In Embrace by Bal Khabra, hockey player Kian Ishida joins a study group led by Scarlett Kilner in the hope of completing the credits he needs to graduate before beginning his professional career. He doesn’t initially know that Scarlett is his coach’s daughter, and Scarlett has no intention of pursuing the crush she once had on one of her father’s players. But as their study sessions turn into an unexpectedly meaningful friendship, both characters find someone capable of seeing beyond the versions of themselves the rest of the world has come to expect.
When you start allowing other people to dictate your actions… that’s when you start to lose your power. You can dress how you want. Do whatever you want, and you’d still deserve the same respect as anyone else.
Bal Khabra, Embrace
Scarlett’s story is particularly compelling because her struggle extends far beyond the particulars of her past. She’s trying to grow into a new understanding of herself while remaining surrounded by people who have formed their own narratives about her and expect her to behave according to a version of herself she wants to leave behind. There is something painfully familiar in that tension. So many people spend their lives contending with the gap between who they’ve become and who others still believe them to be.
Khabra allows Scarlett to challenge those perceptions without suggesting that growth requires she become an entirely different person. Her development isn’t about erasing the past so much as refusing to let it have the last word. That distinction gives her arc a surprising amount of depth and makes her relatable even if some readers might not directly identify with her circumstances.
He talks fast, like I’ll stop listening. As if there’s a time limit. I think I’d be happy listening to him talk about the things he loves forever.
Bal Khabra, Embrace
Kian, meanwhile, is the greenest of green flags. He’s funny, charming, and such a golden retriever! And beneath the easygoing personality is someone remarkably attentive to what other people need. Scarlett is such a good partner for him because she clocks this quality several times and provides that same emotional generosity to him in return, which allows Kian to feel safe enough to confront the grief he’s always dealt with alone.
The slow burn romance between the pair works so well because Khabra gives their friendship enough time to become meaningful in its own right. Kian and Scarlett don’t simply banter and flirt until the plot permits they kiss. They talk, confide in one another, learn each other’s vulnerabilities, and become people the other can rely upon. Even stripped of the romantic conclusion promised by the romance genre, they’ve built a relationship that stands on its own. By the time the friendship deepens into love, the romance feels almost effortless, like a natural extension of the trust and affection they’ve already built.
I think you deserve easy. You don’t have to break your back proving yourself to me. I already know.
Bal Khabra, Embrace
As the final installment in the Off the Ice series, Embrace offers a lovely sense of closure. Familiar characters and couples remain part of Kian and Scarlett’s world, reinforcing the found family that has developed across the series, while the epilogue’s leap ten years into the future provides an especially satisfying glimpse of the lives they have continued to share. Sweet, emotionally perceptive, and grounded in genuine friendship, Embrace is a fitting farewell to the series and a thoughtful exploration of what it means to be loved by someone who sees not only who you have been, but who you are still becoming. In that sense, it also reflects the experience of reaching the end of the series: looking back fondly on who these characters once were while appreciating how much they, and the world they share, have grown.
Thank you to NetGalley and Berkley for sharing an advanced reader copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.
Embrace at a glance
Book details
Title: Embrace
Author: Bal Khabra
Publisher: Berkley
Release Date: August 4, 2026
Page Count: 416
Synopsis
An unexpected spark between a hockey player and the coach’s daughter might cause them to cross the line in the next Dalton University book from international bestselling author Bal Khabra.
Kian Ishida is all about parties, hockey, and living in the moment. But when he realizes he’s headed to the NHL without his degree, his late dad’s one wish for him, he’s determined to make up those last few credits. Desperate for help, he joins a study group led by none other than Scarlett Kilner. She’s as gorgeous as she is smart. Too bad he doesn’t know yet that she’s his coach’s daughter.
After making a reputation for herself, all Scarlett wants for her senior year is to prove she’s more than her mistakes and graduate without tarnishing her well-respected father’s name. But when Kian Ishida, one of her dad’s star hockey players, joins her study group, things get complicated.
As Scarlett helps Kian, their study sessions turn into something more—stolen glances, lingering touches, and a connection neither of them expected. Kian has to decide what’s more important: the dream he’s worked for his whole life or the girl he never saw coming.
