Look, I'm a hockey romance girlie. I genuinely like reading about girls dating hot guys who play hockey. I think it's sexy. But sometimes, every book in this genre post Icebreaker just feels like it's trying to do the Icebreaker thing, and I think we can have more than one kind of hockey romance book because this is getting silly.

On paper, I should have loved Collide. Black cat girl who hates hockey gets stuck doing her research project on a sunshine boy hockey player who's immediately attracted to her. But I just didn't vibe with Summer and Aiden. Somehow, it felt like they didn't have chemistry, which is wild because they have to for this to work. I also really felt like Bal Khabra was working off the Icebreaker playbook: grumpy/sunshine, found family in the hockey team, best friends who really don't matter, and a guy who is an obstacle to the girl's career who used to/wants to date her. It felt like there was nothing new here: no new character development, no fresh stakes, nothing that distinguishes Collide within its genre.

If you loved Collide, I'm so happy for you. This one was just not for me!