Review: Shattered Ice : A Student/Teacher MM romance (Hacksview U Book 1) by P.S. Black
Hawksview University Series is written as an interconnected character series. If you were thinking of reading my Lost & Found Duet, I would suggest reading this first. Shattered Ice will give all the spoilers for my duet. Although you don’t have to, you do get a deeper understanding of Bohdi who is the MMC in Shattered Ice.
What happens when two broken souls collide?
Do the damaged pieces have the power to make each other complete?
Or is their fate to be shattered?
Review:
Dear P.S. Black,
Your book was the winner of the poll for the monthly read at the Good reads group I belong to. I obtained the book on KU and it did not work for me at all.
Let me get the elephant out of the room first. I do not particularly care for teacher/student romances in general, however there are exceptions to the rule and if I enjoy the execution I may be able to like this trope in a fictional setting. More importantly, I usually put an extra effort in reading our monthly reads books because I want to participate in the discussion.
I do not even know where to begin. Putting the trope aside, I just did not enjoy the writing at all. I mentioned before that I cannot always explain why I have not enjoyed the writing, being an ESL person. I can say here that I found it unconvincing and awkward and I can quote some parts.
“The first time I saw him in the halls, I noticed his wide eyes fixed on me, drinking me in, unaware that I was watching him the entire time “
The eyes had been drinking the other guy here?
So we have a nineteen year old student with an absolutely fucked up home life – with a drug addict twin brother and mother all in drugs as well. All that happened to them was apparently their mother’s fault though, despite two very horrible male drug dealers hanging out around them.
We have a *forty* year old teacher, who also had a whole lot of drama in his life and grief that he did not work through at all, teaching that student and relatively quickly deciding that a nineteen year old is his whole life. It is totally ok to stalk that student on Instagram and discourage him from hooking up with another student. To be sure, a nineteen year old does not mind at all. He is nineteen though.
“ As my eyes flicker up, the world ceases to move, and I am still in shock, sucking in a sharp breath as Brayden, with his crystal eyes, which sparkle under bright lights, continues to consume the guy while focusing his stare directly at me. Without looking away, he tightens his grip on the guy’s throat.”
The teacher thinks he is straight till he wants to have this student to himself forever, so to distract himself from these thoughts at some point he wants to get together for a night with a female colleague.
“I have no qualms about fucking a colleague. This is exactly what I need, to get lost in a tight wet pussy and try to forget about the shit show that was today.“
The actual encounter never happens however, when later in the story the female colleague wants to flirt with Bohdi and I guess entice him to get together, apparently she is a terrible person (remember she does not know, has no idea that the main duo is now deeply in love).
Actually the women in this book are either saints, or horrible, no middle ground.
So, this book is actually a hockey romance. I get that the sport does not need to be a focus of the story as long as some of it is in there in order for the story to be called a sports romance (any sports romance), but I was just not convinced by the hockey descriptions.
Because Brayden is a star hockey player, the college (his coach mostly) insists that Brayden cannot have his grades slipping. Granted I have not done undergraduate studies in the US, but I thought that in order to get extra credit or improve your grade, you should rewrite the papers (if a teacher allows) or do an extra project in the class where your grade is falling, NOT take a new one?? But no, not according to this book. It made no sense. The teacher who is lusting after the said student deciding that he would teach the class *that is supposed to start next semester* to that student alone made even less sense.
There is another huge personal loss taking place in the last third of the book and a lot of grief and angst. I thought both main characters needed years of therapy before even considering a relationship, but once again what do I know?
“His tongue slips out, causing me to stumble over my words as I shift my gaze back to his eyes, only to find that he’s not looking at me anymore . Instead, he’s focused on my slightly parted lips, as if inhaling through my nose has become too difficult .”
“My hand snakes down to my pants, unzipping and pulling my heavy, leaking dick out and I pump myself until ropes of cum squirt out of me .”
Grade: D
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I’ve no intention of reading this book for all the reasons mentioned by Sirius in her review (large age gap, power imbalance, etc.). In addition, the writing does, indeed, sound less than stellar. Take the statement “Instead, he’s focused on my slightly parted lips, as if inhaling through my nose has become too difficult .” Does that mean his focus took my breath away? But as written it implies he’s inhaling through my nose. One can forgive the occasional awkward sentence, but it sounds like this book is full of them.
@Susan/DC: I am looking at my review and realizing that I have not mentioned another potential problem ( or maybe just an issue I had with it ) with the writing. When our love birds realize that they are both in love we get quite flowery language from both of them in some places and while I could stretch my imagination and see forty year old man talking tha t way ( not in reality but in romance I could ) I could never ever ever see nineteen year old using words this way no matter how in love he was . If I am not too lazy I will go and try to find the examples tomorrow .