Icebreaker

Anastasia Allen has worked her entire life for a shot at Team USA. It looks like everything is going according to plan when she gets a full scholarship to the University of California, Maple Hills and lands a place on their competitive figure skating team.

Nothing will stand in her way, not even the captain of the hockey team, Nate Hawkins.

Nate’s focus as team captain is on keeping his team on the ice. Which is tricky when a facilities mishap means they are forced to share a rink with the figure skating team—including Anastasia, who clearly can’t stand him.

But when Anastasia’s skating partner faces an uncertain future, she may have to look to Nate to take her shot.

Sparks fly, but Anastasia isn’t worried…because she could never like a hockey player, right?

• Icebreaker by Hannah Grace
• Series: Maple Hills, book #1
• Published: Simon & Schuster Audio on November 23, 2022
• Genre: Romance
• Listening length: 13 hours 23 minutes
• Dates listened: 8.25.25 – 8.30.25
• Format: Audiobook (Spotify)
• Narrators: Elizabeth Louise, Tim Paige
• Add on Goodreads
• Purchase on Amazon
• ⭐⭐½
• 🌶🌶🌶🌶½

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One of these days, I will stop believing the hype for products I see on TikTok! lol This was one of those disappointments. This book has been all over my FYP from TikTok, and needing a book that matched “a book focused around a sport” challenge, I decided to check this one out. I wish I had just read an autobiography instead. I don’t get the hype. It is spicy, sure! But that was literally the ONLY point of the book. Even though there was spice, and it wasn’t too bad, I felt a bit dirty listening to it because the whole storyline made me feel like I was listening to details about teenagers having sex. I had to keep reminding myself that these were college students in their 20s. They all seemed so incredibly immature to me. Maybe I’m just too old?

There was so much I didn’t like about this book. First off, the FMC. Every time Anastasia was referred to by a nickname, like Stassie (pronounced like Stah-see), it was like nails on a chalkboard to me. It’s an AWFUL nickname. If it wasn’t Stassie, then it was just Stas (Stah-s). While I’m on the topic of nicknames and such, there were so many characters in this book that it was difficult to keep them straight. If you’re going to throw that many people into a book, then freaking pick a name to call them, and stick with it ffs!!! Unless you’re George R. R. Martin, get out of here with that annoying mess, because this book is no Game of Thrones, ok! I rarely knew who was being talked about or referenced because they were either called by their name, their nickname, or their last name. And I’m sorry, do people ever really refer to their lovers by their last name? I’ve only ever seen men really do this, such as amongst teammates, in the military…basically any masculine field where you’re known by your last name more so than your first. But a boyfriend calling his girlfriend Allen because it’s her last name was absolutely weird to me. It took me a second to realize Nathan was referring to Anastasia when he did this, and I was annoyed because I thought for a second there was yet ANOTHER character being introduced. Please stop doing this, authors!!!

Ok, back to Anastasia, because I refuse to call her Stassie (haha), I think she will go down this year as the most annoying FMC of any of the books I’ve read this year. She was the “grumpy” of the grumpy/sunshine trope in this book, because who doesn’t love a broody grumpy FMC, right? But it was seriously contrived. Nothing really about her personality was grumpy, unless it was with her interactions with Nathan. She had an immediate hate towards him for no other reason than that he was the captain of the hockey team. She didn’t seem to have an issue with any of the other players, just Nathan. Why? They had no history. It wasn’t like he’d been a dog to one of her friends before, so she had a preconceived opinion of him. Nope. She just didn’t like him and wanted to be difficult because she had to fit the grumpy, enemies-to-lovers trope. It was mentioned a few times that she was notorious for posting uplifting, positive, “good vibes only” posts on her social media, yet she’s supposed to be the grumpy one? Oh, right! Only grumpy towards Nathan. Ugh!

