Don’t miss this tender and funny contemporary romance from debut author Kelly Farmer.Caro Cassidy used to be a legend.During her career, Caro was one of the best defense players in women’s hockey. These days, she keeps to herself. Her all-girls hockey camp is her life, and she hopes it’ll be her legacy. Sure, her new summer hire is charming and magnetic, but Caro keeps her work and personal life … magnetic, but Caro keeps her work and personal life strictly separate.
Amy Schwarzbach lives life out loud.
Amy’s as bright and cheerful as her lavender hair, and she uses her high-profile position in women’s hockey to advocate for the things she believes in. Ten weeks in Chicago coaching a girls’ training camp is the perfect opportunity to mentor the next generation before she goes back to Boston.
Letting love in means putting yourself out there.
When the reticent head coach offers to help Amy get in shape for next season, her starstruck crush on Caro quickly blossoms into real chemistry. As summer comes to an end, neither of them can quite let go of this fling—but Amy can’t afford a distraction, and Caro can’t risk her relationship becoming public and jeopardizing the one thing that’s really hers.
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Thanks to net galley.com and Carina Press for the advance ARC copy for my honest review.
Was stoked to get to read author Kelly Farmer debut, her style keeps you reading, turning pages both main characters are likable, easy to relate to and puts you in the pages. Once they become a couple, you realize how good of an author she really is, with tying in the current social media craze, then you have mental health issues blended into the story with a character, she does an excellent job on it and the LBGT subject also nicely done.
What made me read this one, is the National Women Hockey League tie in, as an avid NHL fan, a diehard Chicago Blackhawks and Boston Bruins fan, totally enjoyed this and it’s one of my favorite 2020 reads.
The story is set in Chicago, it’s summer, Amy comes home to help with her mom take care of her dad, after his knee surgery and takes a coaching job with Caro’s hockey school.
What makes this so good is the two main characters Amy Schwarzbach, Carolina Cassidy and Dougster, she just brings them to life, then you have teammates Kris and Gina, Kris’s wife Bree, then her G & G employees Mel, Heather and J.P. and mix in the Schwarzbach’s you have something that reads like a TV show and be cool to see her makes this a series.
I think the other huge deal with the book is how Amy’s parents reacted to her being bisexual and Caro’s family to how she’s lesbian, it’s an element that makes this book a must read and the author does an excellent job making it so realistic, believable and in away unfinished. Since I so want to see her bring Amy home to her family, see the fireworks when she puts Caro’s brother Glenn in his place. Also I can’t be the only reader who has a feeling that at some point her nephew Taylor would be living with them.
This is a must read, think this clean enough for a high schooler to read, it’s one of those books that I’m sure will help anyone that’s in the LBGT community and definitely will keep reading Kelly Farmer’s future books.
Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for providing an advanced copy of this book. I am providing a voluntary review. All thoughts and views are my own.
Out on the Ice is author Kelly Farmer’s debut novel, and it was a delightful one indeed! Amy and Caro were an adorable match that caught my heart early on. This is a slllooooooowww burn romance, but the relationship between them is so dang cute and real that the story never sags because of the slower paced romance aspect.
I read this book immediately following a MM romance about hockey and can officially say I know more about hockey after these two books than I’ve picked up throughout my entire adult life just, ya know, adulting. (Which isn’t saying much, because I am anything but a sports person.) That being said, while this book is heavy on the hockey—so might theoretically not be the best fit for non-sports lovers such as myself—I believe Farmer does a good job of toning it down just enough to make it something us non-athletic types can still wrap our noggins around. I might have preferred a bit less on a purely personal basis, but I think what’s in there is important to the story and therefore I wouldn’t actually recommend it be removed. Plus, I’m all about learning new things, and what better environment to do so than within the pages of an engaging romance between two beautiful women??
The writing in this book was tight and easy to read. Farmer built a stable world and likable characters, including several side characters that served their purpose but didn’t get in the way. Amy was a ray of sunshine that kept a smile on my face, while Caro was a doll who understandably had some reservations about making her and Amy’s relationship public.
Overall, the story works very well. It’s a light, fluffy romance but with a punch of heart. I’d definitely recommend it to all lovers of lesfic, but most especially those who can get down with some detailed hockey and fun-loving gals!
*I received a free copy of Out on the Ice. This has in no way influenced my review which is honest and unbiased.*
4.5 stars
Out on the Ice is a well-written romance with solid characters who I became very attached to. Both Caro and Amy had to deal with how other people saw them – and especially Caro was very prudent because of this. Her family more or less disowned her when her brother outed her as lesbian, and she didn’t want anyone who wasn’t part of her inner circle to know.
Amy was very open about being bi, even if some people told her it’s not even possible to be bi in the first place. Why do humans so often want a little box to put other humans in? Why is there this need to put a label on people when it has nothing to do with us?
Of course, one of the reasons I loved Out on the Ice is that there’s a lot of hockey in the story – it’s forever my go-to sport. And it’s clear that the author has a good knowledge of the sport as well. And of course, as with any kind of sport, there is a certain level of limelight on the players. Amy was fine with the limelight, she even sought it out. Caro was the opposite, wanting to keep her private life private.
I loved how the relationship between Caro and Amy was a very slow burn – they were both dealing with a bit of self doubt, and they were also very much impressed with each other. Amy had a lot of good friends, and she was very open-minded. Caro was more closed in, and while she did have some good friends, she had been burned pretty hard in the past, and didn’t trust easily.
The writing flows very well, and the romance is beautiful. If you’re looking for a well-written FF romance, look no more, pick up Out on the Ice and sit back and enjoy.