Icebreaker has been my first ever hockey romance read. This unusually bubbly genre with great banter, mostly light stories wrapped around deeper issues, amazing spice, and general giggly vibes has been one of my favorite types of escapism since then.
I read Icebreaker about a year ago without knowing anything about it—just drawn to it because of the cover, which is still the cutest thing I’ve ever seen. Anastasia and Nate’s story is a lovely one and hits all the marks I look for in my guilty pleasures.
If you want to giggle your way through a lighthearted campus romance with big ambition, bigger feelings, and serious chemistry, this one’s for you. I should also mention that this book is very spicy, and you can find our spicy chapter guide here.
Icebreaker
Description
Anastasia Allen has worked her entire life for a shot at Team USA. It looks like everything is going according to plan when she gets a full scholarship to the University of California, Maple Hills, and lands a place on their competitive figure skating team.
Nothing will stand in her way, not even the captain of the hockey team, Nate Hawkins.
Nate’s focus as team captain is on keeping his team on the ice. Which is tricky when a facilities mishap means they are forced to share a rink with the figure skating team—including Anastasia, who clearly can’t stand him.
But when Anastasia’s skating partner faces an uncertain future, she may have to look to Nate to take her shot.
Sparks fly, but Anastasia isn’t worried…because she could never like a hockey player, right?
Tropes
Icebreaker has some of my favorite tropes of all times:
- College Romance
- Figure Skater & Hockey Player
- Light enemies to Lovers
- Reverse Grumpy/Sunshine
- Found Family
- Forced Proximity
- Golden Retriever Boyfriend
Summary
Anastasia Allen is a figure skater who skates with her skating partner Aaron at the University of California, Maple Hills. She is training to become an Olympic athlete. Anastasia shares an apartment with Aaron and her best friend Lola. Anastasia is under a lot of pressure that she inflicts on herself. She aims for perfection while she handles her anxiety disorder, working with her therapist, and despite her pretty strict schedule that she sticks to religiously, her every minute is controlled by her planner.
Nathan Hawkins is the captain of the hockey team and is going to join the NHL when he graduates. Nathan shares an apartment with Henry, Jaiden (JJ), and Robbie, his best friend. Nathan has a strained relationship with his father, who cheated on his mom while she was sick with cancer.
When the men’s hockey rink is destroyed as part of a prank, the figure skating team is forced to share an ice skating rink with the men’s hockey team. Anastasia is enraged by this, as the intrusion in her space interferes with the carefully crafted schedule she’s built for herself. Nathan tries to make nice with Anastasia, inviting her to parties and trying to convince her to let their two teams co-exist, but Anastasia pegs him as a spoiled hockey player and doesn’t budge.
In addition to that, Nathan lies to Anastasia to cover for his teammate, who told him why the rink was destroyed by another hockey team in confidence. Anastasia finds out about this lie from Aaron, further deepening her dislike of Nate.
Aaron is a controlling partner, criticizing Anastasia’s weight constantly and blaming her when their skating routine goes wrong. He has a demeaning relationship with Anastasia, where he attempts to direct her life, even controlling what they eat in their apartment, which is mostly vegetables.
Anastasia has a regular friends-with-benefits arrangement with the captain of the basketball team, Ryan, who makes things confusing with Nathan. However, Ryan hits it off with an acting student, ending their friends-with-benefits situation.
Anastasia and Nathan continue running into one another despite Anastasia’s efforts to avoid him after their initially sour encounter. When Anastasia attends a party at Nathan’s house, Nathan lets her use the private bathroom in his room and they hook up. At the same party, Lola and Robbie start hitting it off as well and they spend the night together too. After this night, Anastasia runs off and avoids Nathan for a week.
They continue running into one another, Nathan unable to stop pursuing Anastasia, breaking down her walls and making progress. They keep hooking up in various places, including at the back of an Uber while their friends are present.
Anastasia doesn’t have time for a boyfriend, so they keep their relationship casual. Aaron is upset with Anastasia being friends-with-benefits with Nathan and becomes increasingly possessive. When Aaron injures his wrist and is unable to skate, he claims Nathan attacked him and injured his wrist. Anastasia is devastated and doesn’t know what to believe. Nathan decides to take the blame to protect his team from getting banned from playing altogether and agrees to bench himself until Aaron can skate again.
Anastasia still can’t decide who to believe, with Aaron telling her Nathan did this to her, while Nathan nobly takes the hit for his team. She realizes she has feelings for Nathan and her therapist encourages her to explore this.
Anastasia and Aaron are able to compete at sectionals, and Nathan goes back on the ice. Anastasia and Aaron qualify for Nationals. However, Aaron drops Anastasia due to his wrist injury benching him, and Nathan as well, for eight weeks.
Nathan rushes over to see how Anastasia is after hearing she fell, and they spend the night together. Nathan offers to skate with her after Aaron heals, and Anastasia reluctantly agrees, although on the condition that they’re skating partners only and not together. Nathan agrees and they begin skating together. As they spend time together skating, Nathan realizes Aaron is possessive and controlling Anastasia’s life, blaming his weak muscles on Anastasia being fat during lifts and severely underfeeding them when planning his nutrients. He helps Anastasia build her confidence, while Aaron becomes increasingly vulgar and possessive about this arrangement.
