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Breaking the Ice
'"'Why does coming out have to be so complicated?' Markus whispered. 'Because everyone around us makes it complicated,' I whispered back."
London McElles has been figure skating ever since he was little and he’s hardly told a soul. After his disaster of coming out as gay, he doesn’t want to be pegged as your typical gay guy even more by revealing that he’s a figure skating genius. So what does London do? He hides his talent from his huge family and few friends, hires a coach with his own cash, and only ever gets caught once by his musically gifted sister Lamia. So just as London is getting ready to participate in Regionals, the unimaginable happens. London meets Markus.
Markus Andell is a casual hockey player who was only influenced to get on the ice by his mom. He is liked by everyone and hadn’t found anyone he had wanted to date. Markus has been loved by everyone he meets and has never had to worry about majorly disappointing others. So just as the school year is getting started, Markus meets London.
With both boys having so much in common they click fast, almost too fast. London begins to fall for Markus, and Markus begins to struggle to categorize his feelings towards London. With sexual identity, London’s family, figure skating competitions, unique friends, and romance on the horizon, London and Markus are in for a ride.
London McElles has been figure skating ever since he was little and he’s hardly told a soul. After his disaster of coming out as gay, he doesn’t want to be pegged as your typical gay guy even more by revealing that he’s a figure skating genius. So what does London do? He hides his talent from his huge family and few friends, hires a coach with his own cash, and only ever gets caught once by his musically gifted sister Lamia. So just as London is getting ready to participate in Regionals, the unimaginable happens. London meets Markus.
Markus Andell is a casual hockey player who was only influenced to get on the ice by his mom. He is liked by everyone and hadn’t found anyone he had wanted to date. Markus has been loved by everyone he meets and has never had to worry about majorly disappointing others. So just as the school year is getting started, Markus meets London.
With both boys having so much in common they click fast, almost too fast. London begins to fall for Markus, and Markus begins to struggle to categorize his feelings towards London. With sexual identity, London’s family, figure skating competitions, unique friends, and romance on the horizon, London and Markus are in for a ride.
125 pages, Kindle Edition
Published May 18, 2021
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
June 11, 2021
3.5/5 Stars
It's been a long while, since I've been so torn about a book. Which is why this is going to be a long review.
If you see where I shelved this book under, you'll notice how ducking queer this is. Not only that, there is so much on page rep and rep that is not as clear but hinted at, that I was almost shocked. I love that this book decided to do that. In case you're wondering
♥ Gay MC
♥ Demisexual Biromantic Mc/Love Interest
♥ Trans Side Character
♥ Lesbian Side Character
♥ Bisexual Side Characters (yes, not just one, but 2 confirmed ones :D )
♥ Questening Side Characters
♥ Queer Side Characters
♥ Asian (Japanese) Side Character
♥ Hispanic Side Character
I'll be coming to the demi rep in a sec, but before that: At the end of the book, like the very last chapter, it got kinda a little too much in a sense that I felt like that some people didn't really neeeeeeed to get together, but it also didn't ruin the rest of the book for me, so sure.
There may also have been some mental health rep, but I don't feel confident enough to put a name on it. Just know, that there might be something there.
Speaking of mental heath stuff, I like how the book handeld traumatic events/expiernces. There is one scene, where a character gets sexually harassed and I think the way that event affected said character till the very last second, was great. I often see books ignore the trauma their cast went through because it's inconvinient. This book though decided not to got that route. It also touched homophobia and Queerphobia in a way that made me think: yep, this book gets it.
I don't recall if the ice skating stuff was own expierience or just research, but no matter which one it is, it was done greatly. (Could this have been inspired by Yuri On Ice? :D I got cutlet bowl flashbacks during Londons free skate performance). If you aren't that informed about ice skating though, then the book got you covered as well. There is an index at the end explaining a lot/all the figure skating terms the book uses. It's really helpfull.
I loved the relationships in this book as well. The romantic, but also the platonic ones. London - our Mc - has a very close bond to his family and it's beautiful. I also loved how the book was portraying the family of London. He has 7 siblings and there might be a chance he will get more. But noone's giving him or his family shit for it. And that was nice too see.
The main romantic relationship was build real nice too. The couple is cute and healthy and I liked them a lot. Same could be said for some of the more important side couples. My personal favourit were Rainer & August.
As you can see, I had a good time. So why was I saying that this book was giving me bellyache. Well.
The demi rep. The rep in itself isn't the problem. It's good. Really. If ! Yes, if it wasn't for that one line of dialog.
London: Do you masturbate?
Markus: Yes
London: Then you can't be ace, because aces normally don't do that.
Excuse me, what? You did not just say that?! You did not just write that?!
Let me - an actual ace - educate you. First of all, since you don't seem to understand.
*inhales* Action. And. Attraction. Are. Two. Different. Things!
Sex-repulsed aces can masturbate. Sex-neutral aces can masturbate. Sex-favourable aces can masturbate. Allos can masturbate. But some allos(People who are NOT asexual) also DON'T masturbate. Masturbation says absolutly NOTHING about your sexual orientation. (Unless you're autosexual, and - FUN FACT - those people belong to the ace-spec community as well. Shocking, I know)
London wasn't trying to be acephobic here - I think. He was just saying that he believes Markus is probably demi instead of ace. But again, action and attraction aren't the same. So his conclusion is horse poop.
Later on we find out, that Markus did turn out to be demisexual. So good for him. I just hope he didn't take London's words into account when figering himself out. Because London has no ducking clue about what aces are and what they don't are.
However, the bigger reason for the 3.5 rating is the following:
Quote: "Age is just a number."
