Icebreaker by Hannah Grace

*minor spoilers ahead*

Icebreaker by Hannah Grace focuses on competitive figure skater Anastasia and ice hockey team captain Nathan, and how their paths cross by being forced to use the same rink. Emotions are high and quickly these become more intense over the coming months. The book includes dual POVs allowing the reader to submerse themselves into the mindset of Anastasia and Nathan.

My first thought when reading this book was how deceiving the front cover is. It looks to be an innocent, cute romance but instead, Icebreaker is filled with an abundance of sex scenes. Unfortunately, this did become quite repetitive and unnecessary, but it’s not surprising why this book became so popular on social media. The first half of this book lacked plot for me, as every other scene was the same. Without an emotional connection between the characters, I struggle to feel invested when I first began the book. Luckily, this did pick up, but it took a while.

A lot of side characters were also introduced in this period, which was a little difficult to follow. The worst character of all is Aaron, Anastasia’s skating partner. This is not a criticism of Grace’s writing because as readers it is intended we despise him, but Aaron is one of the most toxic characters I have ever read about. There are some deeper themes in the book regarding body image, food restriction and control, and this all stems from Aaron’s behaviour. Aaron was a walking red flag but did make the book more interesting to read. I did also like Lola and Henry as other characters in the book and wish there were more of them.

Whilst the pacing of the book is fast, helped by the fact there are dual POVs, Icebreaker is a lot longer than it needed to be. Being a book over 400 pages, I expected there to be more depth, but this was lacking. I did enjoy how in the second half of the book, the plot picked up a lot more as Anastasia and Nathan’s relationship developed. It reminded me more of a typical romance story which was nice. There are quite a few small moments in the book that are sweet and wholesome and so I wish that happened more.

Nathan Hawkins is a man who was most definitely written by a woman.

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When reading reviews online for Icebreaker I noticed that in earlier publications of this book, Anastasia’s best friend Lola is actually called Sabrina, a Muslim woman born in New York. I read some controversy over this due to the characters’ actions contrasting her religion, so I wonder if this is why it was changed in later publications. It’s a shame that there are two different versions of the book as this affects the story a lot, so it’s worth noting depending on what version you read.

I liked that there was an epilogue included which was interesting to read through. It very much reminded me of Ugly Love by Colleen Hoover as it was intense, but expected for the type of book Icebreaker is. I found the ending rather predictable but I’m always a sucker for a happy ending, so I enjoyed it.

Overall, I enjoyed reading Icebreaker, but it did remind me of a WattPad story. It was easy to read but not something I’d highly recommend to others.

3/5 stars