Reviews tagging 'Body shaming'

Icebreaker by Hannah Grace

777 reviews

rkw2017's review against another edition

medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• 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: Body shaming, Mental illness, Sexual harassment, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Vomit, Death of parent, and Pregnancy

skitson's review against another edition

funny medium-paced

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

3.25

For being one of, if not the most, “smut” labeled book of the last couple of years, I actually really enjoyed it. I think it’s written fairly well, and, as someone who doesn’t enjoy sex scenes, I just got through those to enjoy the rest of the story. But if you like smut and sex scenes, this is the book for you

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cursing, Sexual content, Toxic friendship, and Alcohol

Moderate: Body shaming, Bullying, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Vomit, Gaslighting, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Death of parent and Pregnancy

jess_h7's review against another edition

emotional funny lighthearted sad 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? It's complicated

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body shaming and Toxic friendship

Moderate: Vomit and Abandonment

yoruuxd's review against another edition

adventurous funny hopeful fast-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? It's complicated

3.0

I am very torn with this book. 
When it first came out, I heard nothing but amazing things and I was so excited to read it. Finally, we were having a return to cutesie, fluffy, YA romance in a sea of serious, long form high fantasy.  
After a while, I then heard nothing but negative things, with the biggest sin being its own marketing. It bacon the face of book-tok with everyone talking about it as a cute romance book that touches on more serious topics such as toxic relationships, disordered eating and anxiety but not a single person directly addressing the fact that his book is smutty as hell. It’s marketing as a soft romance, enemies to lovers and even its front cover is a cutesie soft pastel illustration. It became - and continues to be - such a problem that it’s frequently put in YA sections at book stores in spite of it, again, containing multiple explicit scenes. There is nothing about the cover or marketing or book description that indicate it could be anything other than a teen romcom. 
To be clear, it’s a decent book. Yes, the writing is cringy in places. It has the distinct feeling of a millennial being down with the kids and I personally dont understand why people hate on this and similar writing when there’s nothing wrong with it. It’s so cute, the characters are fun and likeable, the story is relatable even at its ‘darker’ moments and has so many feet kicking giggle enduring moments. I recommend it for a fun romcom read but, again, it is a smutty book. The smut is well written, but it continues to be marketed - both professionally and on booktok - as a YA book when it absolutely shouldn’t be. 
Also, I spent the last half of the book on edge that it was going to end on an accidental pregnancy, when I looked it up everywhere said there wasn’t one and then BAM accidental pregnancy in the epilogue. Yes, they’re both happy about it but it’s still there. 
Overall, it is a really fun, cute and hot read that has unfortunate overarching consequences to the reading space. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Eating disorder, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Body shaming, Cursing, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Panic attacks/disorders, Sexism, Pregnancy, and Classism

Minor: Death of parent and Alcohol

lum1nka's review against another edition

lighthearted fast-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? Yes

2.5

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Body shaming, Eating disorder, Toxic relationship, and Sexual harassment

Minor: Bullying, Emotional abuse, Vomit, and Injury/Injury detail

jax10124's review against another edition

funny lighthearted medium-paced

• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

Good book. Standard hockey romance. 
Spicy 🌶️ spice 😉

I liked the discussions about therapy and normalization of that. 

Lola is my favourite character. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Body shaming, Bullying, Cursing, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Fatphobia, Infidelity, Sexual assault, Blood, Death of parent, Pregnancy, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, Abandonment, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail

creative_toni's review against another edition

adventurous emotional funny hopeful inspiring lighthearted medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual content

Moderate: Body shaming, Cursing, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, and Toxic friendship

steviiee's review against another edition

lighthearted fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Loveable characters? Yes

4.75

easy and unserious read that I admittedly LOVED

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual content

Minor: Body shaming and Emotional abuse

toast38's review against another edition

emotional funny lighthearted fast-paced

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

3.75

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Content Warnings

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

Moderate: Eating disorder, Medical trauma, and Gaslighting

Minor: Violence, Blood, Vomit, Death of parent, and Pregnancy

natashaleighton_'s review against another edition

challenging emotional funny hopeful lighthearted fast-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

4.0

A fun, fast paced and utterly satisfying read! Though not technically a Sports Romance (the author describes it more as a college romance) I did like the glimpse into figure skating (and to a lesser extent Hockey) that we get. Two sports I’m not overly familiar with but always love to read about whenever they crop up. 

Though I confess, the cosy, found family-esque friendship we see in Nate’s team and how much they genuinely care about each other (and also Anastasia) really made this a far more heartwarming read than I expected. 

We also get a lot more depth to our protagonists (which I hadn’t anticipated either) but really loved. Especially when it came to Anastasia, whose complex relationship dynamics and struggle with self acceptance so explored incredibly well. The emotions conveyed were everything! 

However, it was the chemistry between her and Nate (which was scorchingly good) that really won me over. Well, that and their fabulously witty banter which I couldn’t get enough of.

And the supporting cast were really well written (and endearing) too! Lola, JJ, Henry and Russ all won me over with their adorably entertaining personalities and I’m definitely excited to see more of them (even if only in cameo form.) 

Though, knowing Russ and Henry have their own books has definitely made me more eager to continue the series.

If you like Rom-coms with plenty of sexy, chemistry laden (open door) scenes along with plenty of banter, then you should definitely consider checking out — just be sure to check the trigger warnings first. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Eating disorder, Sexual content, and Toxic friendship

Moderate: Body shaming, Emotional abuse, and Gaslighting

Minor: Vomit, Death of parent, and Pregnancy