Strange Love: An 80s Fake Dating Hockey Romance (Merrimack Mavericks Hockey)

Fake dating the captain of the hockey team was never part of Ivy Owens’ survival plan.

After escaping the cult that stole her childhood, Ivy wants one thing: to disappear into the background of normal life. No whispers. No pity. No attention.

Too bad Corey Delacour keeps putting her directly in the spotlight.

Captain of the Merrimack Mavericks hockey team, Corey is the arrogant center with an NHL future, an air of mystery, and a smile that gets away with murder. He’s bold where Ivy is quiet. Reckless where she’s careful. Completely impossible to ignore.

But underneath the swagger and hockey-star reputation, Corey knows exactly what it feels like to grow up on the outside looking in.

Which is exactly why he sees Ivy when no one else really does.

So when Corey offers to fake date her long enough to survive high school politics, Ivy says yes.

It should be harmless. Except Corey Delacour isn’t harmless.

Not when he keeps slipping past the walls she worked so hard to build. Not when pretending starts to feel dangerously real.

And the more Ivy falls for him, the more terrifying one truth becomes: Sooner or later, Corey will leave for hockey glory and a future far bigger than this town.

And Ivy isn’t sure she can survive being left behind again.

Strange Love is an emotional fake-dating hockey romance set in the late ’80s featuring a cocky hockey captain, opposites attract, tragic pasts, first love, and two outsiders finding safety in each other.