IT'S A LOVE/SKATE RELATIONSHIP

A hockey player falls for a figure skater when they unexpectedly become skating partners.

Charlie Porter is a high school junior and star player on her school’s coed hockey team in Winthrop, Vermont. After starting a fight with a misogynistic bully from a rival team, Charlie loses her athletic scholarship and is suspended from her private school for six months, putting her chances of impressing college scouts in jeopardy. She finds herself not only a public school student, but also the stand-in partner for prissy pairs figure skater Alexa Goldstein, whose partner was injured in the melee Charlie caused. This lighthearted teen romance hits in all the right ways; it’s well plotted and well written, is easy and fun to read, and will make readers squeal over Charlie and Alexa’s budding relationship right up to the triumphant ending. Genre fans may appreciate how the two—who start off at odds with one another—are thrown together in improbable yet amorous situations. Some suspension of disbelief is required (Charlie executes a flawless triple lutz only a few months after taking up figure skating), and a significant obstacle (a ban on same-sex skating pairs) is hand-waved away in a single paragraph. These elements are balanced by an unusual and refreshing willingness for characters to—mostly—address issues head-on. Charlie is white, and Alexa is white and Jewish.

A treat for lovers of fluffy lesbian romance.