The closest matches to Icebreaker are The Deal by Elle Kennedy, Collide by Bal Khabra, and The Right Move by Liz Tomforde. At ReadNext, we check every title against Open Library’s catalog to confirm publication details. Elle Kennedy pairs a college hockey captain with a music student who trade favors and banter. Their romance matches the college rink setting and mutual devotion that made Nate Hawkins and Anastasia Allen so popular. Bal Khabra sets up contentious shared-facility tension between a hockey captain and a driven student. Liz Tomforde delivers a protective athlete hero who falls completely first.
Readers drawn to Icebreaker usually want three distinct flavors: campus athletics with ice rink scheduling clashes, professional sports stories with golden-retriever heroes, or high-heat romances built on forced proximity. Readers who dislike graphic open-door intimacy should look toward young adult contemporary romances instead.
If your main goal is clean contemporary banter without explicit content, the best move is trying Books Like The Summer I Turned Pretty. For readers who want the full heat, protective heroes, and collegiate drama of Hannah Grace, these novels deliver that exact experience.
Twelve Sports Romances Matching the Appeal of Icebreaker
College hockey rinks and campus drama
1. The Deal
Elle Kennedy
Elle Kennedy sets the benchmark for college hockey romances. Hannah Grace readers who loved Nate and Stassie fighting over ice time will feel right at home here. A hockey captain needs help passing an ethics class, while a music major needs someone to make her crush jealous. Their banter turns into genuine respect and mutual devotion. The story features explicit sexual content and the heroine’s past sexual assault.
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2. Collide
Bal Khabra
Bal Khabra captures the exact academic clash and shared-space friction that defined Icebreaker. Summer wants nothing to do with hockey players, while collegiate captain Aiden is determined to wear down her defenses during forced study sessions. The dynamic shifts from irritated barbs to complete infatuation as Aiden falls into protective golden-retriever territory. The book contains explicit sexual content and campus party situations.
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3. Offside
Avery Keelan
Avery Keelan leans directly into collegiate athletic tension and protective jealousy. When the heroine gets cheated on by her hockey-player ex, the rival team’s star forward steps in to offer support and companionship. The pacing focuses on team loyalty, campus parties, and a hero who becomes entirely preoccupied with treating the heroine properly. Expect explicit love scenes, spicy banter, and lingering emotional recovery from a previous relationship.
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4. Breakaway
Grace Reilly
Grace Reilly pairs college hockey player Cooper Callahan with his coach’s daughter, Penny Ryder, in a secret friends-with-benefits arrangement. Both athletes carry heavy expectations from their athletic families, which provides strong emotional grounding alongside the heat. Cooper treats Penny with total attentiveness, matching Nate Hawkins’s brand of caretaking. The story includes high-heat intimate scenes, locker-room humor, and athletic performance stress.
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5. Unsteady
Peyton Corinne
Peyton Corinne pairs an injured college hockey captain struggling with panic attacks and a figure skater raising her younger brothers. Sadie and Rhys find comfort in late-night sessions and mutual understanding. This novel tackles heavier emotional weight than Icebreaker, including parental neglect, grief, and head-injury recovery, alongside explicit intimate scenes. Readers wanting pure comedy might find the tone heavy, but the emotional payoff is substantial.
Find it on AmazonDevoted golden retrievers and pro sports banter
6. Consider Me
Becka Mack
Becka Mack gives readers a professional hockey hero who mirrors Nate Hawkins’s total surrender to love. Carter Beckett is a cocky NHL star who completely reforms the moment he meets Olivia, a teacher who wants nothing to do with athletic playboys. He spends the book pursuing her with absurd levels of attention and goofy charm. The book contains very explicit open-door scenes and protective hero behavior.
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7. Behind the Net
Stephanie Archer
Stephanie Archer delivers forced proximity in an NHL setting. Jamie is a grumpy professional goalie who hires Pippa, a sunny aspiring singer, as his personal assistant. Their close living quarters lead to simmering physical tension, soft domestic caretaking, and banter that cuts through his defensive walls. The story features explicit sexual encounters, low third-act conflict, and sweet romantic devotion without unnecessary cruelty.
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8. The Right Move
Liz Tomforde
Liz Tomforde writes top-tier sports competence and protective warmth. Ryan Shay is an NBA point guard who agrees to let his twin sister’s sunny best friend move into his luxury apartment. Their fake dating agreement quickly collapses into real obsession, as Ryan notices every small detail about her comfort and well-being. Expect witty banter, substantial emotional growth, and deeply explicit love scenes.
