REVIEW: Breaking the Ice by Amy Andrews
Dear Amy Andrews,
Samantha Evans has not been interested in commitment and children of her own before now. She thought she’d never want kids. But recently, her “eggs have started cheeping” and suddenly, what Sam wants in her life has drastically changed. Up until now, she had been working her way up the corporate ladder and was aiming for that corner office and a partnership in a role involving high-powered finance. She works all the time and has little space in her life for relationships. She has pretty much stuck with arty types and younger guys who are not looking for commitment and who don’t mind if she doesn’t cook them dinner. But her ex-boyfriend is now engaged and the happy couple are expecting a baby and Sam’s eggs go into overdrive.
There were 109 uses of the word “eggs” in Breaking the Ice, and the story was told in 215 pages (including titles). It’s part of the humour and shtick of the book. For me, it was overdone. YMMV.
Sam has recently been forced to mentor horrible Ray, a relative of the boss. Ray is incompetent and creepy. When he is promoted above her, Sam hits her limit and quits, telling her boss to give her a call when Ray stuffs everything up and they want to beg her to come back to fix everything. She’s certain Ray will and they will. It’s just a matter of time.
Around the same time as this happens, her beloved friend, Birdie, passes away. Birdie owned the second hand romance bookshop over which Sam lives. Sam would stop in and spend time with Birdie often and they had a strong bond over their shared love of spicy romance novels.
After Birdie dies, Nick “Hawkeye” Hawke, Birdie’s grandson, comes to look after the store. He’s a 38 year-old pro-hockey veteran recovering from a torn ACL. He has four months until the start of the season and he’s hoping that he will be able to join the team for training camp. He thinks it unlikely he will be able to play straight away when he gets back to the team but he’s confident he will play next season. He’s determined to finish his career on his own terms.
Nick makes a few changes to the store – he adds a coffee machine and starts stocking Westerns as well (he’s later shocked to learn that these “action” books for men fit within the romance genre, having, as they do, a central love story with a HEA at the end. Sam, to her credit gets Nick reading all kinds of romance novels and he quickly becomes a convert). Nick needs to be away from the shop for a few hours each afternoon to attend physical therapy so he hires Sam to help him run it. She agrees on the basis that it’s temporary while she waits for Ray to epically screw up – something that is only a matter of time.
Nick and Sam spend a lot of time together of course and they have sparking chemistry but there are a few things keeping them apart. Number one, Sam does not believe it is possible for a curvy girl like her (she’s described as Nigella Lawson-like) to attract a gorgeous professional hockey player who has women falling at his feet. Nick has never lacked for feminine companionship and Sam just doesn’t see herself in that role. Also, Nick is leaving to return to Canada and his hockey team and, perhaps most importantly, Nick doesn’t want commitment or kids. He has six siblings and they have kids; he’s happy being the fun uncle. Sam wants to stay in Tetworth in her familiar environment. She wants a family. She’s not looking for a fling (and that would likely ruin their friendship and working relationship anyway). Her eggs are on a timer apparently. (She’s only 30 – which seemed to me to be very young to be so high on the corporate ladder but what do I know?).
Sam has decided she needs to change her dating demographic to find a likely candidate to marry and have children with. Someone older, someone who is looking to settle down and who wants children. Nick volunteers to set Sam up on blind dates with friends of his many brothers who fit the profile. The dates do not go well. Nick does find Sam’s retelling of them the next day pretty hilarious though.
As all this is happening, that pesky chemistry sizzles more strongly between Nick and Sam. Nick is horrified to find that Sam’s sex life has been mostly ho-hum. She’s had orgasms but they’re not common for her. Mostly sex is “nice”. Nick offers to fix this problem for her. He gives her a 100% guarantee. She declines for the abovementioned reasons but she’s mighty tempted. After a series of bad dates and terrible “test kisses” with (almost) each one of said bad dates, Nick cannot take anymore and shows Sam what a real kiss should be. After that, it’s just a matter of time before there’s more.
Sam has an awesome older sister, Bec, who lives interstate with her husband and four children. Bec was a favourite for me. She gave Sam fantastic advice and was strongly in her corner at all times. Also, Bec was firmly team “bone Nick”.
I enjoyed the banter and interactions between Sam and Nick – they did have great chemistry and clearly belonged together. I understood Sam’s body image issues and I liked how Nick didn’t dismiss them, while finding her absolutely gorgeous. After a while, Sam believes him but it takes time for her to get there.
I didn’t quite relate to the suddenness of the shift in Sam’s thinking about children. It wasn’t the only abrupt change of heart in the book either and that made me a little twitchy.
There’s no third act breakup in Breaking the Ice but it does take a while for the external barriers to Sam and Nick’s relationship to work out happily.
I did disagree with this sentiment:
Loving someone meant wanting to see their eyes, their expressions, their laughter in the face of your child.
Lots of people don’t want children and that’s just fine.
The banter was fun but there were too many eggs for me and those, along with those quick decision-180s, did effect my final grade.
Grade: B-
Regards,
Kaetrin
