Reviews with content warning for Medical content - Icebreaker

This is absolutely one of my favorite books and definitely my favorite romance book. I love how this book actually tries to resolve the conflicts in a realistic and reasonable way and nothing gets blown out of proportion the way it sometimes happens in other books. Nate and Anastasia really try to talk to each other troughout the book and really want to understand each other, and I feel like not many authors are able to capture that. I loved the little references in the book to other books/ skating drama (?). I felt like the whole thing with knowing something rationally but not understanding something emotionally was shown really well in this book. For now I haven't found anything to criticise in this book. I just love this book so much I can't even put everything in to words. This book just made me really happy.

PS: that Uber scene made me want to crawl into a hole though.

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disasterdump's review against another edition

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fast-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? It's complicated

2.5

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decklededgess's review against another edition

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emotional funny lighthearted 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? Yes

5.0

trigger warnings: sexual content, alcohol, physical injury, eating disorder, toxic friendship, gaslighting, body shaming, emotional abuse, infidelity mention, physical violence, pregnancy mention, vomit/emetophobia, hypothermia

Listen...I have always said hockey romances hit different. I have yet to be disappointed (although I'm incredibly picky about which ones I do read so maybe my discretion has let to biased results lol).

Stassie was an incredible lead to follow. Her backstory is set up so that it felt like I was still getting to know her at 80% of the book because of the layers that made her who she was. It felt like a friendship between me as the reader and Stassie. That really tied me in to the story the entire way through. Same goes for Nate. The slow reveal of both of their histories, childhoods, fears, traumas, and so on was done exquisitely. I was invested in the two of them the entire way through. In fact, I could say that the same goes for all the secondary characters because I want a book for every single one of these dweeby hockey players. I love them all.

The smut in this book is GOD TIER. It's almost one every 10% of the book unless there was an emotional high point to take up space. It was just CHEFS KISS. Horny in the best way, brat x pleasure dom, tender yet rough, and just fun to read.

I loved the way Stassie's eating disorder, toxic friendship with Aaron, and her adoption trauma were addressed throughout the book. It felt respectful, gentle, and authentic to the character. There was no trauma porn with intention to evoke tears. It felt like raw and realistic representation and I loved how well it was done.

The most stunning part is that this is a DEBUT so I have the highest hopes that the books are just going to get unbelievably better from here. Loved it!!

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culzean's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional funny hopeful inspiring lighthearted 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? Yes

3.75

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cassie12_21's review against another edition

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funny medium-paced

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

3.75

This book is very funny, and I really like Nate, I wish he was real. I thought him figure skating was going to take up more of the plot. I wasn't a huge fan of the epilogue:

why is she pregnant, when she specifcally had said she didn't want that, and she wanted to adopt 🙄

Henry (a side character) is definitely Autistic, I would've liked that to have been actually mentioned. 🌶🌶/5.

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