macykey's review against another edition
funny
lighthearted
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.25
This book is very long and there were some things I felt could be cut out, some relationships I felt could be tamed down. But overall, I really enjoyed this! The spicy scenes were excellent. Nate as a character is phenomenal. He’s a great example of what healthy masculinity looks like without being perfect.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death of parent, Cursing, Sexual harassment, Toxic friendship, Sexual content, Emotional abuse, Injury/Injury detail, and Eating disorder
Moderate: Gaslighting, Vomit, Pregnancy, Panic attacks/disorders, Medical content, and Grief
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.
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.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Alcohol, Sexual content, and Toxic friendship
Moderate: Blood, Body shaming, Cursing, and Gaslighting
Minor: Vomit, Pregnancy, Eating disorder, and Mental illness
mindins's review against another edition
lighthearted
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
1.5
El resumen de este libro es: En términos, de trama no hay trama.
La idea era muy buena, pero nunca llegó a ser un enemies to lovers, fue un insta-love, donde trataron de crear una rivalidad que nunca existió. De hecho el tema del hielo derretido pudo ser usado para muchas situaciones pero nada.
Las escenas spicy fueron para mi fueron innecesariamente largas, repetitivas y daban un poco de cringe. La pareja estuvo junta al 40% del libro y el resto fue relleno poco interesante. Tiene 0.5 estrellitas sólo porque el tema del amigo tóxico estuvo bien, aunque para tanto escandalo se resolvió como la misma protagonista dijo que no quería que se solucionara, y por como se abordó el asunto de la terapia.
El final fue malísimo y predecible. No pude conectar con los protagonistas en ningún momento y si no estaban culeando, estaban de fiesta y curándose a cagar sólo para "olvidar y relajarse".
En general no entiendo porqué alguien leería esto y lo recomendaría, definitivamente no le hace justicia al hype. Aunque si quieres leer porn without plot, monólogos internos extremadamente repetitivos y ver nombres y nombres de personajes que ni aportan nada, es para ti.
Dato random: No pasa el Test de Bechdel.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexual content, Toxic friendship, and Eating disorder
Moderate: Vomit
Minor: Death of parent and Pregnancy
sarahflanders's review against another edition
emotional
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
3.25
Content Warnings
Moderate: Alcohol, Death of parent, Vomit, Cursing, Death, Eating disorder, Sexual content, Toxic friendship, Body shaming, Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, Grief, Pregnancy, and Cancer
georgiaisreading's review against another edition
emotional
funny
inspiring
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? Yes
4.25
Content Warnings
Graphic: Toxic friendship and Sexual content
Moderate: Alcohol, Eating disorder, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Body shaming, Cursing, and Gaslighting
Minor: Pregnancy
kat_the_librarian's review against another edition
emotional
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
3.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Toxic friendship, Eating disorder, and Sexual content
Moderate: Alcohol, Pregnancy, and Body shaming
swolds's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
emotional
funny
hopeful
inspiring
lighthearted
reflective
relaxing
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Loved it. The book has everything. It is more of a cozy, heartwarming romance story rather than the wicked witch of the west romances. It is a great book if you’re after an emotional, but greatly written book. It was easy to fall in love and get to know the characters (well, most of them anyway). This is definitely a book I’ll read again.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Eating disorder, Sexual content, Toxic friendship, and Emotional abuse
Moderate: Body shaming and Gaslighting
Minor: Misogyny and Pregnancy
heyitsshan's review against another edition
funny
hopeful
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.0
pros
the concept is adorable. you can’t get much cuter than an ice skater and a hockey player.
great side characters. like, fucking adorable
cons
way too long
the main conflict happens around the 200 page mark but by then the two main characters are already together sooooo
the main character is adopted and she says she wants to adopt children. but she ends up pregnant in the epilogue anyways 🙃
too many nicknames. i would be happy never reading annie, anastasia, stas, stassie, nate, nathan, or nathaniel ever again
the concept is adorable. you can’t get much cuter than an ice skater and a hockey player.
great side characters. like, fucking adorable
way too long
the main conflict happens around the 200 page mark but by then the two main characters are already together sooooo
the main character is adopted and she says she wants to adopt children. but she ends up pregnant in the epilogue anyways 🙃
too many nicknames. i would be happy never reading annie, anastasia, stas, stassie, nate, nathan, or nathaniel ever again
Content Warnings
Moderate: Bullying, Body shaming, Death of parent, and Toxic relationship
Minor: Pregnancy
leleloni's review against another edition
emotional
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
okay… soooo…. i‘m really torn if this is actually a good book or not… it starts off really interesting but in the middle I got kinda bored and „what the f***“ slipped a lot… I‘m just not a fan of toxic relationship and people playing games in any kind of relationship and I don’t really enjoy reading about it either but there is a lot of that in this book. At some point I wasn’t even sure I wanted to keep reading, but I‘m happy I did because the book gets better again… not sure if I like the epilogue though, kinda regret reading it even though it’s part of the book like every other chapter… I just don’t get why the female main-characters in ya romance books often end up getting pregnant… it didn’t add anything good to the ending of the story… what I would really really really enjoy though is a spin off for Henry OMG he‘s cute!! get him his own series!!!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Toxic friendship and Sexual content
Moderate: Pregnancy
shaipanda'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? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.75
I absolutely loveddd this and really enjoyed it overall but some of the stuff in the third act/last 10-20% of the book bothered me and reduced it a bit
I can’t put my finger on exactly what it was that bothered me but I think it was a combination of too many things going on at the end that weren’t really fully wrapped up, her ending up pregnant which was just unnecessary and also a bit frustrating since it clearly at least temporarily ends her pro skating career and also contradicts them talking about adoption, and just generally the whole thing with Aaron was so long and at some point it just became too much and started annoying me a bit - I also generally agree with the reviews talking abt how it’s too long cause I think a lot of these issues could’ve been solved by making it a bit shorter.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Eating disorder, Toxic friendship, and Sexual content
Moderate: Sexual assault, Body shaming, Gaslighting, Emotional abuse, and Pregnancy
Minor: Abandonment, Pregnancy, and Death of parent
The sexual assaults is a very abrupt and non consensual kiss but thankfully doesn’t go any further but is still something to be aware of