Icebreaker by Hannah Grace is one of the defining sports romance books of recent years. It even became a #1 New York Times bestseller after going massively viral on BookTok. You know the story: Anastasia Allen is a competitive figure skater training for Team USA at the University of California, Maple Hills. Nate Hawkins is the captain of the hockey team. A facilities mishap forces both teams to share a rink. Anastasia is furious. Nate is determined to win her over anyway.
Want to see your favorite characters on screen? It will be possible with Netflix’s series adaptation, but in the meantime, the books like Icebreaker collected below will keep you more than occupied.
Better Than the Movies — Lynn Painter
If Anastasia and Nate’s enemies-to-lovers slow burn was your favorite thing about Icebreaker, Better Than the Movies is the book to reach for next. Both novels center on a heroine who has constructed a very specific idea of what romance is supposed to look like. Then, they also have a persistent guy next door who refuses to fit that idea and gradually dismantles it.
In Better Than the Movies, those two are Liz Buxbaum and Wes Bennett. At first, the girl is absolutely certain her childhood crush Michael is the one she’s meant to be with. The logical solution is, of course, to strike a deal with her next-door neighbor and long-standing enemy, Wes Bennett. Will she end up with a perfect crush, Michael, or a bad boy, Wes?
Better than the Movies
Book’s feature: Every single chapter opens with a quote from a classic romance film — from Bridget Jones to When Harry Met Sally — and the book is packed with pop culture references. It also ends with a custom character playlist.
Him— Sarina Bowen & Elle Kennedy
Icebreaker built much of its emotional core around the hockey team’s brotherhood. Him lives inside that same world, with the same locker-room culture and the intensity of male friendship. It’s a sports romance book where banter and high-chemistry proximity go hand in hand.
Four years after a drunken kiss on the last night of summer hockey camp ruined their close friendship. But when both sign up to coach at the same summer camp, they’re forced to finally deal with what happened. Did it mean anything?
Him
Book’s feature: The character contrast is deliberately stark — Jamie is laid-back and easygoing, while Wes is brooding and protective.
Behind the Net — Stephanie Archer
Behind the Net is also set in professional hockey, built around a grumpy athlete and a sunshine heroine. Like Icebreaker, it handles a heroine whose confidence has been systematically damaged by someone who should have supported her.
The story centers on Pippa, a shy singer-songwriter whose dreams were crushed by a manipulative ex-boyfriend. She takes a job as a live-in assistant to Jamie Streicher, a grumpy NHL goalie for the Vancouver Storm. And he happens to be her former high school crush. Will he turn out to be something more than his image suggests?
Behind the Net
Book’s feature: Jamie calls Pippa “songbird” throughout, but despite this sweetness, the novel’s spice rating is 4 out of 5.
The Deal — Elle Kennedy
The Deal is also a college sports romance book with fake-dating setups, sharp banter, and a hockey-player lead. This novel is warm, but at the same time, it handles trauma, controlling relationships, and mental health issues.
Hannah Wells is a music major recovering from a sexual assault in her teens. For her, dating is complicated. One day, Hannah agrees to tutor Garrett, the cocky captain of the college hockey team, in exchange for fake dates to help her get another guy’s attention. But will each one keep their part of the deal?
The Deal
Book’s feature: It’s the first book in Elle Kennedy’s sprawling Off-Campus/Briar University universe, which spans five interconnected novels. Amazon Prime Video has adapted the Off Campus series, with Season 1 based on The Deal.
The Love Hypothesis — Ali Hazelwood
The Love Hypothesis shares Icebreaker’s grumpy-sunshine dynamic, its fake relationship setup, and its spicy romance. The setting here isn’t the ice rink, though, but a Stanford biology lab. Ali Hazelwood will show you academic STEM culture the same way Hannah Grace introduced you to the athletic world.
Third-year biology PhD candidate Olive Smith panics in a lab hallway and kisses the first person she sees. Why? Just to convince her best friend she’s moved on from her ex. That person is Adam Carlsen — brilliant, famously harsh, and universally disliked by the graduate students who work under him. Surprisingly, Adam agrees to maintain the fake relationship, but will it ever become real?
The Love Hypothesis
Book’s feature: The novel originated as a Reylo (Star Wars Rey x Kylo Ren) fanfiction, and the characters on the cover are deliberately illustrated to resemble Daisy Ridley and Adam Driver.
Break the ice with your next read
The five books above share what makes Icebreaker so re-readable and so hard to shake:
- two people in close proximity;
- excellent reasons for them to resist each other;
- the giving-in that feels completely earned.
Whether you’re drawn to the hockey-rink setting, the enemies-to-lovers slow burn, or the spicy romance content, this list offers a bit of everything. So, as we said before, let’s break the ice with your next read.
