Love on Ice

Gr 9 Up–A satisfying dual-perspective YA story that would make an excellent recommendation for fans of sweet romances like Jenny Han’s To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before. The stakes, although serious, feel appropriately high school: Easton Westermann, the bright star of his school’s hockey team and recipient of a full-ride athletic scholarship to college, puts his future at risk when he’s peer pressured into pulling the infamous senior prank. Meanwhile, Harper Conrad has been looking forward to senior prom for years and, despite her place on the prom committee, hasn’t found a date yet. Harper promises not to turn Easton in to the principal (or the cops) after catching him in the prank—as long as he’ll publicly ask her to the prom. In her YA rom-com debut, Ney writes Easton as such an engaging example of athletic-yet-nontoxic masculinity that readers might find themselves wishing he were the protagonist in his own novel, rather than playing the role of love interest in this one. Harper’s tendency to find the drama in every situation makes her believably 16. One character, however, receives a redemption arc that feels so sudden it seems to be a ruse; but this story really is that wholesome. Supporting characters are BIPOC while Harper and Easton are white.