bookishafternoon's reviews
19 reviews

Icebound by Meredith Trapp

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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

3.0

🌶️ 🌶️ 🌶️ 🌶️ 🌶️/5

Icebound is an age gap SPICY hockey romance about 33-year-old sexiest bachelor and NHL superstar Rhode Tremblay and 22-year-old Nina Alstyne who’s an art student in his little sisters class and getting ready to leave for an internship abroad. 

Rhode is looking for someone to settle down with. Someone his age who’s ready to start a family and follow him while he continues his hockey career. 

Nina is a free-spirited college student who prioritizes her studies and is no where near ready to settle down and have a family and the idea of being in the spotlight gives her anxiety. There’s a big mental health representation in her character, she suffers from anxiety and panic attacks in this book. I like that a lot, to others it may be triggering. 

I should have been able to read this book in 3-4 days but college courses are in full swing and I was sooooo busy. It was the worst! I thought the speed throughout the book was very medium-paced and well done. 

Something about this book just didn’t do it for me. I really love cute romance books but I think how the spice was portrayed in this book takes that away from me. I feel like their entire relationship is founded on sex and there’s not a lot of depth to create an actual romance. It just felt a little superficial to me. However, I can tell the author wanted to create a spice-forward book and she did just that.

I also had a hard time connecting with the characters, I think it’s because their thoughts 75% of the book are the equivalency of a horny teenage boys diary. 🤷🏼‍♀️

Expand filter menu Content Warnings
Crown of Midnight by Sarah J. Maas

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adventurous emotional mysterious 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

5.0

This book is everything. It has everything. Romance, action, betrayal, secrets, more action…Chaol Westfall 😍… need I say more?

I thought I loved Throne of Glass.. but Crown of Midnight blows TOG out of the water. It’s phenomenal. But TOG is still necessary.. don’t skip it. 

I will come back when I have more thoughts together for a full review but easily ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ 🙌🏻
The Perfect Marriage by Jeneva Rose

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4.0

3.5 rounded up to a 4. A simple, entertaining read. Very predictable though
Once There Were Wolves by Charlotte McConaghy

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4.0

4 1/2 stars
This book was beautifully written, just a tad bit slow for my liking. Some parts of this book made me extremely uncomfortable, which is more of a testament to how beautifully it was written. The storyline was brilliant. I always try to figure out how the book ends before the ending is revealed and I thought it was going in another direction so that was a pleasant surprise.