Breaking The Ice by Mandy Baggot

I have been reading a lot of books recently by self-published authors. Over the last few years I have read many reviews on self published authors which have put me off of reading them. I decided it was time to see for myself what I thought of some of their works. I read 2-3 books a week so I have decided for each week in July and August I am going to read one self published book. I have already read Working it Out by Nicola May and Bagpipes and Bullshot by Janice Horton ( both of these reviews you can find on the blog) both of these I thoroughly enjoyed. My next review is of Breaking the Ice by Mandy Baggot.

Plot

When routine driven box office assistant Samantha Smith meets the stars of 'Skating on Broadway' her life is turned upside down. Immediately attracted to lead skater Jimmy Lloyd, Samantha does her best to deny her feelings. But when all you can do is burst out laughing and hyperventilate every time you're under pressure, keeping things under wraps is a hard task. When the future of her beloved Civic Hall is threatened Samantha must rise to the challenge to ensure its survival. Constantly scrutinised and criticised by her zany sister Cleo and her brogue wearing boyfriend Jeremy, can Samantha save her job, save the Civic Hall and stop her panic attacks just long enough to give away her heart?

My Opinion

I chose to read this book at just the right time. The storyline of Breaking The Ice is very light making it an easy read. Although there wasn’t much depth to the storyline this is made up with the detailed characters in this book. Samantha and Jimmy’s characters are what truly make this book an enjoyable read. Samantha comes across as a very gentle character having lived a very sheltered life, it felt as though Samantha was trying to live her life through her sister. We see Samantha build her trust in Jimmy and start to try new things and we can feel how nervous she is often with a panic attack looming and we just hope that she doesn’t get hurt.

We don’t get to see much of Jimmy’s back ground other than the snippets from magazine articles relating to his time in Rehab. It took me a while to trust Jimmy as I couldn’t see what his intentions towards Sam were. After a few chapters in I started to enjoy his character and realised he didn’t have an ulterior motive he was just trying to change his way of life.

This is the ideal book to read in between books as it is an easy and reasonably quick read not to challenging, ideal for sitting in the garden on a Sunday. The only thing I think lets the book down a little is the cover of the book. I don’t think the cover of the book is appealing and it doesn’t give the book the justice it deserves.

I like that Baggot has taken a typical chic lit style scenario with the famous guy falls in love with the plain Jane girl but has then weaved this is in to a different storyline featuring the ice skating which was a topic I have not read about before and which I enjoyed. Baggot also brings in an unexpected light hearted humour to the book which usually occurred when Samantha is coming out of her comfort zone!

After reading Breaking the Ice I would defiantly pick up another Mandy Baggot book and I would also recommend her romantic novel to anyone needing a quick and easy read.