Blog Tour: Breaking the Ice by Julie Cross

Breaking the Ice (Juniper Falls #2)

by Julie Cross

Release Date: December 26, 2017

The second book in the Juniper Falls series from NY Times and USA TODAY bestselling author Julie Cross, perfect for fans of Miranda Kenneally and Abbi Glines.

Haley Stevenson seems like she’s got it all together: cheer captain, “Princess” of Juniper Falls, and voted Most Likely to Get Things Done. But below the surface, she’s struggling with a less-than-stellar GPA and still reeling from the loss of her first love. Repeating her Civics class during summer school is her chance to Get Things Done, not angst over boys. In fact, she’s sworn them off completely until college.

Fletcher Scott is happy to keep a low profile around Juniper Falls. He’s always been the invisible guy, warming the bench on the hockey team and moonlighting at a job that would make his grandma blush. Suddenly, though, he’s finding he wants more: more time on the ice, and more time with his infuriatingly perfect summer-school study partner. 

But leave it to a girl who requires perfection to shake up a boy who’s ready to break all the rules.

Whatever Life Throws at You by Julie Cross is one of my absolute favorite sports romances and I also really enjoyed the first book in this series. I couldn't wait to get back into Juniper Falls and see another hockey player fall in love!

I've got to say, it's really hard for me to enjoy a book if I don't like the characters. And Haley was a very hard character to like. From the beginning, she seemed ditzy and everything she would say she was trying not to be. Yes, she was super loyal to her friends and was trying to hold all of her cheerleaders accountable on her cheer squad and get good grades. But then she paired up with the geeky guy in class to get a good grade and literally took no notes in class and listed her "to-do list" of coming up with new cheers and cleaning her underwear drawer. Really? From the moment we met her, I wasn't a fan and she didn't really become any more likable as the story went on.

While the romance was very sweet, it was still a little weird to me and I still don't understand Fletcher's character. Of course, Haley's parents leave for a month long trip and Fletcher's are pretty hands-off, so we don't have a lot of parents around in yet another YA novel. Fletcher seemed so serious about hockey and school, but the other side of his personality that was revealed throughout the novel didn't really mesh with that. And the way Haley and Fletcher started to acknowledge their feelings for each other was kind of awkward and weird to me. I did love how Fletcher became better friends with the guys on the hockey team as he became more and more serious about making varsity. The side characters were all very fun too, I just didn't find myself loving the main couple.

Overall, this wasn't my favorite book from Julie Cross, but it was still an enjoyable read. What stopped me from loving this book were the main characters and the dynamic of their romance. I just couldn't completely like Hayley's character or fully grasp Fletcher's character.

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http://www.chapter-by-chapter.com/tour-schedule-breaking-the-ice-by-julie-cross-presented-by-entangled-teen/

About the Author 

Julie Cross is a NYT and USA Today bestselling author of New Adult and Young Adult fiction, including the Tempest series, a young adult science fiction trilogy which includes Tempest, Vortex, Timestorm (St. Martin's Press). She's also the author of Letters to Nowhere series, Whatever Life Throws at You, Third Degree, Halfway Perfect, Chasing Truth, Off the Ice and many more to come! Julie Cross was a longtime resident of central Illinois but has recently moved her entire family across the country to continue her academic studies at Stanford University.

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