REVIEW: Collide by Bal Khabra

Collide by Bal KhabraAiden Crawford is a pretty big deal around Dalton, as the captain of the hockey team, an A student and a smile that could melt just about anyone, you could say that he is living his best college life, well that is until his mischievous team mates wind up causing a bit of a stir on campus, leaving Adien to take on the responsibility. Now in top of trying to keep the guys in line until the end of the season, Aiden has to play psychology subject to the only girl on campus that seems to be immune to his charms. The very last thing that Summer Preston wants to be doing is working with a hockey player, however if she has any hope of getting accepted into the post grad program of her dreams, then she has no choice but to work with hockey captain Aiden on her sports psychology project. With both of their fates weighing heavily on each other Aiden and Summer have no choice but to put their differences aside and work together, soon the sparks of annoyance begin to turn into something a bit more steamy and they are forced to reevaluate their situationship…

I love a good sports romance and that is most definitely what we get from Collide, this book stays true to a romance while also providing all the sporting goodness that is sometimes lacking in other books from this trope. I absolutely loved the dynamic between our two lead characters, these two could not have been more different from one another but at the same time more perfect together. There was so much of banter and build up between Summer and Aiden, I just could not get enough of this couple!

The opposites attract trope is always a winner in my books and this played out so perfectly between Summer and Aiden. Summer was an interesting leading lady to unravel, her love hate relationship with hockey get cracked wide open as she gets closer to Aiden. I will say my heart really broke for her once we got to understand the strain in her relationship with her father, and why she had been distancing herself from hockey all these years. This only made me love the fact that she falls in love with a hockey player all the more, this was like a second chance in many ways for young Summer. Aside from her daddy issues, I really liked how focused and determined Summer was on becoming a sports psychologist. Though I do have to say I wish she had a bit more faith in her own work and didn’t let Donny get into her head so much. As much as I loved Summer, I think it would be safe to say that Aiden well and truly stole my heart. Our hero is a total golden retriever boyfriend and I just loved getting to see him in all his glory. Aside from being an amazing hockey player with his career well on its way, I loved how much he cared for his team. He was truly a guy with a heart of gold. I will say that he did take a bit to much on on his own but that was just his caregiver personality shining through.

Summer and Aiden had the best enemies to lovers build up ever, these two did not have the best of starts but gosh was the chemistry there right from the get go. I just loved the build up in their relationship and the fact that Summer trued to fight it every step of the way, while Aiden already knew that she was end game for him. I loved the banter and the slow build of their friendship, there was a really nice balance between them and I loved getting to see them fall in love.

The supporting characters in this book were just brilliant! I loved all of the hockey guys and the fact that they had actual parts to play in the story and were not just filler characters. They way they ribbed both Aiden and Summer was just comic gold. I also really liked Amara, killing it in the programming world. There were so many great supporting characters, I truly hope that they each get their own books!

I think the only negative that I can nitpick would be that I felt the entire book dragged out a bit longer than it needed to, I think things could have possibly wrapped up a bit fasted, though this was really not a major issue. All in all I absolutely loved reading Collide, this book was the prefect enemies to lovers sports college romance! A total must read in my opinion!

Book Info:

Publication: September 25, 2023 | Berkley | Off the Ice #1

An ultimatum from her professor thrusts Summer Preston into an unexpected collision with hockey captain Aiden Crawford. She’s caught in a delicate balance between fulfilling her lifelong dream of becoming a sport psychologist and veering far away from this god-awful sport.

For Aiden Crawford, being the captain of the college hockey team has its perks, except when a reckless mistake by his team threatens to jeopardize their entire season. Consequently, his coach nominates him as the subject of a research paper. It’s the last thing he wants to do, especially since the girl leading the project looks like she could wield his skates as a weapon.

Summer can’t stand his blasé approach to life, and Aiden doesn’t understand her uptight, scheduled one. They are off to a rocky start, and provoking each other is what they do best, but defeat isn’t something either of them is willing to accept.