Book Summary: 

A best friends to lovers hockey romance.

My coach is playing matchmaker.

And that’s a problem because I work with this beautiful and distracting woman.

Also, she’s my best friend’s ex making her very off limits.

I also might be crushing on her. Hard.

That’s a hat trick of reasons to say no. But if I don’t follow coach’s playbook on and off the ice I’ll be benched. Kind of like my heart.

If I say yes to this fake-dating plan…well, it could save my reputation (nice guy, wrong place, wrong time, etc., etc.) as well as get me those deals I so desperately need. It could even help out my teammates who’ve worked too darn hard to have their captain trash it all because he’s afraid to fake it with his friend.

To hold her hand.

To kiss her in front of the cameras.

To show her how she should be truly treated by a boyfriend—pampered and cherished.

And maybe to show her how I really feel…

Mini Review:

If you are looking for a sweet, wholesome, clean hockey romance with a dash of Texas love and cowboy envy, “The Cupcake Cottage” is definitely your next read. Daisy Mae is a former beauty queen who, despite owning a business and working as a mascot handler, feels the world only views her as uneducated trailer trash (her words). Her mother keeps insisting that she simply needs to find a man to take care of her because “age isn’t doing her any favors.” Too bad her mother doesn’t realize that Daisy Mae only has eyes for a certain hockey player. She has been friends with Maverick since she was a child, having dated his best friend Myles for most of her young adult life.

Maverick, on the other hand, has been secretly in love with Daisy Mae ever since he laid eyes on her, but out of respect, he had no intention of making a move, even after his buddy Myles was getting married. When Myles indirectly gives his blessing and a scandal damages Maverick’s image, Maverick’s coach Louis comes up with a harebrained, fake relationship scheme based on a well-timed photo that finally bridges the gap between him and Daisy Mae.

What I enjoyed most about this book was its focus on the danger of assumptions. Every time Daisy Mae tried to voice her concerns, Maverick always assumed that, based on her past, she could handle anything coming their way. He was too blind to the present and kept using the past as a reference point. I did side with him, though, as Daisy Mae spent more time agreeing, passively hinting or timidly vocalizing her concerns rather than being direct and explaining exactly what she needed from him. This is where Maverick’s mother stepped in, serving as a much-welcomed voice of reason, almost like a narrator in the story. I also enjoyed Daisy’s best friend, Violet, who provided a welcome dose of comic relief.

While I probably won’t continue the series, I highly recommend it to anyone who loves a good hockey romance but prefers to keep their sports romances G-rated.