A review by jeannine_
Canadian Boyfriend by Jenny Holiday

4.25

I enjoyed this book more than I thought i would.  It is sort of a friends to lovers type of story, but it had a lot more depth than I anticipated with aurora(Rory)’s history with ballet, eating, and her horrible mother. The sad thing is that as horrific as her mother’s character is, she’s absolutely not unrealistic!!! People including mothers definitely do use wording like “compensating” for a prior meal and talk about calorie counting, moralize food choices, etc in front of children and or impressionable teens / young adults (I’ve seen it sooo many times) and whether they realize it or not, all that talk and conversation around food and seeing it more as calories and a scale tipper, and less as nourishment or something to enjoy, has a big impact!! As someone who had an eating disorder in my younger days I can spot out the disordered eating habits / thoughts so quickly.  Fortunately it’s not triggering for me, but as a warning, this part of the story could be to some readers.  

I also really enjoyed the development of Mike’s character, and Olivia, his daughter, was a total gem.  The side characters were also good additions to the story. I am not a hockey person (I don’t know why I feel I need to add this) but that didn’t matter in terms of the book - it wasn’t too heavy on the sport or anything. 

My only critique was the ending (last ~15%) some bits of it felt too rushed, and I don’t want to give anything away but I just felt like maybe some plot aspects could have been done a little differently.  

Pick this up if you enjoy friends to lovers stories! 4.25 stars. 
Expand filter menu Content Warnings