A Very Festive Face Off
(2026)(The fifth book in the Love in Hockey Town series)
A novel by Ellie Hall
She’s a sleep-deprived single mom who just wrapped her final nursing school clinical. He’s a trouble-making hockey player in a Yule Be Sorry sweater. On Black Friday, they clash over the last gift on the shelf and neither one is willing to let go.
Emerson
The only thing on my Christmas wish list is to survive it. Between work, an eight-year-old with a penguin obsession, and a nursing exam standing between me and the rest of my life, I have zero bandwidth for a charming hockey player who thinks everything is a game. Even if he possibly saved me from an embarrassing situation with my ex that I sort of had under control.
Westley
In her world, cheese and chocolate are good choices to make. Me? I’m a very naughty one. Honestly? Fair. I’m the guy who disappeared from hockey and didn’t give anyone a good reason why. Now I’m back and my new team would rather check me into the boards than pass me the puck. The woman from Black Friday is the least of my problems. Except she’s become my favorite one.
Emerson
He keeps showing up. At my workplace. On the ice with my son. Everywhere. Now we’re working through a Christmas ‘bucket list’ together and on rival teams for a care package campaign. Between snow fort building, donation collection, and the dachshund my kid snuck home, I’m starting to realize something as dangerous as black ice. We’re not having a standoff. We never were.
Westley
I’ve been running plays and making exits my whole life, but she’s the first person who made me want to stop and stay. She’s guarded and exhausted and completely unimpressed by my best material, which makes her the most interesting person in recent memory. I just have to convince her that I’m not the same guy who disappeared when last season got hard.
Will the gal who forgot her merry and the guy who lost his bright realize they’ve been on the same team all along?
This is a clean, sweet, closed door, no spice hockey romantic comedy with lots of sweet kisses and a happily ever after. Lace up your skates and get ready to laugh, swoon, and have all the swoopy heart flutters!
A Very Festive Face Off is your next swoony holiday read if you love:
•Enemies to lovers
•Single mom romance
•Peter Pan grows up
•Mirror trope (more alike than different)
•Small town Christmas festivities
'''Found family feels
•He falls first
•Slow burn with a side of holly jolly cheer
Genre: Romance