a ballet school dropout and her pie dealer

When Aurora Evans, Rory, was a teenager, she worked at a coffeeshop in the Mall of America. It made her feel normal to work there. And that was where she met her Canadian boyfriend, Mike. He had been there with his friend Erik, and they only got a minute to talk before the guys had to leave. But that moment stayed with Rory.

Rory’s mother insisted that she get straight As in her classes and was obsessed with her daughter’s ballet career. Even though Rory was still just in high school, her mother controlled her eating habits and her time so strictly that there was already a professionalism about her. That maturity put a wall between her and the other kids, so she didn’t really have friends. She didn’t get invited to parties or prom. But it was okay, because she had her Canadian boyfriend. Mike acted as her excuse not to take part in high school social activities, and she wrote letters to him about her life and her feelings, so she got to use the idea of him as an emotional outlet too.

When Rory finally decided she needed to quit ballet, after more years of schooling and practice and starving herself, she also stopped writing to Mike. She put aside all her delusions, all of the things she’d been using as a crutch to help her through those difficult years.

Years later, Rory works at a small dance studio in Minnetonka when Olivia comes back to class after several months away. Her mother had died in a car accident, and her father had pulled her from school and dance classes for a while to grieve and heal. But now, Olivia is back with her father, and all the other moms are very interested in him. He’s a professional hockey player from Canada, and his name is Mike.

Almost immediately Rory suspects that he is the same Mike as she met as a teenager, her imaginary Canadian boyfriend back in her life. Only, he doesn’t know anything about their fake relationship. All he knows is that Rory makes his daughter happy. That’s all he cares about. So he asks Rory to spend more time with him and Olivia, hoping her brightness will help Olivia in this first school year without her mother. But what he doesn’t expect is that Rory brightens his life too.

As Mike works through his grief and anger at his wife’s death, and Rory works through her own difficult relationships with food, ballet, and her mother, they find acceptance and peacefulness with each other. But as they get closer to each other, can they overcome their pasts to find their way to a future?

Canadian Boyfriend is a charming rom com with characters you can’t help but root for and a premise that is hard not to love. Both Rory and Mike are shimmering with charm and likability, and if that’s not enough, there is also a dog with wheels for back paws, pies for taste testing, a ball pit, and lots of kissing.

I loved this book from the first page. I found Rory so compelling, even as a teenager, but especially as an adult trying to figure out how to move on from the mistakes of her past and finding her passion as an adult. As someone who suffers from panic attacks myself, I felt like the anxiety scenes were well written and kind (however, if you feel that might be triggering, you may want to hold off on this book until you are feeling more grounded). But Canadian Boyfriend, overall, is witty, sweet, fun, smart, and so enchanting that I want everyone to read it and love it too.

Egalleys for Canadian Boyfriend were provided by Forever through NetGalley, with many thanks.