Hat Trick by Chelsea Curto is an emotional, high-steam contemporary sports romance. It serves as the fourth instalment in the popular D.C. Stars hockey series and picks up on the exact same night Slap Shot ends. It is a spicy friends-to-lovers hockey romance with injury recovery, emotional healing, friends with benefits, he falls first (and hard) and a guaranteed happily ever after.

It feels more and more like my heart isn’t even my own anymore. It’s hers, and I think it’s always going to be hers . . .

Riley Mitchell is used to winning. A back-to-back Stanley Cup champion, his life has always revolved around the game – until a devastating accident leaves him without his right leg and uncertain of who he is without the ice beneath his skates.

Lexi Armstrong is the DC Stars athletic trainer assigned to his recovery, and she refuses to let Riley give up on himself. Independent, sharp-tongued and endlessly supportive, she pushes him to rebuild not just his strength, but his confidence too.

What starts as late nights and easy banter, turns into a friends-with-benefits arrangement neither of them planned. It’s supposed to be simple – purely physical, no emotions involved. But ‘just once’ quickly becomes something deeper, and Riley finds himself falling harder than he ever expected.

Now Riley and Lexi must decide if they’ll keep pretending it’s only about the physical – or risk everything for a future that looks nothing like the one he lost.