Wat een geweldig leuk boek, aanrader!

Does this sound familiar? You read a book; you love it a lot and then all of a sudden you have finished it and you feel a little sad. That’s what happened to me with this book: Offside and Off-Limits by Kate O’Keeffe. It’s the second standalone book in the interconnected Love in Maple Falls Series, a sweet and clean ice hockey romance series. Single Mom Clara gets the job she loves to have: being the social media manager of the Ice Breakers, the Maple Falls ice hockey team who are just newly arrived in the NHL. When she meets ice hockey player Cade, he is all flirty and full of charm. He is captivated by her and loves to tease her. Cade is newly located to Maple Falls and wants to leave his womanizing ways behind him and start anew.

This was such a sweet, cool and humorous story! I loved Clare and Cade. They are so great together and as Cade is this flirty guy, we get all kinds of lovely and funny scenes. Cade is a great character; he wants to be a good guy and wants to have someone to love and cherish. He is a tough ice hockey player and really does not mind if he gets teased himself. Clara is wonderful, she is a single Mom with two small children, but also suffers from chronic fatigue. The way she handles her life and being this super social media person, filming all kinds of things for TikTok, you have to admire her. Some scenes she and the team film are just great.

I am amazed that Kate O’Keeffe and all the other authors of this series and the earlier Love on Thin Ice series, thought to write these stories. It is as Maple Falls is a real town and you know all the people who live there. The same goes with the Ice Breakers, you feel that this is a real team. And if there would be a TikTok account of the Ice Breakers, I know it would have a lot of viewers.

The writing is flowing, engaging and the book is a joy to read. Kate O’Keefe describes everything so really well, because you just can see everything before your eyes. If Maple Falls were a real town, I would love to go there and maybe even live there.

The dual POV in Offside and Off-Limits is also fantastic, this way we get to know how Clara and Cade feel and think. As the relationship between these two progresses, there is some drama, because Clara is not allowed to get into any relationship with a hockey player. And of course there is also the ex-husband.

The plot, story-line, the chemistry between Cade and Clara, the flowing writing style, all made that I had a really hard time putting the book down. Near the end of the book Kate O’Keeffe had some plot twist in store. I thought I know what was going to happen (no spoilers from me, go read the book) but I was completely wrong.
Offside and Off-Limits is a great book, I enjoyed reading it a lot and I can’t wait to read the next book in the Love in Maple Falls series, but I also am going to read the other books by Kate O’Keeffe, because I just love her writing style.

So, I you love clean hockey romances, with great characters, a charming small-town setting and an engaging story-line, go read this book (and the other books in this new series) and also do read the Love on Thin Ice series. I know you’ll love it!