Playoff Beard: Expanded 2026 Edition

By Kristen Hope Mazzola

She built her life around a friendship she couldn't afford to lose.
He's the one man she's never allowed herself to want.

Wall Street Journal and USA Today bestselling author Kristen Hope Mazzola returns with a bold, expanded edition of the slow-burn, friends-to-lovers romance in her beloved Shots on Goal hockey romance series.

When Jordan Bates realizes the man she's always kept at arm's length is suddenly within reach, her world narrows to one thing:

Restraint.

The balance she's carefully maintained begins to fracture.
The future she planned no longer feels certain.
And the one relationship she's sworn to protect becomes the one she's most afraid to change.

So when the friend she trusts more than anyone becomes the one man who makes her question every rule she's lived by, the line between friendship and love begins to blur.

Will Crosby.

A championship goalie rebuilding his life after a marriage that left him guarded.
A man learning how to want again after everything he lost.
And the best friend who has never stopped choosing her, even when he couldn't have her.

Will sees the woman who has always been his steady place.
Jordan sees the man who has known her longer than anyone else ever has.

And every moment they grow closer makes the line between friendship and love harder to hold.

Because loving him means risking the one relationship she cannot replace.
And loving her means finally reaching for the future he was afraid to want.

Playoff Beard is an emotional, slow-burn hockey romance featuring:
- Friends to lovers
- Long-term mutual pining
- Divorced hero
- Post-betrayal healing
- Best friends to something more
- One kiss that changes everything
- Slow-burn emotional tension
- Found family and loyalty
Perfect for readers who love friends-to-lovers romance, quiet pining, slow-burn tension, and deeply intimate sports love stories.

AUTHOR NOTE:
This expanded edition of Playoff Beard 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: B0GKPVBCB4
• ISBN13: 9798246202975
• Release Date: January 2026
• Publisher: Independently Published
• Length: 322 Pages
• Weight: 0.64 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 5.0" x 8.0"