#Maple Hill

[teenageread]

Review: Icebreaker

Synopsis:

Anastasia Allen has worked her entire life for a shot at Team USA.

A competitive figure skater since she was five years old, a full college scholarship thanks to her place on the Maple Hills skating team, and a schedule that would make even the most driven person weep, Stassie comes to win.

No exceptions.

Nathan Hawkins has never had a problem he couldn’t solve. As captain of the Maple Hills Titans, he knows the responsibility of keeping the hockey team on the ice rests on his shoulders.

When a misunderstanding results in the two teams sharing a rink, and Anastasia’s partner gets hurt in the aftermath, Nate finds himself swapping his stick for tights, and one scary coach for an even scarier one.

The pair find themselves stuck together in more ways than one, but it’s fine, because Anastasia doesn’t even like hockey players…right?

Plot:

Stassie was going to be the best. With dreams of the Olympics, this pair-figure skater already put her goals on the line once when her high school boyfriend and partner were not dreaming as big as her. Now at Maple Hill, Stassie and her new partner and roommate Aaron, had big dreams, as long as Stassie did not eat too much. With her life planned out with her planner, Stassie eats, sleeps, and dreams of figure skating, all while keeping up with her coursework, going to therapy to manage her anxiety, and occasionally hooking up with her basketball player bestie, who while the sex is good, she will never date. Her sophomore year was going perfectly until the hockey team messed it up. With their rink destroyed, the two ice sports were forced to share the same arena, which means dividing ice time so that both teams can practice. That is where Stassie had the unfortunate pleasure to meet Nate Hawkins, captain of the hockey team. Taken with Stassie immediately, Nate tries his best to get this figure skater in his corner, or what he really wanted, in his bedroom. Where Stassie reminds aloof, she was quickly taken by Nate with his good looks, charm, and his dedication to his friends and team. Where Nate spent his senior year covering the tracks of young rookies who messed up, he also finds himself losing his heart for the first time, to a blonde figure skater with a big mouth and an even bigger heart. As our two ice athletes try to figure out their love, along with managing their sports, friendships, family, and their own expectations, they realize how much they need each other, and learn to balance love, and ice skating, together.  

Thoughts: 

Hannah Grace writes this smutty romance novel, featuring two university athletes, one rink, and a whole lot of heart. Taken from the first-person perspective of both Nate and Stassie, we got to switch between points of view with each chapter, allowing the plot to move quickly, and for us to understand both sides of our characters' stories. Stassie is an amazing character, her fun and flirty attitude towards Nate and the other hockey boys, with quick comebacks and always getting into some sort of comedic trouble, made her a great character to love. Grace also gave Stassie some depth with her struggling to live up to her adoptive parent's expectations, being bullied by Aaron, and her own doubts about her self-worth. I truly appreciate Grace for giving us the sadder side to Stassie, as Grace shows her going to therapy, and shows her working through her self doubts. On the side of narration, we got Nate, who like Stassie, is fun and flirty, but has his own serious family issues. With a dead mom and a father who does not care about his hockey career, Nate is constantly putting others before himself and struggles with his internal emotions of not acting like his father. Together they were dynamite, with chemistry off the wall, the best banter, and some great sex scenes. Yes, Grace makes this novel a smut novel, with some heavily detailed scenes throughout the novel, that upped the age range of the novel. Did it have the most complicated plot? No. Did the sex and romance overshadow the deeper meaning Grace was trying to write about? Yeah, it kind of did. But it was cute, a fun flirty novel that is drowning in romance, making you wish to find your own Nate and Stassie, and with an epilogue that sends you over the end. Where the plot had some twist, it was not very deep, and I am so thankful that Grace did not make the big event a miscommunication, because, unlike the majority of book couples, Stassie and Nate had great communication throughout the entire novel, which was amazing to finally see in print. Overall, Grace writes a cute novel, with fun characters, great side characters (the entire hockey team was fantastic), and some melodrama, but all in all this was a novel about love, and one definitely worth reading.

