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idrilcelebrindal's review against another edition
emotional
lighthearted
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
1.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body shaming, Bullying, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Fatphobia, Mental illness, Misogyny, Sexism, Sexual content, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, and Alcohol
Moderate: Panic attacks/disorders, Vomit, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism
Minor: Sexual assault and Pregnancy
tobyw's review against another edition
funny
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
3.0
I was pleasantly surprised by how much I enjoyed this book. I guess there's something to be said for going in with super low expectations. It's a classic three stars, for me: a book I enjoyed but which had some significant problems hampering it from a higher rating.
What I was warned about going in was that it was very heavy on smut and pretty light on plot, so I wasn't really expecting too much to actually happen. I find it kind of weird that people complain about "plotless" romances where... the romance... is the plot, you guys. Two people meeting, falling in love, and starting a relationship is the basic structure of a romance novel. Expectations should be set according to genre; that's the whole point of genre conventions.
Anyway, this was a very conventional romance, but it ticks the boxes really well. I appreciated that the author decided to write from both Anastasia and Nate's perspectives, because reading from Nate's perspective endeared me a lot to him. Something that puts me off from romance novels is that the male love interest is usually just tropes in a trenchcoat. Nate was still kind of a fluffy too-good-to-be-true golden retriever, but he had some stuff going on inside his head, and that was a relief.
A lot of the low reviews complain about Anastasia, but I didn't really have a problem with her. She was a nice break from a typical romance heroine of not-so-long-ago. I'll take 1000 Anastasia Allens over a Tessa Young or an Anastasia Steele any day. Her annoying traits just served to humanize her. Yes, she's preachy about how everyone should go to therapy, but I know half a dozen people just like her.
Another thing I heard from multiple people was that the cast is bloated with side characters. I think that's both true and... not true, if that's possible. The cast is much more fleshed out than that of your typical romance novel, but it suited my taste fine. I prefer Bridgerton the TV show with its many subplots and secondary characters, compared with the narrow-minded novels. I was also aware that this is a series where Hannah Grace intends to give major side characters (Russ, Henry, etc) their own moment in the sun, so I was happy to get a taste of their characterization while they also served their own purposes in the Icebreaker plot. The Bridgerton comparison is apt in that respect too. If the only thing you care about is Anastasia and Nate getting together, then I understand why you'd feel like all the side characters detract from the story. For me, seeing Nate's friendships with Robbie, JJ, and Henry, and Anastasia's with Lola, Henry, and Russ helped add dimensions to them as romantic leads.
People criticized the portrayal of Anastasia's disordered eating because they expected a talented figure skater to better understand nutrition, but I don't really think that's well-founded criticism. Female athletes must be under enormous pressure and body surveillance, and there's so much shitty information about nutrition and weight floating around. It made sense for Nate to be the one to help her tackle it, since the book mentions how he's majoring in health sciences or something. I was glad to see Grace work his major into the plot in a naturalistic way.
I also saw a lot of criticism for how over-the-top-evil Aaron is, and I agree that there should have been more showing and less telling about how Anastasia and Aaron have nice friendship moments in between Aaron's Mr Hyde moments. If Grace wants to convince us that Anastasia wants to preserve the good parts of their friendship, she needs to show us that those good parts even exist in the first place. Also, and this is stupid -- I don't think a lot of straight guys are into figure skating. I think the exploration of how Aaron is trying to control Anastasia would've been stronger without adding a romantic obsession angle.
The areas the book missed were not so significant as to ruin the reading experience, but here they are nonetheless:
As always, this book would've benefited from a more stringent editor. Sometimes Grace formed sentences in a way that was truly baffling or just completely out of order. I learned at the end that she's British writing Americans, which explains a couple mangled expressions that a stricter editor could have corrected.
I'm pretty sure Grace has never watched a game of hockey in her life, given how obviously glossed over every game that Nate played had to be. "He scored" and you can't even throw in a mention of it being a wrist shot, or going five hole, or something? I also believe the only two mentioned final scores are 8-3 and 9-3, which are just on the edge of ridiculous. I'll let it slide because it is collegiate hockey. My uni's team beat another one 13-0 last season, so I guess anything's possible. Anyway, that lack of either research or interest made Nate's characterization as a hockey player suffer. You're telling me he LOVES hockey and he's on the verge of going pro, and yet he's not excitedly giving a play by play of his best moments in his own internal monologue right after games? Sure.
