While there were a few things that i enjoyed in the book, unfortunately for the most of it, the writing made it hard for me to like it as a whole. It had a lot of potential but the execution didn't match.

Thank you NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC in exchange for an honest review!

1.5 stars. Unfortunately this book didn't work for me. On paper these tropes would be my cup of tea but I didn't really like the execution. I found Sam very immature and her eggs were mentioned way too many times in the book. I also didn't really feel the chemistry between Sam and Nick.

Thank you NetGalley and the publisher for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Samantha has a clear plan for her life until her biological clock starts ticking and her work rival undermines her. Now, while she is waiting for the rival to implode, she is working at her favorite bookstore and looking for Mr. Right. That would be fine, but the store's new owner is a huge distraction. She has had a crush on him for a while. He doesn't want kids and will be heading back to his NHL team soon, so he is not Mr. Right. He does become a good friend, in spite of the pesky chemistry between them. Feelings start to be caught on both sides, but they cling to their plans. Can Sam's meddling older sister spare them the impending heartbreak?
This book has a ton of tension and delicious banter like all of this author's books. You can see the sparks shooting off the page. Sam is a realistic character because she has an ongoing love/hate relationship with her body that makes it difficult for her to trust. Nick develops a plan to help her with that, and it is both lovely and hot. I couldn't put this book down because I enjoyed the characters so much.

Breaking the Ice is definitely a slow burn romance, and although typically I adore this type of book.... I did find myself struggling to get into this story unfortunately.

Thank you Netgalley for giving me the opportunity to read and review this book. These opinions are completely my own.


Sadly, I was not able to get passed 25 pages for this title as I really really disliked Samantha. I also did not enjoy the constant egg talk. Her "baby crazy eggs" were mentioned in what seemed like every page and it was tiresome.

I didn't really enjoy the last book i read by this author but wanted to give her another chance.

In this book, Nick and Samantha are brought together, working at the bookstore of a relative of his and friend of hers. Sam, having recently taken a leave of absence from her job, is on a one track path...to motherhood. Nick initially offers but since the two have started to beco.e friends, they opt for him to set her up on blind dates instead, before realizing maybe they are what's best for each other.

The character development was messy, the FMC's obsession with her "whining eggs" got to be insufferable by the third mention (and it was mentioned multiple times a chapter) the interludes at the beginning of each chapter didn't really make sense or fit, and they were in a different font and I was unclear what the author was trying to convey by this.

All in all, with more character depth, smoother transitions and chemistry between the MCs, this could have been a story i would have loved but ultimately this author i think is not for me.


Thank you Netgalley and Boldwood Books for the ARC in exchange for my review!

A slow burn romance book, spent the first ~ 75% of the book waiting for the action to happen and once it did it was quickly the end of the book. Overall I liked the plot and characters but I’m not racing to read any future releases.

Thank you for the arc, I did find this book quite enjoyable, I wouldn’t exactly describe it as a sports romance as the mmc doesn’t actively play hockey on the timeline of the book. I liked that it was mainly set in the bookshop and the side characters were lovely. The mentioning of the fmc’s eggs did get a little repetitive but I still enjoyed the book ☺️

I received a complimentary copy of this book. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.

DNF 10%
I had to tap out due to the excessive mention of her eggs emotions and talking.

Pros
- The concept
- The cover

Cons
- idk who sees their ex with his knocked up fiancée and gets baby fever
- the eggs chirping and talking stuff was weird
- A lot of talk about wanting a kid for a book with no pregnancy
- I know sisters can be bitches but wow her sister really told her how lame and sucky she was when she was already sad

“I’m sure I could find someone among their friends and colleagues who’d be willing to go out with a slightly nutty Rubenesque female with dying eggs.”
Samantha was just living her life when all of a sudden her biological clock started chirping a bit too loud. Then she loses someone very close to her. Then she loses her job. Everything is turning upside down and she just needs to find someone compatible with her to start having babies!

