Reviews tagging 'Gaslighting'

Icebreaker by Hannah Grace

496 reviews

galaxybbunny's review against another edition

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emotional hopeful lighthearted sad tense 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

3.75

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snarkycrafter's review against another edition

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

1.5

While I enjoyed parts of this book, I cannot, in good faith, give it a higher rating especially knowing that there are much better sports romances out there.

The writing is so-so, the story is so-so, the spicy-ness is so-so. Even the characters are so-so. 😒

Major trigger warning for disordered eating, body shaming, eating disorders, fat shaming, manipulative and toxic relationships. 

The entire book I kept feeling that Anastasia is supposed to be perceived as a strong FMC…But she’s not. And for all of Nate’s green flags he has some red flags too. Anastasia has to walk these men through sharing their feelings and being their pseudo-therapist. And for all the therapy she’s been through, she puts up with Aaron’s abuse, manipulation, and fat/body shaming for 90% of the book before standing up to him. I mean, it took 54% of the book for ANYONE to even acknowledge her disordered eating and a little longer for her to start working through it. She’s also really bad a setting boundaries until much later in the book, again…SHE’S BEEN IN THERAPY HOW LONG?!

The toxicity of Aaron is just…too much. And she excuses his behavior for a majority of the book that it’s annoying. 

The romance is cute but not great. I wouldn’t recommend it to my fellow romance readers or friends. I don’t understand the hype behind this book. Even the smutty scenes are…quite tame and not scandalous in the least. They’re…ok. Not even super detailed which is what I expected after so many people online calling this book “smut”…it’s not. 

Finally, the epilogue. 😒🙄
A pregnancy…? Really? Why? What was the purpose? I would have rather read about her at the Olympics, then pursing their professional dreams together and supporting each other’s dreams. But no. We got a cliche pregnancy which makes no sense in the context of the rest of the book. I could not roll my eyes harder if I tried. 

TLDR; it’s ok. I wouldn’t take the time to read this book when there are better ones out there. 
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ariajb's review against another edition

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emotional funny 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
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swamprat410's review against another edition

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funny lighthearted slow-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

 TL;DR: Don't expect a beautifully constructed, insightful book that will change your life, and instead, take it for what it is: a light and spicy, contemporary college romance book with the emotional maturity of the 20-somethings it was written about. 

Storyline is full of tropes: grumpy girl boss and the sunny hockey captain (the lovable father figure of the found family/ragtag team of unruly hockey players) go from enemies-to-lovers who have to overcome limited resources and learn to share the ice. 
 
I read this book as an audiobook and honestly I wish that I'd had a physical book/ebook to read along with for the sole purpose of annotating/keeping notes to keep the sheer number of characters straight.

This book was like being in a college social circle -- in that there are so many people coming and going and at times you have no idea who is going to stick around/be relevant. There were times where I found myself thinking "why do I care/who the hell is this person?" at some of the anecdotal details, but then again, that's probably what builds the universe that the author is creating. 

At times I definitely struggled to get through the story. Anastasia is kind of annoying, there's tons of nicknames (like she has at least 3 I feel like), some of the writing is clunky, and the pacing is weird. Plus there's a lot of stuff that if it happened in real life in your friend group you'd be like uh wtf...
Like if I found out one of my friends was hooking up in an Uber that I was in at the same time as them I'd be pissed. Have some manners girl!! Put some underwear on, knock it off!
But I promised that I would tough it out, and I'm glad I did - Wildfire, the sequel, was much better. 



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emmahe's review against another edition

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  • 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

3.5

needed a huge edit, it slowed and nearly stalled at the 4/5 way mark, but overall was loveable. characters are good, romance was relatively well paced (rushed for me at 2/5 and 4/5 but that’s okay!). felt like it was too much packed into one book. could have done without the
main character almost drowning in a frozen lake for seemingly no reason
 
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cailyndanae's review against another edition

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funny lighthearted relaxing 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

3.75

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audria007's review against another edition

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funny hopeful lighthearted medium-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

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rubberrosebooks'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

I fell in love with every single one of these characters. Even the villains have their place. The plot was incredibly well done, and the spice was A+++. I'm all for a healthy relationship trope, and this one nails it. This was my first Hannah Grace novel and will most definitely not be my last!
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possum_reads's review against another edition

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emotional 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

3.5

A bit long . Not great, not bad
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idrilcelebrindal's review against another edition

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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

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