Heat It Up

By Stina Lindenblatt

Synopsis

Some games are hotter off the ice…

Sofia Phillips feels cursed. Her father cheated on her mother, her boyfriend cheated on her—she’s done with dating. A summer work-exchange program in Finland is the perfect escape. But instead of gaining experience as an athletic trainer, she’s cleaning toilets. Awesome. The trip is a disaster, and even better, she meets Kyle Bennett. In the sauna. Naked.

Sexy hockey player Kyle was the star right wing for an NHL team. But after an accident killed his wife and left him injured, Kyle has appreciated the “therapeutic” benefits of booze and puck bunnies. Now in Finland for the summer, he’s coaching in an elite hockey-training camp for teens. When Sofia’s grandmother decides to set her up with a nice Finnish man, Sofia recruits Kyle as her make-believe boyfriend. Neither expects their first kiss to sizzle. And neither expects, while stranded on an island during a storm, to have a scorching night of passion.

But as their charade, and then their attraction, develops into something deeper, the past comes back, threatening to destroy them. They must decide if their feelings for each other are strong enough to survive—or it will be game over.

Review

Unknown to each other, Sofia and Kyle have travelled from Minneapolis to Finland to get a temporary break from their painful pasts. When they happen upon each other at the local sports centre, the attraction is instant, but Sofia doesn’t trust men to be faithful and Kyle is too busy enjoying his current lifestyle of one-night stands to consider a relationship. But as they spend more time together, they wonder if they’ll get more out of this trip than they were expecting.

HEAT IT UP is told in dual POVs and at this point in time, it appears to be a stand-alone. I liked both Sofia and Kyle; I thought they made a great couple and I could feel their attraction through the pages. However, I did feel that Sofia was a little weak with how she handled the love triangle, and it was hard to sympathise with Kyle at times when his lifestyle of booze and women was less “grieving widow” and more “making up for lost time”. I’m not a fan of over-the-top drama and angst, so I was really happy to see that I didn’t need to be worried about that in this book, especially given the youngish ages of Sofia and Kyle. That being said (and this is where I come across as completely hypocritical), I think this book could have used a little more angst and/or drama, as everything that happened between Kyle and Sofia was a little too easily forgiven and resolved. Overall, I thought HEAT IT UP was a nice way to spend a few hours.

My Rating: