Biblioracle looking for a good hockey romance book

I don’t normally do romance. Just ask Ms. Biblioracle.

Ba-dum-da!

But seriously, folks, romance is not a genre I read a lot of books in, which actually makes me unusual among readers in general, as romance is by far the leading category in book sales, year after year.

Every now and then I try to stay informed about at least a small part of what’s going on in the world of love. Given my lifelong hockey fandom, I decided to explore the relatively new and extremely popular subgenre of “hockey romance.”

A search for “hockey romance” on any bookselling site will reveal thousands of books with titles like “Meet Me in the Punishment Box,” “Totally Pucked,” and “Pucking Around.” It’s enough to make you feel like the genre has emerged because hockey terminology makes good puns.

Most of the books follow a standard romance trope, such as “friends to lovers” or “enemies to lovers,” but with some hockey-related twists thrown in as well. To dig deeper, I decided to read what I believe to be a best-selling hockey romance. Hannah Grace’s novel of all time is “Icebreaker”.

“Icebreaker” is told from the alternate perspectives of Anastasia Allen and Nate Hawkins, both of whom attend the University of California at Maple Hills. When one of the university’s two rinks is disabled due to sabotage, both figure skaters and hockey players must collaborate to find ways to get enough ice time to achieve their dreams of Olympic gold medalists and pro-hockey stars.

“Icebreaker” has gained popularity in the #BookTok community and increased viral sales, and you can see why. The novel is generous to its characters; it gives them the space to express their deepest hopes and dreams and then gives them the chance to realize them. The men and women in the book respect each other as human beings, but they also can’t keep their hands off each other.

Maybe it’s unfair of me to hold “Icebreaker” to the standards of accuracy in high-level sports, but there are some problems. University figure skating is not a gateway to the Olympics, and Anastasia’s specialty (pairs) is not a category in the university competition. California is not the home of college hockey. The California setting of “Icebreaker” seems to serve as an excuse for hockey players to get tanned abs when they take their shirts off, rather than the usual hockey player’s pale skin look.

Those of us in Generation . It didn’t make much sense in the movie either.

“Icebreaker” originated on the storytelling platform Wattpad, which prioritizes serialized fiction, creating a series of “and then” plots where literally anything can happen, and “Icebreaker” features a lot, including a series of steamy sexual encounters between him and Anastasia. There’s a lot going on. Nate.

“Icebreaker” ultimately becomes so sprawling that it becomes tiresome as the story refuses to be resolved, possibly a product of its Wattpad origins.

Is it a good romance novel that I can recommend? I’m no genre expert, but my answer is no.

When I read “Icebreaker,” I began to believe that there needed to be a hockey romance that took the hockey part more seriously and tried to tell us more about the spirit of playing hockey and what it does rather than giving someone a six. – A package that women will go crazy over.

My search continues.

John Warner is the author of “Why They Can’t Write: Killing the Five-Paragraph Essay and Other Requirements.”

Twitter @biblioracle

Book recommendations from Biblioracle

John Warner tells you what you should read, based on the last five books you’ve read.

1. “I Have Some Questions for You” By Rebecca Makkai

2. “Babylon” by R.F. Kuang

3. “Futuristic Violence and Flashy Dresses” By David Wong

4. “The Spell of Forgetting” By Adrienne Young

5. “Zoey Punches Future Dick” By David Wong

—Lauren G., Chicago

I think Lauren will enjoy the sci-fi thriller in Blake Crouch’s “Dark Matter.”

1. “Lincoln Highway” By Amor Towles

2. “The Goose Book” By Yiyun Li

3. “Invisible Angers of the Heart” by John Boyne

4. “Skippy is Dead” by Paul Murray

5. “Namesake” By Jhumpa Lahiri

—Tim M., Downers Grove

Ben Lerner’s “10:04” is approaching a decade old, but it still feels prophetic about the situation we face in the world today. I think this suits Tim very well.

1. “Tomorrow, Tomorrow and Tomorrow” By Gabrielle Zevin

2. “Tom Lake” By Ann Patchett

3. “David Copperfield” by Charles Dickens

4. “Anna Karenina” by Leo Tolstoy

5. “We Should Not Think About Ourselves” By Lauren Grodstein

— Betsy P., Chicago

Both classic and contemporary on this list, it seems like you can’t go wrong. I’m going with a book that is contemporary but should also be considered a classic: “White Teeth” by Zadie Smith.

Get a reading from Bibliocle

Send a list of the last five books you read and your hometown to: biblioracle@gmail.com.