Courtney Abbott was one of the few who played women’s hockey, she had even brought home Olympian gold but now she plays on a semi-pro women's team. Lana Caruso, a concert violinist, along with her 15 yr old son moves back to Pennsylvania to care for her father. She has no plans on staying, she has her own life in Chicago and she certainly doesn’t plan on falling in love. We all know how this story will end, or at least we think we know but what makes Ms Trebelhorn a really good story teller is how she takes us with her following this pairs journey to happy ever after. I’ve been a fan and read all of the books she has written so I kind of knew what to expect and she didn’t disappoint me this time either. Very, very nice read. Very enjoyable.
ARC via NetGalley

Lana Caruso is a concert violinist with a Chicago orchestra who's granted a 6 month leave of absence to take care of her father's pizzeria in Kingsville, Pennsylvania. When she meets ice hockey player and gold-medal-winning Olympian Courtney Abbott they both feel an undeniable chemistry, but they both know that Lana's stay is only temporary and nothing serious will come from it. or will it?

This is a slow-burn romance with some scenes of ice hockey on the side. While Courtney and Lana's attraction is settled early in the story, the resolution of their conflict stretches until near the end. There aren't any major twists in the plot and the reader knows from early on where the story is heading. The hockey scenes happen mostly in training sessions in Courtney's team and they lack the fast-paced flow typical of the game which is a lost opportunity. Additionally, the ice hockey subplot is resolved too easily for my liking.

The main characters are well written and their chemistry is strong. As a former musician myself, I have a credibility issue with Lana's music career as it is mentioned only in passing. The plot doesn't show properly how crucial is her career that merits sacrificing her love life. The secondary characters are a bit stereotyped, specially Hilton, and Eric, Lana's son, seems too mature for a 16 year old but he's a sweetie. Despite all these, ‘On the fly' is an entertaining read more for romance than sports fans.

Overall, a good slow-burn romance with a bit of sports at the side. 3.5 stars.

ARC provided by Netgalley and the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

See all my reviews at www.lezreviewbooks.com

This was a sweet book. I thought it was a good story. I liked both main characters fine, but I thought her angst with her parents was a little forced. There did at certain points seem to be too many characters. I did not like the character that kept picking on Courtney. That entire part of the story made very little sense. She hated her cause she was gay and the entire league seemed okay with this, to the point they rewarded her for her bigoted thoughts. That seems like a hard pill to swallow. So yeah overall cute story sometimes got a bit muddy with the number of characters, and I would say it’s sports adjacent. Because hockey was like a supporting character.

As a Minnesotan (the state of hockey) and a hockey player myself, when I saw the word “hockey” I immediately downloaded this book. What I got was a sweet romance with a unique twist and likable characters to root for. Courtney and Lana have some hot chemistry but their predicament is clear. Lana and her son will return to Chicago, period. For much of the book their dire situation of impermanence looms over their romance which makes every moment that much more desperate and consequently, their romance reflects that desperate urgency. Every moment they spend together is a heady swirl of conflict that neither can reconcile due to undeniable chemistry. As the book progresses, their dire situation builds suspense to how their story will play out that I didn’t expect and kept me riveted to the pages. The secondary characters also play significant roles in both Courtney and Lana’s lives that expanded the story that created a sense of family and community beyond just their romance. An enjoyable story of two souls making the impossible possible despite overwhelming odds.

This is a sport-themed romance. Lana a professional violinist returns to her hometown to help her brother out with their pizza place after her father's heart attack. Lana has one goal in front of her, help her brother and get back to Chicago as soon as possible. Only, she didn't count on meeting and falling for hockey player Court or her son getting attached to her family, the town and Court.

It's a nice slow burn romance with lots of hockey and family interaction. The only thing that bothered me was Courts rival basically getting away with her bad sportsmanship and getting her way. The great thing about happy go lucky romance books is that we can get the perfect ending in contrary to real life.

The ending was predictable but still nice.

This is a good, well-paced, easy romance. Lana Caruso returns her home town to assist in the running of the family pizzeria while her father recovers from a heart attack. She plays second violin in the Chicago orchestra and has arranged extended leave while her father convalesces. Courtney Abbot is a two-time Olympic medallist for ice hockey and current player for a league hockey team. When Courtney and her coach are served by Lana at the pizzeria, the attraction for each other is almost immediate. Courtney is tied into a hockey contract and Lana is returning to Chicago, so a long-term relationship is out.

Both Lana and Court are likeable characters and their interactions exude chemistry. The secondary characters like Lana’s son, Eric, and brother, Joey, as well as Court’s sister, coach and her ongoing battle with her nemesis enrich the story. The ice hockey gave some fast and tense moments to the story. The only thing I found detracted from the story for me was that Lana never once took out her violin to practise or even tune it. Considering the importance she placed on her career, it was odd that it didn’t carry through into the story line.

