This is a romance novel that I would say is best summed up as doing perfectly what it says on the tin. Personally for me, neither the characters nor their trials and tribulations were particularly compelling to me. That being said I recognize that is my personal preferences and expectations of romance. I am no stranger to the average genre romance story, and this one with plenty of sex and a competitive sports college setting, is definitely in the realm of a rather traditional romance story arc. Which made it overall predictable and not in a way I found terribly compelling.
I think the messages of the story are good ones, the relationship is sweet and built up in a way that I think reflects a good and healthy relationship even with smatterings of enemies to lovers. But about a third of the way in I had to force myself into finishing the work, not because it was awful or anything but because I was just not invested. The work was a little over hyped online in my opinion, and I think that led to warped expectations. By the end of the story I was compelled by the developing plot beats but I wish it hadn't taken so long for me to feel that way.
Overall Icebreaker is a cute frenemies to lovers story doing exactly what it set out to do perfectly, it simply wasn't for me. I won't, however, be surprised to see this made into a film in about 5 years.
13 Books
See all