Nick is running g his late grandmother’s bookstore and has just hired Samantha. Nick is in an in between moment of his hockey career and this is just temporary. But as he helps Samantha find eligible bachelors everything Nick thought he wanted changes.
Thank you @amyandrewsbooks for the ARC!
Rating:⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

3.5🌟
This book was an extremely easy read, not to mention quick, but I wouldn't say it was gratifying. At the start I loved the fact that the main character was a curvy, career driven woman but then she morphed into an extremely desperate baby daddy seeker. I liked the premise of her and the hockey player running a bookshop together, there were a lot of good opportunities and sweet moments there. I also didn't mind him setting dates up for her, but it just got too much as she became more and more desperate.

I am in two minds about this book. I enjoyed the concept of the book. After a couple of chapters I began to really enjoy it but then it just started to feel rushed. This way I didn’t connect with any of the characters.

I loved the writing style in this book and that kept me reading the book and finished it within 2 days.

It’s classed as a sports romance but there’s hardly any mention of sports in the book.

If you are looking for a fast paced read with spice then I enjoy you pick up this book

*Thankyou NetGalley and Boldwood books for providing me this Arc in return for an honest review*

This was just a bit too difficult for me to swallow the premise. A hockey star is recuperating from an injury and decides to run his grandmother’s romance bookshop. And the heroine quits her job as a financial advisor and decides to work in the bookshop. Of course, they fall in love even though they know that there is an end date for their romance since he’ll go back to his team and she’ll go back to work as a financial adviser.

Of course, we know they’ll have a happily-ever-after. But I didn’t buy the situation that they were in, much less the resolution of their distance problems.

I voluntarily reviewed an advanced reader copy of this book that I received from Netgalley; however, the opinions are my own and I did not receive any compensation for my review.

This is the second Amy Andrews book I've read in the last couple of months and while I liked 'Look What You Made Me Do' I think 'Breaking the Ice' was more of a hit than a miss for me. I just couldn't understand the characters decisions - they made huge leaps in judgement I just couldn't follow. Who decides they are desperate for a baby overnight (maybe they do but I can't relate) and don't get me started on Nick's u-turn at the end. Also, for a book also about female body positivity Sam is awfully judgement mental about her dates appearance...

Having said that I did enjoy the writing style and the lust between the two characters kept me reading and I finished the book in just a few days. If you want a quick, easy to read, spicy romance and you can relate so some of the things I've already mentioned then give 'Breaking the Ice' a go but I think I'll stick to sports romances where sports are actually involved.

Breaking the Ice had the potential to be a delightful read, especially with the inclusion of a curvy female main character and the genuine friendship between the two main characters. However, the execution left much to be desired. While I appreciated the representation of the curvy FMC, the overall writing felt rushed and lacked depth, which made it hard for me to connect with the story.

Some moments were so cringe-worthy that they took me out of the narrative completely. I found myself rolling my eyes at certain dialogues and scenarios that felt forced rather than authentic. It’s a shame because the foundation was there for a charming and relatable story, but it just didn’t deliver the way I hoped it would.

Ultimately, I walked away feeling disappointed, as I was looking for a fun, lighthearted romance but ended up with an experience that didn’t quite hit the mark.

2 stars

I actually thought based on an athlete and a career woman working in a romance bookshop together, ok this is for me! But unfortunately that wasn’t the case.

