Book Review: Collide by Bal Khabra @BloomsburyBooks #BookReview #Collide #BalKhabra #OffTheIce #RomanceBooks #RespectRomFic

Book Synopsis:

Collide is the first book in the Off the Ice series
The second novel, Spiral, is out now and the third, Revolve, will be out in October. You can pre-order Revolve now.

‘Equal parts spicy and sweet’ Peyton Corinne, author of Unsteady

When Summer Preston’s professor issues her with an ultimatum, she finds herself on an unexpected collision course with hockey captain, Aiden Crawford.

Summer hates everything about hockey, for good reason, but she isn’t going to let that stand in the way of her becoming a sports psychologist.

Aiden loves being the hockey captain, except when his team’s reckless mistakes risk jeopardizing their entire season. When coach puts him forward for a research paper as punishment, he has no choice but to accept.

Summer can’t stand his blasé approach to life, and Aiden doesn’t understand her uptight, scheduled one. They are off to a rocky start, and provoking each other – it turns out – is what they do best.

But losing isn’t something either of them does well. Maybe there’s a way for both of them to win?

Now with a never-before-seen bonus scene from Summer and Aiden’s love story as well as an extract from the next book in the Off the Ice series. Find out which of your favourite characters from Collide will be featured next!

My Review:

Collide is a fun, gripping romance that helped get me out of a massive reading slump.  

The story is told from the dual point of view of hockey captain Aiden and grumpy, workaholic Summer.  Out of the two main characters I did prefer Aiden as I thought he was very sweet and deserved a medal for putting up with Summer at times. He seemed a very sweet character and I loved how he cared for everyone, often beyond what he was expected to as a captain.  Summer on the other hand took me a little while to warm to as I found her very unlikeable at the beginning.  She’s a very prickly character and I really couldn’t understand why she was being so difficult at times.  It was interesting to see the two slowly grow closer and how they helped each other through some difficult situations.  

I thought the book was very fast paced and there always seemed to be something happening to keep me reading. Even in the quieter moments I was just happy hanging out with Aiden, Summer and their brilliant group of friends whose antics always made me smile.  This book has been compared to Icebreaker and while there are similarities I thought it was also an unique story in its own right.  There are some very spicy scenes in this book which wouldn’t be suitable for anyone below 18 as well as some hard hitting subjects mentioned which might not be to everyone’s taste.  

The ending was really heartwarming and I liked that the author continued the story on a bit so that the reader can see what happens next for the characters.  This is the first book in a trilogy and I quickly brought the second book in the series after a few chapters of this one as I knew I’d be wanting to read more.  

About The Author:

Bal is a Canadian writer, romance enthusiast, and book lover. Before she decided to jump into the romance pool, she spent her time gushing about books on social media. When inspiration strikes, she is found filling her notes app with ideas for romance novels. Like her heroine Summer, Bal has been woven into the fabric of two cultures and finds herself creating characters that represent the beauty of both. Whether it’s through language, a box of her favorite sweets, or a cup of chai, we can find hints of her South Asian roots throughout her writing. She loves reading about love, watching movies about love, and now, writing about it herself. There really isn’t much else that gets her heart fluttering the way HEAs do. She fell in love with writing and hopes to continue living out her romance author dreams.