Reviews tagging 'Toxic relationship'

Icebreaker by Hannah Grace

55 reviews

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

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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. 

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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

sadiesadiesadie's review against another edition

emotional funny tense medium-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Emotional abuse, Body shaming, Cursing, Toxic friendship, Eating disorder, Toxic relationship, Alcohol, and Sexual content

Moderate: Bullying

Minor: Pregnancy, Sexual harassment, Violence, and Vomit

maggies's review against another edition

emotional lighthearted medium-paced

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

1.0

Booktok lied about this one. The characters are borderline insufferable or otherwise so one dimensional that they might as well not even have been in the cast. It was easily 20% longer than it needed to be, with entire chapters where nothing happens to move the plot forward. The constant references to pregnancy were really annoying, especially because the subtext was always "a baby is the worst thing that can happen to you."

I was really frustrated that Anastasia ended up pregnant at the end despite telling Nate that she didn't want to be pregnant and preferred to adopt.

I also found it to be poorly written in general—the tense was inconsistent and odd, switching randomly between past and present, and the dialogue did not feel authentic...a shocking amount of dialogue happened off-page and was recapped by the characters' internal monologue later, and what did occur on-page was stilted and awkward. The spice might have been the only redeeming aspect of the book ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Toxic friendship, Sexual content, and Toxic relationship

Moderate: Pregnancy, Vomit, and Violence

Minor: Infertility and Infidelity

books_baking_brews's review against another edition

emotional funny lighthearted slow-paced

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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Toxic relationship, Death of parent, Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, Body shaming, and Eating disorder

margaretwaltemath09's review against another edition

funny inspiring medium-paced

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

4.0

It was a great book. It was relatable. The only part I didn't like is how in the epilogue she is pregnant only like 2 years after the book ends. I wish we could have seen more of her professional skating.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Eating disorder, Cursing, Toxic relationship, Alcohol, and Toxic friendship

Moderate: Injury/Injury detail, Physical abuse, and Gaslighting

Minor: Panic attacks/disorders, Vomit, Sexism, and Pregnancy

pippwynn's review against another edition

hopeful lighthearted 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? No

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual content and Toxic relationship

Moderate: Gaslighting, Eating disorder, and Emotional abuse

Minor: Pregnancy

sillyduckie's review against another edition

I tried.

The main character has an eating disorder that is fueled by her skating patter constantly telling her she’s too heavy for lifts and needs to eat less. And the two guys she’s hooking up with are constantly feeding or trying to feed her. It was exhausting. The sex scenes/spice were laughable. They just didn’t make sense to me and yet there are so many. They feel so medical and clinical? Also completely unrealistic. I was very puzzled by her having mind blowing orgasms and then being able to walk immediately after. Also the fact that after the first time the main characters have sex they get up and shower. He goes to his housemate’s room to get “girl stuff” which includes shampoo and conditioner??? And he insists on washing her hair but he doesn’t know what conditioner is?

There is so much needless drama. If this was set in high school and everyone was about sixteen then the drama and emotional stakes would make sense. But for twenty something year olds?? Nah.

I usually listen to audiobooks on 1x. With this I kept upping the speed to make it go faster. I got to 2x (at which this book still felt slow and natural??) and then finally gave up.

This is the first booktok rec I’ve given a chance and never again tbh. 

Also holy exposition and repetition back man! We learn so much about every single background character for reasons I can’t fathom. And every time the main characters are in the same scene and the POV switches we get to read the scene through both eyes. Honestly if one  POV was taken out, the book would’ve been much shorter and the quality would’ve stayed the same. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual content, Body shaming, Eating disorder, Toxic relationship, Fatphobia, and Toxic friendship

mareliza's review against another edition

emotional funny medium-paced

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

3.75

I thought it was an okay to good book and see why people really like it. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Eating disorder, Gaslighting, and Toxic relationship

emmasmidnightlibrary's review against another edition

slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? N/A
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Toxic relationship, Fatphobia, Gaslighting, Eating disorder, Sexism, Pregnancy, Misogyny, Emotional abuse, Body shaming, and Sexual content