Reviews with content warning for Emotional abuse - Icebreaker

Anastasia is a rude figure skater. Nate is a large hockey player. As college jocks, they spend a good amount of time partying and hooking up. Anastasia is the type of girl who calls her closest guy friend with benefits (to be fair he is very nice) her best friend even though he disappears halfway through the book and she very clearly has an actual best friend. Also she's in an emotionally abusive non-romantic relationship with her skating partner, which is actually an interesting idea. Nate is rich hockey man wish fulfillment with Daddy issues that are thrown in so he isn't too perfect. This is enemies to lovers in the sense that Anastasia is super mean to Nate for ridiculous reasons until she can no longer resist his hotness, which to be fair is usually how this trope works.

The last time I read a book about college students, I decided I should not do that again, and those instincts were correct (for me). These people have weird, unconvincing baggage and occasionally concerning behaviors.

To be clear, there is a good amount of front loaded steamy content in this book. Do not be fooled by the cutesy cover. The characters' relationship is very physical and, toward the end, very affectionate, which is nice because I don't really see it in their personalities. Hot, boring party kids deserve love too; I maybe didn't need a whole novel about it. But I did read the book very quickly and somewhat enjoyed it, so joke's on me!

Content Warnings

hiimnotizzy's review against another edition

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emotional lighthearted reflective fast-paced

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

4.0

Honestly, I thought it was really cute. I know a lot of people hated this book, but I found it to be a nice read before finals.

Content Warnings

waitwhathelp's review against another edition

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emotional funny hopeful reflective 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? Yes

4.0

Content Warnings

wondahwoman'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? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.25

While I thoroughly enjoyed the romance between Anastasia and Nate, the main source of conflict throughout the story felt a bit forced to me.

Spoilers for the antagonist/conflict below:

Stassi’s skating partner, Aaron, is nothing short of emotionally abusive, and it seemed unrealistic to me that Stassi would forgive/excuse SO MANY of his actions. Even towards the end when she had become disillusioned by all of his manipulative behavior, she continued excusing awful things. I wish there’d been more development into why she was so deep under his spell after having only been his partner for two years.

I appreciate that the drama between the two love interests was very minimal (see also: no third act breakup!) but the conflict that was there made it hard to finish near the end. It was worth it for the romance, but I wish the antagonist had been more thought out.

Content Warnings

jreshsingh26's review against another edition

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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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