Well worth reading when you’re in the mood for a pick-me-up.

Book received from Netgalley and Bold Strokes Books for an honest review.

*~~*ARC kindly provided to me for an honest review *~~*

- Review to come

Review originally posted on my blog with added content on Mikku-chan / A world full of words

4 stars. This was a very enjoyable book. This was a story about Courtney, or as she liked to be called, Court Abbott, a woman's hockey player and realtor and Lana Caruso, a violinist who moves back home for 8 months after her father has a heart attack. Court and Lana meet each other at the pizza place that Lana's brother owns and she is helping out at and they find an instant attraction with one another. Lana makes it clear she is not staying in town long term, but they cannot help but start to date each other. Court at first is a little nervous, as Lana has a 15 year old son. Eric, and Court is not sure she wants to date someone with a child.

This book is a great short read. I read the entire book in two days and it was such an easy read. The two characters have good chemistry and they evolve as the book goes on. The only negative I really have about this book is that there is not enough tension between the two women and they move a little too fast. I did really enjoy this book and would recommend it as a quick easy read.

What an enjoyable read. Makes me smile as I write this review. Being flirty hits a home run or in this instance, scores a goal. Courtney Abbott, a talented hockey player with a warm heart and supportive friends. Lana Caruso, a talented violinist with a loving son. There is a character named Jen Hilton that was a little misguided and I thought there would be a little more explanation regarding her behavior. It left me guessing and shaking my head with disbelief in her behavior. I felt comforted by the solid personalities of Courtney and Lana. There responses felt believable and authentic.

This is my book by P.J.Trebelhorn but it certainly won’t be my last this sweet romance was read in one sitting and it left me needing to check out other books by this author.
Court is a semi professional hockey player who is coming to the end of her career and she meets Lana who has moved from Chicago with her 15 year old son to look after her sick father. The attraction between Lana and Courtney is instant but will they be able to get past the facts...Lana is only in town temporarily and Courtney is not ready for responsibilities a teenager brings to the table.
This is a fun romance that really feels believable it’s about two people spending a lot of time together and the more time they spend together the closer they become. This book left me feeling all warm and fuzzy inside exactly what a sweet romance should do.

Not too bad at all.

What’s better than sports and your average family and turning it into the super family ya know? The son and girlfriend of the mom bond over hockey and she falls in love and it was your average love story with some long distance complications and inner battles.

ARC received from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review

When Lana and her fifteen-year-old son, Eric, are temporarily relocated, they meet Olympic hockey gold-medallist Courtney Abbott. Despite Courtney's aversion to long term-dating, and Lana's reluctance to let her son get too close to anyone she is dating, Eric and Courtney's shared love of hockey sees the two women starting to spend more time together....

A very (too?) easy read. Very sweet, and incredibly character driven. However, though I love a good sports romance as much as the next girl, I could hardly click with why sports was even an element to the story. To be honest, all the characters that seemed to love hockey in the story seemed to have a very shallow relationship with it, demonstrating very little actual love for the sport, and rather just as a job or hobby. I do love throwing a good Olympic medal or two in there though, that really gets me going.

That being said, the characters (at least, the 2-3 main characters) are extremely likable, even when factoring in the tokenistic characters that surround them. What good is a lesbian character unless they have homophobic parents who miraculously have a change of heart at the 75% mark? I also felt there was very little actual development in the characters, which may just be a feature of a shorter novel, but I found it very difficult to engage in how the characters grew through the story. The two main characters outgrew the story, I think, and it was too easy to lose interest in the actual premise of the book.

Overall, the story is a sugar-y, winter-y romance that it a fun 1-2 hour read for a long train ride. Not boring, but not particularly engaging; a perfect segue from my post-The Secret History despondency.

An illness in the family brings concert violinist Lana and her son (Eric) back to her hometown to help out in the family restaurant. It's there that they meet Courtney, former Olympic medalist, who plays for the local women's hockey league team. Eric is eager to learn what he can from Courtney, and he's not shy about playing cupid to his mother and Courtney either. But Lana's life is in Chicago and Courtney still has another year to her contract playing for the team in their hometown, will their relationship have a deadline or is it a love of a lifetime?

I adored this book! I couldn't devour it fast enough! But then I was so sad when it was over. Definitely my favourite by this author. I loved both the main characters, they were really solid and well developed, and good people. The chemistry between Lana and Courtney was so steamy - it was fantastic. And then on top of everything, their love and affection for each other, for their families, and for the people in their lives brought the most wonderful cozy feeling throughout the whole book.

I loved the hockey in this book too - how can I not? It's in this Canadian girls blood! I was so proud of Eric for making it into the CHL and I loved Courtney and his relationship.

This was such a feel-good book, I'm smiling just writing this review and remembering how fantastic it was. I am definitely buying a paperback of this novel because I know I'll be enjoying it again and again!

