Brooklyn Hart: Offside for Christmas

 Evergreen Cove Series book 1

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/243110574-offside-for-christmas

Cole Hansen is a NHL player who gets sent down to the farm league in the middle of nowhere Vermont while he's recovering from a shoulder injury that occurred after a fight... the videos out there make him seem like a villain and at this point he's happy to let everyone feel that way about the situation because he doesn't want the truth of what really happened to come out in the open.  

Cole figures he will be in this easy to forget Hallmark movie Christmas town for a short period of time and then he will be back in the NHL where he belongs... should he even bother to unpack?  probably  not.  Cole is a true grump and he gets off the wrong foot pretty soon with his new team when he misses an appointment with the Physical Therapist who is Miss holiday spirit herself... seriously why is she so happy all the time?  Well he finds out she isn't happy all the time since she shows up practically banging his door down to ask why he hasn't shown up for their appointment.  

Ellie might be a ray of sunshine but she can get feisty when she needs to and she's not going to let this new guy on her team walk all over her... she knows he's not staying long but she has a job to do and it will be easier if he starts cooperating with her plan to help him with his career... he just needs to get on board with her plans, she's not going to let him get back on the ice a minute before he has properly healed enough to play and he will just have to deal with it!  

Working close together during this short period of time Cole's cold heart starts to thaw out in the presence of his feisty physical therapist who wouldn't let him blow off any of his sessions and even though her regimen is slow... doesn't slow and steady win the race?  He wants his spot back in the NHL but he's also starting to see what true team work is when he gets closer to his coach, teammates and Ellie.

Soon Cole and Ellie are in a "not so secret" relationship since everyone in town seems to know about it and even though Ellie has been burned in the past by a hockey player that she was willing to give up everything for and it didn't work out... she can't seem to help falling for this new grumpy hockey player in her life and can't help but want him more when she learns that he hasn't had a true family since his grandmother passed away and he's holding up his walls high being passed around from team to team every year not really having a true home.  

Of course things can't be easy for Cole and Ellie... Cole still plans to leave as soon as he can when he gets called back to the NHL, doesn't he?  Ellie's life is in Vermont with her job, friends and family she can't just leave everything for a man.  Some drama pops up when the NHL sends a smarmy physical therapist to monitor Ellie and Cole's progress on his shoulder and what will happen if it comes out that they have been having a relationship when he is her patient?  Also why is this reporter calling Cole does she have information about the fight that got him transferred in the first place?  Can they ever truly be together?  Or was this relationship doomed from the start? 

I enjoyed Cole getting his redemption.  

If you enjoy a sweet hockey holiday romance with a happy ending you might enjoy picking up this book from this author.  

*ARC read *Hockey Romance  *some spice  *Small Town *grumpy/sunshine  *Christmas romance 

*Forced proximity  *physical therapist/patient  *found family *dual POV *happy ending 

*insta lust/love  *first book for this author 

Possible spoilers -->  my thoughts on this book

I picked this book up as an ARC because I enjoy hockey romance books and I like finding new and new to me authors.  While this book was a sweet holiday romance and started off well I wanted to like this book but it fell flat for me.

*Repetitive --> same things popping up multiple times Ellie was regularly talking about/thinking about her past relationship with the ex-hockey boyfriend who she was willing to pick up her whole life for and move for and because of this one poor relationship she can't open up to heartache with Cole and she's not going to pick up her life and move for a man ever again.

• Ellie even though she is not willing to move for Cole after a month... she tells Cole to not "stay" for her when he could get his real career in the NHL back but she's upset with the idea of him not "choosing" her if he goes she doesn't even want to try to make a long distance relationship work.
• As a reader I was upset with Ellie for a good portion of the book because she wasn't even willing to consider making any changes in her life for him because "I'm not giving up everything again" yes we get your were burned before but Cole is a good guy and you made him keep proving it over and over again.  
• I guess I just didn't agree with the FMC at all... she was being short sighted if she could get over the hang up with her ex they could do a long distance situation for a few years or till the end of the million dollar contract he was offered... while he's still a young guy he's hitting the "older" age group for professional athletes so he probably would have decided to retire in a few years anyways.  (Or maybe she could actually move for a few years under the agreement that they live in Vermont in the off season or something).

The additional drama with the Physical Therapist from out of town was brought up a few more times but then kind of fizzled out like nothing really happened with it... unless there is carry over into the next book about the issue

The forced proximity in the book was really forced --> the whole team + Ellie and the coach end up at a cabin together and snowed in... there are a few named team mates who are more regularly mentioned then I think some additional team mates names were mentioned so I don't remember how many people were in the cabin but somehow in the few rooms that were there Ellie and Cole got a room together with one bed I went back to try to count a few times and figure out how they got this configuration then just let it go and moved on with my life.  

I was confused at times to how much time had passed or where they were on Cole's "6 week" time line

A lot of the story we are just told this is happening and we have to accept it 

There were other issues I found with the book/story line but I'll just leave it with these I do know that it's the authors first book and I know how hard it is to put together a story, so hopefully some of these issues will be worked out in the rest of the series.