seriously romantic: breaking the ice by julie cross

we first met haley and fletcher in off the ice, the first book in the juniper falls series. breaking the ice is just as satisfying and carries the same surprising depth for a young adult sports romance. clearly, that's not all it is.

fletcher and haley are both doing summer coursework for very different reasons. used to being the guy no one notices, fletcher does his best to avoid attention, having previously garnered too much of it. fletcher is one of those unfortunate people who struggle with such severe anaphylaxis that even the most innocent of interactions can result in a life and death situation. but having had his allergies used against him in the past, he doesn't share this information willingly, which makes socializing in high school a challenge. 

except haley's pencil tapping is making fletcher crazy and when he steals it from her, she finds herself thinking of him nonstop. she thinks he's cute. and she knows he's smart. and when he's not putting up walls there's this really good guy that she's aching to get to know. but fletcher with walls can be a real jerk. and even though she comes to understand why he puts them up, she also still wants to break them down. 

lucky for fletch, haley isn't the type of girl who takes no for an answer. she pushes him to share more and more of himself. and as he opens up, he starts to learn that maybe trusting others isn't the worst thing in the world. that, actually, most people out there don't have it out for him and don't want to kill him. being with fletcher centers haley in a way that she's always found difficult to maintain. and he helps her realize that there are things she can do, steps she can take to make things easier for herself. because even though she's the juniper falls princess, she is a mess of insecurities and has a hard time seeing that most of the time fletcher pulls away has little to do with her, and everything to do with his own issues. 

together they bring out the best in each other. and haley and fletch are pretty sweet and special people. i loved rooting for them to figure it all out. and i loved how things end on a realistic note for them. it's happy, but life is an uncertain thing, and it's okay to leave certain questions unanswered. 

**breaking the ice will publish on december 26, 2017. i received an advance reader copy courtesy of netgalley/entangled publishing (entangled: teen) in exchange for my honest review.