Icebreaker by A.L. Graziadei is a charming contemporary with a thought-provoking message. Following rival hockey players fighting for a spot in the NHL draft, this one contains a fair amount of drama and an unlikely romance. The main character and his struggles with depression are especially well-written, and I enjoyed the discussions of other social themes such as privilege in the world of sports. This is a heartfelt story that both hockey fans and those who, like myself, know next to nothing about the sport will enjoy.

A talented hockey player with a family legacy in the NHL, Mickey is a top contender for a spot in the upcoming NHL draft. However, when his rival ends up playing for the same college team, Mickey must work harder to earn his place. While Mickey and Jaysen are rivals, they are also teammates who must learn to work together, and as Mickey starts to get to know his teammate better, he realizes that Jaysen isn’t so bad, and that he may even like him. As Mickey and Jaysen’s relationship develops, they must decide what is important to them, and what they are willing to risk for it.

❀ REALISTIC MAIN CHARACTER

There is a lot of depth to Mickey’s character, and he is realistically portrayed. As the descendent of renowned hockey players, there are high expectations for him, and he struggles under this pressure, even losing some of his passion for hockey as a result. I found that Mickey’s mental health struggles are especially well-written, and I appreciated the discussions about privilege and depression—the way depression can affect anyone, and how even though Mickey lives a privileged life, his struggles are still valid. I don’t see as many books out there about male characters and mental health, so I was glad to see well-written and meaningful representation in this book.

❀ VARIETY OF SOCIAL THEMES

One of this book’s highlights is the variety of social themes throughout it. Beyond just hockey, the story touches on topics such as mental health and queerphobia, especially in the world of sports, in a way that feels natural. I found the discussions of privilege particularly strong, and I enjoyed getting glimpses into two different characters’ experiences with the draft. Mickey has a full scholarship and increased media attention because of his family legacy, and he only plans on staying at university for one year, until he gets drafted into the NHL. Meanwhile, as a Black athlete, Jaysen does not have the same opportunities as Mickey, and he must work harder to gain visibility. These discussions, prompting readers to think about the social dynamics in sports, bring more depth to the story.

❀ MOVING STORY

Icebreaker by A.L. Graziadei is a moving story about following your dreams, and about changing your path when necessary. I enjoyed the concept of hockey rivals, and the main character and his struggles with depression are well-written. The book also touches on many social themes including queerphobia and privilege, making this a love story with an important message.

I loved this book so much. There was just the right amount of angst. It was refreshing to read a college hockey romance that didn't completely revolve around sex. Mickey's story is such an important story to hear. He is a flawed character who doesn't have his act together for 75% of the book and it is so relatable. The feeling of not knowing what you want when everyone around you seems to have their act together is so real. I would read anything by the author and recommend this to as many people as I can!

Icebreaker was fast-paced and had such magnetic characters, I couldn't put it down if I tried. I love how it covered important topics such as privilege and mental health while having such witty banter and an exciting romance. Rivals to lovers, a bisexual main character, ice hockey, and fun family & friend dynamics made this book an automatic favorite.

Strong book, great characterization and amazing dive into mental health, and privilege. I wish the ending was stronger, but I think it's strong enough throughout that I wouldn't count it against it. Rivals to lovers is always good, and I loved this read. :)

While it certainly contains the elements of a LGBTQIA hockey romance, perfect for fans of Check, Please!, this novel is more of a character exploration of a particular athlete and his struggles with his public persona, his family expectations, and his mental health.

really enjoyed this!! i loved reading from mickey's pov and his character in general- he felt very realistic and relatable, even though his situation was so specific. his dynamics with his sisters, best friend Nova, and new friends on the hockey team were all very interesting, and the romance was nice as well. i also thought the mental health and queer rep was well-written and nuanced, and i appreciated it! my main complaint was that the novel felt too short- the ending could've used some more development, and i personally would've liked to see more of the team dynamics as a whole. however, it was still a great read that i flew through!

thank you NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with an ARC of this book for this honest review!

