Reviews tagging 'Blood'

Icebreaker by Hannah Grace

37 reviews

kathis_wonderland's review against another edition

lighthearted relaxing 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

4.0

Icebreaker by Hannah Grace is the first book in the Maple Hill series. Anastasia is an aspiring figure skater. When problems at university lead to the skating team and the ice hockey team needing to share a rink, problems are inevitable. Sparks fly between Anastasia and Nate, the captain of the hockey team, and not only good ones. But they need to work together, which includes trying to ignore all the good sparks between them. 
 
I love figure skating! In my teenage years I would get up any time during the night during the Olympic Winter Games whenever figure skating was on, because I was just amazed by it. So, is it surprising that I liked this book? No, it isn't. This book was really good to read. I liked the alternating POVs that gave us an insight into figure skating and ice hockey, which I found interesting. What really amazed me in this book was consent. They all took consent very seriously. This is what sexual action should look like. Nate even said somewhere at the beginning of their relationship that Anastasia can withdraw consent anytime she wants to. Loved that.
 
The communication between Anastasia and Nate was quite good as well. Usually, when it comes to characters in this age group, there often is miscommunication, which annoys me greatly. Their chemistry was amazing as well! Lots of spice in this book.
 
On thing that bothered me, and this is totally a me thing and has nothing to do with the book by itself, was the name Anastasia. More often than not my mind jumped to Fifty Shades of Grey when I read the name. And this book is completely different to the other series! I don't know what came over me... 
 
I quite enjoyed this book. Sometimes the story seemed a bit dragging, but overall, it was good. I hope I can get back to Maple Hills at some point.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcohol, Sexual content, and Toxic friendship

Moderate: Blood, Body shaming, Cursing, and Gaslighting

Minor: Vomit, Pregnancy, Eating disorder, and Mental illness

hannibanani29's review against another edition

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? No

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual content, Eating disorder, and Toxic friendship

Moderate: Violence, Sexual assault, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Death of parent, Blood, and Homophobia

smuttymcbookface's review

lighthearted medium-paced

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

4.5

Wow, what a book, and so much to cover!

First of all, I want to commend this book on the adult handling of so many difficult topics, from calorie intake for professionals to handling workplace relationships where the friendship has soured. The wonderful communication between the two main characters meant you truly understood how both were feeling, even from opposite sides. There was something realistic about each of the characters, and you truly felt they could have existed outside of the romance book.

My two main gripes about this were that I felt the plot dragged on a little at the end (for example,

her skating and falling into the lake was an unnecessary extra

) and that some of the actions were a little too childish sometimes for me to reconcile with the development of the characters. However, both of these were minor gripes, and I found the book amazing overall.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcohol and Sexual content

Moderate: Body shaming

Minor: Blood, Violence, Vomit, Injury/Injury detail, and Sexual assault

riviuu's review

emotional funny medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• 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

2.5

its a bit like fanfiction but i did enjoy the non-toxic characters and the actual character self reflection in this book. it was entertaining but not a good piece of literature

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual content and Toxic friendship

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

Minor: Alcohol, Blood, Cursing, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Mental illness, Pregnancy, and Violence

l_lilly_05's review

funny 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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual content, Eating disorder, and Toxic friendship

Moderate: Violence, Body shaming, and Gaslighting

Minor: Sexual assault, Blood, Vomit, Alcohol, and Fatphobia

pagesihavenotyetread's review against another edition

emotional funny hopeful inspiring 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? It's complicated

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual content and Cursing

Moderate: Alcohol, Body shaming, Toxic friendship, Dysphoria, Eating disorder, and Emotional abuse

Minor: Blood, Gaslighting, Death of parent, Pregnancy, Sexual assault, and Vomit

abifoster02's review against another edition

adventurous emotional funny hopeful lighthearted 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? No

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body shaming, Injury/Injury detail, Violence, Alcohol, Toxic friendship, Blood, Eating disorder, Gaslighting, Vomit, and Mental illness

Moderate: Death of parent

Minor: Pregnancy

sophieamreacher's review

challenging emotional funny hopeful lighthearted relaxing medium-paced

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

3.5

I got this after reading From Lukov, With Love and I felt like it had so much potential but I just felt this was missing something. I felt like some of the characters needed fleshing out more and I wished we saw more of them training together and building that relationship and trust. I was also a bit let down by the ending. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gaslighting, Eating disorder, Mental illness, Abandonment, Sexual content, and Toxic friendship

Moderate: Injury/Injury detail and Violence

Minor: Pregnancy, Blood, and Vomit

cdoubet's review against another edition

emotional tense 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

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Mental illness, Sexual content, Blood, Misogyny, Toxic friendship, Violence, Injury/Injury detail, Eating disorder, Bullying, Vomit, Alcohol, Body shaming, Cursing, Emotional abuse, and Gaslighting

Moderate: Abandonment, Panic attacks/disorders, Sexual assault, and Sexual harassment

Minor: Addiction, Terminal illness, Pregnancy, Alcoholism, and Death of parent

kingangie's review against another edition

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Eating disorder, Sexual content, and Toxic friendship

Moderate: Violence, Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, Blood, and Body shaming

Minor: Pregnancy