rv0_rv

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.

Angel and Scotty are both single parents through different circumstances, raising their strong independent kids on their own. Scotty is a former NHL player turned assistant coach for a charity hockey tournament being hosted for Angel's charity.

This was a cute romance featuring small town, single parent and hockey. I didn't feel a lot of a spark between Angel and Scotty and wish there had been more there. They were back and forth on their feelings for each other a lot and unfortunately I didn't feel the connection or tension that much between them.

This was such a sweet read. It gives off Hallmark vibes and I could picture this as a cozy fall movie.

Scotty and Angel had one of the best meet-cutes I've read. It made me laugh at the confusion. I enjoyed the instant attraction between them and all the sweet moments.

This is a sort of slow-burn story so be prepared for that, but no steam. So if sweet, clean romances are your jam, this is your cup of tea.

I loved the kids in this story. Their 'mischief' and matchmaking was cute.

I recommend and will be checking out the rest of the books in the series.

The Parent Playbook is book 5 in the Love on Thin Ice series by Elsie Woods.
I’ve definitely enjoyed these sweet small town hockey rom-coms.
Every book is written by a different author and features a new couple, so they can all be read as standalones.

The characters are so real that it’s so easy to relate to them.
The characters have depth and you really grow to love them. I could NOT put this book down, it's one of my fav rom-coms now!
The setting in the small town Maple Falls and the hockey games are all really well described.
This book has the BANTER, friendships, sweet romance and laugh out loud moments you want in a rom-com! Seeing Angel and Scotty really get to know one another and fall in love was so great!

I can’t wait for the next two titles.

Thank You NetGalley and Xpresso Book Tours for your generosity and gifting me a copy of this amazing eARC!

Single parent, closed door, hockey romance.

Angel is a single parent. She is determined to give her son and other children experiences that she never had growing up with a single parent herself. She runs the Happy Horizons charity for underprivileged children. All of her prayers are answered when the local hockey team picks her charity for donations.

Scotty hung up his skates to take care of his wife before she passed away leaving him as a single dad. He decides to take a coaching job with the Icebreakers and move his daughter to Maple Falls.

Angel and Scotty meet when Angel confuses him with the coat check valet, and they continue to run into each other when their children decide to become friends.

This was a really cute quick read, with some hockey thrown in. I love when authors put hockey into their "hockey" romances. The matchmaking kids where my favorite part of the book. Those two were so cute and obvious in their efforts to matchmake their parents. The banter between the two main characters was great and very funny. I look forward to the next book in this series.

Thank you NetGalley and Xpresso Book Tours for this title. This is my honest review.

Scotty is the sweetest! He jumps right into help Angel and wants to be the best dad he can for Lily. Angel might be a little jaded against rich hockey players, but I want to be like her when I grow up. She is so calm in the face of hard parenting situations, she’s filled with so much drive to get things done, and she has so much love and compassion for the kids of Maple Falls. I love watching their love story unfold along with all the silly antics of Edgar and matchmaking schemes of Andy and Lily.

The Parent Playbook is the fifth book in the Love on Thin Ice series and it's a story of single parents, parent-trapping (ish), and professional comebacks. Angel and Scotty made for a cute pair, but I feel like the characters could have been better developed. Angel made a really quick about-face from her initial distaste for hockey players, and Scotty seemed to quickly forget about his widower's grief. The story had a slow start and I struggled to get hooked, and the ending felt abrupt and simplistic, like any issues the characters had been grappling with suddenly didn't matter. This book can be read as a stand alone, but I highly recommend checking out others in the series, too!

Thank you to Xpresso Book Tours for gifting me with an ARC to review! All opinions are my own.

I’m sure others will enjoy this book, but it’s not for me. It’s too saccharine, and there’s too much telling instead of showing.

Thanks, NetGalley, for the ARC.

The Parent Playbook is the fifth book in the Love on Thin Ice series. This is a multi-author series centered around the same charity hockey team, and follow the same timeline, but can be read in any order or as standalones. There are also some characters from the author's Finding Love at the Doggy Spa series who make an appearance (and Scotty was first introduced there too), but you definitely do not have to have read those either.

This was such a cute read. Angel and Scotty drew me in right from their very first awkward meeting that had me laughing out loud. That certainly set the tone for the rest of the story! Despite that initial awkwardness, these two had a really sweet chemistry. Both were single parents to preteens, and I thought their children added so much fun to the story with their plotting. I actually don't know that I can recall reading any books where both main characters were single parents, so that definitely set it apart too. Having read the previous books in the series, I enjoyed getting to know more about the charity behind the team (and seeing glimpses of these characters I've already come to love in previous books).

The Parent Playbook is a closed-door romance with kisses only and no language.

**ARC received for consideration. All opinions are my own.

This was a very cute single mom, meets single dad hockey romance. It was a quick read, with likeable and believable characters who seemed to fit really well together as a whole.
They brought out the best in each other and made the other better.
My only criticism is that I couldn't see how these 12 year Olds were just wandering around the town all the time unsupervised.
Its was such a sweet story though, perfectly fine to read as a stand alone without the rest - but is a great add on to the series.