This was such a lovely book. Normally im not a fan of the accidental pregnancy trope but this book approached it so well. I was kicking my feet and giggling moments it was such a fun and light hearted read. The disbility rep felt so real and relatable Tegan done such a good job of bringing awareness in a real life way.

I love a hockey romance and was really looking forward to this after reading the blurb so thought/wanted to love this but unfortunately I didn’t. everything was very quick and rushed, I felt like there were some moments we saw but then a lot was missing. Some of the communication between the couple felt very cringe and lackluster. another element I didn’t like that could just be a me thing because I don’t have a child nor am I just around them but Jack didn’t feel like a 5 year old whatsoever, the way he spoke and communicated felt more like a much older child. however I did appreciate the information on fibromyalgia, a condition I hadn’t heard about before. So if you’re looking for a no brain power, hockey romance, maybe I’d suggest this but overall I didn’t enjoy it.

-hockey romance
-second chance
-single mum
-accidental pregnancy

Ellis and Liam dated in college but broke up before he was drafted into the NHL. Ten years later, he’s playing for the team in the town where she lives, now a single mom and flower shop owner. They run into each other at a bar, agree to one night together, and she thinks that’s all. Until she sees those two pink lines on the pregnancy test. Over the next nine months, Liam shows Ellis what family really means.

I wanted to love this book, especially its premise. However, a few key issues consistently pulled me out of the story.
One thing that bothered me was the way the characters' inner thoughts and dialogue didn't always match their supposed location. There were instances where the language felt distinctly British, even from the American characters, which was jarring and took me out of the moment. It felt like the setting wasn't fully realized in the writing.
Another element that didn't quite work for me was the portrayal of the child character. The child's dialogue and behaviour felt much older than their stated age. Instead of appearing as believable five-year-olds, they often sounded more like pre-teens, which made their interactions feel slightly off.

As much as I wanted to love this book.
The FMC was unbearable. She had this great guy who loved her in college and pushed him away because she is sick.
Then she meets up with him and they have sex but then she pushes him away again.
Then she is pregnant and you guessed it, still pushes him away.
This novel spans 11 years and this woman does not grow up.

Then there is the matter of it just not being logical.
The age they graduated college? 20? Nope, not in the US.
A British person can just decide to stay in the US and open a small business? Nope, there are a great many rules and regulations for immigration to the US. Simply having a degree doesn’t cut it. As someone who is American but went to uni in Scotland, I lived those rules.

Suspending the logistical issue, I just couldn’t stand the way the FMC treated the MMC. I don’t know why he put up with the way she treated him as expendable. He spent damn near the whole book begging her to be with him and she wasn’t into it. I never felt the love.

Also, the 5 year old talks and acts like a 15 year old 😂
It was like the scene in ‘about a boy’ when Will (who has no children and never been around them) tells a group of mothers his three year old consoles him.

This was a lovely romance. I have been seeing a lot of hickey romances lately but this one stood out. It had a lot of heart Ellis and Liam are both great characters and a baby was thrown into the mix yet which really made it emotional and interesting to see how things played out. Very enjoyable and sweet sports themed romance.

ARC

This was fun! I struggled a bit at first because it felt like some of the exposition was a little forced (particularly some bits around the nicknames of all the hockey players) but once it got going it was easy reading and the characters were so lovely.

The disability storyline felt honest and real, and added an extra element to a genre that needs new aspects to keep it interesting. I also appreciated that they were older and it all felt more high stakes than high school hockey!

Wasn’t crazy about the spicier scenes, some of the dialogue felt a bit out of character? But they weren’t too frequent or too sparse, and were believable!

Overall a fun, quick read. I enjoyed it and would recommend to my hockey romance loving friends !!

Arc review

I really enjoyed this book.
It's a sweet story with a good storyline in my opinion.
The female character has fibromyalgia, which gave a lot of information about the chronic illness.
The male character is a ice hockey player.

- School sweethearts
- Ice hockey
- Single parent
- Pregnancy trope
- Bit of spice

Thank you so much for everyone involved for the arc!

The book is so well written and I love the bond between the main characters. Ellis is very mature but shuts herself out and Liam is just so cute and I love him so much. I don’t quite like the whole pregnancy trope but I still surprisingly enjoyed this book. If I had time I prolly would have read it in a single day because it’s so easy to read.

I loved everything second of it!!! I don’t think I have read a book with a man that had that many green flags. This is the kind of book that is very serious but has you kicking your feet and giggling. I can say that I ended up melting for this book. Their little family is everything you can hope and wish for yourself.

I absolutely loved this story. It had just the right amount of spice and romance. As a person who lives with chronic pain, it was nice to read that the author was willing to translate her life experiences into this book.
The story hooked me from the very first page. Well done!!

Melting for you is a second chance romance and an accidental pregnancy book. It was a very cute book especially if you want something with no drama. Thank you Netgalley for the arc!

Thanks, @netgalley , the author & publisher for the ARC.

I love a sports and hockey romance, so I thought this would be a fab read!
Had it not been an ARC, I think I would've DNF'd it, but I wanted to be fair to the author and provide an honest review.
Compared to other hockey romances, it was a bit saccharine sweet and a bit too nicey nice. I just couldn't gel with the characters properly. The main female character, Ellis, was just not a strong enough character for me, although I like the fact the author has used their own chronic illness and challenges in Ellis, but it was too one-sided! So many other characters could've developed more, and the story did feel a little bit rushed through each chapter.
If I could give half marks, it would be a 2.5/5*, but I am being generous and rounding it up to 3*/5 on @goodreads and NetGalley.

