Reviews tagging 'Fatphobia'

Icebreaker by Hannah Grace

91 reviews

wondahwoman's review against another edition

funny medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.25

While I thoroughly enjoyed the romance between Anastasia and Nate, the main source of conflict throughout the story felt a bit forced to me.

Spoilers for the antagonist/conflict below:

Stassi’s skating partner, Aaron, is nothing short of emotionally abusive, and it seemed unrealistic to me that Stassi would forgive/excuse SO MANY of his actions. Even towards the end when she had become disillusioned by all of his manipulative behavior, she continued excusing awful things. I wish there’d been more development into why she was so deep under his spell after having only been his partner for two years.

I appreciate that the drama between the two love interests was very minimal (see also: no third act breakup!) but the conflict that was there made it hard to finish near the end. It was worth it for the romance, but I wish the antagonist had been more thought out. 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Toxic friendship and Sexual content

Moderate: Body shaming, Eating disorder, Misogyny, Sexism, Emotional abuse, Fatphobia, and Gaslighting

Minor: Death of parent and Pregnancy

jreshsingh26's review against another edition

emotional funny hopeful lighthearted fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Sexual content, and Toxic friendship

Moderate: Sexual assault, Sexual harassment, and Body shaming

Minor: Vomit, Fatphobia, Emotional abuse, Toxic friendship, Pregnancy, Infidelity, Body shaming, Toxic relationship, Chronic illness, Death of parent, and Eating disorder

jeanettesreadingcorner's review against another edition

emotional lighthearted slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

What I liked: 

• Once I read past 200 or so pages, it’s like the author found the plot and the story actually began. I started to enjoy the characters the romance, and everything else more. Nate and Anastasia are really cute. I enjoyed how they supported each other and their character growth, together and as individuals. The hockey team guys are funny and sweet too. I loved their found family dynamics.

- Nate punching Aaron was really satisfying. 

• I’m curious to read Wildfire to see how it compares to this one and I liked the characters enough to continue reading in the Maple Hills book world. 
• The ending was astronomically better than the beginning of the book. Overall, I eventually liked Icebreaker and I could see why it’s popular. There are some aspects that bothered me about it though…

What I disliked: 
- Aaron The Asshole sucks and I hate him, especially the way he treated Anastasia. 

• the beginning is a mess. There’s no direction or storyline. The characters are just partying and having sex, talking about sex, or insinuating it. I don’t mind sex scenes and they don’t bother me. However, they don’t need to be so frequent and in every moment the main characters are together. It was just too much in one book. That’s something that I don’t like about adult romance books. 
• British phrases in a book set in the USA and the characters are American? So weird. I guess it could be the quirky thing that the author writes but it seemed so odd and out of place to me. 
• The book is written in dual pov, which I usually prefer and love, but it did feel repetitive at times in this one. 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Bullying, Death, Death of parent, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, Toxic relationship, Toxic friendship, Vomit, Fatphobia, Body shaming, Infidelity, Medical content, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Injury/Injury detail, Cursing, and Grief

Moderate: Abandonment, Alcohol, and Cancer

a_ford1's review against another edition

emotional funny inspiring medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.5

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Body shaming, Sexual content, Gaslighting, Eating disorder, Fatphobia, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Death of parent, Pregnancy, Alcohol, and Toxic friendship

moh_reads's review against another edition

lighthearted slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.0

It was fine. Writing was meh. Lots of telling, not showing. Characterization didn't feel consistent. FMC was unrealistically snotty towards the MMC in the beginning just for the sake of the author writing hate sex scenes. She was also hyper oblivious to the antagonist being abusive despite being her very therapeutized. First third dragged. I had to power through most of the book. There were some fourth wall breaking moments that really took me out of it. 

Sex scenes were fine. FMC is able to orgasm just from penetration. The almost cartoony cover combined with how explicit some of the scenes were feels like a disaster waiting to happen (I'm just imagining a preteen picking this up at Target and paging though because it looks cute). Ending was super shifty considering

they explicitly talked about her not wanting to get pregnant until she achieved some major career goals - felt like it really undermined how ambitious she was made out to be. Also getting pregnant after one time of throwing up the pill felt cheap.

Read only because a friend lent it to me and I felt obligated to finish it. Read the first 40 pages, put it down for about a month, then finished it in a laborious sitting. Extremely unlikely to read any of the author's other works. 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Fatphobia, Sexual content, Alcohol, Pregnancy, Vomit, Body shaming, Eating disorder, and Toxic friendship

tgreene507's review against another edition

funny hopeful lighthearted medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

---

Content Warnings

Moderate: Toxic friendship, Fatphobia, Cursing, Death of parent, Abandonment, Misogyny, Gaslighting, Alcohol, and Emotional abuse

chloeanna's review against another edition

No plot, bad “spice”, and the dialogue is just bad. 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Body shaming, Dysphoria, Eating disorder, and Fatphobia

lisa07xie's review against another edition

emotional hopeful medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

I love Anastasia and Nate they are so cute and a perfect match!! I loved how they helped eachother grow and that Anastasia finally noticed what a piece of shit Aaron is (sorry for my rudeness but Aaron deserves it!). The Ending was perfect I am so happy for them and that they achieved their dreams but now I wanna see them with their little girl o̴̶̷̥᷅﹏o̴̶̷̥᷅ Still it was so cute♡♡♡

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Eating disorder, Gaslighting, Sexual assault, Violence, Fatphobia, Alcohol, Body shaming, Sexual content, Toxic friendship, Vomit, Cursing, Emotional abuse, and Pregnancy

uranaishi's review against another edition

adventurous emotional funny hopeful reflective tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.5

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Toxic friendship, Alcohol, and Sexual content

Moderate: Emotional abuse, Fatphobia, Body shaming, Injury/Injury detail, Misogyny, Eating disorder, Medical content, Pregnancy, Bullying, Cursing, Gaslighting, and Sexism

Minor: Violence, Vomit, Blood, Death of parent, Grief, Infidelity, Sexual harassment, and Death

dexlud's review against another edition

emotional funny hopeful inspiring lighthearted reflective medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

I quite enjoyed Icebreaker, but the fact I had to skim between page 350 and 380 really wasn’t fun. I enjoyed the downfall of the c**t, and the epilogue was very cute.

R.I.P Anastasia’s

pussy.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent, Death, Eating disorder, Fatphobia, Emotional abuse, and Gaslighting

Moderate: Sexual harassment and Sexual assault

Minor: Abortion