ARC Review: Icing

Icing

Nico Daniels

Blurb:

My secret crush on Gavin has always been just that… a secret.

It was silly anyway. After all, I was engaged to his teammate.

Right up until I caught my fiancé cheating on me. On. Our. Wedding. Day.

So, I did what anyone would do. I retreated to my bakery and vowed to avoid NHL players for the rest of my life. After all, the entire hockey community had watched it implode thanks to a viral video from the church.

What I couldn’t predict was Gavin, and learning he has a secret crush of his own.

Competitive Gavin who was unstoppable on the ice.

Sweet Gavin who brought me soup when I was sick.

Sexy Gavin who kissed my breath away.

If I’m not careful, my innocent crush could just become the icing on the cupcake.

Themes:  Contemporary

Rating:  3.75 stars

Heat Rating: 

Review:

I love a good secret crush story, though most of the time we see that being the heroine of the story with the secret, so when I read the premise of this novel, I have to say I jumped at the chance for something different.  This is Nico Daniels’s debut novel to my understanding and it is certainly a good one for her first and I am looking forward to more from her as she learns and grows her skills and her craft. The story revolves around two people that have been in each other’s orbit for a long time, but definitely haven’t been friends and were much closer to enemies, though neither of them wanted it that way.  Both of them have had really rocky pasts, and there was a lot of traumas for them to work through in order to have a chance at a future, but in the end, they found a way and I think they made a believable couple and I can see them being happy together.  I am more than willing to read more if this becomes a series, especially because I would like to see some of Gavin and Greyson’s friends getting their own stories. Overall, I can say I enjoyed the story even if I can’t say I loved every moment.  There were a few chapters that lagged for me or made me nuts when the characters made me want to strangle them and it felt overdone as if the angst was not natural.  We shall see what comes next for sure.

Greyson Park has had a rough summer, on top of an already traumatic life, as her wedding day was destroyed by a cheating fiancée, and she has no desire to pick up with any man much less a hockey played from her ex’s former team.  But when she is forced back into that world, she can’t deny the crush she always had is still burning bright for the sexy team captain.  Galvin Halstead has always wanted Greyson from the first moment he clapped eyes on her, but there is so much water under the bridge between them now, he’s not sure that he has a chance even though he wants one so badly.  Putting himself out there again by tracking her down at her bakery and forming a friendship and continuing to hope for more is the best he can do, but the more time they spend getting to know one another the deeper their feelings grow.  But as their pasts continue to haunt them, throwing up obstacles to the relationship they both so badly want to have together, they have to decide if they can push through it all together, or if everything crashing around them truly is too much and they need to walk away from one another.

Characters are the heart of all stories, but especially romance novels, and I have to say I wasn’t much of a fan of either of these two, but for entirely different reasons. Greyson was one of those characters that has been given a lot of challenges in her past, almost too many for it to be believable if I’m being honest.  I understand there are some people that really are just that unfortunate in their lives, but to be honest the way she handled her past and each event was my biggest hang-up.  I get it, the traumas in her past were there to give her a reason to push Gavin away repeatedly and make him work for her love, but it felt like she was refusing to put in the work to heal from the traumas and that to me was just not smart.  Even if she never wanted to embrace love or romance again, allowing the pain and trauma to rule her life and prevent her from being whole is never a good idea and made her appear cowardly and I don’t deal well with that in my heroines.  I did enjoy the way she cared for others and found her solace in baking, especially in creating flavors of cupcakes from random moments, and she was a very funny character, but I would have like her to have a bit more of a spine when it came to standing up for herself.

Gavin similarly made me insane; he tried so hard to come across as this strong and protective alpha male, but more often than not he seemed weak and spineless. More often than not, when something became emotionally challenging, he would run for the hills instead of sticking around to deal with the problems.  He truly only stood beside Greyson one time when she really needed him in my opinion, and I was thrilled to see him finally step up.  I also felt like he was not developed enough himself, we go glimpses of the big dark issue that caused his problem in his past, the reason he had issues which caused the problems in relationships, but we never really saw him taking steps to get over it.  It was almost like he just accepted he was screwed up instead of working to get better.  Again, I understand everyone has traumas, things that make relationships difficult, but if you don’t put in the work to get over them, you will always have problems. I did enjoy seeing his protectiveness, even though he often went way overboard and his way of being alpha was a problem with the woman he was in love with.

All-in-all I have to say I enjoyed this story, though I wasn’t enamored by any means.  There were just too many obstacles, too many will they/won’t they moments, and too much hot and cold between the H/h for me.  I like to see steady building in a relationship instead of “two steps forward, 1 step back” mentality, because that just takes forever to get anywhere (in anything, much less a love story).  Greyson was fun when she let herself free, but her past dragged her down too much.  Gavin was a sweet and beta guy trying too hard to be alpha.  Together when they let themselves forget their pasts, they were cute and pleasant to read, but I can’t say there was much chemistry except in the intentionally passionate moments when they were teasing one another.  When they were putting forth the effort to connect sexually, they were pretty good together, but those moments were too few for me. I really enjoyed many of their friends and family, they were hilarious, outrageous, and amusing to get to know and I’d love to see a few of them get their own stories.  Overall, for a first published novel I would say this was a good story with some world building, character intro, action, and drama.  I will definitely read more just to see how Nico grows and develops in future.

*eARC provided by author for the purpose of an honest and unbiased review.  No compensation was provided.