The smut was fine -- not so metaphorical as to become soppy, and not so explicitly detailed as to become distasteful -- although as I was warned, the dirty talk is pretty over the top. It's great that Nate is so explicit about consent, but consent is also necessary before you tell her that you own her pussy, bud. My criticism for the sex scenes is the lack of variation in how their feelings were explored. It's basically All Horny, All The Time. The purpose of the scenes was solely sexual gratification and it didn't develop their relationship with each other at all. Especially because something as significant as body shaming and disordered eating is brought up in other parts of the novel, but all of that switches off as soon as Anastasia is having sex, somehow.
A major misfire for me is the scene near the endwhere Anastasia falls through the ice and is hospitalized. It's just so utterly irrelevant to her arc and Nate's arc as a character-- it felt like the author realized "boy, haven't had anything happen in a while. I guess she'll nearly drown" and that was that. The worst parts of a fanfiction-lite writing style.
The biggest fail of the novel is actually how Grace manages scene vs summary, or showing vs telling. A shitton of information, scenes, dialogue, and characterization is delivered in summary instead of proper, written-out scenes, and the book is a lot weaker for it. It does allow Grace to get across a lot quickly, but that writing style risks trying to cram in unearned characterization, and there were points where that cropped up as a real flaw in the storytelling.
And my nittiest pick -- the nicknames... Someone should have flagged to Grace that "Stassie" is waaaaay too close to "Stasi", and Staatssicherheit is not a cute nickname for your girlfriend. Multiple characters refer to each other by their last names, which makes perfect sense for hockey players, since that's what's on the back of your jersey, but doesn't make sense for Anastasia and Lola. It would be fun if they picked it up from Nate and Robbie, but it starts at the beginning of the novel and just never stops. Also, Anastasia's last name is ALLEN. THAT'S JUST A DUDE'S NAME. Every time Nate called her Allen, I flashed into an alternate universe where Nate's love interest is some dude in a flannel button down with a receding hairline who works in IT.
Anyway, it was great to finally be able to turn my brain off and just enjoy a light book like this. Obviously as I've enumerated, there are lots of problems in the writing, but overall, it was a fun time. I'll check out Wildfire.
What I was warned about going in was that it was very heavy on smut and pretty light on plot, so I wasn't really expecting too much to actually happen. I find it kind of weird that people complain about "plotless" romances where... the romance... is the plot, you guys. Two people meeting, falling in love, and starting a relationship is the basic structure of a romance novel. Expectations should be set according to genre; that's the whole point of genre conventions.
Anyway, this was a very conventional romance, but it ticks the boxes really well. I appreciated that the author decided to write from both Anastasia and Nate's perspectives, because reading from Nate's perspective endeared me a lot to him. Something that puts me off from romance novels is that the male love interest is usually just tropes in a trenchcoat. Nate was still kind of a fluffy too-good-to-be-true golden retriever, but he had some stuff going on inside his head, and that was a relief.
A lot of the low reviews complain about Anastasia, but I didn't really have a problem with her. She was a nice break from a typical romance heroine of not-so-long-ago. I'll take 1000 Anastasia Allens over a Tessa Young or an Anastasia Steele any day. Her annoying traits just served to humanize her. Yes, she's preachy about how everyone should go to therapy, but I know half a dozen people just like her.
Another thing I heard from multiple people was that the cast is bloated with side characters. I think that's both true and... not true, if that's possible. The cast is much more fleshed out than that of your typical romance novel, but it suited my taste fine. I prefer Bridgerton the TV show with its many subplots and secondary characters, compared with the narrow-minded novels. I was also aware that this is a series where Hannah Grace intends to give major side characters (Russ, Henry, etc) their own moment in the sun, so I was happy to get a taste of their characterization while they also served their own purposes in the Icebreaker plot. The Bridgerton comparison is apt in that respect too. If the only thing you care about is Anastasia and Nate getting together, then I understand why you'd feel like all the side characters detract from the story. For me, seeing Nate's friendships with Robbie, JJ, and Henry, and Anastasia's with Lola, Henry, and Russ helped add dimensions to them as romantic leads.
The areas the book missed were not so significant as to ruin the reading experience, but here they are nonetheless:
As always, this book would've benefited from a more stringent editor. Sometimes Grace formed sentences in a way that was truly baffling or just completely out of order. I learned at the end that she's British writing Americans, which explains a couple mangled expressions that a stricter editor could have corrected.
I'm pretty sure Grace has never watched a game of hockey in her life, given how obviously glossed over every game that Nate played had to be. "He scored" and you can't even throw in a mention of it being a wrist shot, or going five hole, or something? I also believe the only two mentioned final scores are 8-3 and 9-3, which are just on the edge of ridiculous. I'll let it slide because it is collegiate hockey. My uni's team beat another one 13-0 last season, so I guess anything's possible. Anyway, that lack of either research or interest made Nate's characterization as a hockey player suffer. You're telling me he LOVES hockey and he's on the verge of going pro, and yet he's not excitedly giving a play by play of his best moments in his own internal monologue right after games? Sure.
