#maple hill

Plot:

Stassie was going to be the best. With dreams of the Olympics, this pair-figure skater already put her goals on the line once when her high school boyfriend and partner were not dreaming as big as her. Now at Maple Hill, Stassie and her new partner and roommate Aaron, had big dreams, as long as Stassie did not eat too much. With her life planned out with her planner, Stassie eats, sleeps, and dreams of figure skating, all while keeping up with her coursework, going to therapy to manage her anxiety, and occasionally hooking up with her basketball player bestie, who while the sex is good, she will never date. Her sophomore year was going perfectly until the hockey team messed it up. With their rink destroyed, the two ice sports were forced to share the same arena, which means dividing ice time so that both teams can practice. That is where Stassie had the unfortunate pleasure to meet Nate Hawkins, captain of the hockey team. Taken with Stassie immediately, Nate tries his best to get this figure skater in his corner, or what he really wanted, in his bedroom. Where Stassie reminds aloof, she was quickly taken by Nate with his good looks, charm, and his dedication to his friends and team. Where Nate spent his senior year covering the tracks of young rookies who messed up, he also finds himself losing his heart for the first time, to a blonde figure skater with a big mouth and an even bigger heart. As our two ice athletes try to figure out their love, along with managing their sports, friendships, family, and their own expectations, they realize how much they need each other, and learn to balance love, and ice skating, together.  

Thoughts: 

Hannah Grace writes this smutty romance novel, featuring two university athletes, one rink, and a whole lot of heart. Taken from the first-person perspective of both Nate and Stassie, we got to switch between points of view with each chapter, allowing the plot to move quickly, and for us to understand both sides of our characters' stories. Stassie is an amazing character, her fun and flirty attitude towards Nate and the other hockey boys, with quick comebacks and always getting into some sort of comedic trouble, made her a great character to love. Grace also gave Stassie some depth with her struggling to live up to her adoptive parent's expectations, being bullied by Aaron, and her own doubts about her self-worth. I truly appreciate Grace for giving us the sadder side to Stassie, as Grace shows her going to therapy, and shows her working through her self doubts. On the side of narration, we got Nate, who like Stassie, is fun and flirty, but has his own serious family issues. With a dead mom and a father who does not care about his hockey career, Nate is constantly putting others before himself and struggles with his internal emotions of not acting like his father. Together they were dynamite, with chemistry off the wall, the best banter, and some great sex scenes. Yes, Grace makes this novel a smut novel, with some heavily detailed scenes throughout the novel, that upped the age range of the novel. Did it have the most complicated plot? No. Did the sex and romance overshadow the deeper meaning Grace was trying to write about? Yeah, it kind of did. But it was cute, a fun flirty novel that is drowning in romance, making you wish to find your own Nate and Stassie, and with an epilogue that sends you over the end. Where the plot had some twist, it was not very deep, and I am so thankful that Grace did not make the big event a miscommunication, because, unlike the majority of book couples, Stassie and Nate had great communication throughout the entire novel, which was amazing to finally see in print. Overall, Grace writes a cute novel, with fun characters, great side characters (the entire hockey team was fantastic), and some melodrama, but all in all this was a novel about love, and one definitely worth reading.

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