Hot Flashes and Hockey Slashes by Marika Ray
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This romance had me up all night as I read the entire story from cover to cover in the span of one night, it is that good! I was invested in Olivia, our main character, the divorced mom of two suffering from perimenopause, who just got invited to her ex-husband’s wedding to a much younger, gorgeous woman, on an island of all places! Olivia does not want to be caught dead at this wedding, let alone without a date. Unfortunately, her college-aged daughter has other plans for her mother, and works together with her best friend at college, and roommate, to set up her single dad with her friend’s single mom. Roman is a pro hockey player, close to retirement age, who has spent his life missing out on most of his daughter’s life activities due to all of the traveling a pro hockey player must do. Of course, he agreed to the plan of going on vacation with his daughter, even as her friend’s mom’s plus one, if that was what it took to spend quality time with his distanced college-aged daughter. What better combination than putting together a woman who is always experiencing hot flashes, with a pro hockey player who is used to working in the cold ice rink where he is constantly working up a sweat. Olivia needs fans around the clock in order to sleep, and Roman needs extra blankets to keep warm enough so he doesn’t freeze in the night. What happens when you put these two in a hotel room together for the weekend, with one bed?

This book was so well written, and the characters’ personalities were so opposite, it was awesome getting to read the story from each of the two main characters’ points of view as they struggled to survive the weekend together. I could feel the heat as these two kept admiring one another without the other being aware of the attraction between the two. It was quite hilarious knowing that each felt intimidated that the other was way above their game when in reality they were both very much single and interested in the other. I loved the setting in which this story takes place, showing how each character comes from such a different world, yet it goes to show that opposites most definitely attract. I am so excited to see the next book in the Hot Flashes series come out in 2024, if it’s anywhere close to this book, then it’s going to be a winner in my book!
@Brandy Rymer
10/2023

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