The book girlies are not okay, and for once, it is the good kind of emotional damage.
Sony has officially tapped Josh Boone to bring Lynn Painter's bestselling YA romance Fake Skating to the big screen. With a theatrical release already locked in for 16 July 2027, every book fan in the world just paused mid page-turn to celebrate. Yes, that is a date. Yes, people are already mentally casting.
If Boone's name sounds familiar, it should. He is the director responsible for turning one of the most devastating love stories into a box office success that had audiences crying into overpriced cinema popcorn. This John Green novel-turned-film is known as The Fault in Our Stars.
This time, Boone is swapping tissues for tension, directing a fake-dating hockey romance that already reads like a future comfort film for our mandatory couch potato Saturdays.
If Josh Boone's directorial prowess made us ugly-cry over an unlit cigarette, then fans already fear what he is capable of with a love story born on the ice rink.
Book girlies, prepare to cry ice cubes.
From Tearjerkers to Ice Rinks
At its heart, Fake Skating follows former childhood sweethearts, Dani and Alec, who reunite in their hockey-obsessed hometown. The two find themselves faking a relationship that may or may not start feeling a little too real. It is the kind of trope that thrives on awkward tension, unresolved feelings, and the very specific chaos of pretending you are not in love when you absolutely are. In essence, a romance warm enough to melt a hole through that ice rink.
The screenplay is reportedly being handled by Morgan Lehmann and Victoria Bata, with Boone and his longtime collaborator, Knate Lee, stepping in for revisions. Behind the scenes, Sony is backing the project alongside Olive Bridge Entertainment, with Lynn Painter herself attached as an executive producer.
A Bestseller Finds Its Big Screen Moment
For Lynn Painter, this marks her first novel to receive the full big-screen treatment. Fake Skating has been sitting comfortably on the New York Times YA Hardcover Bestseller list since its release in 2025, with a fanbase that already treats the book like a personality trait.
Known for titles like Better Than the Movies and The Love Wager, Painter has built a reputation for writing romances that feel both magical and realistic to readers. She has perfected the art of writing novels you finish reading at 2 am under a blanket and immediately recommend to five people. Simply too good to gatekeep.
Meanwhile, Better Than the Movies is also in the works for its big-screen adaptation, having recently announced the actors cast as the main characters, Liz and Wes.
Clearly, Hollywood has taken notice, meaning they must also be in on the book girlie trends.
Summer 2027 Is Romcom Season
The film is set to hit cinemas in mid-July 2027, placing it right in the middle of blockbuster season. It is a bold slot, but not an unfamiliar one for Boone, whose The Fault in Our Stars already proved that a romance can hold its own against heavier genre releases.
Moreover, no cast has been announced yet, which only means one thing: fancasts are about to spiral out of control.
Between the fake-dating trope, the small-town setting, and the inevitable slow-burn payoff, Fake Skating already has high potential to break our hearts. If the film brings the pages to the screen in a way that makes Dani and Alec feel authentic to the ink, then it is only a matter of time before Josh Boone once again convinces book girlies (and boys) that a movie can definitely be just as good as the book.
While the skating may be fake, the fan screams of anticipation are very, very real.
