Reviews tagging 'Toxic relationship'

Icebreaker by Hannah Grace

60 reviews

bookscatcoffee's review against another edition

challenging emotional hopeful slow-paced

3.5

There were parts about this book I loved, but it took a long time for it to get started.  And I feel like there was a more concise way to tell the overall story.  That being said, there were some relationship gems:

“She’s taught me communicating doesn’t mean everything is perfect, it doesn’t mean we won’t disagree.  It means we work through the imperfect bit together, and if we don’t agree, we at least know why the other feels that way, even if it’s not going to change our minds.  We’re still individuals, but we’re individuals together, and I never knew relationships could be like this.”

Interesting and I really like the community the author created.  3.5 stars 

Contemporary romance with diverse and lgbtqia+ side characters

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body shaming, Bullying, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Sexual assault, Toxic relationship, Death of parent, Gaslighting, and Dysphoria

Moderate: Alcohol

rushell070's review against another edition

funny hopeful lighthearted fast-paced

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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Eating disorder and Toxic relationship

becxaa's review against another edition

emotional 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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Eating disorder

Moderate: Toxic relationship

rachelschloneger's review against another edition

tense medium-paced

2.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body shaming, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, and Alcohol

samspur's review against another edition

lighthearted fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

1.0

I still don’t understand the appeal. It was just a really long, not well written, lacking depth, semi-erotic, half developed hockey story. The main male character had all the red flags. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body shaming, Bullying, Cursing, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Fatphobia, Misogyny, Toxic relationship, Violence, Toxic friendship, Alcohol, and Sexual harassment

jreshsingh26's review against another edition

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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Content Warnings

Graphic: Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Sexual content, and Toxic friendship

Moderate: Body shaming, Sexual assault, and Sexual harassment

Minor: Body shaming, Chronic illness, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Fatphobia, Infidelity, Toxic relationship, Vomit, Death of parent, Pregnancy, and Toxic friendship

jeanettesreadingcorner's review against another edition

emotional lighthearted slow-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

3.5

What I liked: 

• Once I read past 200 or so pages, it’s like the author found the plot and the story actually began. I started to enjoy the characters the romance, and everything else more. Nate and Anastasia are really cute. I enjoyed how they supported each other and their character growth, together and as individuals. The hockey team guys are funny and sweet too. I loved their found family dynamics.

- Nate punching Aaron was really satisfying. 

• I’m curious to read Wildfire to see how it compares to this one and I liked the characters enough to continue reading in the Maple Hills book world. 
• The ending was astronomically better than the beginning of the book. Overall, I eventually liked Icebreaker and I could see why it’s popular. There are some aspects that bothered me about it though…

What I disliked: 
- Aaron The Asshole sucks and I hate him, especially the way he treated Anastasia. 

• the beginning is a mess. There’s no direction or storyline. The characters are just partying and having sex, talking about sex, or insinuating it. I don’t mind sex scenes and they don’t bother me. However, they don’t need to be so frequent and in every moment the main characters are together. It was just too much in one book. That’s something that I don’t like about adult romance books. 
• British phrases in a book set in the USA and the characters are American? So weird. I guess it could be the quirky thing that the author writes but it seemed so odd and out of place to me. 
• The book is written in dual pov, which I usually prefer and love, but it did feel repetitive at times in this one. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body shaming, Bullying, Cursing, Death, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Fatphobia, Infidelity, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, Violence, Vomit, Medical content, Grief, Death of parent, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Cancer, Abandonment, and Alcohol

sadiesadiesadie's review against another edition

emotional funny tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body shaming, Cursing, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, Toxic friendship, and Alcohol

Moderate: Bullying

Minor: Violence, Vomit, Pregnancy, and Sexual harassment

maggies's review against another edition

emotional lighthearted medium-paced

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

1.0

Booktok lied about this one. The characters are borderline insufferable or otherwise so one dimensional that they might as well not even have been in the cast. It was easily 20% longer than it needed to be, with entire chapters where nothing happens to move the plot forward. The constant references to pregnancy were really annoying, especially because the subtext was always "a baby is the worst thing that can happen to you."

I was really frustrated that Anastasia ended up pregnant at the end despite telling Nate that she didn't want to be pregnant and preferred to adopt.

I also found it to be poorly written in general—the tense was inconsistent and odd, switching randomly between past and present, and the dialogue did not feel authentic...a shocking amount of dialogue happened off-page and was recapped by the characters' internal monologue later, and what did occur on-page was stilted and awkward. The spice might have been the only redeeming aspect of the book ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual content, Toxic relationship, and Toxic friendship

Moderate: Violence, Vomit, and Pregnancy

Minor: Infertility and Infidelity

books_baking_brews's review against another edition

emotional funny lighthearted slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body shaming, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Toxic relationship, Death of parent, and Gaslighting