Booky Ramblings of a Neurotic Mom: Review: Breaking The Ice by Mandy Baggot

When routine driven box office assistant Samantha Smith meets the stars of 'Skating on Broadway' her life is turned upside down. Immediately attracted to the infamous 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 her away her heart?

Shona's review 4 of 5 stars

This was a fun, comfortable read. The story unfolded at a nice pace and there wasn't any part of it that felt rushed or forced and I can honestly say that at no point whilst reading was I bored. I read this book in two sittings, most of it in just a few short hours. That's how easy and comfortable it was to fall into Samantha's world.

I think this is one of the first times I have read a book where I didn't really like the main character. When the book first started I quite liked her, but quite quickly she really started to grate on me. I found myself wondering how someone who seemed to suffer from quite severe anxiety in stressful situations ever really managed to function in a customer service position. As Samantha's confidence grew I started to warm to her, but there was a few things she did that were completely out of character that I felt affected the readability, I had to re-read to make sure I had actually read it right. Cleo, Samantha's sister, was awful. On just about every level. She was self-centered and selfish and at times she was downright mean to her sister and just when I thought Samantha was growing a backbone she let her sister treat her like crap. Again. It kind of made me realise why Samantha was the way she was... when this was the support she had at home.. and probably why I started to feel sympathetic towards her again.

There where a few moments in the book that I found predictable but it didn't spoil the overall enjoyment for me.