Read more reviews: Goodreads

Buy the book: Amazon

[vandaliatraveler]

Spring in the Cheat River Canyon.

From top: lowbush blueberry (Vaccinium pallidum); the pendulous green flowers of striped maple (Acer pensylvanicum); sweet white violet (Viola blanda), which loves cool, moist forests; wild strawberry (Fragaria virginiana), which has been hybridized with a South American species to produce commercial strawberries; marsh blue violet (Viola cucullata), an elegant, gregarious violet found growing in seeps and along streambanks; smooth Solomon's seal (Polygonatum biflorum); great white trillium (Trillium grandiflorum); a West Virginia white (Pieris virginiensis) sipping nectar from a sweet white violet; and broadleaf toothwort (Cardamine diphylla), the larval host plant for the West Virginia white.

Note: this hauntingly beautiful butterfly, a flitting ghost in Appalachia's April forests, is in serious decline because it confuses invasive garlic mustard for its host plant, Cardamine. Garlic mustard is toxic to its larvae. Another example of how an invasive species can wreak havoc on the vital lifecycles of our native ecosystems.

[the-dark-artifices-trees]

Hannah Wells 🤝 Anastasia Allen

Falling for the ice-hockey Captain

Knowing a toxic guy named Aaron

In therapy for a time

Cries in said ice-hockey Captain lap (while in their boxers)

Gets pregnant in their 20’s

[annieqattheperipheral]

I'm still in love w this moment bc you just know he didn't hate it-- willy doesn't expend energy and effort on hating anything. He was simply losing himself in his giggles and the wackiness of life and i love it and him and wish for more ludicrous moments for him.

1.3.2024 // leafs @ ducks

btw the guitarist was american comedian Dave Hill who happily wears his Toronto Marlies zip-up, jersey and toque, and Quebec Nordiques toque all over LA, as well as has many comedians i enjoy liking and commenting on his posts about the anthems so yayyy! more ppl looking at hockey! i seriously love this crossover episode

full anthems performance // kniesy & zegras

[sarcasmchandlerbing]

Some hockey goalies collages, pt.2

[bookishpedia]

Stassie: You do realize there's a rumor going around that you're in love with me?

Nate: A rumor? Are you telling me people are doubting it??

[luvmmarner]

😂 WHY WAS MITCH SO INTO IT THOUGH (APOLOGIZE FOR BAD QUALITY AT THE END IDK WHAT HAPPENED)

[alejaolch]

Polish forest in autumn moodboard Poland, The Low Beskid Mountains October 2022

[aisling-saoirse]

Seepage Stream, Bowman hill, Pennsylvania - May 25 2024

[pensfan4lfe2]

2023-24 NHL Backup Goalies per Team

(Based on ice time played/games started)

Cal Petersen, Alex Nedeljkovic, Magnus Chrona, Philipp Grubauer, Joel Hofer, Jonas Johansson, Joseph Woll, Casey DeSmith, Adin Hill, Darcy Kuemper, & Laurent Brossoit

Note: Goalies traded not included ie. Kaapo Kahkonen during season.

[ilovetreesreal]

maple trees 🍁 🎀

[maddiesflame]

Wildfire headers

like/reblog if saved © maddiesflame

[orendarling]

Maple Hill Cemetery

Shaftsbury, Vermont

October, 2023

[the-dark-artifices-trees]

Garret Graham 🤝 Nate Hawkins

Sex god

Ice-hockey Captain

Went pro after graduation

Man whore before meeting girl

Lives with other ice-hockey players

Their girl crying in their lap while in their boxers and shirtless

Toxic father

Dead mother

Gets their girl pregnant in their 20’s

[poetlcs]

books read in 2023: wildfire by hannah grace

If I change one thing in my past, it’d cause a ripple effect, and I wouldn’t chance not meeting you

[checkoutmybookshelf]

We get Henry's book next and I am SO EXCITED!!!!