Flirtation or Faceoff by Leah Brunner

You guessed it, it’s time for another hockey romance review! Flirtation or Faceoff, by Leah Brunner follows a player from the fictional DC Eagles NHL team, and a college professor.

*I was given a free, advanced copy of this book for reviewing purposes.*

Initial Thoughts

Noel is a college professor and book lover. When her best friend gets engaged to a NHL player, she meets some of his teammates. One of them is playboy Colby Knight. For Colby it was love at first sight. For Noel, it was a hatred at first sight situation, especially when Colby affectionately begins calling her ‘angel.’

After running into each other at a charity auction, Noel starts to learn more about Colby. Instead of the playboy she assumes he is, she finds Colby has a 3 year old sister he loves to spoil and is dedicated to his charity work. So naturally, she enlists him to give her ‘dating lessons,’ so that she can impress a fellow professor.

Why do so many of the newer hockey romance releases feature a female lead that has previously dated some sort of athlete or has a ‘history’ with hockey? That character is getting sleepy for me. There are so many versions of this character, that I’m actually having a hard time remembering which character pairing, which ex, and which ‘reunion’ moments go together. Keep an eye on my Instagram – I may have more thoughts on this coming soon. This is definitely not something specific to this book, but while reading it I did realize that this same character has been rewritten in so many new releases.

Final Thoughts on Flirtation or Faceoff

Overall, I enjoyed Flirtation or Faceoff. This is the first book I’ve read by Leah Brunner, and didn’t have much to go on prior to reading. Something I somehow missed from the promos, this book is a fade to black story. Meaning, no spice.

If you are looking for a hockey romance but aren’t a fan of spice, this book is for you. For me personally, I missed the spice. I did enjoy the story. And adding spice to it would not earn the book a higher rating from me. But overall, I missed the spiciness that is in the majority of my books. If spiciness has stopped your from jumping on the hockey romance bandwagon, this is a good book to read.

But the relationships the characters had with each other are the strong point of the book. Whether it’s Colby’s teammates helping him devise a plan to win over Noel, Colby’s parents and stepdad/dad’s girlfriend, or one of my favorites, Noel and her grandmother, the relationships are the heart of the story and what make it worth reading.

Have you read Flirtation or Faceoff? Send me your latest book recommendations in the comments!