Release Date: January 18th, 2022

Genre(s): Young Adult, Contemporary, LGBT+

Publisher: Henry Holt & Co.

Pages: 304

Rating:⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Thank you to FierceReads and NetGalley for providing me with an e-ARC in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

Synopsis

A. L. Graziadei’s Icebreaker is an irresistible YA debut about two hockey players fighting to be the best—and the romance that catches them by surprise along the way.

Seventeen-year-old Mickey James III is a college freshman, a brother to five sisters, and a hockey legacy. With a father and a grandfather who have gone down in NHL history, Mickey is almost guaranteed the league’s top draft spot.

The only person standing in his way is Jaysen Caulfield, a contender for the #1 spot and Mickey’s infuriating (and infuriatingly attractive) teammate. When rivalry turns to something more, Mickey will have to decide what he really wants, and what he’s willing to risk for it.

This is a story about falling in love, finding your team (on and off the ice), and choosing your own path.

Review

To be honest, I wasn’t sure how I’d feel about Icebreaker when I started reading it. I don’t read romance often (although I’m trying to change that) and I know very little about hockey. But Icebreaker turned out to be such a lovely surprise and my first five-star read of the year.

To start, this book was fast-paced and hard to put down. If not for my schedule I think I could have read this book in one sitting. It’s the kind of book where you’re invested in all the characters (including the side characters) from the beginning. There’s so much depth behind each character’s life that it’s hard not to want to be invested in each one’s journey. Everybody in this book felt so real, and that was a big part of what made this book go by so quickly. 

It’s difficult to represent various issues in a book with the right level of balance, but Icebreaker does this so well. From mental health to the stressors of the public eye, as well as being an athlete and being a member of the LGBT+ community and more, there are so many topics of conversation that are explored in such depth. But what really shined the most for me was the subject of mental health. The author did such an incredible job at making the character’s mental health struggles so real that, in a way, I felt like I was reading about myself. From not understanding the root causes of depression to adjusting to medication, and even opening up to others, the conversations on mental health felt so genuine and realistic. And again, these topics appear with side characters as well. I was shocked to see that one of the characters had trichotillomania – something that is fairly common but I never see represented. I think these conversations really took this book to the next level, and I think it will be so impactful to its readers.

I recommend Icebreaker to those looking for a YA contemporary romance. And I” be looking out for Graziadei’s works in the future!

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