The smut was fine -- not so metaphorical as to become soppy, and not so explicitly detailed as to become distasteful -- although as I was warned, the dirty talk is pretty over the top. It's great that Nate is so explicit about consent, but consent is also necessary before you tell her that you own her pussy, bud. My criticism for the sex scenes is the lack of variation in how their feelings were explored. It's basically All Horny, All The Time. The purpose of the scenes was solely sexual gratification and it didn't develop their relationship with each other at all. Especially because something as significant as body shaming and disordered eating is brought up in other parts of the novel, but all of that switches off as soon as Anastasia is having sex, somehow.
A major misfire for me is the scene near the end
The biggest fail of the novel is actually how Grace manages scene vs summary, or showing vs telling. A shitton of information, scenes, dialogue, and characterization is delivered in summary instead of proper, written-out scenes, and the book is a lot weaker for it. It does allow Grace to get across a lot quickly, but that writing style risks trying to cram in unearned characterization, and there were points where that cropped up as a real flaw in the storytelling.
And my nittiest pick -- the nicknames... Someone should have flagged to Grace that "Stassie" is waaaaay too close to "Stasi", and Staatssicherheit is not a cute nickname for your girlfriend. Multiple characters refer to each other by their last names, which makes perfect sense for hockey players, since that's what's on the back of your jersey, but doesn't make sense for Anastasia and Lola. It would be fun if they picked it up from Nate and Robbie, but it starts at the beginning of the novel and just never stops. Also, Anastasia's last name is ALLEN. THAT'S JUST A DUDE'S NAME. Every time Nate called her Allen, I flashed into an alternate universe where Nate's love interest is some dude in a flannel button down with a receding hairline who works in IT.
Anyway, it was great to finally be able to turn my brain off and just enjoy a light book like this. Obviously as I've enumerated, there are lots of problems in the writing, but overall, it was a fun time. I'll check out Wildfire.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexual content
Moderate: Body shaming and Eating disorder
margaret_k30's review against another edition
emotional
funny
hopeful
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? It's complicated
3.25
Content Warnings
Graphic: Eating disorder, Sexual content, Gaslighting, and Toxic friendship
Moderate: Body shaming, Emotional abuse, and Alcohol
Minor: Blood, Grief, Death of parent, Pregnancy, and Injury/Injury detail
alicesbookcorner's review against another edition
emotional
funny
hopeful
lighthearted
reflective
sad
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? N/A
4.25
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body shaming, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Sexual content, Gaslighting, and Toxic friendship
Moderate: Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, and Injury/Injury detail
Minor: Pregnancy
whitneys_bookstack's review against another edition
lighthearted
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
3.75
Content Warnings
Moderate: Eating disorder
Minor: Sexual harassment
miafoster44's review against another edition
emotional
funny
lighthearted
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? Yes
4.25
Content Warnings
Moderate: Eating disorder
Minor: Infidelity, Death of parent, Toxic friendship, and Sexual harassment
becxaa's review against another edition
emotional
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
4.25
Content Warnings
Graphic: Eating disorder
Moderate: Toxic relationship
k8lynn's review against another edition
funny
hopeful
lighthearted
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
2.5
this book was not worth the hype.
the narrators were annoying, for one. nothing happens between the drinking scenes and the sex scenes. a lot of aspects fall flat, and there seems to be little to no plot besides getting drunk and fucking. even then, those scenes aren't that great. i enjoyed the found family aspect, but it wasn't as much a focal point as it could have been. the dialogue was pretty realistic but listening to the audiobook felt a bit awkward and gave me a new ick: "baby" and "bub" 🤮
Content Warnings
Graphic: Ableism, Body shaming, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Fatphobia, Misogyny, Sexual content, Violence, Pregnancy, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, and Alcohol
_tannel's review against another edition
funny
lighthearted
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.75
This book has me smiling and kicking my feet, and at some points laughing out loud. Spotted a few spelling errors. I don’t think so many characters needed to be introduced and I started losing track of who the team mates are. Tbh it’s a little weird/ annoying how flirty and how in love every teammate is with Anastasia. But I guess it makes the perfect y/n fantasy. Overall really fun, cute book.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body shaming, Eating disorder, and Sexual content
coffaeandpages's review against another edition
emotional
funny
lighthearted
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? It's complicated
4.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Eating disorder, Sexual content, Toxic friendship, and Sexual harassment