Icebreaker - Hannah Grace

Anastasia Allen has worked her entire life for a shot at Team USA.

A competitive figure skater since she was five years old, a full college scholarship thanks to her place on the Maple Hills skating team, and a schedule that would make even the most driven person weep, Stassie comes to win.

No exceptions.

Nathan Hawkins has never had a problem he couldn’t solve. As captain of the Maple Hills Titans, he knows the responsibility of keeping the hockey team on the ice rests on his shoulders.

When a misunderstanding results in the two teams sharing a rink, and Anastasia’s partner gets hurt in the aftermath, Nate finds himself swapping his stick for tights, and one scary coach for an even scarier one.

The pair find themselves stuck together in more ways than one, but it’s fine, because Anastasia doesn’t even like hockey players…right? (link)

Review: 4/5

OKAY GUYSSS.. I fell victim to the TikTok/Reels obsession. And I liked it… YEAH, I LIKED IT. One thing not to do with this book is read it on family vacation… learn from my mistakes, people.

Did this book have me texting an old friend to go to an Avs game? yes. Do I have shame? no. Did I redownload Hinge because I'm so desperate for affection as mentioned in the book? AGAIN, YES. Do I have shame in that? yes. (no, none of my friends know.)

This book was SUCH a good palate cleanser. I came right off Iron Flame in distress and panic with the cliffhanger and I came upon the smuttiest college book that had barely a plot but so much fluff.. I can't even describe the ambiance. It scratched the smut itch, and simultaneously started a hockey itch I didn’t know was possible for me. (I was only semi-transported back to my days of being played by a hockey player in high-school.)

You wanna talk about smut? You wanna talk about him falling first and falling harder? You wanna talk about not having the female lead sacrifice her goals and ambition for the lead male? You need to talk about Icebreaker.

The only beef I have with this book is the consistent mention of eating disorders and how much it's harped on... and how easily Nate "fixes" Stassie's ED. I know it was in a positive way and such but as someone who struggles with disordered eating, I know it's not just solved by a boyfriend telling you to eat more and helping you with a meal plan (as someone who has been in a similar style of relationsip). However, I am painfully aware that everyone does things differently (why can't the whole world just think like me?) So, I'm aware that everyone's journey is different... this one just seemed a little unrealistic to me. But so is being in love in college, and ending up going to the Olympics to win a medal and marry someone who is a world famous hockey player... So I guess I'm throwing sense out the window.

I’m not lying when I say my favorite tropes are (1) forced proximity (2) marriage of convenience and (3) he falls first and harder. And I only realized how much I loved the last trope through this series and connecting the dots to my other favorite series.

I enjoyed this book so much because it wasn’t as cheesy as you’d expect a college hockey romance to be. I feel like college romance books can be really cheesy and predictable and just suck because of overgeneralized stereotypes that are so common to profit off of. However, this book didn’t deliver any negatives. Was there cheese? Of course, but it was in a healthy amount of moderation, and sandwiched between so much fluff and smut I couldn't really spend time on it.

If y’all have read any of my reviews, you know I obsess over constant tension cycles, and this book HEAVILY delivered. This book was… just good. There’s not much to it because it was so smutty. But in the author’s defense, the plot was great and original as well, which I totally appreciate! Honestly, this isn’t a long review because it was just a good book. How else do I explain it?

Here's the playlist! I'm linking this playlist to the book I read after (The Deal) because they’re very very similar… extremely similar. Hm. I'll reflect on that next week btw. Here's the link to listen!

Spotify: LINK