Review

Alec and Dani spent every summer together as children in Minnesota and were the very best of friends. Due to Dani’s military dad moving bases and other complicated backstory reasons, they lost touch. But now Dani’s parents are divorced, and her mum is moving with her back to her home town, Dani’s grandfather/ice hockey legend… and Alec.

Thanks to some mean-girl high school experiences, Dani’s no longer the cheeky, confident kid she was back then. And Alec, far from being his former unathletic, uncoordinated history dweeb self, is now a tall, built, ice hockey god (nicknamed Zeus… yes, really). At first their reconnection is cold and awkward. But when Alec needs some PR help to prevent severe reputational damage, he makes a deal with bookish, Harvard-obsessed, ice hockey royalty Dani: if she agrees to fake date him, thus making him look like he’s settling down with a steady childhood sweetheart, he’ll help her move smoothly into her new high school with friends, a minimum of fuss and a sweet, Harvard-impressing co-curricular gig as ice hockey team manager.

Besides Alec’s niggling shoulder injury, an arrogant rich-boy childhood nemesis, high stakes ice hockey games, Dani’s emotionally illiterate dad, Alec’s family’s medical debt, and the high possibility of both Dani and Alec catching feelings… what could possibly go wrong?

*

I enjoyed this — I was flicking through the pages at a rapid rate. Lynn Painter is funny, which I love, and she knows how to ratchet up the tension, as well. Don’t even get me started on the title. Fake Skating. Brilliant mix of two popular romance tropes. I am here for it.

As usual with Lynn Painter YA, the romance is kept very sweet — kissing only. However, like with Betting on You, the swearing is very, very frequent: f-bombs everywhere. The narrative is told from alternating first person Alec/Dani perspectives, and while Dani doesn’t swear much, Alec swears a lot. And there’s also plenty of swearing in the dialogue. Dani’s grandfather, for example, is almost always referred to as “Mick F***ing Boche” (in an admiring, ‘he’s-a-legend’ kind of way). Unfortunately, this sort of swearing frequency, even though it’s not used in a nasty way, automatically makes it Year 9+ for me.

Sweet but sweary.

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Recently divorced parents; grandfather unhappy with Dani’s father and blames him for various problems in Dani’s mum’s life; grandfather hadn’t talked to Dani in some time due to that disagreement, and it takes them a while to reconnect (but they do – very cute); the usual romantic misunderstandings; passionate kissing, but all pretty innocent, although at one point Alec is in his underwear only (for innocent reasons); some fighting — Alec throws some punches, but he knows it’s dumb and he gets in trouble; a bit of teenage drinking; Dani’s dad is emotionally cold/inconsistent, but she knows that he really does love her and it all ends on a reasonably positive note; Dani was bullied at a previous school (mean girls) and it’s caused her to become withdrawn and sometimes have panic attacks; Alec is at a party where there’s a bong — he doesn’t use it but has his picture taken with it as a joke and gets in some social media trouble; Alec feels under pressure to sign with a professional hockey team to help his family financially, although his family are super nice and don’t want him to feel under pressure.

*

Painter, L. (2025). Fake skating. Simon & Schuster UK.

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