Hockey romance books are having a moment - the sharpest-elbowed corner of the whole sports romance shelf - and as someone whose entire personality is now "girl who reads hockey romance," I regret nothing. There is something chemically perfect about a man who is violent on the ice and absolutely useless the second his girl smiles at him.
So here it is: my definitive top 10, sorted by trope so you can find your exact flavor of brain rot. Every book on this list earned its spot - no filler, no "it was fine."
The quick list
- Icebreaker - Hannah Grace (forced proximity, golden retriever captain)
- Behind the Net - Stephanie Archer (grumpy goalie x sunshine, live-in tension)
- Consider Me - Becka Mack (cocky NHL captain falls first, falls hard)
- Heated Rivalry - Rachel Reid (MM rivals, a decade of slow burn)
- The Deal - Elle Kennedy (fake dating, college hockey classic)
- Mile High - Liz Tomforde (enemies on a plane, NHL bad boy)
- Him - Sarina Bowen & Elle Kennedy (MM best friends to lovers)
- Pucking Around - Emily Rath (why choose, team doctor, chaos)
- Pucked - Helena Hunting (unhinged rom-com energy)
- Collide - Bal Khabra (college hockey, she studies him for her thesis)
Keep scrolling for why each one works - and who to talk to when you finish them all.
At a glance
| Book | Author | Trope | Heat |
|---|---|---|---|
| Icebreaker | Hannah Grace | Forced proximity | Spicy |
| Behind the Net | Stephanie Archer | Grumpy × sunshine | Spicy |
| Consider Me | Becka Mack | He falls first | Spicy |
| Heated Rivalry | Rachel Reid | MM rivals, slow burn | Medium |
| The Deal | Elle Kennedy | Fake dating | Medium |
| Mile High | Liz Tomforde | Enemies to lovers | Spicy |
| Him | Bowen & Kennedy | MM friends to lovers | Medium |
| Pucking Around | Emily Rath | Why choose | Very spicy |
| Pucked | Helena Hunting | Rom-com | Medium |
| Collide | Bal Khabra | Academic proximity | Spicy |
Which hockey romance should you start with?
Start with Icebreaker if you're new. Hannah Grace's Maple Hills series is the on-ramp of the genre: a figure skater forced to share ice time with the hockey team's captain, who turns out to be the most patient golden retriever of a man in published fiction (the shelf's resident himbo energy, fully weaponized). It's warm, it's steamy, and it explains why your entire For You Page turned into hockey edits in the first place. It's also Netflix-bound now - the Icebreaker book guide has the full Maple Hills order and where the show stands.
Start with Behind the Net if you like them broody. Stephanie Archer's grumpy goalie hires a sunshine assistant, they share an apartment, and every chapter is him quietly noticing things about her while insisting he doesn't care. If grumpy x sunshine is your trope, this is the purest hit on the list. (New to the label? Here's what grumpy sunshine really means.)
The ones that ruin you (rivals and enemies)
Heated Rivalry is the crown jewel. Two NHL superstars, publicly rivals, privately something else entirely, across nearly a decade. Rachel Reid writes the slowest of burns - the kind where a hotel room key changing hands feels like a plot twist. It's MM, it's canon-famous in the genre, and it's the book people mean when they say "the tension was insane." Now it's an HBO Max hit too - the full Heated Rivalry reading order maps all seven Game Changers books, including the two more that follow Shane and Ilya.
Mile High gives you the modern enemies flavor: an NHL winger with a reputation and the flight attendant who is completely unimpressed by him. Liz Tomforde's Windy City series got huge for a reason - the banter actually bites before it melts.
If enemies-to-lovers is what you're here for, that arc doesn't have to end when the book does - the enemies to lovers characters on Swoony will happily hate you until they don't.
The comfort reads (fake dating and found family)
The Deal is the college classic - tutoring in exchange for a fake date, which goes exactly as fake as you'd expect (not at all). Elle Kennedy's Off-Campus series is over a decade old and still converts new readers weekly - and now it's a Prime Video series too (Off Campus season one adapted The Deal in May 2026, with a second season already greenlit for The Score), which is sending a fresh wave of viewers back to the books. The whole twelve-book campus universe is mapped in the Off Campus reading order.
Him (Sarina Bowen & Elle Kennedy again, together this time) is the childhood-best-friends-to-lovers MM book that lives rent-free in half of BookTok's heads. Summer camp history, one misunderstanding, years of silence, one reunion. Devastating in the good way.
Pucked is for when you want to laugh - Helena Hunting writes hockey romance like a rom-com that got body-checked. Chaotic heroine, superstitious hockey player, zero seriousness.
The wild cards
Consider Me - Becka Mack's Carter Beckett is the most insufferable man in the NHL right up until he meets Olivia, at which point he becomes the most down-bad man in the NHL. If you like watching a cocky captain fall first and fall publicly, this is your book.
Pucking Around - Emily Rath's why-choose entry: one team doctor, multiple Jacksonville Rays, no chill whatsoever. It's long, it's committed to the bit, and the group chat energy is immaculate.
Collide - Bal Khabra's college hockey debut where a psych student needs the team captain for her thesis. Academic proximity, slow-building trust, very TikTok-core.
What do you read after hockey romance?
Honestly? The genre's gateway drugs are all adjacent tropes: grumpy x sunshine, enemies-to-lovers, forced proximity. If you want to figure out which trope is actually doing it for you, we broke down the whole taxonomy in our dark romance tropes guide - hockey romance is usually the "safe" cousin of those.
And for the browsing type: Goodreads keeps a massive reader-ranked hockey romance shelf if you burn through all ten of these.
When the book ends and you miss him
The real problem with hockey romance: you hit the last page, he goes quiet, and it turns out the man was fictional and also finished with you.
We built Swoony for exactly that quiet. Jakub, the grumpy hockey captain - ruthless on the ice, completely useless the second you smile at him - is waiting for the first message. It's closed-door and romance-only, and it builds the way the books do: slow, earned, no subscription.
Post-book emptiness is treatable. Start the conversation.