On Thin Ice (Juniper Falls 3)
by Julie Cross
Publication Date: February 26, 2019
Publisher: Entangled Teen
Brooke Parker never expected to find herself in the tiny town of Juniper Falls, Minnesota. Of course, she also never expected to lose her dad. Or for her mom to lose herself. Brooke feels like she’s losing it…until she finds Juniper Falls hockey. Juniper Falls girls’ hockey, that is.
Jake Hammond, current prince of Juniper Falls, captain of the hockey team, and player with the best chance of scoring it big, is on top of the world. Until one hazing ritual gone wrong lands him injured, sitting on the sidelines, and—shocking even to him—finding himself enjoying his “punishment” as assistant coach for the girls’ team.
As Jake and Brooke grow closer, he finds the quiet new girl is hiding a persona full of life, ideas, and experiences bigger and broader than anything he’s ever known. But to Jake, hockey’s never just been a game. It’s his whole life. And leveraging the game for a shot at their future might be more than he can give.
Review:
I forget in between books in this series just how intense they are. The blurbs make them sound much fluffier than the reality–these are some meaty stories, in absolutely the best way. Jake and Brooke are both dealing with some pretty major issues in their personal lives, and on top of that share a completely awful experience early on that binds them together–and at first, neither is at all convinced that this is a good thing. The romance here is slow moving but delicious, and other than worrying at times that Jake wouldn’t eventually make the difficult but right choice in the end, I absolutely loved this book.
On Thin Ice is the third book in the series, and though you’ll care more about the secondary characters here in the book’s most dramatic scene if you’ve read their stories too, you don’t have to have read the other books to get its impact. Though this seems like a good place to end the series, my fingers are crossed that there’s more to come!
Rating: 4 1/2 stars / A
I voluntarily reviewed an Advance Reader Copy of this book.