This book is for lovers of accidental pregnancy, he-falls-first-and-harder, second chance, and single parent tropes!

This book is different from others that I read in that the female main character has a chronic illness. It was a big part of the book, and she wants to prove she didn’t need to rely on anyone else. Liam, wanting to prove that it’s okay to ask for help, was my favorite part of the book! He was so sweet, consistent, caring, and reliable.

It was hard to believe Jack was only 5 years old, since some of the things he said made me so emotional.

4⭐️

Such a heartwarming story❤️

There’s representation of people with chronic illnesses and it’s a big part of the story which I loved because I’ve never read that in a book before and I think representation like this can help a lot of people see themselves in a story, you know?

I wish Liam would be a little bit more fleshed out but nonetheless I think he was very sweet and the perfect MMC.

Some of the tropes are single mom, a little bit of fake dating and second chance romance.

Melting For You is a unique edition to the hockey romance world. I enjoyed both main characters and the growth they showed through out the book. I found Ellis and Luam to be very likeable and the struggles they looked to overcome to be understandable. My only real complaints are that I do think the book was a little too long. I think I that after the birth of Charlotte several of the chapters could have been combined. I am excited to see what may come next in this series.

Unfortunately, I wasn't able to finish this one. I was excited when reading the prologue because it felt like it was going to be a really good read and I'm sure it still is, but it just isn't for me. Upon reading further, we find out pretty quickly that she's a single mom. Since this is a second chance romance with an accidental pregnancy involved, it may seem odd that this would be a "downside" to me, but it gives the story different vibes than a story about two old flames reconnecting. Had the fact that one of them was a single parent been disclosed in the blurb, I likely wouldn't have requested this one. I tried to continue reading and get past that, but my excitement for the story had faded and unfortunately, I wasn't able to get it back. I DNF'd midway through.

Because I DNF'd, I have not shared any reviews/ratings on social media or reviewing platforms.

I've got an arc through Netgalley.

This was a rollercoaster of a book for me. On one side it was cute but also informative about fibromyalgia. I loved how it was a second chance romance but that they basically only broke up in the first place because she wanted to give him a chance to be a great hockey player. I loved the pregnancy part and how someone with fibromyalgia deals with it.

I also loves their chemistry together as they were meant to be. But also the stepdad/stepson dynamic was so good to read. Jack was just the perfect son overall. Also the found family and how the teammates were with Jack was so wonderful to read.
Loved the book
4,5 stars

This is a beautiful hockey romance that’s a second chance trope. We start of with the main characters in a relationship but stuff happens and they separate. Then we jump to 10 years later. They meet again under circumstances with a secret being kept hidden. Thank you to NetGalley and the publishers for allowing me to read and share my review.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the digital ARC!

Okay...I love a hockey romance. I know nothing about hockey, but I love reading about it and hockey players being goofy and silly and buff. So, of course, I thought this would be a great little romance to read!

Unfortunately, I ended up DNFing about a quarter of the way through. I had so many issues with this book, that I eventually decided to just stop.

Firstly, and this sounds pedantic, but I didn't entirely get the feeling the author understood American universities or the immigration process? I may be wrong, and I'm happy to be corrected, but nothing matched up and it annoyed me enough that it took me out of the book. It's heavily implied that Liam and Ellis both graduated at the age of 20...which isn't unheard of in the US, but it's also just...not common? Silly, but it just kept annoying me. Another thing is that, apparently, Ellis managed to go to the US for university from England and somehow managed to stay afterwards. Again, not unheard of. But by the time we see her at 30 again, she's running her own florist and is a single mum.

She's not a US citizen (as far as I'm aware, again, I didn't finish it), she isn't employed by anyone and she isn't married to anyone. So...how exactly did she (presumably) get a green card so fast? This sounds really stupid and petty, but I couldn't stop thinking about it. If someone can explain it to me, then I'd be happy to hear an answer!

I know the whole plot is accidentally pregnancy, but I almost DNF'd within 10%, as there's an extensive sex scene after they somehow come across each other in a club after 10 years. I wasn't interested in this, and it set the wrong tone for me.

My final issue is that I just didn't care for Ellis. I believe the author has fibromyalgia, so it was great to see an own voices representation of a chronic illness but it got to the point I was tired of reading about Ellis. I know people with chronic illness have to live this every day, but it felt like Ellis was just such a negative, boring personality. Even ten years ago, so her personality didn't even grow.

Now she's just 10 years older and complaining about being a mum or being pregnant alongside always mentioning her illness. Before anyone thinks I'm hating on this, I'm not. I enjoy seeing characters that show underrepresented communities, but Ellis' main personality trait was 'I Have Fibromyalgia, Woe Is My Life'. Seriously, I think she can't go more than two pages without mentioning it in some form which makes her feel like just a very negative character that isn't enjoyable to read. I feel bad saying this, as I don't have fibromyalgia, but this was one of the main reasons I just wasn't interested anymore.

Another random thing is that Jack kept making me feel like either I don't know how 5 year old speak, or the author doesn't. I can't comment on this too much, as I don't have a kid and don't interact with them, but it was bizarre that he was speaking grammatically correct sentences and he's barely in school. One moment in particular that threw me was when Jack reads the word 'foetus' on a poster...I'm reasonably sure a 5 year old wouldn't be able to read that, but what do I know?