Mickey James III has some incredibly large ice skates to fill. His father and grandfather were both first overall draft picks for the NHL. Mickey, aka Terzo, is entering his Freshman year at Hartland University where he will now be teammates with his biggest rival, Jaysen Caulfield. Can Terzo live up to the expectations that have followed him for his entire life or will everything crack underneath his feet?

This book is AMAZING! I loved every aspect of it. There are incredibly important and timely conversations about sports and mental health (shout out to Simone Biles and Naomi Osaka). The book also addresses the homophobia that is often associated with professional sports. The wide range of diverse characters was also fantastic. I loved seeing the dynamics in the James family and watching old family wounds begin to heal through open and honest conversations. Be sure to grab a copy of this five-star read and follow A.L. Graziadei as I'm sure their next book will also be stunning!

Rainbows and Sunshine
Jan 18, 2022

I devoured this book in one sitting!!! It is one of my highly anticipated releases and definitely exceeded my expectations!

✔Hockey🏒
✔Rivals to lovers
✔Banter
✔Found family
✔Best friendship and siblings
✔Great rep for depression
✔Queer side characters

I loved every second of this book. Mickey is so relatable and I felt for him so much. Mickey has been trying to come to terms with hos depression for a long time and it was great seeing him accept it. He tried so hard because he felt like he had no right to be depressed when he's so privileged.

Depression doesn’t care who you are or what you’ve been through. It’s an illness that can happen to anyone.

Mickey and Jaysen are rivals from the beginning and chemistry is off the charts even from the start. I loved the progress of their relationship from slowly realising their attraction and starting to act on it. And how the rivalry is always present even when they get together!!!

It was great to see the bond between all the teammates and one of my favourite things is Mickey's relationship with his sisters!! It's so beautiful! Icebreaker also takes about parental pressure which another thing that's so relatable. Also love to see a poly side couple!

Highly recommend this book to everyone! I would have loved to see more of their college life instead of the epilogue but overall I really enjoyed it!

*ARC provided by the publisher via Netgalley in exchange for an honest and unbiased review

I really wanted to love this book, but I simply did not. If I were to rate this entirely based on personal taste, I would give it two stars.

There were only two things about this book that I genuinely enjoyed and appreciated.

One of them is the depression, anxiety, and bi rep. As an anxious bisexual who is likely depressed or has been depressed in the past, the representation here really spoke to me. Even though I dont experience any of these exactly as the main character, I still connected deeply to that aspect of the story.

The other thing I appreciated about this novel was the banter. The author really had me cackling as I was reading. I highlighted a lot of passages because I found them hilarious.

Other than those two things, however, I mostly found this reading experience frustrating.

Happy book birthday to Icebreaker!

Mickey James III is a college freshman in a family of NHL legends, working toward the league's top pick in the upcoming draft. His top rival for the spot is Jaysen Caulfield, Mickey's teammate in college. When their rivalry turns into something more, Mickey is faced with decisions both on and off the rink.

I won this book from a sweepstakes and know nothing about hockey, but I ended up absolutely loving this sporty romcom.

The themes in this book really shone. There's some great commentary about privilege, where Jaysen is a great foil to Mickey in this regard. I loved the queer rep, as there were quite a few queer relationships portrayed, including a polyamorous triad, which we don't often see in YA. The book also addresses toxic masculinity, sexism in sports and sports media, and parental relations where the parents didn't necessarily do things wrong but still caused a lot of pain.

Finally, there was an amazing portrayal of mental health - Mickey has depression, and his journey towards dealing with it and asking for help was really great to see, especially paired with the commentary of privilege - Mickey's battle with his depression and him berating himself for it when his life seems perfect on paper and the assurances that depression can happen to everyone was great to see.

I absolutely loved all the characters - Mickey and Jaysen's relationship was great to see, but I found myself falling in love with all the side characters as well - Dorian, Delilah, Jade, Zero, Bailey, Nova, Barbie, all of whom are nicely fleshed out.

A thank you to Macmillan Children's Publishing Group, Henry Holt and Co. (BYR), NetGalley, and NYCC Fierce Reads Recommends Sweepstakes for this ARC.

