Icebreaker is for readers who want a hockey romance in which the heroine has her own sport, her own coach and her own shot at Team USA, and the hero is the captain who ends up sharing her ice. Hannah Grace opens the Maple Hills series with a facilities mishap that forces a figure skater and a hockey team to train in the same rink, and the first chapter is as much about Anastasia’s career as about love.
Two athletes, one rink
The Simon & Schuster page for Icebreaker introduces Anastasia Allen, a competitive figure skater who has worked her whole life for a shot at Team USA. Everything seems on track when she earns a full scholarship to the University of California, Maple Hills, and a place on its competitive skating team. Nothing will stand in her way, the description says, not even the hockey team’s captain, Nate Hawkins.
Nate’s focus is keeping his team on the ice, which becomes tricky when a facilities mishap means they must share a rink with the figure skaters, including Anastasia, who clearly cannot stand him. Then her skating partner faces an uncertain future, and she may have to look to Nate to take her shot. Sparks fly, but she isn’t worried, because she could never like a hockey player, right?
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Does each athlete get a story of their own?
That is the question for this review, and the evidence is lopsided in an informative way. Anastasia’s story is the more developed one in the publisher’s material. The description gives her a lifelong aim, a scholarship, a team and a problem that threatens her place. Nate’s side in the description is simpler: he leads a team and wants it to have ice time. The description does not say whether he has an equally developed arc, though the structure of a rink-sharing romance suggests both of their schedules will matter.
What helps is that the description makes the friction practical: two teams need the same surface, and his team’s needs push against hers. If you like romances in which two ambitious people have to negotiate scarce resources before they negotiate feelings, the premise delivers that on paper.
What the first chapter shows
The publisher provides the opening chapter, which is narrated by Anastasia in first person and present tense. It puts you in a training session with her coach, Aubrey Brady, who is hard on her about a quadruple Lutz she cannot yet land, and with her skating partner, Aaron Carlisle, who has been paired with her for three years. Anastasia lives with Aaron and her best friend, Lola, and the chapter paints a tightly scheduled life, with a planner that governs her meals, sleep and everything else, and a casual arrangement with a basketball player named Ryan that is explicitly no-strings. Nate does not appear in the excerpt, so the first pages are about her world before the rink changes it.
The tone is bantering and profane, with roommates who tease each other, and the chapter moves into a sexual encounter between Anastasia and Ryan. That is a sign of the book’s heat level.
The campus around the rink
The excerpt builds a social world beyond the ice. Anastasia and Aaron share a condo near campus with Lola, who studies performing arts and spends part of the chapter upset about losing a lead role, and the university has other teams and parties that touch their lives, including the basketball squad. That matters for the review question. A story that gives the heroine a coach, a partner, a best friend and a campus with its own rivalries is more likely to feel like two athletes’ lives colliding, not a hockey player’s story with a skating backdrop.
Series position and publication
Icebreaker is Book 1 of The Maple Hills Series. Simon & Schuster lists it as an Atria Books paperback published on February 7, 2023, at 448 pages, and labels it a number one bestseller with over two million copies sold. Retailers also list an unabridged audiobook read by Elizabeth Louise and Tim Paige, which is worth knowing if you prefer to sample by ear. The page calls it a TikTok sensation that is perfect for fans of hockey romances like Heated Rivalry. It classifies the book as contemporary romance and romantic comedy, and describes Hannah Grace as an English author writing adult contemporary romance and the author of Icebreaker, Wildfire and Daydream. A university setting does not make it a younger category: the author’s bio describes her work as adult contemporary romance.
What readers and critics praise about Icebreaker
Readers on major book-review sites most often praise the chemistry, playful banter and sweet small gestures between Anastasia and Nate, along with the group-chat friendships and team camaraderie around them. Many name a side character as a favorite for humor and charm, some appreciate the leads’ open communication and the candid talk about therapy, and readers who enjoy steam say the heat level is well done. Fans who prize characters over plot call the book compelling and want more of the series.
A review from a pop-culture site describes a fresh reversal of the usual enemies-to-lovers setup, with a hard-edged heroine and a cheerful hero, and credits the lively banter, the funny and loyal hockey team, the clearly explained sports details and the serious topics handled with care.
From Alisson Bento’s books
College & Academia
A contemporary romance about a love that breaks every rule they swore to keep.
Kindle edition · Check Kindle Unlimited availability on Amazon.
Content notes
The Simon & Schuster page does not publish a content-warning list. The first chapter itself shows several things worth noting: heavy drinking and a hangover, a coach whose pressure is a constant theme, and a skating partner who makes remarks about her weight while she keeps a strict meal plan and food tracker. It also contains frank language and the start of that sexual encounter. Treat that as what one chapter shows, not a full list, and look for author-posted warnings before you decide.
Who will like it, and what to watch for
Icebreaker should suit readers who like a female athlete’s ambition at the center, a rivalry that begins over practical needs and a campus world with a close circle of friends. It may not suit you if you prefer a slow burn from the first page, if you dislike frank sexual language or if sports-pressure and body-image themes are difficult for you. In the first chapter and beyond, look for:
- Anastasia’s voice: do you enjoy the dry, self-mocking narration, and does her ambition feel earned?
- The skating: is the sport described with enough specificity to make the stakes feel real?
- Her partnership with Aaron: does their closeness feel like a strong foundation or a pressure the book will test?
- The arrival of Nate: when he does show up, does the rink-sharing premise create the friction the description promises?
Reading alongside
Elle Kennedy’s The Deal also centers a hockey captain on a campus, but its author’s page makes a bargain the engine: a tutoring-for-a-pretend-date exchange, with Garrett’s grades threatening his place on the team. Icebreaker replaces the deal with a shared rink and gives the heroine a sport of her own. Liz Tomforde’s Mile High keeps the hockey but moves to a professional workplace, with a flight attendant on an NHL team’s plane and a hero known as the player fans love to hate.
A darker professional-team situation
Puck Defiance by Alisson Bento introduces Portland Pioneers captain Webb concealing an injury while navigating a coach’s expectations and a coach’s-daughter premise. It connects through sporting obligations colliding with attraction, but a professional team and darker pressure set it apart, and it has no advertised figure-skating partnership. Compare the sports romance shelf for those distinct choices.
A Date Before Faceoff follows Ivy Sloan and goalie Noel Hart arranging a wedding date around their careers. This original adult M/F couple appears before Breakaway on Ice, not Puck Defiance, and its notes describe closed-door intimacy. Start online; the page offers email access to the remaining chapters.
Sources checked 20–21 October 2026. Reading suggestions compare advertised premises; they do not promise matching heat, consent dynamics, relationship structures, content or endings.
