Jenny Holiday's newest book CANADIAN BOYFRIEND is a well-crafted story of two people whom fate has brought together at a critical point in each of their lives. During an isolated childhood training in ballet with a controlling mother, Aurora (Rory) Evans uses a chance encounter with a guy at the mall to create a Canadian hockey player boyfriend as a way to protect herself and explain her unwillingness to join activities with other students. Fast forward thirteen years and the widowed father of one of Rory's students just might be that same hockey player whose identity became her shield and confidant with repeated letters she wrote as a kind of diary over the years. After his wife's death, Mike Martin learned his wife kept a secret that left him with unanswered questions and feelings of betrayal. He is struggling with anger and loss, the winding down of his hockey career, and his daughter Olivia's grief. Rory begins to help with Olivia's care when Mike travels with the team. They become friends, confidantes, and more. The book is more about Mike and Rory's self-discovery and growth as they work through demons with each other and their respective therapists with a little bit of slow-burn romance on the side. Enjoyed the world built by the author and look forward to the next book in the series.
Fate brings together a ballet teacher and a hockey player in this big-hearted novel about second chances and taking risks by the bestselling author Entertainment Weekly calls the “master of witty banter.”
Once upon a time teenage Aurora Evans met a hockey player at the Mall of America. He was from Canada. And soon, he was the perfect fake boyfriend, a get-out-of-jail-free card for all kinds of sticky situations. I can't go to prom. I'm going to be visiting my boyfriend in Canada. He was just what she needed to cover her social awkwardness. He never had to know. It wasn't like she was ever going to see him again...
Years later, Aurora is teaching kids’ dance classes and battling panic and eating disorders—souvenirs from her failed ballet career—when pro hockey player Mike Martin walks in with his daughter. Mike’s honesty about his struggles with widowhood helps Aurora confront some of her own demons, and the two forge an unlikely friendship. There’s just one problem: Mike is the boy she spent years pretending was her “Canadian boyfriend.”
The longer she keeps her secret, the more she knows it will shatter the trust between them. But to have the life she wants, she needs to tackle the most important thing of all—believing in herself.
No excerpt available.
© 2003-2026