Yahoo Lifestyle Lynn Painter's New YA Rom-Com “Fake Skating” Will Make You Want to Hit the Rink — See the Cover! (Exclusive)
The 'New York Times' bestselling author is back with a teen rom-com that dives into the culture of high school hockey in Minnesota — and, of course, fake dating
Jackson Okun; Simon & Schuster
'Fake Skating' by Lynn Paiter will be out later this year.Young adult romance guru Lynn Painter is inviting readers to hit the ice rink with her latest novel!
The Booktok darling's new YA rom-com, titled Fake Skating, will be hitting shelves soon, and PEOPLE can exclusively reveal its cover.
Per a synopsis from the publisher, the novel tells the story of two main characters, Dani and Alec, who were "attached at the hip" as kids until one of them was forced to move away from their small town.
The pair later reunite as seniors in high school after Dani's parents go through a devastating divorce, but things aren't the same. One of them chooses to "ice out" the other until they're forced to fake being a couple — and hockey plays a central role.
"Will their childhood connection be enough for them to successfully navigate life’s tricky twists and turns in this icy town filled with a complicated hockey-loving history?" a description asks. "Or will they both slip on the ice?"
Simon & Schuster
'Fake Skating' by Lynn Painter.Speaking exclusively with PEOPLE, Painter — known for her romance novels for both teens and adults such as Better Than the Movies, Mr. Wrong Number, The Do-Over, Betting on You and Nothing Like the Movies — opened up about her desire to delve into writing a hockey-focused novel.
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"I started out wanting to write this book because I love sports romances (who doesn't, right?) and noticed there aren’t many hockey rom-coms set in high school. So why not write one?" she tells PEOPLE.
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According to Painter, she even traveled up north from her home in Omaha, Neb. to Minnesota to experience firsthand the hockey-obsessed culture in which her book is set.
"But when I road-tripped up north to my cousin's house, intent upon immersing myself in some varsity hockey research, something unexpected happened; I fell head-over-heels in love with Minnesota hockey culture and the incredible sense of community that lies within its walls," she continues.
"The more time I spent in South Saint Paul, studying hockey, the more I wished I'd been lucky enough to grow up in a place with 'meat raffles' and old-world social halls that are still — to this day — packed to the rafters following a Saturday night game," the author adds.
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As she wrote more about hockey as well as the culture and sense of community that surrounds it, Painter says she realized that the story of Fake Skating was becoming a story about finding your place in the world.
"The very basic book idea of 'hockey romance' suddenly became less about a hockey-player-fake-dates-childhood-best-friend trope and more of a found-family-and-sense-of-place-in-the-world tale — but also with hot hockey players, fake dating and suburban rivalries because it IS a rom-com, after all!" she finishes.
Fake Skating, published by Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers, will hit shelves on Sept. 30, 2025 and is available for preorder now, wherever books are sold.
Read the original article on People