Anastasia discusses several times throughout the book about “all the years of therapy” she has gone through. No judgments! I fully support someone doing that. But all those years of therapy haven’t seemed to work a lick, since you didn’t even pick up on the hundreds of red flags your skating partner was throwing at you, and you repeatedly defend his ass! Literally, this dude is NEVER nice to her. He makes comments all the time about her weight, puts her on a strict diet so she doesn’t gain weight, so he can lift her in their routines, and often makes grunting noises when he does. He slut shames her, tries to control her, dictates who she hangs out with, blames an injury on Nathan, and Anastasia immediately believes him…I can go on and on. How does someone who has been in therapy for 10 years not have the self-awareness to pick up on some of this crap?! Make it make sense! On top of that, she avoids her parents because of some perceived performance pressure she thinks they have of her, when all along it was just them being supportive of something she loves to do. Really? 10 years of therapy took you to figure that out, even though you continuously pride yourself in the book on your communication abilities, thanks to therapy? Ugh. I really did not like Anastasia, can you tell? lol

“That isn’t a yes. Do I need to get on my knees and beg you, Anastasia? Is that what you want?” She shakes her head and laughs. “The only time I ever want to see a grown man on his knees in front of me, Nate, is when his face is between my legs. So no, I don’t want you to beg me.”

So let’s talk about Nathan, Nate, Hawkins. I did like him. He at least had some redeeming qualities, such as taking the blame for things so that the whole team didn’t suffer. Definitely a martyr character, but I found it endearing. But I didn’t really get his insta-attraction to Anastasia. Early into the book, we learn that Nate has more or less been ga-ga for years over a girl named Summer, who barely gives him the time of day. But the moment he sees Anastasia, he’s no longer into Summer? Especially considering how Anastasia treats him, that doesn’t make sense to me. Maybe that can be explained by the reverse psychology thing? Treat him like crap to make him follow you like a lost puppy? He spends so much of the book worrying about what she will say/think, “living to hear her laugh”, and telling her there’s nothing he wouldn’t do for her happiness. Whyyyy! She’s a horrible person, Nate! lol Not only does Nate fall head over heels for her immediately, either. The ENTIRE hockey team seems to, and they’re all jumping at chances to protect her, defend her honor, etc. It was soooo annoying!

The only thing that I did like about the book was the subtle nod towards eating disorders and the attention to the toxic/abusive relationship that Anastasia has with her skating partner, Aaron. That could be a potential trigger warning for some people. It was the only thing that I felt the author did a decent job of writing into the plot of the book. I’ve never had an eating disorder myself, but I have been in many toxic, abusive relationships, and I’ve also struggled with my body image. It isn’t something that happens suddenly, overnight. It always happens subtly, difficult to notice, until it’s too late. I just don’t understand how it was so hard for Anastasia, her therapist, or her coach, to pick up on this.

Now let’s talk about the spice. Yes, it was there. I just don’t really know how I felt about it. There were times when I was like…”ok, that was hot”. But then there were times when I felt like I was listening to a teenager’s description of sex, and it made me feel weird. And there was SO much of it. If you take away the spice, you’re literally left with barely any plot or substance. And for me, personally, I don’t enjoy that unless I know I signed up for an erotica/smut book. I gave it a ½ 🌶 rating simply because there were a few sex scenes that dipped its toes across the vanilla line. Nothing too crazy, but there is some light dominance, spanking, etc. The scenes are open-door, very descriptive. I’ve read a few reviews that have given this book some crap because, by the look of the book, and the blurb, you could be misled into thinking this book is ok for a teenager to read, but it is definitely not! Man, I think back to when I was a teenager, sneaking around reading my Danielle Steele books, thinking they were “risque” and “naughty”. lol I can’t even imagine what kind of trouble I would have gotten into if I had some of the books that come out now. My parents would have never known what I was reading about! haha

So there ya have it. This was a dud for me. I know that many, many people seem to love this book, and that’s entirely ok. We all have different tastes. But for me, I didn’t like it and will definitely not be reading the rest of the books in the series, even though it seems they do include some of the characters from this book.