Cross Checked: Expanded 2026 Edition

By Kristen Hope Mazzola

He lost everything in one night.
She's the woman who heals everyone else.

Wall Street Journal and USA Today bestselling author Kristen Hope Mazzola returns with a powerful, expanded edition of the second novel in her beloved Shots on Goal hockey romance series.

When rookie pro hockey player Brayden Cox loses his mother in a devastating crash-and nearly loses his sister too-his world narrows to one thing:

Guilt.

The game that once defined him no longer feels like enough.
The family he swore to protect is shattered.
And the life he's building still feels like it should've been taken from him instead.

So when a chance encounter drops him in Central Park-straight into a dog adoption event-the last person he expects to see is the woman who once held his world together from the other side of an ICU curtain.

Karla McAdams.

His sister's former nurse.
The woman who saw him at his worst.
The one person he never stopped remembering.

Brayden sees a woman who gives everything to everyone else.
Karla sees a man drowning in a grief he refuses to name.

And every moment they spend together pulls them closer to crossing a line neither of them expected to want.

Because loving him means opening a heart that's already broken.
And letting her in might be the only way Brayden ever learns to breathe again.

Cross Checked is an emotional, slow-burn hockey romance featuring:
- Grief and survivor's guilt
- Nurse heroine + athlete hero
- Hurt + comfort healing
- Second chances at love
- Protective, guilt-ridden hero
- Found family and team loyalty
- And a love story about surviving the unthinkable-together
Perfect for readers who love emotionally rich sports romance, caretaker heroines, broken heroes, and slow-burn stories that hit you in the chest before they heal you.

AUTHOR NOTE:
This expanded edition of Cross Checked is part of the complete Shots on Goal series relaunch-eight fully rewritten, expanded, and newly edited standalone romances set in the interconnected world of the New York Otters.
Each novel follows a different couple and a different emotional journey, and the books can be read in any order.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: B0G3XJZB6M
• ISBN13: 9798275962949
• Release Date: January 2026
• Publisher: Independently Published
• Length: 322 Pages
• Weight: 0.64 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 5.0" x 8.0"