I am so excited to share the Blog Tour for Off the Ice by Julie Cross with you guys! The tour is hosted by Chapter by Chapter. You can find the full tour schedule here. Off the Ice is a Contemporary Romance, and it was a really sweet, romantic read! Keep reading for my review and a giveaway!
Title: Off the Ice
Author: Julie Cross
My rating: 4 hearts
Genre: Young Adult, Contemporary, Romance
Pub. date: February 27th 2017
Publisher: Entangled: TEEN
Synopsis: All is fair in love and hockey…
Claire O’Connor is back in Juniper Falls, but that doesn’t mean she wants to be. One semester off, that’s what she promised herself. Just long enough to take care of her father and keep the family business—a hockey bar beside the ice rink—afloat. After that, she’s getting the hell out. Again.
Enter Tate Tanley. What happened between them the night before she left town resurfaces the second they lay eyes on each other. But the guy she remembers has been replaced by a total hottie. When Tate is unexpectedly called in to take over for the hockey team’s star goalie, suddenly he’s in the spotlight and on his way to becoming just another egotistical varsity hockey player. And Claire’s sworn off Juniper Falls hockey players for good.
It’s the absolute worst time to fall in love.
For Tate and Claire, hockey isn’t just a game. And they both might not survive a body check to the heart. (synopsis from Goodreads)
Book links:
A sweet,
romantic read for all those Contemporary fans out there! The plot had some
faults, but the characters and the romance more than made up for it!
I
loved reading about Tate and Claire.
It’s obvious from page one that they have
chemistry. Claire tries to stay away, because she’s scared of getting hurt
after she was hurt by another hockey player, but it’s clear that it won’t work.
Tate has some big issues with his father, and is scared of telling anyone. They
are both flawed characters with a lot of problems, but I really liked watching
them grow and try to solve their problems. While Tate has had a crush on Claire
for years, it still isn’t love at first sight, but you got to see as they fell
in love and how they started to trust each other more and grew both as a
couple, but most importantly, as people, and it was great.
The
plot was a bit slow and hard to get into.
Now, when I say a bit slow, I really mean
just a little. But the biggest problem about the plot was that it was a bit
confusing at times, which made it hard to get into and follow. In the
beginning, sometimes it would feel like you were missing something you were
supposed to know, that the plot was skipping some details which made it really
confusing, and this made it pretty hard to get through the beginning. But, as
the plot progressed, things became clearer and less confused, and I could start
to really enjoy it.
The
writing was great.
It was a bit awkward at times, but it worked
really well in this book, because it felt more real and realistic, because the
characters weren’t all that experienced, and the awkwardness felt natural, like
it needed to be there. The author did a great job at conveying the emotions the
characters felt, be it love, or friendship, or worry.
There
were some great side characters!
I especially loved Haley. Maybe there was a
little too much focus on her, but I liked her. She had some serious issues in the
beginning (and at the end, too), but she grew a lot, and you all know how much
I love character development. Haley was really realistic and I don’t know why,
but I just really liked her. And I liked both Tate’s and Claire’s friends. I
love a good best friend (or friends), and they both had them.
Off
the Ice is the perfect book if you’re looking for something light, sweet
and romantic! The perfect read so close to Valentine’s Day (and, since I’m a
total romantic, it’s my favourite day of the year). And the hockey was another
big plus!
She’s also the author of the Letters to Nowhere series, Whatever Life Throws at You, Third Degree, Halfway Perfect, and many more to come!
Julie lives in Central Illinois with her husband and three children. She’s a former gymnast, longtime gymnastics fan, coach, and former Gymnastics Program Director with the YMCA.
She’s a lover of books, devouring several novels a week, especially in the young adult and new adult genres.
Outside of her reading and writing cred, Julie Cross is a committed–but not talented–long distance runner, creator of imaginary beach vacations, Midwest bipolar weather survivor, expired CPR certification card holder, as well as a ponytail and gym shoe addict.
Author links:
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