I received and ARC via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

A nice, easy paced romance that’s perfect for a weekend read. The story works, but it is a bit pedestrian. The secondary characters, apart from the son, are barely sketched in, which left me wanting to know more about them. The hockey teammates need fleshing out, and the tricky newcomer needs more motive. It’s all there, but so barely, it feels too light. More substance would make this a better book.

This is the first of three books I requested this time, this ARC month. The story sounded quite intriguing. Sadly I misinterpreted what I was going to read, which I know played a part in my reaction to the book.

What did I think I was going to read? Well, my own fault really – the little snippet I’d read (not from the book but from the teaser) indicated that the book starred a hockey player who had always wanted to try to break into the men’s league but ‘knew’ it probably could never happen. Which lead me to wrongly conclude that I was about to read a book that involved that – a woman breaking into the men’s league. I was wrong. I wasn’t reading a sports fiction book with a strong Romance subplot, but a Lesbian Romance, with a strong sports fiction subplot. Luckily I knew immediately that I’d made a mistake – based on the age of the main character (though I was still waiting for the other shoe to drop, so to speak – many have ‘broken into’ leagues they ‘didn’t belong in’ at an older age than the main character (I’m thinking of some Negro League players to transitioned over to the MLB, and did quite well, at rather advanced ages)).

Right, so. As noted this is a Lesbian Romance book with a strong Sports Fiction subplot (I stop to note: what’s the difference between the two, putting Sports first or second? Well, the emphasis – like there’s a heck of a lot more emphasis on romance in this book than I’d expected, and a heck of a lot less sports action than expected (there’s sports action, but mostly training, practice, snippets from games seen through other character’s eyes (in the stands), and watching a different team play)).

Mind you, even with my confused belief about what I was going to be reading, I did rather like the book.

This story follows two women in their mid to late thirties, one who doesn’t mind being around kids but never thought they’d have one of their own, and the other a single mother of a much older than normal child. Older than normal? Children in lesbian fiction tend to go two different directions, which has impact on the story-line. I’m talking about age. Single mother story-lines – where the lesbian (or bisexual) truly is the mother and not a sister or cousin, or the like, tend to have young children in lesbian fiction (though some can be as old as 12, most tend to be much younger), while the other kind of story-line with lesbian with ‘child’ involves much older ‘children’ – because it’s a ‘lesbian (or bisexual) who is raising their sibling, not a mother raising their child’. So the child in those stories tend to be of the older kind – 15 to 18 (occasionally the story mentions that one of the lesbians raised their sibling, and both are adults now).

Here? The kid is a sophomore in high school, roughly 16-17 years of age. Much older than the norm. Well, enough of that. . . . oops – the kid plays an important role in the book – being a hockey player himself, and being the kind of kid to try to set his mother up on dates, leads to the kid getting training and tips from Courtney Abbott (that’s the hockey player), while also leading Courtney into his mother, Lana Caruso’s orbit as a potential date. Though Lana had already meet Courtney before that moment/scene.

Lana, you see, is ‘back’ in her small town because her father had a heart attack and so she’s back to try to help. Mostly by helping her brother with the family pizza place so the father could rest. She’s back until the high school year is over . . . for reasons. There’s also the subplot of tensions between her and her parents – they want her closer to home, she works as a concert violinist and there isn’t exactly an orchestra in the tiny town (also there’s tension around Lana being a lesbian).
So going back to where I’d left off – Lana had first seen Courtney having dinner with Gail (Courtney’s coach and boss) at the family pizza parlor, and then later meet her at the real estate agent’s office – her agent was too busy so asked Courtney to fill in.

Right, so . . . tension tension tension. Two more bits of tension filter throughout this story: there’s a new ‘future star of the team’ player who has joined Courtney’s team. She’s arrogant, stubborn, and very much a bully who doesn’t like lesbians. So she’s constantly in Courtney’s face – though Courtney can stand up for herself. The other to round out that ‘two more bits’ of tension come from the dynamic of the situation – both women know that Lana’s only there temporarily, and so both ‘know’ they are ‘just having fun’ – the tension comes from neither communicating with the other about just where they see the relationship.

*looks over prior review/notes*

Oh right. Lana has a constant need to roughly slap, elbow and punch people (not lightly tap) and it is very off putting. I do not think any were 'love taps' though I'm sure she'd pretend they were. That . . . abusive behavior was very jarring and unsettling to witness. I realize it’s a ‘thing’ with certain people and they don’t mean it as ‘abuse’ or the like (see: Elaine from Seinfeld who was also always hitting people).

