Reviews with content warning for Infidelity - Icebreaker

Reviews tagging 'Infidelity'

jreshsingh26's review

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emotional funny hopeful lighthearted fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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jeanettesreadingcorner's review

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emotional lighthearted slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

What I liked:

Once I read past 200 or so pages, it’s like the author found the plot and the story actually began. I started to enjoy the characters the romance, and everything else more. Nate and Anastasia are really cute. I enjoyed how they supported each other and their character growth, together and as individuals. The hockey team guys are funny and sweet too. I loved their found family dynamics.

- Nate punching Aaron was really satisfying.

I’m curious to read Wildfire to see how it compares to this one and I liked the characters enough to continue reading in the Maple Hills book world.
The ending was astronomically better than the beginning of the book. Overall, I eventually liked Icebreaker and I could see why it’s popular. There are some aspects that bothered me about it though…

What I disliked:
- Aaron The Asshole sucks and I hate him, especially the way he treated Anastasia.

the beginning is a mess. There’s no direction or storyline. The characters are just partying and having sex, talking about sex, or insinuating it. I don’t mind sex scenes and they don’t bother me. However, they don’t need to be so frequent and in every moment the main characters are together. It was just too much in one book. That’s something that I don’t like about adult romance books.
British phrases in a book set in the USA and the characters are American? So weird. I guess it could be the quirky thing that the author writes but it seemed so odd and out of place to me.
The book is written in dual pov, which I usually prefer and love, but it did feel repetitive at times in this one.

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jeannethinks's review

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funny inspiring lighthearted medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.25

This book took some time to get into the flow, but once you got past the slow start it kept you entertained. It was the best of cold weather sports, hockey and ice skating. Throw in the college shenanigans and the frenemies to lover it made for a fun read. There is just enough balance of the sports, romance and great use of mental health awareness to offer something interesting for most readers. Also be prepared to really dislike Aaron, for sure.

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dolphinchick93's review

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emotional lighthearted fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.25

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queerbookworm's review against another edition

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emotional funny lighthearted medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

I actively avoided this book for over a year because it was a "booktok book" and I genuinely regret not reading it sooner. It's not perfect but it is way better than I expected and an enjoyable read. It's not all spice with no plot which was a very real concern of mine going in but it's a good story with spice throughout, the only proper way to write a spicy book in my opinion as a smut reader since the age of 13. The plot gets a bit predictable at points but is still able to grip you. The characters are lovely (

except Arron

) and were where I got most of my enjoyment from. I will absolutely be reading more from this author in the future.

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uranaishi's review

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adventurous emotional funny hopeful reflective tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.5

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maggies's review

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emotional lighthearted medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

1.0

Booktok lied about this one. The characters are borderline insufferable or otherwise so one dimensional that they might as well not even have been in the cast. It was easily 20% longer than it needed to be, with entire chapters where nothing happens to move the plot forward. The constant references to pregnancy were really annoying, especially because the subtext was always "a baby is the worst thing that can happen to you."

I was really frustrated that Anastasia ended up pregnant at the end despite telling Nate that she didn't want to be pregnant and preferred to adopt.

I also found it to be poorly written in general—the tense was inconsistent and odd, switching randomly between past and present, and the dialogue did not feel authentic...a shocking amount of dialogue happened off-page and was recapped by the characters' internal monologue later, and what did occur on-page was stilted and awkward. The spice might have been the only redeeming aspect of the book ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

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