Right off the bat I had a couple of issues
1. This company seems to be huge so where is the HR department? Samantha’s boss is a lawsuit waiting to happen. Also, she talks about how they can’t legally discriminate based on her age when she was hired at 25 but age discrimination laws are for over 40. The fact that’s she openly told her boss she didn’t want kids to be hired and then he asks her to take a leave the instant she mentions future possible children IS THE ILLEGAL PART! And the blatant nepotism and sexual harassment is just insane to me. Why would she ever even consider returning?? They don’t deserve you!
2. One of the first actual conversations between Sam and Nick is about her body which does NOTHING for the “a woman’s worth is how she looks” society this book seems to want to dismantle since Sam is bigger/curvy (though that cover illustration does not convey her being any where near that). And making that your first talking point with a woman is a huge red flag. “Oh let me hire you so men can come look” is not the compliment he seems to think it is.
3. Constantly referring to her eggs and the sudden desire to have kids isn’t something I can relate to as a 35 year old woman who actively chose not to have children. Not saying that doesn’t happen though, it’s just not my experience whatsoever.
4. I saw some reviews complain about an FMC not being confident but that’s a bit true to life so I had no issues there. I’m fairly confident myself but I still have days where I get down on myself/my body solely because I grew up in the days of ultra low rise jeans and severe diets where girls in my dance classes were drinking slimfast in middle school. This was probably the most realistic part of the FMC.
5. This felt like an uninformed man writing a woman. Like all that matters when she hits 30 is having a baby and being controlled by her motherly desires. I have never once heard any woman talking about their eggs cheeping(?!?) and sighing and every other emotion they had in this book. I wish I counted the references to her eggs because…dear god it was too many.
6. Her sister has multiple children but it felt like Samantha never asked about Bec’s life at all.
7. Sometimes the overuse of the thesaurus made me want to scream.

I didn’t particularly love either character. He was a bit of a skeeze, she was judgmental. As a childfree woman in her 30s, I wasn’t worried about connecting to a FMC wanting children as I have people in my life with children or wanting them, but if anyone talked that much about wanting a baby, I’d have to limit my interactions. And both of them to suddenly want kids out of nowhere either due to age or falling in love just didn’t feel realistic to me. It’s a lot of work to just decide to want on a whim!

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for this ARC

Charming, low angst, low drama romance set in a smallish town book shop. An easy read about career girl Sam taking a break from the corporate ladder. Her biological clock is suddenly screaming and her work is unsatisfying. Meantime Nick Hawke is taking a forced break from professional hockey after another knee injury. He takes over his late grandmother's bookshop and invites his gran's friend Sam to come work with him. There's some friend zoning, some pining, some crazy dates and lots of shenanigans between these two as they find their way to each other. It's a slow burn and a bit steamy as they get there. Also shout out to Sam's sneaky sister who saves the day!

I breezed through this friendly and tropey romance. Boldwood Books are re-releasing some of Amy's earlier works and this is such fun. Great for an afternoon's escapism. Enjoy!

Thank you Amy Andrews, Boldwood Books and NetGalley for the ARC. Opinions are my own.

This had the potential to be such a good book; it started out really strong but then seemed to fizzle out, it never really took off.

I tried, I really did. I DNF'd at 25%.

Is nobody going to talk about the INSANE overuse of italics on every single page? And they weren't even inflecting a part of the sentence that made sense. It drove me insane and is at the top of my list as to why I couldn't continue to read this.

Other issues:
-Her eggs were CHEEPING ???? 1. WTF does that even mean. 2. Girlfriend you're 30, chill out.
-Sam was described as Rubenesque way too many times for it to be part of casual thought and conversation. Her body image on a whole was brought up so frequently it was incredibly forced.
-There were plot holes and things spoken about that could have used more research from the author. It all jumped around, there was no continuity or real draw to either character and, as many other reviewers have also mentioned, it seems as if the author just tried to cherry pick trending tropes and topics (like this being a sports romance when he's just an injured professional hockey player so there's no actual sports).

I am a bit bummed because I actually really enjoyed Look What You Made Me Do.

One star for the cover art, but even that drawing doesn't come close to accurately representing Sam and her curves in the way she's described in the book.

I had high, high hopes for this one, but I really couldn't get behind it. The point-of-view was throwing me off and I felt as if I couldn't follow the storyline at all. I felt like the cover of the book was misleading. I was expecting more hockey/library, not what this book ended up being.

Overall, I felt like the author was hitting every popular trope at a 25% effort and it didn't pay off. I wish she chose one and really gave it her all because I could've really liked this book.