It’s time! I finally got out of my reading slump, only to be put back into it with how much I loved this book. Initially, I wasn’t sure if I wanted to read this book because I had heard mixed things about it. However, I saw it on my TikTok again, so I thought, “Why not?” and boy, this book did not disappoint. I was attracted to it because the plot point was all about figure skating, and as a beginner figure skater myself, I instantly fell in love with it. One of the things I saw in many reviews was how this book was the slowest of all slow burns. Usually, this would put me off a book, but with all the tension and gradual relationship building, it made sure that the enemies to lovers were not entirely out of the blue and made sense. When reading other reviews, apart from people complaining about how slow the relationship building was, people also suggested that the relationship between Ivan and Jasmine in the last 10% of the book didn’t seem authentic, and the sudden shift from friends to lovers didn’t make sense to them. While I can see this point of view, it doesn’t matter because I have gathered from reading the book that Ivan has always loved Jasmine. So, for him, there wasn’t a change in his feelings. I can understand Jasmine’s change of heart, but while the relationship change was quick, I didn’t necessarily think it was done poorly.
One of my favourite things about this book was the back-and-forth banter between Ivan and Jasmine, and seeing their relationship go from being unable to look at each other without arguing to being each other’s foundation was a highlight of this book. As previously mentioned, I adored the plot point being about figure skating; being able to read about how Jasmine can get past her self-doubt and troubles to come out then as a stronger skater is an inspiration to many people, it shows that even though things got tough for her, she didn’t back down and didn’t listen to what other people were saying. This book just had so many realistic and down-to-earth features that it made me forget I was even reading it in the first place.
I also loved the features of Jasmine’s family and how much they play into her mentality and growth. Being able to see reasons why she is always having doubts about herself and her family made the explanation as to why she hasn’t been doing as well since switching to pairs skating. It added a sense of homeliness as it showed her unconditional support and love from them and how her family always has her back even when she is sure they won't.
One of my only qualms was that the chapter lengths were quite long, and I know in my case I don’t particularly like chapters being longer than 15 minutes, and some of the chapters for me were roughly 30 minutes, not all of them, but some of them. Other than this, there is hardly anything else to complain about. If I could go back and reread this book without knowing what was going to happen, I would 100% do it and would recommend this book to anyone who wants to read a sports romance book that is not just football or ice hockey.
Rating as per usual: 5/5
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