Books Like Icebreaker and The Deal: Three Different Sports-Romance Paths

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If you finished Icebreaker or The Deal and want a similar reading experience, start by identifying what you want to keep. Choose Wildfire for a return to Hannah Grace’s Maple Hills world, with a summer-camp setting instead of a shared rink. Pick The Graham Effect for Elle Kennedy’s connected campus-hockey world and another practical bargain. Try Mile High for hockey in a professional setting, where a flight attendant and a player meet repeatedly on team trips rather than in class.

Those are three different routes, not interchangeable plots. The first two connect to the authors of the books you already know; the third changes both author and stage of life. Each selected title has documented bestseller recognition from a publisher or a historical trade chart. The numbered order helps you navigate the choices and is not a current sales ranking. Original titles identify the books; check an actual bookseller or library listing for the language, format and edition available to you.

Decide what you loved before choosing a substitute

In Simon & Schuster’s description of Icebreaker, Anastasia’s figure-skating ambitions collide with hockey captain Nate’s need for ice time after a facilities problem makes their teams share a rink. The appeal may be the sports setting, but it may just as easily be the heroine’s own athletic goal or the way a practical scheduling problem creates repeated contact.

In Elle Kennedy’s description of The Deal, Hannah agrees to tutor hockey captain Garrett, while he offers a pretend date to help her catch someone else’s attention. Here the initial arrangement has terms that both people understand. Garrett’s threatened academic standing provides the immediate reason they keep meeting; Hannah has her own reason to accept a bargain with a man she finds annoying.

The distinction is useful because “hockey romance” describes a setting, not the entire emotional contract. If you wanted an athlete whose ambitions matter, The Graham Effect offers another woman with goals on the ice. If you wanted the familiarity of a fictional community, Wildfire returns to Maple Hills. If you wanted the public demands of professional sport and time spent together, Mile High moves those pressures onto team flights. For a broader discussion of how campus and adult-academic stories differ, see our new-adult romance guide.

Book	What carries over	What changes
Wildfire	Maple Hills world and Hannah Grace’s contemporary-romance framing	Summer-camp counselors replace a rink as the main setting
The Graham Effect	Elle Kennedy’s connected hockey world and a practical exchange	A woman hockey player’s training and her father’s sporting legacy become central
Mile High	Hockey and repeated contact around a team	Professional travel and a flight attendant’s job replace college life

The table is a guide to published premises rather than a claim that the books contain the same scenes or suit every reader equally. Their descriptions signal adult contemporary romance, but labels like “steamy” or “spicy” are subjective. If an exact level of explicitness or a particular content boundary matters, check the publisher’s sample and the author’s current notes before choosing.

1. Wildfire by Hannah Grace — familiar world, different summer

Wildfire is the closest choice if you want to remain in Hannah Grace’s Maple Hills setting after Icebreaker. Simon & Schuster identifies it as book two and describes Russ Callaghan and Aurora Roberts meeting before they begin jobs as summer-camp counselors. Their working summer gives them a reason to occupy the same place after an encounter that neither expects to repeat in quite that way. The publisher calls the title an instant number-one New York Times bestseller; that is a historical designation, not a live league table.

The important change is location. Icebreaker makes the availability of shared sporting facilities part of the initial collision. In Wildfire, camp work creates the daily structure. A reader looking for another university rink as the main stage should know that difference before buying; a reader who likes a familiar group of characters but wants a seasonal change may find it precisely the point. A connected setting can offer recognition without requiring the second book to repeat the first couple’s situation.

The camp arrangement also shifts what proximity means. Rather than asking two sports programs to negotiate the same physical resource, it places two employees within a shared working environment. That setup is useful if what you liked about Icebreaker was repeated contact that arises naturally from a schedule. You can look for a relationship to develop around the practical reality of being in the same place, while recognizing that the publisher’s short description cannot tell you how much of the finished book is devoted to any one activity.