Excuse me nobody told me that there would be anti-toxic masculinity and excellent mental health representation in my cute little queer romcom sporty romance! The depth this book has!! We can almost forgive it for being fade to black. I love Mickey. He’s such a shit but like owns it. I would like seven more books about these two please and thank you.

Thank you Netgalley for this one. Loved it!!

Before I review this book I must mention that I received an advance readers copy from Netgalley in exchange for my honest review.

Y'all, I loved 𝘐𝘤𝘦𝘣𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘬𝘦𝘳. It has everything that I wish little me had seen when I was a young adult. Mickey James the 3rd is trying to live up to his family. Both his grandfather and father were hockey all stars. His mom is a bonafide Olympic medalist. His sisters are all rock stars in their perspective fields. He finds himself at college waiting to see if he'll be chosen as the number one draft pick. Thing is, Mickey doesn't really enjoy hockey. Instead of being fun, it's become work. Add to that the stress of living up to family expectations and a father that hasn't always been there, Mickey is going through some mental health challenges.

Mickey is on the college hockey team and one of his teammates turns out to be Jaysen Caulfied. Jaysen has been Mickey's rival for years and is competing with Mickey to be the number one draft pick. Jaysen has his own issues. He's one of the few black hockey players. He's in a different socioeconomic level and a lot of those resentments are transferred to Mickey.

Of course the enemies are going to turn into lovers. And while I wouldn't usually be down with the tired enemies turn into lovers trope, A.L. Graziadei breathes new life into it and makes the burgeoning romance between Mickey and Jaysen believable. We can see their guard being letdown and their hearts opening to each other. It's a really sweet thing and made even more so because hockey is known to be a masculine sport.

I loved this book. I grew up and still live in the metro Detroit area. We are Hockeytown. I loved how the differences of economic class between Mickey and Jaysen were addressed and how Mickey made it right towards the end. I loved that Graziadei didn't shy away from Mickey's mental health. Mental health in sports is an issue that needs to be talked about and I love how Mickey's struggle with depression is as much in the forefront as hockey.

I know that the ending is going to turn off a lot of people but those that complain about the ending are missing the point. Whether Mickey or Jaysen became the number one draft pick wasn't the goal of 𝘐𝘤𝘦𝘣𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘬𝘦𝘳. What mattered that they were both able to grow up and grow past the subjective nature of #1 draft pick.

I'd highly recommend this book. And, if you liked/loved this book then I'd recommend 𝘊𝘩𝘦𝘤𝘬, 𝘗𝘭𝘦𝘢𝘴𝘦! by Ngozi Ukazu.

I picked this up because I love m/m hockey romances, but I would describe it first and foremost as an intimate look inside the mindset of a 17-/18-year-old college freshman with untreated clinical depression.

That freshman does happen to play hockey at a high level, so it is what his day-to-day revolves around, but the throughline here is mental health.

There is also a prominent budding romance with a teammate/rival ("Have you ever hated someone so much you want to suffocate them with your own tongue" 🤣), and it's a YA-friendly one of the fade-to-black variety, although I wouldn't necessarily call the overall tone of the book YA. It neatly straddles the YA/NA line in a way I have always found very fitting for stories about college freshmen, and it was done very well here.

The rivalry was more of a sub-plot, but I LOL'd many times at their banter.

But there is so much more depth to this than the average college romance. This book will make you think, which I love, and it does it without telling you what it wants you to think, which I really love, but in the end I think it missed a few connections that were needed to tie the whole thing together and elevate this from good to excellent.

The MC's childhood/previous hockey life are missing enough details to make it confusing to anyone who doesn't already have a good grasp on the traditional hockey development route someone like this would have taken. And even knowing the basics of that hockey world, the details of how that played out in his family specifically are missing a few crucial pieces that I think were needed to fill in some pretty important gaps with his mental health journey.

There's a lot of really good stuff going on here:

>The mental health discussion and how that's twisted and magnified by this high-profile, high-pressure sports life

>The discussion of the imbalance of privilege between the MC and his love interest/biggest rival in the NHL Draft

>The excellent variety of queer representation and the perception and/or reality of how equally (or not) they are accepted/tolerated by their family/peers

>The baffling undervaluement of women in sports. (Shout out to the amazing sibling relationships. I loved them so much.)

