Jovani

There was so much about A. L. Graziadei's Icebreaker that absolutely blew me away. The story, the pacing, the characters; it was all stunning. When I first found the book, I read the description and immediately thought it was a gay knockoff of Hannah Grace's Icebreaker, but I must admit I was happily wrong. The book had me hooked on every word, every sentence, every page, and every chapter, to the point I had to hide the book out of sight just so i didn't finish it in two days. Throughout reading I truly felt myself not only in Mickey James' shoes (the main character), but in the shoes of many of the other characters in the book. I've was truly immersed in the book's story and beautiful language. I felt like i was right there in each room and conversation had. The character development and pacing in the book was absolutely amazing as well. By the time I finished the book I could barely recognize the characters from the start of the book. Yet the development never feels forced or unrealistic. It's fluid and beautifully written cover-to-cover. But nothing beats the ending of the book. Albeit fast paced, it was well rounded and true to itself down to the very last sentence (spoiler alert if you haven't finished it yet). "And that matters far more than the name called first." Graziadei couldn't have ended the book better in my opinion. It wraps the story in this bow that's not only beautiful; but also significant to the character development. By omitting the draft ranking, it perfectly exemplifies James' development, going from only caring about getting first draft pick, to caring more about his boyfriend than a rank on a list.