Reviews with content warning for Alcohol - Icebreaker

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.

Content Warnings

rynjean's review against another edition

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funny 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

4.5

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lucia2's review against another edition

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emotional funny fast-paced

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

2.75

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harrietta_xx's review against another edition

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adventurous funny hopeful 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

There's quite a lot of characters and nicknames which made it a little hard to remember everyone at some points.

Content Warnings

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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