It's all fantastic, and I certainly don't expect this author to be the person who has all the answers, but there were just a few places where I wanted to grab that dangling plot thread, pin it down and interrogate it for all the details of this one character's life.

Despite the lingering questions -- not to mention the fact that I spent half the book all tensed up with worry over the MC's state of mind due to the extremely effective depiction of clinical depression and anxiety -- I would still give it all four stars up to this point.

But, grrr, that ending. I'm actually ok that we didn't get an answer to...that one thing :) But the final beat of the story treats this like it was just about the romance all along, and...it wasn't. And frankly, if it was, I probably would have found the ending even more frustrating.

I mean, if it's a Romance™️, then we have to discuss pacing issues and the fact that the fade-to-black choices with their sexual encounters caused us to miss out on the (I assume) developing intimacy between the two, since that's one of my favorite parts of a romance novel.

But to me, it's not a romance novel, so that stuff can take a backseat to the character's overall journey -- like it has for the whole book so far. Somehow it feels like the book waited until the very end to forget that.

Thankfully, I did end the book confident that the MC is going to be ok, which was a real concern for a while, but the book didn't quite pull off the finale with the character's individual growth arc. Or it intentionally chose not to make any grand pronouncements, which would be a totally valid choice if the romance had gotten a little more development/heft to allow it to pull the emotional load of the finale OR if we got answers to...that one thing...and preferably a little of its aftermath :)

But considering I went into this specifically for the romance and the hockey, the fact that I would have been thrilled with it anyway if they'd just landed that ending a little better says a lot. Would still recommend, especially for the YA/NA audience.

I love coming of age stories and YA fiction. I was also intrigued by the diversity, mental illness and queer representation promised in the synopsis.

Icebreaker delivers a truly delightful enemies to lovers romance about two hockey players who are fighting for the #1 draft spot in the NHL. I feel this story was original in the various representations that don’t conform to societal norms. Mickey and Jay have a lovely story that is developed through quick and witty banter. The trope pace was well done and the friendships and siblings play in well to the story line.

I feel the mental illness story line is valid, but also feel that it was superficial in the grand scheme of the story. Mickey mentions it often and you see a glimpse of adults (parents and teachers) attempt to address it with him. He does get help once he discusses it with his mom, but how/when/where is missing. I would have liked to see more of that story line.

I was lucky enough to also get the audio version to go back and forth between mediums. I enjoyed the narration by Tom Picasso!

4 Stars

Thank you to @netgalley and @macmillanusa and RB Media for a free copy of this book in exchange for my honest opinion.

Thank you so much to NetGalley, A.L. Graziadei and Henry Holt & Co.

This is my first sports romance and certainly won't be my last. I had known that there was a whole world of sports romances and I have been itching to get to them.

"Icebreaker" is an YA novel that takes place in upstate New York during freshman year of college. Hockey is life for our main character Mickey James III. He is third generation hockey player with a lot of pressure on his shoulders to continue his family's legacy. In true sports fashion, there is a rivalry but instead of the rivalry being against someone on another team, this time it is his own teammate, Jaysen Caulfield. The tension between these two would cause issues off the rink as well as on the rink. They are both eyeing for the top spot during the NHL draft and they are very vocal about. Things become complicated when they realize that their tension is not just about hockey but about their feelings towards one another.

I really enjoyed this book! Mickey is a very complex character and I love his growth throughout the book. We have this young athlete who feels the weight of being the son of a famous athlete that is also dealing with his insecurities, sexual identity and depression. Jaysen is a great juxtaposition to Mickey. He has a solid relationship with his family, he knows who he is, he knows his talents and has a plan for the future. Jaysen was also a refreshing character as he is queer, black and has an emo style (piercings, tattoos). You don't see that especially in the hockey world (at least from my minimal knowledge of hockey).

The book ended kind of on a cliffhanger? I am not sure if this is going to be a series but I'm ready for Mickey and Jaysen part two.

