Book Review: Icebreaker by Hannah Grace
I really wanted to start reading again, so I've decided to attempt posting book reviews. I've got three more novels to discuss, so I'll do those separately!
Disclaimer: this review is my OPINION. It assumes you've read the book.
TLDR: The book's not exciting at all, I can see how other people might enjoy it, but it's certainly not very interesting nor the wild romance that Goodread reviews claim. If you really must read it, visit your local library instead of paying for it.
I read this book because I heard extremely conflicting things about it, with it either being a super good romance or just smut. If it was anything like Haunting Adeline, I still would've liked to hate on it after reading it myself (Haunting Adeline is not getting a review. That book sucks).
General Summary: Anastasia is a figure skater, Nathan is a hockey player, the two attend the University of California where they are pushed together due to an ice-rink mishap perpetrated by Nathan's hockey team. Published in 2022, this book is meant to be an "enemies-to-lovers" type story.
Prose and Formatting: 7/10
Generally, the book is well edited, and the writing doesn't feel that amateurish. There were no glaring errors, and I think that the book was in fact professionally edited (which is more than I can say for some other books). One thing I seriously despised was the spacing, however; some line breaks were introduced for seemingly no reason, which makes it a really annoying read. Line breaks should be impactful or the start of a new subject, and these sporadic line breaks are often just contiuations of the previous "paragraph" that broke for no reason.
The book does start with it's own custom playlist, which I can't really agree with, because at which points are you supposed to listen to what song?
Characters/Relationships: 5/10
MMC: Nathan. What does he do. I was promised enemies to lovers but he literally didn't do anything wrong except lie to a stranger to cover his teammate. He is not in any way ideologically opposed to Anastasia and often goes out of his way to help her. He literally picks up figure skating for her to practice while her teammate is out of commission.
FMC: Anastasia. Her goal is to reach Team USA for the Olympics (valid) so I guess it makes sense that she's trying to hit a quadruple lutz which only a select few in the world can accomplish. Putting that aside tho, the conflict isn't really "enemies-to-lovers" but more "inconvenience-to-lovers". It's more like she's projecting her frustration about the ice rink onto Nathan, which is not necessarily bad but the story acts like "LOOK! They are enemies! But... they fucked in a bathroom!"
Sabrina, Anastasia's best friend and roommate: My copy had her as this, but I found that later copies changed her name to Lola because her actions went against the ambiguity that was her being Muslim. This goes to show that it did not matter a single bit what the hell she was or wanted to do when it comes to serving this story or acting as representation.
The entirety of Nate's team: they're entertaining, at least. Henry was slightly appealing, but if you put a gun to my head I can't remember a single conversation with anyone that wasn't him or JJ (and I only remember JJ cause he's a queer brown man and that's literally me).
Aaron: Why should anyone like you? You also don't do anything nice, you're generally a bitch the whole time, and I'm supposed to believe that Anastasia willingly lived with this man? And thinks their friendship was good enough to maintain the partnership when little to none of that is shown on screen?
The actual relationship between Nathan and Anastasia is, as I've mentioned, not very interesting. They do resolve their minor "conflict" very quickly and they're on top of each other like rabbits in no time at all. Which is fine, but that's a lot of what we're shown of their relationship, so I have no real other basis to say that this is a cute couple. And again, it seems like Anastasia's 'must be in control' attitude was either a front or an excuse to further the 'enemies-to-lovers' tag because she's highly submissive during sex (which goes against the introductory sequence where she all but tells him to get on his knees). Outside of sex Nathan is generally caring and attentive, and apparently really good at fixing her ED despite knowing her for three months as of the end of this book but sure.
Plot: 6.5/10
Setting the actual relationship dynamics aside, I think that this book suffers from pacing issues. The actual relationship has them dating around halfway through the book, and why would I care anymore if I picked up this book for the romance (I didn't)? I didn't feel a ton of pressure for the actual plot (which was that Anastasia had competition to practice for while sharing rink time with another team).
The second half of the book is then dedicated to advancing the actual conflict, which I didn't find resolved in a satisfying manner. Things happened to Anastasia which then caused her to end an abusive relationship. She didn't really choose to leave it on her own terms, she left because she just hit her breaking point after she's sexually assaulted on live television. The author could have just as easily written it so that Anastasia realized her situation was horrible sooner, but this adds drama, I guess? It's not like she's stupid, she attended therapy for like a decade and she's (supposedly) good at verbalizing her feelings now. Therefore it's an issue not caused by the character but because it'll be more dramatic this way.
The "villain" of this book is comically evil, and it's just a miracle that nobody beat the shit out of him sooner. The consequences he faces are off-screened because he just transfers schools, and the on screen consequence was that he got punched by Nathan, not the girl he just forced himself onto.
Also, Anastasia ends up betraying herself after stating she would never want to birth a child and would rather adopt by birthing a child. Magnificent play. Women, you too can quickly accomplish your dreams and cap it all off with a child with your husband (can we be fr). At least she did succesfully win in the Olympics. Epilogue ends with a proposal sequence three years later but frankly, I don't care.
Overall, I didn't end this book with a satisfied feeling. It really makes me wonder why people like it, but I get to ignore them! There was semblances of plot and relationship, and neither were developed enough for me to care when they were concluded. It could be an ok read if you're in the mood to turn your brain off, but it's simply not worth your time. If you want to read smut, go on ao3! you'll like the characters and it'll probably be just as good, if not better!
