Icebreaker by Hannah Grace

Book Review Jun 22, 2023

My review

4/5 stars

This book has been getting a lot of hype on the interwebs, so of course I had to jump on the bandwagon and find out what the fuss was all about.

From what I can gather, a lot of the hype surrounds the sex scenes within the book, so let's start there. They were steamy for sure, but they actually fell a little short for me at times because they felt over-the-top. I appreciate that the author wasn't shy about including all the detail, but I got the impression that some parts were included just for attention-grabbing.

The relationship between the protagonists as a bigger picture was sweet and nice to read, but again I struggled with how sickly sweet it felt at times. Anastasia was an open, vulnerable female lead and matched Nate's soft strength well. Their chemistry was strong from the first meeting, and I enjoyed the enemies-to-lover trope playing out.

What I was compelled by even more than the relationship between Stassie and Nate was the relationships that they built with each others friends, and the world that built around them both as a result of their relationship.

I also found the partnership between Anastasia and Aaron oddly fascinating to read. The situation provided a deeper level to an otherwise quite saccharine novel, and was handled with sensitivity that was befitting of the topic, though I'm not sure I'm entirely happy with how it played out.

All in all, this book had all the right components of a fantastic book, and I enjoyed the reading experience, but something about how all the pieces came together prevented me from giving it a full 5 stars.

Book blurb

Anastasia Allen has worked her entire life for a shot at Team USA. It looks like everything is going according to plan when she gets a full scholarship to the University of California, Maple Hills and lands a place on their competitive figure skating team.

Nothing will stand in her way, not even the captain of the hockey team, Nate Hawkins.

Nate’s focus as team captain is on keeping his team on the ice. Which is tricky when a facilities mishap means they are forced to share a rink with the figure skating team—including Anastasia, who clearly can’t stand him.

But when Anastasia’s skating partner faces an uncertain future, she may have to look to Nate to take her shot.

Sparks fly, but Anastasia isn’t worried… because she could never like a hockey player, right?