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9. Always Only You
Chloe Liese
Chloe Liese crafts a hockey romance centered on genuine tenderness and respect. Ren is a sunshine hockey player who has secretly pined for Frankie, the team’s prickly, neurodivergent social media manager, for years. When they work closely together, Ren goes out of his way to accommodate Frankie’s chronic pain and boundaries. The story features explicit sexual intimacy, mutual care, and minimal manufactured relationship drama.
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10. Fangirl Down
Tessa Bailey
Tessa Bailey pairs a slumping pro golfer with the superfan who becomes his caddie. Wells Whitaker is bad-tempered, athletic, and desperate to revive his career, while Josephine brings steady belief and organization to his tour. Their road-trip closeness leads to rapid banter and intense physical attraction. The novel features Bailey’s trademark high-heat spicy scenes, funny dialogue, and an athletic hero utterly brought to heel by love.
Find it on AmazonFake dating, forced proximity and high heat
11. Blind Side
Kandi Steiner
Football player Clay fake-dates PR assistant Giana to make his ex jealous while he coaches her on winning over her crush. Their pretend relationship sparks fierce mutual jealousy and genuine vulnerability. Clay turns intensely possessive in the best romance sense, mirroring the protective streak readers adored in Icebreaker. Contains explicit sexual content.
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12. Pucking Around
Emily Rath
Emily Rath shifts the sports romance dial into high gear with a professional hockey polyamory romance. Rachel is a sports medicine doctor working with a major expansion hockey team, where she becomes involved with multiple athletes. If the found-family locker-room camaraderie and high spice were your favorite elements in Icebreaker, this book multiplies both. Contains extremely explicit, varied sexual situations and substantial relationship negotiations.
Find it on AmazonThe Core Elements That Made Hannah Grace Popular
Hannah Grace built Icebreaker around three specific romance tropes: forced athletic proximity, a competent golden-retriever hero, and an open-door approach to intimacy. The initial conflict of figure skaters and hockey players competing over shared facility hours sets up immediate physical banter. Nate Hawkins avoids cruel games, choosing instead to support Anastasia with food prep, emotional grounding, and vocal devotion.
That direct romantic competence separated the book from darker collegiate romances where heroes spend hundreds of pages being deliberately mean. Readers looking for another book should decide whether the athletic setting or the protective male lead was the primary draw. The hockey selections reproduce the rink-side comedy, while the broader sports romances capture the feeling of an athlete falling completely apart for his partner.
How to Choose by Your Favorite Trope
Readers who loved the campus ice schedule fights should start with The Deal or Collide. Both novels maintain the collegiate setting, academic demands, and athlete-versus-student tension that made the first half of Icebreaker move so quickly.
Readers who want a hero as devoted and protective as Nate Hawkins should choose The Right Move or Consider Me. Ryan Shay and Carter Beckett match Nate’s habit of learning their partner’s habits, providing quiet domestic care, and eliminating any doubts about their loyalty.
Readers who read primarily for open-door scenes and high spice ratings will find Pucking Around and Fangirl Down the closest matches. Both books treat intimacy with humor, frank communication, and unfiltered descriptive detail.
A Note on Age Fit and Explicit Content
Icebreaker and these recommendations are adult contemporary romances with explicit sexual content, rough language, and mature themes. Despite their bright pastel illustrated covers, these novels are written for adult readers. They feature open-door sexual encounters, detailed dirty talk, and complex adult relationship dynamics.
Parents purchasing books for teenage readers should be cautious with the campus hockey trend. If you need a sports story for a younger reader, look toward young adult contemporary titles where romantic tension stays within closed-door or sweet boundaries. Exploring the Books Like The Summer I Turned Pretty collection provides summer romance without the explicit graphic descriptions found here.
Where to Go After Finishing These Books Like Icebreaker
Once you finish these campus and professional sports romances, your next step depends on the emotional tone you want. Readers who enjoy competitive banter and athletic discipline often pivot cleanly into fantasy academy settings with high romantic tension.
If you want that competitive friction paired with life-or-death stakes, read Books Like Fourth Wing for another military-academy romance featuring protective warriors. If you want high-stakes survival challenges and romantic choices, check out Books Like The Hunger Games. Readers exploring varied genres can also take the What Should I Read Quiz to match their preferred tropes with fresh releases, or browse Books Like the One You Just Finished to find reading paths for other books you loved.
