Meet Anastasia Allen, a competitive figure skater who has dreamt of being on Team USA since she was five years old. She does everything to secure her place on the team. A schedule that she tries her hardest to never stray from? Check. Meal plans so that she stays the perfect form to be thrown with ease? Check. Staying out of relationships so that she has no other priories? Check. Is all this hard work for nothing when everything that could go wrong does go wrong?
Nathan Hawkins is the captain of the hockey team; he is used to handling with the responsibilities of other people’s actions. He sets out to keep a clean record for his senior year to secure the hockey scholarship he’s been working towards for his entire childhood.
A misunderstanding causes the figure skaters and the hockey team to clash in the worst way possible and Anastasia’s skating partner goes down in process. Nate finds himself doing everything he can to help the figure skater achieve her dreams after all – even if this means trading his hockey stick with a figure skating approved outfit.
When reading this book, I had to keep in mind that there were content warnings in place from the start (sexual content and mentions of eating habits) which was enough to allow me to progress with caution. I believe that this is something that more authors should do, even if they believe that the level of this content is not enough to be an issue, it is very important that the reader knows what they could encounter before finding these mentions without warning. I also enjoyed that the author (Hannah Grace) kept the timeline of the book consistent throughout as some books that are set in education like this often have the entire book happen in the space of a week. Having a more realistic time frame for these events allows the reader to feel more connected to the characters as they can feel that they are growing with them. In addition, I really enjoyed the fact that there were multiple characters portrayed in this book that aren’t considered the main characters, it allows the whole world created in the books to feel more reasonable than a basic ‘they have been friends for a while.’ The relationships between these characters has emotional weight that the reader can spot easily.
However, as with every book, Icebreaker has its flaws. For me one of the biggest downfalls is the fact that Grace obviously was setting up a spin off book which somewhat ruins the vibe of the book when these characters are introduced. It found it hard to get through some of the character introductions as I was too busy thinking about what the plot to the spin off books would be. Similarly, the timeline does have some inconsistencies when it comes to the eating habits that Anastasia faces – it feels as though she recovers too quickly considering the state she was in. Some could argue that as she is in therapy already that this change could be easier for her. However, this isn’t consistent with the interactions she has with several of the characters before Nathan miraculously breaks her free from the habits by just stating that she has a problem.
Overall, I rated this book 4/5 stars as I did feel that it was realistic enough to pass as the life of a student with big dreams though it is evident that some features may be too simple compared to real life. It is, however, a work of fiction and therefore is allowed to have some inconsistencies here and there. I would recommend it to those 18 and above as the sexual content involved is quite graphic at times and can sometimes be necessary for the progression of the plot.
- Ash Green
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