As they become closer while skating together, they eventually break their pact and become officially together as boyfriend and girlfriend. During the hockey team’s Christmas party, Aaron shows up drunk and delirious, slut-shaming Anastasia in front of everyone. Henry, a younger player from Nathan’s team who sees Anastasia like his sister, beats Aaron up and throws him out of the party. Here, it is also revealed that Aaron hurt his wrist while playing football with his friends at UCLA and has been lying this entire time.
Nathan and the boys decide to move Anastasia and Lola to their apartment while they find a permanent place to live. Nathan and Anastasia spend the holidays together, with Nathan visiting Anastasia’s parents who love her, and then traveling to Nathan’s Colorado home where his father was expecting to leave him all alone. However, his father returns from his vacation with his sister early, meeting Anastasia.
On Christmas morning, Anastasia skates in the backyard lake at Nathan’s house and she falls into the ice, nearly drowning. Nathan saves her and they spend the day in the hospital. Nathan stays with her and takes care of her the entire time, bringing them even closer.
After the holidays, Aaron apologizes and begs Anastasia to move back in with him so they can work on their partnership. He even convinces her to go to couples therapy for sports partners with him. Anastasia decides to give him one more chance since she’s invested so much in the skate partnership. They compete at Nationals, and Aaron kisses Anastasia without her consent in front of the cameras. Anastasia, feeling violated and repulsed, breaks their partnership off after the competition. Nathan is at the competition and he sees Aaron kissing her against her will and punches him in the face. Anastasia decides she’s going to skate solo from there on out, and moves back in with Nathan until the end of the year.
Nathan’s team wins the NCAA tournament. Aaron transfers to UCLA.
Two years later, Anastasia and Nathan are living together. Anastasia is an Olympic medalist, and Nathan is a Stanley Cup winner. Anastasia becomes pregnant after she throws up her birth control pill during a pre-competition anxiety attack. They live in Seattle with their golden retriever, Bunny. They go on a vacation in Mexico where Nathan proposes and Anastasia accepts.
Review
Overall Impressions 💭
Hockey romance is my favorite form of escapism because it does such a good job with the instant gratification that comes with amazing, witty banter when it’s done right on the page. I loved this book because the dialogue was spot on, the romance charming and the characters were all adorable. There were multiple moments where I was kicking my feet, giggling, and squealing.
It surpassed my expectations by introducing me to a subgenre of romances I didn’t even know about until I picked up this book solely because of the cute cover, and now hockey romances are my favorite palette cleansers. I was absolutely giddy throughout this entire book.
Plot ❄️
I don’t look for much eventful B-plot in hockey romances, as long as there’s some plot. But the main plot for me is mostly the romance, which this book did right. So many books do enemies-to-lovers wrong, and this book isn’t super enemies-to-lovers either. It’s more Anastasia trying to resist the attraction because Nathan is supposed to be her enemy, but thankfully that folds pretty quickly.
After that, it’s the usual dash of forced proximity, which had a believable lead-up, spice sprinkled throughout, heartfelt, gooey romantic moments—which it did great. Even the conflict, Aaron’s nonsense, was handled great. And the plus here is there was no third-act breakup, which I despise.
Overall, this was cozy and giggly the entire time, the romance landed, and I enjoyed the story very much.
Writing Style ✍️
This was such a lighthearted read. The dialogue was spot on, the banter was well thought out, the dialogue funny, and the spice well written. It did what it was supposed to do very well. Nothing in here was cringy, not even the cheesy romantic moments the characters shared, which can sometimes be over the top. I love, love the incorporation of text messages in these contemporary romances, and the exchanges between the side characters were hilarious throughout.
Closing Thoughts 💌
This book is perfect if you want to turn your brain off and read just some good old-fashioned romcom, done well. I don’t have any negative thoughts on this, nor constructive criticism. I would recommend this book to anyone who wants to just have some lighthearted fun.
Nathan is just such a golden retriever boyfriend, and despite Anastasia’s attempts at being a black cat, I couldn’t stop grinning every time they’re in a scene together—which is all the time.
The side characters are hilarious too, JJ and Henry being B-plot all-stars.
All around, this is definitely a comfort read for me that I pick up and do a quick read-through every time I want to feel warm, cozy, and wholesome.
Be careful of the trigger warnings though—the eating disorder is definitely pretty prominent, although it has a healthy outcome.
I included a spicy chapter guide, but this book is very spicy, so if you’re looking for clean romance or closed-door modifications, this one’s not super skippable.
If you’re a fan of Elle Kennedy’s Briar U series or Ali Hazelwood’s STEMinist series, this one’s probably going to be your jam.
🏒💖 Ready to spiral into giggly hockey romance chaos? Grab your copy of Icebreaker here.
I’m going to be reading Wildfire soon, so sign up for our newsletter to get notified when I post my review!
hat’s your favorite hockey romance novel? Tell me in the comments—I’m always looking for my next puck-worthy obsession.
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