Thanks to the publisher for giving me an ARC to review I had fun while reading this, it definitely sucked me in with the need to know more. There was a lot more hockey content than the romance, which wasn't necessarily a bad thing it just made the relationship feel a little rushed. And it was a little confusing with the constant switching of the POV's and timelines, but I could understand it. Brandon and Ryan were both really awesome main characters. I really liked Ryan's personality, he was very level headed and kind of calming, he was really sweet. Whereas Brandon was the opposite, it was really fun to see how much he over thinks which makes him quite relatable. I did love the team, it felt like I was there in the moment especially Danton and his family, I would read a lot more about them. Toward the end it got a little predictable which started to annoy me. And I would have liked seeing more of the Off Season as it was a big thing for Ryan when he started to catch feelings, but instead it just ended. Overall, I'm glad I read this and recommend it

The second book in the "On Thin Ice" series, The Call-Up follows Brandon, a late season replacement to the NHL for an injured player, and Ryan the star centre of the Mules.The story is sweet, Brandon's fears around bot being food enough and sent back down, Ryan's past family trauma, and the two of them reconnecting after 8 years and realising their feelings for each other... And how they can make that work in secret whilst playing so publicly.I really enjoyed the callbacks and continuation of characters from the first book too.A great, fun and heartwarming read for fans of sports romance!

Thank you to Storm Publishing for the advanced copy. Overall I enjoyed the book, for me it has the right balance between the hockey and the romance to not feel either is being paid lip service, this is very low angst story of childhood crush to lovers. Brandon gets called up to join the playoff run for the St Louis Mules, where he reunited with the hockey player who stayed with his family when he was a teenager, who happened to be his first crush. Brandon and Ryan are both such loveable characters that you root for them from the get go and the supporting cast of the Mules team were all great - it's nice to read an MM Sports romance where the angst isn't driven from the team being homophobic. This was a quick easy read, which had me giggling in places - mainly at Brandon's adorkableness! I did find the ending a little rushed and it didn't really feel like a HEA, although they are together at the end. It would have been nice for the epilogue to show more of them together over the off season rather than just the set up to the next book.

I hope you were here for the hockey, because this is like 70% hockey to 30% romance. For me this is the equivalent of the romantasy vs fantasy romance categories. The romance feels like a sub plot unfortunately. This is the second in an interconnected stand alone but I feel you could read this on its own despite the couple from the first book being featured in this one too. You just miss how they get together it seems. Why did I pick up a hockey romance if I don’t want to read about hockey? I do! It’s just usually the vehicle for the romance and not the star of the show. I’m glad the ‘call up’ was explained but I had to look up some of the other terms like billet because I was not familiar. The hockey story line is obviously well researched and not that it isn’t entertaining it’s just not what sold the book to me pre read. I wish the romance had some extra screen time other than the lusty parts. I like the flash back use but it needed a little more banter and emotion for me to be fully sold on this. It was still entertaining just not really something I would really reach for. Not really relevant to this book, but I’m so impressed that they included a few chapters of the first book in this series to check out in this arc. Very thoughtful! Read via NetGalley. All opinions are my own.