In the city of Juniper Falls hockey reigns supreme. When Brooke Parker’s father goes to jail, she and her mother return to her mom’s home town to live with her grandmother. With her mother’s downward spiral into depression Brooke turns to hockey to take her mind of her troubles and joins the brand new girls hockey team. Jake Hammond, captain of the Varsity boys hockey team, finds himself on the wrong side of the law when a 100 year old hockey tradition goes wrong. As punishment he has to be the assistant coach to the girls hockey team and finds himself drawn to Brooke, a girl who has obviously never played hockey but has some serious talent.

On Thin Ice explores a lot of tough subjects; bullying, depression, and suicide but the novel does a great job of putting a spotlight on these problems and allowing it’s characters to work their way to a solution in a very real, unforced way. Brooke’s family has gone through some really tough times and her life has been turned upside down, including moving to a small town. When she meets Jake after witnessing his teams traditional pre-season hazing she fights an attraction to him and who wouldn’t? Jake is also immediately curious about the “new” girl and when he finds himself her coach they take the time to explore a new friendship but also to help each other work their way through a land mine of adult responsibilities and feelings. Julie Cross did a great job of portraying these scenarios and as an adult myself I forgot I was reading a teen romance. The emotional impact was that good.

If you like sports novels/romances, this is a great one! There’s a good bit of hockey being played and those sports scenes were very well written. I could picture the action and feel the tension in those on the ice moments. Sports action scenes are not easy to portray and it really felt like Julie Cross had either played the game or was a huge fan. It was that good!

I highly recommend this novel if you are looking for a YA contemporary romance. It has some serious subject matter but an uplifting ending. Even though this is the third book in the series, you don’t need to read the first two. I didn’t, but I’m definitely going back to read them now. I’ve found a new author to love, yeah! ❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️

I received a free copy of this ARC for my honest review and it was honest

Opinions from around the Blogosphere

“Cross ties all the pieces (the romance, the hazing, parent issues) together to make a story that was both sizzly and heartfelt and left me hoping that this is not the last time that we get to visit Juniper Falls.” Bickering Book Reviews

“Overall, I just really loved On Thin Ice. I enjoyed the characters, the friendships, the romance, and the addictive writing. I really never wanted to put this one down. I recommend this one to fans of YA Contemporaries.” Stephanie’s Book Reviews

Click this link to purchase!* On Thin Ice (Juniper Falls)

Copyright 2019 Deborah Kehoe The Reading Chick All Rights Reserved

*Amazon Associate