Icebreaker by Hannah Grace

Synopsis

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?

Review

4 stars

It took me some time to really warm up to the book.
I confess that Stacie being commitmentphobe and having a fuck buddy in Ryan was off putting for me.
And yet I was angry at myself as I should rejoice in a woman being free to do what she wanted with her sexuality.
Add to it that she tolerated a lot of snarky comments and toxic behaviors from her skating partner Aaron and it wasn’t the best start for me.

I felt the same with Nate as he was sleeping with every girls at the beginning of the book.
I know it’s common college behavior but…it didn’t sit well with me.

I was nearly set to disliking this book but slowly, I fell in love with the characters!

Probably because both had a serious character growth!

Stacie is an adopted child with loving parents. She has always adored figure skating and her goal is to win an olympic medal.
She has chosen to skate with a partner and hers is a real diva and spoiled child!
I honestly disliked Aaron with a passion!

At the beginning of the story, due to an incident with the hockey ice rink, she’ll be forced to share ” her” ring with the hockey team and Nathan, their captain.
She is furious as it means having less time to train!

Stacie is dead set on disliking Nate but he is such a good guy, protective of his team and so very hot that staying mad at him is impossible.

Slowly but steadily, these two will become closer.

I loved many things in the book!

-the found family. Stacie developped a friendship with all the guys on the hockey team. Ribbing each other, cooking lessons,…she soon will be their favorite and they’ll need to have her around;

-the serious topics broached in the book like manipulation, toxic relationship, eating disorder, dysfunctional family dynamic etc.
This added a very welcome depth to that sprotsromance!

-the character growth! From commitmentphobe to in love.

-the characters. Nate is a protective guy, a real cinnamon roll beneath all the hot body. And Stacie is spunky and relentless!

This was a very enjoyable sprotsromance filled with friendship, small drama and character growth.

Thanks for reading!

Sophie