If you are looking for the following:
YA (college) - check
LGTBQ rep - check
Enemies to friends to lovers - check
Hockey - check
Mental health - check
Family drama - check

Congrats on your first published book A.L. Graziadei!

Sometimes my ratings are based on a carefully weighed factors of characterization, style, theme, execution, etc. This one was mostly based on "did I like it?" and the answer was yes.

There were definitely some flaws - sometimes the game or practice scenes got a little too play-by-play or filled with terminology that I didn't know/wasn't explained (my familiarity is about two notches above "as they say in hockey...'let's do that hockey'"); the FwB piece and the self-medication through alcohol didn't feel like it was delved into enough; Nova in particular but many of the other side characters felt somewhat underdeveloped or as if they didn't have personalities separate from their jobs/relationship with Mickey; and the ending might have technically wrapped up the plotlines but didn't necessarily feel emotionally satisfying - for example, I would have loved for the part about Mickey getting help for and learning to live with his mental illness to have gotten emphasis alongside his struggles, which take up so much of the book - and the time skip especially didn't help. However, the portrayal of depression, family relationships both strained and strong, and the pressure that comes with sports stardom (or any sort of pigeonholing) at a young age were all well done, the writing flowed along with a good bit of humor mixed in, the rivals to romance was both fun and intense, and was just generally enjoyable.

Overall a good book, although I had some difficulty with some portions, it is nothing too bad, It was the first sport book that I have read, but based on this it is a genre that I'd enjoy to continue.

It should surprise no one that a rivals/enemies to lovers story line with sports would be my jam. And oh, is it my jam.

Icebreaker tells the story of Mickey James III, a hockey prodigy who has hockey in his blood. It’s a birthright. It’s a legacy. And he’s almost ambivalent about the sport due to depression, family expectations, and not being fully out as bisexual. But Mickey is tapped for the top draft pick against his rival and now college teammate, Jaysen Caulfield. The problem is that Cauler (as Jaysen prefers to go by) is extremely Mickey’s type and the two find themselves not hating each other as much as they, and the rest of the hockey world, thought.

I went to a college near Buffalo, NY so I absolutely adored all the talk of winter sports, college, and a Sabres reference! Hockey is such a big deal for cold weather schools. I went to a D3 school so I can imagine the hype surrounding a D1 school with NHL draft prospects and it would pretty much mirror this book. Add in that the two top draft picks are longtime rivals and on the same team *and* have some of the most crackling chemistry and tension I’ve read in a while? Delicious. Just delicious.

The discussion of depression and the different forms it can take was stunning. Mickey talks about wanting to feel *an* emotion about something. It seems like the only thing that can inject life into his veins is Cauler, but he recognizes that this isn’t enough and slowly starts to open up to more teammates. These conversations can be so hard to navigate and watching Mickey do this felt so realistic, especially for a college freshman who’s trying to find their way.

It’s funny. When I finished the book, I felt positively about it. Gave it 4.5 stars and rounded down to 4. Then I sat on the book for a few days before writing this review and now I’m just filled with such contentment and satisfaction that I’m rounding it up to 5 stars.

What a book.

4.5 stars rounded up

I got approved for this really close to publish date so here is my lightning-fast review!
* The enemies to lovers seemed REALLY fast and also kind of tame!
* I arbitrarily wanted this book to be more like The Foxhole Court and it was not, but also that’s the only other sports romance I have ever read!
* The voice in this was super strong!
I barely have any thoughts because I read it so quickly! It comes out this Tuesday! Four stars!

Unfortunately, I do not feel that I am the title audience for this novel. Despite the narrative's college setting and adult characters, I felt the topics and themes were explored in a superficial manner. The discussions of mental health, while valuable, provided no insights into how being in the spotlight, as the characters are with hockey, could contribute to their overall well-being. Additionally, I found the romance to be lacking as well, though the relationship between the two main characters follows an enemies-to-lowers arc, I found that the transition between the two was abrupt and unearned. I did like the main character's narrative voice and found some of his problems to be relatable, but overall I was disappointed by the execution of a compelling concept.