Julie Cross

Haley Stevenson seems like she's got it all together: cheer captain, "Princess" of Juniper Falls, and voted Most Likely to Get Things Done. But below the surface, she's struggling with a less-than-stellar GPA and still reeling from the loss of her first love. Repeating her Civics class during summer school is her chance to Get Things Done, not angst over boys. In fact, she's sworn them off completely until college. Fletcher Scott is happy to keep a low profile around Juniper Falls. He's always been the invisible guy, warming the bench on the hockey team and moonlighting at a job that would make his grandma blush. Suddenly, though, he's finding he wants more: more time on the ice, and more time with his infuriatingly perfect summer-school study partner. But leave it to a girl who requires perfection to shake up a boy who's ready to break all the rules. Each book in the Juniper Falls series is STANDALONE: * Off the Ice * Breaking the Ice

Breaking the Ice

Lacy W

A special thank you goes out to Entangled Teen for allowing me to read this early. All thoughts and opinions are my own. 

Please note: even though this is the second in the Juniper Falls series, it can be read as a standalone. 

And with this book, I shall officially end 2017. I can think of no better way to end a rather successful reading year with a steamy read with my favorite trope ever, the friends to lovers. 

Let me tell you, friends, this was something else. Fletcher and Haley are so damn stubborn in their feelings, it drove me insane! But it was such a fun tortue, I couldn't help but read on in the hopes that they got it together. I enjoyed every minute of them together and their sarcasm. I seriously love characters that are sarcastic. And the best part of the their interactions? They actually talked things out. Any misunderstandings were cleared up almost right away. 

I also need to point out some really awesome rep in this book. Food allergies and their severity are one of the focal points in this book as Fletcher is allergic to a lot of different types of food. I think that is awesome because I honestly can't remember the last book I read where they talked about food allergies in such a informative way.

I must also mention the ADHD rep with Haley. Too often, girls aren't diagnosed properly with ADHD. Even though Haley wasn't officially diagnosed, she was on her way to being diagnosed. I personally do not have ADHD so I cannot confidently say how accurate the rep is but it was good to see it in the book. I hope it helps girls who have ADHD feel like they are not alone and they can be successful in life. 

Overall, this was a great book. Haley and Fletcher were just so great. Their interactions were so much fun and steamy. The rep for food allergies and ADHD were great. (I think, for 2018, I need to look up better adjectives). I will definitely be checking out the rest of this series, with the hopes that Fletcher and Hayley are in them.

Lauren Sullivan

Content warning: This book has teen sex, (responsible) underage drinking, and lots of swearing.

A young adult romance with hockey?  Sign me up!

Haley is the Juniper Falls Princess (yes, that's really a thing) and Fletcher is a JV hockey player who keeps to himself.  Normally, they'd never even be at the same party, but they end up in the same summer school Civics class, and Haley decides that Fletch's nerdy self is the perfect project partner to bring up her GPA (she even gives him a project partner invitation, complete with glitter and calligraphy).  Haley is peppy, pretty and near-perfect, all those princessy words.  At first this seemed like just another popular cheerleader falls in love with the nerdy guy stories, but it's so much more.  Each time one layer of the story is peeled back, you find another layer underneath.  Why does Fletch keep to himself?  What happened in third grade?  Why's Haley in summer school?  Why does Fletch suddenly want to play on the varsity team?  What's Fletch's mysterious job?

“Can you promise me that if I kiss you, it’ll just be for fun? That I won’t keep feeling things after?”

And the angst, oh the teen angst.  Normally I avoid angst like the plague, but in this case, it didn't really bother me that much.  Haley and Fletcher are both facing serious issues, and the alternating view points of the chapters helped ground me in the story.  It was also surprisingly sexy, despite being a YA.  It takes for-ev-er for the main characters to kiss, and the slow burn will-they-or-won't-they was well done and had me trying to sneak in chapters whenever I could.   Fletch is just plain swoony!  There are also, of course, several Important Issues covered, most of which I won't mention to avoid spoilers.  I will say, however, that I especially enjoyed the thoughtful discussion around bullying, from both the bullied and bully's perspectives.

“Maybe if I say exactly what I’m thinking, stuff won’t build into big imaginary relationships inside my head. A guy can be hot and sexy without being a marital prospect or a soul mate. Right?”

Though this is the second in the series, I read it as a standalone.  It worked fine for me, but it was obvious there was some backstory with Hailey and some of the other characters of the previous book.  In fact, I enjoyed this book so much, I immediately went and put the first book on hold at my library as soon as I was done.

As for cons, it felt like some of the plot points (like Fletch and the varsity team and Haley's suspected issue) needed more closure.  Also, without going into too many spoilers, I found it surprising that none of Haley's friends or teachers suspected what Fletch figured out after working on a project with her for, what, a week?

Overall, this was a surprisingly lot of fun, and it kept me guessing how things would turn out.  I'm eagerly anticipating reading the first book in the series!

I received this book for free from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

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It seems like it's been ages since I read a Julie Cross book and, well, maybe that's because it has been. The last one I picked up was actually the first book in this series, Off the Ice, and that was in March 2017. I won't say I forgot how much I enjoy her writing and characters because I'm not sure I could, but I still appreciated the reminder. Breaking the Ice was exactly what I've come to expect from her books — sweet, swoony, funny, real and sex-positive. Obviously I was a fan. 

I had a really tough time putting down Breaking the Ice once I started reading it. In fact, I read 80% of it in one sitting and only put it down because I HAD TO go to sleep. Seriously, the cough syrup I took wasn't accepting "just one more chapter" as an excuse. I was charmed by the characters right off the bat. Fletcher was ridiculously easy to like — even when he was being a bit of a stubborn butthead — and I was a little surprised by just how much I liked Haley. I wasn't sure how much I would relate to a character, regardless of age, who carries the non-royalty title of Princess of anything. But, I found her sweet, realistic and about the furthest thing from a "mean girl". 

It feels weird to refer to the romance in a YA book as "slow burn" but I don't know what else to say about it. There was no insta love here, which I appreciated. The pace at which things progressed between Fletcher and Haley gave them time to get to know each other. It did the same for me with each of them. One of my favorite things in books like this is seeing the "nothing serious/only fun" guy fall... hard. I'm not saying that's what happens here, but I'm not saying it's NOT either. 

While I don't read nearly as much YA as I used to these days, it's books like this one that make me happy I do it every now and then. Breaking the Ice was a great addition to the Juniper Falls series, a series I'll be gladly following as long as Julie continues to write new books.

I received a copy of this book for free in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

FAVORITE QUOTES

"You're gonna fall in love with this girl. You can't stop it from happening, no matter how hard you try. But I promise you, it'll be okay. We've all been crazed in love. We've all had our hearts broken. You. Will. Be. Okay."

Breaking the Ice

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