Lance Jefferson and Cassie Atwood are childhood friends who reconnect when Lance moves back to Cincinatti to join the Mavericks hockey team.

Cassie has just left her safe job to start her own papercraft business. She’s the baby of her family and while they all love her, there’s a bit too much ‘Little Cassie’ from her parents and her big brothers. Lance spent much of his childhood in their home, and Cassie spent that time crushing on him. Now she’s 24, and doing her own thing, but her family are still underestimating her.

Lance has a bunch of childhood trauma behind him that Cassie is unaware of and it distorts his behaviour and his thinking. He has never had a girlfriend, and he makes a mess of things by communicating too little and assuming too much. Cassie is patient – up to a point – but she has her own insecurities as well. They both have a lot of work to do to find each other, and between Cassie’s new business and Lance’s past, it’s a long haul.

I’m torn about Breakaway – I really liked both Cassie and Lance, and the conflict between them felt authentic. However, I struggled with the dirty talk and how their emotions transitioned super quickly to arousal at the strangest times. These mood shifts were so jarring that sometimes I double checked that I hadn’t mistaken the emotional jumps. But otherwise, these are two young people who look out for each other and work hard to be together at times when their careers pull them apart.

Thank you Laura Marquez Diamond and Storm Publishing for the ARC. Opinions are my own.

Laura Black is a romance editor, reader and reviewer based in Queensland, Australia. You can visit me on Instagram @laura_black_reads