Title: Cold Day in the Sun
Author: Sara Biren
Genre: YA Contemporary
Publication Date: March 12th, 2019
Ratings: ♥♥♥♥
Goodreads Synopsis:
Holland Delviss wants to be known for her talent as a hockey player, not a hockey player who happens to be a girl. But when her school team is selected to be featured and televised as part of HockeyFest, her status as the only girl on the boys’ team makes her the lead story. Not everyone is thrilled with Holland’s new fame, but there’s one person who fiercely supports her, and it’s the last person she expects (and definitely the last person she should be falling for): her bossy team captain, Wes.
Holland Delviss and her three brothers have been playing hockey all their lives. She’s always been one of the boys, growing up playing on the their team instead of the girl’s team. Now that she’s getting all this attention it’s as if the town is just now realizing she’s a girl—people are questioning her, suggesting Holland think she’s better than all the girl players since she plays on the boy’s team.
And then there is Wes. Hot Sauce, as he’s known by his teammates. Wes has only been on the team for the past two years, but he’s already co-captain and takes his position very seriously. Especially when it comes to Holland. At the beginning, it seems that this story is classic hate-to-love Because we are reading his from Holland’s perspective, we only see her version of their combative relationship. It’s not until they spend more alone time together that we see that Wes actual has deep feelings for Holland and that he really respects her and finds her to be really talented. He is harsh to her on the ice because he wants her to be the best of her abilities.
I loved Wes as a character. He really cared about his team and how they represented not only their school, but their hockey obsessed town. Once his feelings for Holland were revealed, he was all in. He didn’t care what anyone said. But Holland was much more hesitant. First she is shocked that her feelings for Wes have flipped so drastically, but she also didn’t want people to get the wrong idea about their relationship—she wanted to be judged on her hard work and abilities, not on who’s she’s dating. That’s why she always obeyed her own self inflicted rule: don’t date teammates.
While I liked Wes and Holland’s relationship, I felt like Holland was a little annoying and that the writing as a whole could have been a little better. I also would have liked the tension could have gone on a little longer, they kind of fell in love a little two quickly. Sometimes the timeline got a little shaky. All in all it was an enjoyable enough book that I do recommend.
I received this book from NetGalley in return for an honest review.
Lindsay Glenne 