Genre 📚: YA Contemporary, Romance
Tropes 💁♀️: Sports romance, Fake dating, Former friends to lovers
CW ⚠️: Social anxiety, panic attacks
Rating ⭐️: 4.5/5
It’s so easy to fall into a Lynn Painter romance — to forget about whatever I’m worrying about in real life and have all my attention on two adorable lovesick characters. In Fake Skating, the lovesick characters are Alec and Dani, long-distance childhood best friends who lost contact when they needed each other the most. Dani has moved around her whole life, but now that her parents are divorced, she’s settling down in her mom’s hometown. She’s nervous to be the new kid again, and she’s beyond terrified to have to see Alec again.
It’s a great set-up, because Alec and Dani are both assuming that the other ghosted them and are both holding a lot of hurt. And after five years, so much has changed, with the quiet klutz Alec now being an all-star hockey player and the sarcastic Dani now being extremely anxious and reserved. They start out avoiding each other, but after a misunderstanding in the locker room (whoops 😳), they find themselves agreeing to a fake relationship. Naturally, as they spend more time together and get reacquainted, old feelings resurface.
I just… aghhh. I love that kind of innocent childlike attachment that grows into intense longing. It’s so. Fucking. Cute. Alec had always been important to Dani, but it was great seeing the town and the chaotic hockey community become important to her too. I wanted more with Alec’s teammates and Dani’s girlfriends, to really drive that theme home, but as is, the story still works. The romance and sweet family dynamics felt like the biggest, warmest hug on a chilly day.
**Much thanks to NetGalley and Simon & Schuster for providing an ARC in exchange for an honest review. Fake Skating will be released on September 30, 2025.
Sara Bechtol 