Book cover for The Penalty Box by Rebecca Zorg
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The Penalty Box by Rebecca Zorg

The First Line #1

Tropes: slowburn, forcedproximity, firstperson

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Quick Details

ARC Type
Novel
Point of View
First Person
Publishing
ARC End Date
ARC Readers
28
Book cover for The Penalty Box by Rebecca Zorg
Like this book cover? 5

Quick Details

ARC Type
Novel
Point of View
First Person
Publishing
ARC End Date
ARC Readers
28

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The Penalty Box by Rebecca Zorg

The First Line #1

Tropes: slowburn, forcedproximity, firstperson

Book Archived

This book is no longer accepting ARC readers.

Read Free Before Publication
Just leave a review

About This Romance ARC

4.0 • 13

He doesn't remember ruining her life. She's going to make sure he does.

IVY
Seven years ago, Gabriel Castellano took the best night of my life and turned it into a punchline. It cost me my shot at the national team and the only future I'd ever planned.
Now he's here. Traded to Whistler, parked in my booth with his new teammates, telling me to surprise him like he's never seen my face before.
As far as he knows, he hasn't.
So I did what any professional would do. I "accidentally" poured a pint of our worst IPA straight down his six-hundred-dollar shirt. Surprise.
Here's the problem: his team just partnered with The Penalty Box, keeping my late father's bar alive, and the town wants repairs that cost more than we clear in a season. Which makes the man I've spent seven years hating the closest thing I have to leverage.
And every night he comes back, hating him gets more expensive.

GABRIEL
People have told me who to be since I was fifteen, and I've never once disappointed them. Golden boy. Franchise face.
So I can't explain the bartender.
She hates me. Openly. Specifically. Like she's had it ready for years.
The worst part isn't that I don't know why.
It's that I'm starting to think I should.

A slow-burn, high-angst hockey romance with:
- Enemies to lovers—he doesn't remember her. She remembers everything.
- Forced proximity, one blizzard, one bar
- A second chance carrying a seven-year grudge
- A grovel that draws blood
- Found family, a bar worth fighting for, and one mechanical wolf
- Dual POV · Slow burn · Open door · Guaranteed HEA

For readers who loved the grovel in Elle Kennedy's The Mistake and the BC-set slow burn of Stephanie Archer's Behind the Net.

The First Line, Book One.

Trigger Warnings

grief, terminal illness, off-page abuse of a minor (sports context), online harassment, public humiliation, coercion (off-page), mild violence

Estimated Words
97,500
Estimated Pages
411
ISBN / ASIN
978-1-0673871-0-5

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ARC Reviews

4.0 • 13

Penalty Box is an engaging, slow‑burn, enemies‑to‑lovers hockey romance that delivers far more than its tropes promise. The characters are written with real depth—damaged, determined, and full of potential—and that emotional complexity is what makes this story shine.Ivy is a standout heroine: st…

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This enemies to lovers book, received through Pen Pinery as ARC, will draw you in right from the start. The story flips from present day to the past to weave the history of the FMC and MMC. The story builds the evolution of the MMC who has to overcome the events of his past while building the relationship between the FMC and MMC. This is a hockey romance with a robust backstory that allows great character development. All in all a great read!

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Whistler Hockey Romance one town with a hockey team that has potential especially with its new star Gabriel Castellion he's bringing bad memories for one wolves hockey fan owner of the Penalty Box her dad's legacy one that's barely getting by but now she's forced to work with…

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