For readers who prefer continuity, check the series page and the edition description before choosing a starting point. “Book two” is a useful factual position, but it does not answer every reader’s personal tolerance for references to earlier characters. If callbacks delight you, read in order. If you are primarily interested in Russ and Aurora’s advertised summer premise, use the available sample to decide whether beginning with their story feels comfortable. Neither approach requires assuming that every reader needs the same amount of background.

Wildfire will be less exact as a read-alike for someone whose favorite element in The Deal was a negotiated academic exchange. Its attraction is different: an author’s established world, a summer workplace and the consequences of seeing someone again. Choose it for that combination rather than for a promise that every conflict, intimacy level or scene will mirror Anastasia and Nate’s book.

2. The Graham Effect by Elle Kennedy — two hockey goals and a bargain

For the strongest connection to The Deal, consider The Graham Effect. Sourcebooks describes the title as an instant New York Times bestseller and identifies it as the first Campus Diaries book. Gigi Graham wants to advance in women’s hockey and establish herself beyond her famous father’s shadow. Luke Ryder, the men’s hockey co-captain, can help her improve a particular part of her game; he also wants to improve his standing with her father. Their exchange supplies an initial reason to work together.

That premise makes the comparison with The Deal concrete. Hannah and Garrett begin with tutoring and a pretend date, while Gigi and Ryder’s bargain concerns hockey training and a connection to a coach. In each case, a practical need brings two people into sustained contact. The different terms matter, though: Gigi is an athlete working toward a sporting ambition of her own, rather than someone entering Garrett’s world solely as his tutor. If you liked watching the heroine’s ambitions remain legible beside the romance in Icebreaker, that may also make the book worth sampling.

The team situation provides another useful distinction. Kennedy’s own book page describes Ryder dealing with a merged men’s program and an unhappy roster. The pressure around him therefore includes teammates and leadership, not just his attraction to Gigi. You do not need to understand every rule of hockey to see why a fractured group could complicate a captain’s job, but readers who enjoy sport as a source of continuing obligations may appreciate that the team has a function beyond supplying a handsome player.

The author presents Campus Diaries as a spinoff of her Off-Campus and Briar U worlds. That makes The Graham Effect a meaningful next stop for someone who enjoyed The Deal and wants another connection, but it is worth deciding how much prior context you enjoy. A spinoff can be read for a new couple while still rewarding readers who recognize familiar names. Check the publisher’s and author’s descriptions if you prefer a strict reading route; this guide does not claim that every earlier book is mandatory or that all references will be invisible to a newcomer.

Sourcebooks markets the novel as a steamy college-hockey romance with a grumpy, oppositional dynamic. Treat that language as a publisher’s broad signal, not a standardized rating. The characters’ bargain is a helpful way to choose a premise, but it does not by itself establish the detail of their later boundaries or resolve every potential concern. If a particular experience or theme is a hard limit for you, seek the author’s notes and a sample before committing to an edition.

3. Mile High by Liz Tomforde — professional hockey and life on the road

Choose Mile High when you want to keep hockey but leave the campus. Hodder & Stoughton’s description presents Zanders as a professional Chicago player and Stevie as a flight attendant working on the team’s private aircraft. Team travel gives them repeated opportunities to interact, while their jobs bring different forms of responsibility into the same confined space. The publisher identifies the book as the first in the Windy City series.

There is title-specific bestseller evidence for this choice as well: Publishers Weekly listed Mile High ninth in US trade-paperback sales for the week ending November 1, 2025, in its November 10 issue. That list concerns the specified US paperback edition and week. The Hodder page cited for the story is a UK edition; neither source proves a current rank, a particular language edition in your country, or availability through any subscription service.

The setting changes the balance of reader expectations. A college romance can put grades, scholarships or future professional ambitions close to the couple’s daily life. A professional-team travel story instead brings schedules, public performance and work responsibilities into the foreground. Stevie’s position also means she encounters the team as an employee with her own duties, not as a spectator whose only connection is attraction to a player. If you enjoy the practical reasons that keep characters crossing paths, the plane and the team itinerary are useful things to notice in the opening.

