Hey Foreverbookers,
How are you all? I hope you’re well.
I’ve just finished my third book of the month and Spookopoly, “Icebreaker” by Hannah Grace and I BLOODY LOVED IT!!!!!
“Icebreaker” is a contemporary novel that tells the story of Anastasia Allen and Nate Hawkins and their love story. The story is very spicy and filled with humour. Our main characters experience new things and growing up with dramas but the story was very fun and lovely. Normally, I don’t love contemporary. I read and enjoy it but I don’t fall head over heels in love with it. This book, though, THIS BOOK is amazing and will be on my top books of the year, no question.
The story really starts at around 50 pages in, where the characters of the hockey and skating teams have to go to an icebreaker, the title of the book, to get to know each other. Nate is our hockey player and Anastasia is our figure skater, without that Icebreaker, let’s just say that I don’t think the story would have played out the way it did.
I read “Icebreaker” for a few of readathons/reading challenges, which were:
Spookopoly - Feed Scroll - I saw “Wildfire” on bookstagram. I needed to read Icebreaker first so I counted that as my Feed Scroll space.
Reading Rivalry - A Spooky/Fall read - “Icebreaker” isn’t a spooky read, although they do have a Halloween party but it’s a fall time read because it takes place in October primarily. It stretches through from September I’d say, to December, so perfect for this time of year.
The Always Fully Booked “On The Cover” Challenge - An earring/ring - Anastasia has earrings on.
The Always fully Booked “Reading Rainbow” Challenge - White - I actually think it’s a really pale blue but it can come across as white, so it’ll count :).
There are a lot of passionate sex scenes and some bad language used in “Icebreaker.”
Spoilers Below…
“She’s fucking mesmerizing.”
This is Nate’s opinion of Anastasia, or Stas as she’s commonly known in the book after he watches her ice skate. “She doesn’t even look like she’s skating, she looks like she’s floating; I can’t take my eyes off her.” From this point, at around a quarter of the book, Nate is officially in love with Stas. This was great, as I hate it when the characters in romance books take forever or most of the plot to work through their issues about being together. I’ve read so many of those books, no joke, and that trope is sooooo boring to me. When does Nate tell Stas how he feels? I’ll let you read the book for yourself to answer that but there are funny and entertaining bits along the way to get to that answer. As for Stas, she is also attracted to Nate from around the 100 page mark. We see this in, “I’m alone in my thoughts while I wait, and I can’t escape the realization that I’m nervous about seeing Nate. He had Robbie text Lola this morning to pass on a good luck message, which was sweet of him.” Lola is Stas’s best friend and Robbie is a wheelchair user and one of Nate’s hockey friends. He had an accident before this book, which is why he’s in a wheelchair. I’m really looking froward to reading his story, if he gets one down the line because I use a wheelchair, too. Nate wants Stas to know she’s a great skater throughout the book. She doubts herself, and her skating partner Aaron REALLY DOESN’T HELP THAT! He’s always putting her down and telling her she’s not good enough! I was like seriously, stfu Aaron!!! I certainly wouldnt have had the patience that Stas did with him!
Anastasia and Aaron are trying to go to the Olympics to skate, but they need to qualify. Can they? Do they even get the opportunity to perform? I’ll let you read to find out. I liked the amount of sports stuff in this book. We really didn’t hear much about hockey, which was great for me as I hate hockey. Figure skating got more attention but even that was minimal I’d say. I do like watching figure skating but I don’t understand a lot of the terms. The only term that was included was “lutz,” which I think everyone knows, so I wouldn’t necessarily call this a sports romance, just a romance.
“She must care about me a lot, or that’s what I’ve convinced myself, anyway, so I’m going to tell her I’m in love with her tomorrow. Christmas feels like the right time to be expressing feelings, right?
Right?”
This is Nate doubting himself at over half way through the plot. It’s a slow-burn to get them to admit their feelings, granted, but there is a lot of passion along the way.
I didn’t find ONE BIT of Icebreaker boring or not needed. This surprised me for a 430 page contemporary book. All the events played a role in the story. The sex scenes were really hot, I’ve got to say. I loved reading Liz and Raahosh in “Barbarian Alien” by Ruby Dixon but Anastasia and Nate’s were just as erotic and more plentiful, I’d say too. I’m really looking forward to reading “Wildfire” (#2 Maple Hills series) to see how erotic that is, even though I’ve heard it is slightly less, which I’m also okay with. I don’t know the main characters of Wildfire yet, but they will have played a part somewhere in Icebreaker, as this is book one in this interconnected series. Do Stas and Nate end up together, do Anastasia and Aaron succeed in their skating? You’ll need to read to find out for yourself!
I love Spookopoly as it makes me buckle down and actually read the books I choose quickly so I can get to my next roll! Stand by to hear what I’m reading next soon!
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