Rivals on Ice: A Hockey Romance

by Avery White

He’s the reason the rule exists. She’s the one who might break it.

When room assignments drop, Avery Walsh—coach’s daughter and secretly the brain behind RU’s offense—finds out she’s sharing an off-campus duplex with her worst on-ice rival. Star winger Luca Romano has a grin that sells jerseys and a reputation for wrecking locker rooms, and now he’s brushing his teeth in her bathroom and leaving his gear in her hallway. The team’s one big rule is no distractions. Living with Luca is one long distraction.

Then a rumor hits the press. It questions Luca’s leadership and drags Avery’s name into the mess, threatening their season and his captaincy. To calm the media storm and protect the team, they agree to a fake-dating truce for the cameras—strictly PR, strictly temporary, strictly “no real feelings.” Easy enough…until road-trip hotels only have one bed, late-night video sessions turn into inside jokes, and the chemistry they’re faking off the ice makes their game smoother on it.

As the playoffs close in, the line between “pretend” and “real” keeps blurring. Avery has spent years staying invisible to keep the focus on the team, but Luca sees every her sharp hockey brain, her soft heart, and the way she looks at him when she thinks he’s not watching. To win the title—and her trust—he has to prove he’s not just playing for the highlight reel anymore. He’s all in on her.


Book 1 in the Locker Room Rules series. Each book follows a new couple with crossover characters and can be read as a standalone.

477 pages, Kindle Edition

Published November 14, 2025

Reviews

[Valerie Magnus · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting Premice

I really liked a lot of aspects of this book. The characters had amazing communication and I thought all their contracts/agreements were cute. What I really hated was that the plot revolves around internet trolls posting mean/untrue things online and forcing the MCs to do damage control the entire book. This is a plot that always makes me angry, so if you share my aversion to it, I don’t think this book would be for you. If not, I would give this book a try if you’re interested in college sports or game analytics.

Spoilers:
The reason I decided to leave this review in the first place, was to express my feelings about the ending. I really hated that Avery quit her job as analyst for the team, a job she was incredibly qualified for (she wrote/designed the entire system the team used for film analysis goodness’s sake!), based on baseless rumors. And the college/team did NOTHING! They let her quit and didn’t even fight for her, just gave polite/bland “statements” that the rumors that she was faking the stats were false. It felt incredibly sexist that the FMC lost her job based on rumors she was manipulating the data to help her boyfriend, yet by the end of the book her boyfriend gets a happy ending and gets to keep doing what he loves (playing hockey) while Avery was forced to give up what SHE loved and sacrificed a job that would have helped her in her career path if she chose to pursue analytics. And the guy who replaced her as the analyst didn’t do a very good job, since it was HER tips that she texted to Luca that helped them win their game. Her decision to quit hurt both herself and the team, and I don’t understand why she didn’t return after the game she helped them win and after the rumors died down. It made the book feel super anticlimactic and unfinished. Also, Avery was the main character (there were only a few chapters from Lucas POV) yet her plot/arc is left weak and unfinished, while Luca’s has a strong character arc and ending. The ending took the book from a four stars down to a three stars for me. My head cannon is that Avery gets her job back and everyone tells her how valuable and gifted she is, and all the internet trolls shut up and stop being sexist jerks.