Clara’s Verdict
Sports romance as a genre can feel formulaic – the muscular athlete, the woman who initially resists him, the professional constraint that generates tension – but The Hockey Problem by Kendall Ryan pulls off something the best entries in the category always manage: it makes you genuinely care about its characters before it puts them in jeopardy. Zayden Bishop – French-Canadian NHL star, devoted single father, deeply guarded against anyone who might require emotional availability he is not sure he has – and Tori Wells – team physiotherapist, fiercely professional, once burned badly enough by an athlete that she has made rules she intends to keep – are not new archetypes. But Ryan writes them with enough specificity and internal consistency that the slow-burn tension between them earns its heat rather than simply asserting it. At eight hours and forty-eight minutes, this is compact and efficiently paced: it never overstays its welcome, and the emotional beats land cleanly where they are supposed to. Narrator Dane Anderson keeps the energy tight throughout. A very fine opening to the new Off the Ice series.
About the Audiobook
Tori has fought hard for her position as a physiotherapist in professional hockey – a male-dominated environment where women’s professional authority is not automatically respected. She has strict rules about distance from players, forged in the aftermath of a relationship that cost her considerably – professionally and personally. Then she is assigned to Zayden Bishop’s shoulder rehabilitation, and the rules begin to feel increasingly impossible to maintain across daily sessions that blur professional and personal with uncomfortable frequency.
Zayden, meanwhile, is operating on discipline and not much else: a shoulder injury threatening his season and everything that season funds, a six-year-old daughter whose stability depends on his career remaining intact, and a carefully maintained emotional distance from anyone who might need something from him beyond what he can deliver on ice. He is cold, private, and impossible to read – except that the more time Tori spends with him in the mornings, on the road, in the late-night conversations that happen when exhaustion makes defences difficult, the less true that description becomes.
Ryan builds the romance through accumulated detail rather than dramatic incident: the observation of small kindnesses, the gradual revelation of backstory, the specific way that Zayden’s relationship with his daughter complicates and deepens his appeal. The novel earns its emotional payoff with patience. This is book one of the Off the Ice series, designed to stand independently though readers will absolutely want to continue. Published March 2026 by Kendall Ryan, at 8 hours 48 minutes.
Ryan cites Meghan Quinn, Elle Kennedy and Monica Murphy as natural comparisons, and fans of those authors will find exactly what they came for, plus a warmth in the father-daughter dynamic that distinguishes this from more purely heat-focused entries in the sports romance genre.
The Narration
Dane Anderson narrates in a single male voice, which works well for sections where we are inside Zayden’s perspective and handles the switches into Tori’s point of view cleanly enough not to disrupt immersion. He has the deep, measured delivery that suits professional sports romance – unhurried, with a naturally warm undercurrent that mirrors Zayden’s gradual thawing across the novel. He is particularly effective in the emotionally vulnerable scenes, avoiding both the twee and the overwrought with consistent good judgement. At under nine hours, this is a comfortable listen across two or three sessions.
What Readers Say
The audiobook launched with a 5.0 rating from early listeners. UK reader Jackie Wright wrote: “The Hockey Problem is single dad and star NHL player Zayden and team PT, Tori’s slow burn, workplace romance. I fell hard and fast for this single dad and I adored Tori – and I adored Maisie.” A US reviewer called it “fun, flirty, steamy, sad, heartbreaking and just so darn good,” noting that the novel “doesn’t shy away from dealing with the hard things people deal with in life – the uncertainty, the disappointment, the messiness, the fear and hurt,” while also showing “how resilient we are” and how “love can change everything.” The combination of genuine heat and emotional honesty is the consistent draw across all early reviews, with particular warmth directed at Zayden’s daughter Maisie as a character.
Who Should Listen?
This is for fans of slow-burn contemporary romance who like their heroines professionally competent and their heroes emotionally complicated rather than simply commanding. Readers who have enjoyed Meghan Quinn, Elle Kennedy, Monica Murphy or similar authors in the sports romance space will be immediately at home with both the genre conventions and the way Ryan stretches them. The single-father storyline adds a layer of genuine warmth and emotional complexity that differentiates this from more narrowly focused sports romance entries. Adult listeners looking for something with emotional substance alongside its heat will find this satisfying and well-crafted. Be warned: you will want to listen to the next book in the series before the first one has properly finished. Listen to The Hockey Problem on Audible UK – book one of the Off the Ice series by Kendall Ryan.
