The Graham Effect

Kennedy (The Summer Girl) kicks off her Campus Diaries series with a seductive college-set hockey romance. After a childhood in foster care, prickly college hockey phenom Luke Ryder keeps to himself and avoids relationships with a vengeance. When his school makes the unprecedented move of merging hockey teams with one of their fiercest rivals, his life is thrust into chaos—and he finds himself back in the orbit of Gigi Graham. The pair first met six years prior at one of Gigi’s famous athlete father’s hockey camps, and they got off on terrible footing. Now, Gigi’s determined to make the women’s national hockey team—and she needs Ryder’s help to get her there. Ryder, meanwhile, battles for a position on the combined team with Gigi’s ex-boyfriend, Case Colson, and aspires to a summer coaching gig with Gigi’s father. It’s a tangled web already—add in the mounting, irresistible attraction between Ryder and Gigi, and things are sure to get messy. But what fun Kennedy has playing in the mess. She does an exceptional job creating equally flawed and endearing characters and conjuring palpable chemistry between the leads. Sparkling dialogue and a solid supporting cast help to keep the pages flying. As romantic as it is spicy, this will leave readers eagerly awaiting the next installment. Agent: Kimberly Brower, Brower Literary. (Oct.)