Some childhood promises are made to be broken, and some are just made to be misunderstood for a decade. Lynn Painter’s “Fake Skating” opens with exactly that kind of ache: two kids who swore they’d stay in touch, a stack of coded postcards that mysteriously stopped arriving, and a grudge that neither of them realized was built on a misunderstanding rather than an actual betrayal.
Dani hasn’t set foot in her small Minnesota hometown since her parents’ divorce sent her packing in middle school, and she isn’t thrilled to be back living with her grandfather for senior year. The one bright spot from her old life was Alec, her best friend and partner in an elaborate postcard code they invented before she moved away. When the postcards abruptly stopped, both kids quietly decided the other one had simply moved on. Now, years later, Dani finds Alec transformed: the awkward kid she remembered has become a serious, broody hockey player with a shot at a real future in the sport. When circumstances (as they always do in this genre) conspire to push the two into a fake relationship, old wounds and new feelings collide on the ice and off it.
Painter’s real strength here is tone. She writes banter the way some authors write action sequences, with rhythm and momentum, and the slow-burn chemistry between Dani and Alec earns its swoons instead of just announcing them. The hockey material is specific enough to feel authentic without turning the book into a sports manual, and Painter uses the rink as a backdrop for something warmer: a story about a fractured family finding its footing again, and a small town that remembers who you were even when you’re trying to become someone else. The grandfather subplot, in particular, gives the romance some ballast, grounding Dani’s arc in something bigger than whether she’ll end up with the guy.
Critics who’ve spent time with the book generally agree it’s a comfort read in the best sense, propulsive, funny, and big-hearted, with the kind of central pairing readers want to root for from the first chapter. The most common gripe is structural: the central misunderstanding between Dani and Alec gets stretched close to its breaking point, and a few reviewers found themselves wishing one of the two would just say the quiet part out loud a hundred pages earlier. There’s also a generational split on the book’s heavy dose of pop-culture references, which some readers find charming and others find a little distracting from the emotional core of the story. Neither complaint has kept the book from finding a wide and devoted readership, particularly among fans looking for a wintery, small-town romance with real stakes underneath the sweetness.
None of this stops “Fake Skating” from landing where it’s aiming. It’s a book that knows exactly what kind of story it wants to tell, a fake-relationship romance with genuine emotional consequences, and it tells that story with warmth, humor, and just enough tension to keep pages turning late into the night. Readers who grew up on Painter’s previous novels will find the same big heart here, dressed in skates and a hockey jersey. For anyone who wants their romance with a side of nostalgia and a rink-side view, this one delivers.
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