For a reader coming from Icebreaker, the sport is an obvious bridge, but the comparison should not stop there. Anastasia is pursuing a competitive skating career; Stevie’s stated role is in aviation. Those are different relationships to the team and to the rink. If the feature you most want to retain is a woman competing in her own sport, The Graham Effect is the more direct of these three selections. If you want to see how proximity works in a professional workplace, Mile High offers a different route.

For a reader coming from The Deal, the connection is the way repeated meetings can turn an initially difficult interaction into the focus of a romance. The practical framework is not the same: an academic bargain gives way to work and travel. That distinction can help you choose without assuming an exact match in banter, pacing, relationship behavior or emotional intensity. Read a sample if the narrator’s voice matters as much to you as the setting.

A practical way to choose among them

Start with the world. If you want a location and author you already recognize from Icebreaker, try Wildfire. If you are curious about the wider connected world after The Deal, try The Graham Effect. If you prefer an independent entry into a different author’s professional sports setting, start with Mile High. All three choices can be explained without claiming that one is a superior version of another.

Then choose the kind of shared time you enjoy. A summer job gives Wildfire a bounded season and a working environment. A training exchange gives The Graham Effect a specific sporting goal. Team travel gives Mile High repeated contact shaped by separate professional roles. These are starting conditions drawn from published descriptions; how much time the full novels spend on any particular activity is not measured here.

Think about the heroine’s connection to sport. Anastasia’s figure skating and Gigi’s hockey are athletic ambitions in their own right. Hannah’s tutoring and Stevie’s flight-attendant work connect them to athletes through different skills. A reader who wants both romantic leads to have sporting goals may gravitate toward Gigi’s story. A reader interested in working near a team without being a player might be more curious about Stevie. The distinction is a matter of premise, not a judgment about which job is more important.

Finally, decide how much connection you want to earlier books. A familiar author’s fictional world may make a sequel or spinoff feel welcoming; it may also prompt you to check an order before starting. A new series can feel less entangled with a book you already finished, although a first entry does not guarantee that a future sequel will use the same couple or tone.

Questions readers often ask

Are all three books set at college?

No. The Graham Effect is presented as a college-hockey romance. Wildfire takes its characters to a summer-camp workplace, and Mile High follows a professional hockey player and a flight attendant. The differences are part of the recommendations, not a reason to assume one book will reproduce a campus setting it does not advertise.

Must I read the original series before these books?

Check the relevant author or publisher page and decide how much context you prefer. Simon & Schuster numbers Wildfire second in Maple Hills. Kennedy identifies The Graham Effect as the first Campus Diaries book in a connected world. Hodder places Mile High first in Windy City. A book’s position and a reader’s preference for avoiding callbacks are separate questions; this guide does not assert a universal compulsory order.

Are these the same level of spice as the two anchors?

There is no universal numerical scale that makes those labels directly comparable. Publishers use terms such as “steamy” for some of these books, but a word on a cover cannot tell you precisely what appears on the page or how a particular reader will feel about it. Consult authorized samples, author content notes and independently written reviews that address your own boundaries. Reviews may contain spoilers.

Can I read the books in my own language?

Languages and formats depend on edition, rights and location. The English titles in this guide are reliable identifiers for the works, not a promise that a translated ebook, paperback or audiobook is on sale in every country. Search by title and author in a local library or retailer and inspect the actual language and edition information before borrowing or buying.

What if I liked the hockey but not the original relationship?

Use the workplace or the athlete’s goal as the starting point rather than assuming the same pairing dynamic is essential. The Graham Effect retains college hockey with a training bargain; Mile High moves to professional travel. If you want a familiar author but a different place altogether, Wildfire shifts the action to summer camp. A short sample can tell you more about the voice than a shared category label.