Fake Skating
by Lynn Painter
Summary
From play dates on the playground to sneaking into movie theatres, Dani and Alec were inseparable as kids. Until Dani moved away. Years later, Dani is back in Minnesota, and exited to reconnect with the nerdy and comforting Alec. But teenage Alec is NOTHING like the boy she remembers. He’s the hockey STAR in a town where hockey players are worshipped as gods – and he loves it.
When one thing leads to another and Dani and Alec find themselves thrown together and playing the role of boyfriend and girlfriend, “complicated” becomes an understatement. In this Minnesota town, hockey may rule, but romance is about to take its place.
GoodReads Winner for Favorite Young Adult Fiction 2025
My Review
Stopped the audiobook around the 6% mark.
1-star based on the portion I read.
There was so much excessive cursing that I was completely turned off by this book and could barely stand listening to the audiobook. Eventually, I had to stop because the constant strong language was genuinely unpleasant to hear. This is a young adult story for readers around ages 12 to 18, so I found that level of vulgarity especially unnecessary and disappointing. I loved Better Than the Movies and its sequel, which is why I wanted to try another one of this author’s YA romances, but this ended up being a huge letdown. At this point, I’m not sure this author is for me.