Fake Skating

Written by Lynn Painter, Fake Skating (2025) is a young-adult romance set in the hockey-obsessed town of Southview, Minnesota, where childhood friends Dani Collins and Alec Barczewski must deal with the complexities of reconnection after years of silence. When circumstances draw them back together during their senior year, Alec proposes a fake-dating arrangement to improve his reputation with NHL scouts and to help Dani become the team’s manager, strengthening her Harvard application. What begins as a calculated agreement quickly evolves into an emotional roller-coaster as long-suppressed feelings and truths resurface. Through Dani and Alec’s journey, Fake Skating explores the interrelated themes of The Challenges of Constructing Identity, The Emotional Impact of Family Dynamics, and The Weight of Unresolved History.

Lynn Painter is a #1 New York Times bestselling author who has also penned novels such as Better Than the Movies (2021), The Do-Over (2022), Betting on You (2014), Mr. Wrong Number (2022), The Love Wager (2023), and Nothing Like the Movies (2024). She lives in Nebraska with her husband and children.

This guide refers to the 2025 Simon & Schuster eBook edition.

Content Warning: The source material and guide feature depictions of mental illness, substance use, and cursing.

Plot Summary

In the events preceding the novel’s primary timeline, Alec and Dani are childhood friends who spend every summer together in Southview, Minnesota. During the rest of the year, they keep in touch via postcard. The summer after seventh grade, Dani and her mom, Hannah, leave abruptly after her grandfather, Mick, and her father argue at her grandmother’s funeral. As Alec and Dani say goodbye in their secret “spot,” a rundown shack, they share their first kiss. As time goes on, Alec continues sending Dani postcards, but she stops responding for an unknown reason. When Alec’s dad, “Big John,” has a serious car accident, Dani and her mom return to Southview, intending to visit him in the hospital. However, Dani decides to go to dinner with her neighbor, Benji, instead, and she takes him to see the place that was once special to her and Alec. Alec never forgives Dani for abandoning him when he needed her most.

As the main part of the story begins, Alec and Dani are now in their senior year of high school. After Dani’s parents get divorced, Dani and her mom, Hannah, move to Southview to live with Mick. Dani’s dad is in the military, so they used to move around a lot, and Dani is not good at making friends. Instead, she focuses on her schoolwork and her goal to get into Harvard.

Hockey is important to everyone in Southview; Dani knows that Mick played hockey, but she doesn’t know that he’s a local hero. She also doesn’t realize that Alec has become the high school hockey star and is nicknamed “Zeus.” Dani’s return to Southview unsettles Alec, as he has never made peace with the end of their friendship. Their reunion is awkward, and Dani can tell that he is not happy to see her.

The narrative reveals that Alec hates Benji, seeing him as a wealthy, overprivileged jerk who plays for the rival hockey team. After Big John’s accident, Benji made unkind comments to Alec, drawing him into a fight, and the incident landed Alec in jail. Dani doesn’t know about any of this, but when Benji begins texting her and showing up at her door, she is more annoyed than alarmed.

One night, Alec goes to a party and is photographed holding a bong. Although he did not use drugs, the photo goes viral, and he fears that his reputation will be destroyed along with any chance of impressing the NHL scouts who regularly attend his games. He enjoys hockey, but he mostly pushes himself because he wants to make enough money to help his family, now that his father experiences chronic pain from the accident and cannot work.

Dani needs to pad her resumé to improve her chances of acceptance to Harvard. Cassie, one of Alec’s friends who was assigned to be Dani’s new student buddy, offers to share the hockey manager role with her. Dani goes to the hockey rink to ask Alec for help in landing the job. While there, she has a tense phone call with her father, who pressures her to move away from her mom and spend more time with him.

After the call, she is in tears. In her distress, she unintentionally runs into the locker room, where Alec embraces her and comforts her. The hockey coach catches them and assumes that they are dating. The coach suggests that dating a good student like Dani would be a good way to fix Alec’s flailing public image. Alec makes a deal with Dani. If she pretends to be his girlfriend, he will make sure that she gets the manager job. Dani agrees on the condition that she gets to decide when the arrangement ends.

As the fake “couple” begins appearing together in public, going on dates, and texting regularly, both Alec and Dani quickly realizes that they have real feelings for each other. After sharing a kiss that is meant to make Benji jealous, neither of them can deny their attraction.

As time goes by, being the co-hockey manager helps Dani to gain appreciation for hockey and get closer to her grandfather. Meanwhile, the hockey team advances to the playoffs, and Alec became laser-focused on his career goals. However, he is dealing with a painful shoulder injury that he is determined to hide from his parents and his team. After celebrating the team’s final regular-season win, Dani tells Alec that she wants them to be a real couple.

Dani’s dad comes to speak with her in person about his idea that she move in with him, but when Mick confronts him, he leaves without speaking to Dani at all. Dani and Alec celebrate the team’s success by returning to “the spot.” Benji shows up and goads Alec into a fight, and Alec breaks Benji’s nose. The next day, Dani pleads with Benji not to go to the police, and he agrees—but only if she breaks up with Alec. Feeling that she has no choice, Dani lies to Alec and breaks up with him.

Dani’s dad calls and apologizes. He also admits to having thrown away Alec’s postcards years ago, and Dani suddenly understands why Alec has been so resentful of her.

Southview plays against Benji’s team, but Dani watches the game on television with Mick rather than going to the game in person. During the game, Benji slams Alec in the arm, sending him to the hospital. Mick and Dani race to the hospital, where Dani confesses that she only broke up with Alec to protect his reputation. She also tells him that her father threw away all the postcards, which explains her years-long silence. The two resume their relationship and declare their love. Alec has surgery to repair his shoulder injury, and Dani grows closer to her new friends, finally finding a home in Southview. In the fall, she will attend Harvard while Alec plays hockey for Boston College.