Lana isn’t the only aggressive person in the book – most of the other’s, though, are more ‘in the heat of the moment’ type stuff. Aggressive sports action. Except for that newcomer Hilton’s constant bullying and abuse of Courtney (which included tripping her in game time); and for Gail’s (Courtney’s coach, boss (on the Real Estate side) actions – mostly referring to how she’d constantly grab at Courtney’s arm and restrain her, keep her from leaving (and that one time Gail viciously hit Courtney in the leg – seriously enough that Courtney couldn’t get up and walk, just because she wanted Courtney to stick around longer). Bah, all this woman-on-woman violence in this book. Mmphs.

*thinks*

Yeah, so, less sports action than expected; more sex than expected; more violent (outside of sports violent) than expected. ‘Good enough’ book.

Rating: 3.75

September 2 2018

I was really excited for this, especially after having just finished a great hockey romance. Unfortunately, On the Fly fell short for me.

This follows Courtney Abbot, a professional hockey player slash realtor, and Lana Caruso, second-chair violinist for Chicago Orchestra who is helping her brother at family’s pizza parlor after her father’s heart attack, as they meet and fall in love. Lana also has a 15 year old son who plays hockey, same position and jersey number as Court. I really enjoyed the relationship between Eric and Court, especially when Court is initially very hesitant around kids, but as she helps him improve his hockey and they bond, they do develop some closeness. It was also really nice seeing Lana reconcile with her parents and begin developing a relationship with them; they had some trouble coming around when she came out as a lesbian before going off to college.

In a lot of ways, it felt like not a lot happened. The majority of the conflict was lesbomisia from one of Court’s new team mates, who keeps trying to start fights and rile her up. I really didn’t enjoy that being the source of conflict; there are so many ways you can cause tension and drama without resorting to lesbomisia in a lesbian romance (both Court and Lana on-page call themselves lesbian).

Lana is only back home for the school year and when she and Court meet they’re both hesitant to start anything, but the attraction proves too strong and they start something, knowing it’ll have a set end date. One of the things that bothered me was there came a point where Lana decided because she was beginning to develop feelings for Court she needed to make a clean break. This was also, honestly, resolved a little quickly, and felt like a needless point of conflict.

The ending is sweet, but it didn’t make me giddy with glee when they got engaged; I just don’t care enough about the characters to be that happy for them. This was almost boring to read and, even though things happened, felt like nothing was happening?

4.5. I really liked this book. I loved the personalities of the two main characters and their supportive family and friends.

'ARC provided by both NetGalley and The Publisher in exchange for a fair and honest review'

**'The function of writing is to do more than tell it like it is --- its to imagine what is possible..Writing has to do with truth-telling...'

Lovely read!
Is there such a thing as a fairy tale romance? Does anyone ever Live happily ever after? Well some do and others have the relationship scars to prove it. But 'ON THE FLY' opens and some readers might think this is a superficial love story of nothing because of the many mention of sporting interactions,the deviousness,the fighting and also the hateful homophobic rhetoric involved. For one thing this storyline is well written and include some very good supporting cast. Readers should notice from the very beginning of their first meeting: at the same time Courtney is trying to know Lana,but her thoughts are more flirty-based than romance-based. One had a heartbreaking past after loosing both her parents but then had a joyous celebration in her life twice over because of being an Olympic star. While the other needed to come home to spend time with her ill father. The two (Courtney & Lana) were obviously attracted and in Love with each other but was too afraid to admit it out loud because to readers they kept driving one another nuts going back & forth with their living arrangements issues etc.. It's like oil and water. While reading the story; they talk,they tease,they flirt like crazy. But neither one wanted to let go. It took her (Lana's) son and mother plus Courtney's sister to encourage both to finally realize that they did have something special. Sports,music,Love and Family have the capacity to create special moments and this is one of them. An engaging story of sacrifice between two people. Recommended to everyone!

This was a great read I love the romance between Lana and Courtney loved that Lana called Courtney Court. I like the friendship between Gail and Courtney also with her sister Lori also great that her teammates had her bad with the Hilton character. It was great to see that Lana relationship with her parents approve. Relationship between Lana and her son Eric and her brother Joey was sweet. Didn't like the character Hilton and I love that Courtney finally put her in her place. I'm happy I got read it early because it was a enjoyable read.

ARC received from NetGalley in return for an honest review.

This is a nice, sweet romance. Court is a semi-professional hockey player/realtor and Lana is a concert violinist taking a short term sabbatical back home to help her family while her father is ill. Both Court and Lana are interesting characters, they know what they want from life, and are happily achieving it. They spend a lot of time together and the unfolding of their romance is nicely paced and their chemistry is fun and believable.

The only supporting character who is really fleshed out is Eric (Lana’s son) the others are ok, but fairly one dimensional. The only issue I had with the story was the angst around not wanting a long term relationship due to the short term nature of Lana’s visit. The answer was obvious and could have been achieved by the two women just sitting down and sorting out what they wanted, but they got there in the end.

This is my favourite of Trebelhorn’s so far. 4 stars.