Cruising on Ice (Palmer City Voltage Book 1)

Kerry
Evelyn
Genre: 
Contemporary

Taylor Ranford is a cheerleading coach, bent on helping her team win a national title. She’s also looking forward celebrating her birthday on a cruise with her sister. Hockey player Kingston Brewer has hit a snag in his otherwise impressive career. Needing a break from worrying about his future, when his good friend, Chelsea Ranford, asks him to take her place on a cruise, he eagerly accepts. Can Taylor manage a weekend with her adolescent crush? And will Kingston see his best friend’s younger sister as more than just a kid?

Taking the main characters off the ice and putting them on a cruise ship is a nice twist to the usual sports romance trope. While the best friend’s little sister is often over-used, it’s also nice to see the best friend be a woman, rather than a man. Unfortunately, that’s where the different approach ended. The rest of the will-they, won’t-they plot is cookie cutter basic with no real surprises, even when the hero has a choice to make between his career and the woman he’s come to care about on an entirely different level. Emotions seemed a bit lacking between the characters, not that the scenes needed to be steamier, just more adult dialogue. Kingston also seemed a bit too mild. The dual first-person point of view was well done. It reads very smoothly, something that’s not always easy to do. Fan of sports romance, on the sweet side, will thoroughly enjoy this book!

N.E. Kelley