So yeah, there is a teacher-student relationship in this book :)) At first it was just a one-sided (or at least I thought it was one-sided) crush from the student on the teacher. And I thought to myself: Didn't really need this in here, but K. I almost forgot about that sub-plot ....until said student confirmed that he kissed the teacher and that the teacher might be willing to go out with him.
So first of all, the kid is probably under-age! And even If! Even if he isn't and he is 18 - because he can't be older - he is still into HIS history teacher. A student-teacher relationship with your teaching teacher, aka a student-teacher relationship with a student YOU the teacher teach is illegal. I'm sure not just here in Germany ^^ I know a lot of AO3 users reeaaaaally love this trope which I find funny, if you know that on the biggest german fanfic side - fanfiktion.de - it is forbidden to post stuff like that. And if you do you can get banned ^^ This isn't a fanfiction though. This is a book. And therefore it is even more wrong of it to promote this. It's - luckily - only 1 page, only a few lines of dialoge - that give the 'Yes, the teacher is into him too - confirmation. If it were more I might have stopped reading.
It was a good book, with a solid story and a great cast, but I really wished that those two things weren't in the book because they don't serve any purpose besides making me - the reader - uncomfortable.
It's been a long while, since I've been so torn about a book. Which is why this is going to be a long review.
If you see where I shelved this book under, you'll notice how ducking queer this is. Not only that, there is so much on page rep and rep that is not as clear but hinted at, that I was almost shocked. I love that this book decided to do that. In case you're wondering
♥ Gay MC
♥ Demisexual Biromantic Mc/Love Interest
♥ Trans Side Character
♥ Lesbian Side Character
♥ Bisexual Side Characters (yes, not just one, but 2 confirmed ones :D )
♥ Questening Side Characters
♥ Queer Side Characters
♥ Asian (Japanese) Side Character
♥ Hispanic Side Character
I'll be coming to the demi rep in a sec, but before that: At the end of the book, like the very last chapter, it got kinda a little too much in a sense that I felt like that some people didn't really neeeeeeed to get together, but it also didn't ruin the rest of the book for me, so sure.
There may also have been some mental health rep, but I don't feel confident enough to put a name on it. Just know, that there might be something there.
Speaking of mental heath stuff, I like how the book handeld traumatic events/expiernces. There is one scene, where a character gets sexually harassed and I think the way that event affected said character till the very last second, was great. I often see books ignore the trauma their cast went through because it's inconvinient. This book though decided not to got that route. It also touched homophobia and Queerphobia in a way that made me think: yep, this book gets it.
I don't recall if the ice skating stuff was own expierience or just research, but no matter which one it is, it was done greatly. (Could this have been inspired by Yuri On Ice? :D I got cutlet bowl flashbacks during Londons free skate performance). If you aren't that informed about ice skating though, then the book got you covered as well. There is an index at the end explaining a lot/all the figure skating terms the book uses. It's really helpfull.
I loved the relationships in this book as well. The romantic, but also the platonic ones. London - our Mc - has a very close bond to his family and it's beautiful. I also loved how the book was portraying the family of London. He has 7 siblings and there might be a chance he will get more. But noone's giving him or his family shit for it. And that was nice too see.
The main romantic relationship was build real nice too. The couple is cute and healthy and I liked them a lot. Same could be said for some of the more important side couples. My personal favourit were Rainer & August.
As you can see, I had a good time. So why was I saying that this book was giving me bellyache. Well.
The demi rep. The rep in itself isn't the problem. It's good. Really. If ! Yes, if it wasn't for that one line of dialog.
London: Do you masturbate?
Markus: Yes
London: Then you can't be ace, because aces normally don't do that.
Excuse me, what? You did not just say that?! You did not just write that?!
Let me - an actual ace - educate you. First of all, since you don't seem to understand.
*inhales* Action. And. Attraction. Are. Two. Different. Things!
Sex-repulsed aces can masturbate. Sex-neutral aces can masturbate. Sex-favourable aces can masturbate. Allos can masturbate. But some allos(People who are NOT asexual) also DON'T masturbate. Masturbation says absolutly NOTHING about your sexual orientation. (Unless you're autosexual, and - FUN FACT - those people belong to the ace-spec community as well. Shocking, I know)
London wasn't trying to be acephobic here - I think. He was just saying that he believes Markus is probably demi instead of ace. But again, action and attraction aren't the same. So his conclusion is horse poop.
Later on we find out, that Markus did turn out to be demisexual. So good for him. I just hope he didn't take London's words into account when figering himself out. Because London has no ducking clue about what aces are and what they don't are.
However, the bigger reason for the 3.5 rating is the following:
Quote: "Age is just a number."
So yeah, there is a teacher-student relationship in this book :)) At first it was just a one-sided (or at least I thought it was one-sided) crush from the student on the teacher. And I thought to myself: Didn't really need this in here, but K. I almost forgot about that sub-plot ....until said student confirmed that he kissed the teacher and that the teacher might be willing to go out with him.
So first of all, the kid is probably under-age! And even If! Even if he isn't and he is 18 - because he can't be older - he is still into HIS history teacher. A student-teacher relationship with your teaching teacher, aka a student-teacher relationship with a student YOU the teacher teach is illegal. I'm sure not just here in Germany ^^ I know a lot of AO3 users reeaaaaally love this trope which I find funny, if you know that on the biggest german fanfic side - fanfiktion.de - it is forbidden to post stuff like that. And if you do you can get banned ^^ This isn't a fanfiction though. This is a book. And therefore it is even more wrong of it to promote this. It's - luckily - only 1 page, only a few lines of dialoge - that give the 'Yes, the teacher is into him too - confirmation. If it were more I might have stopped reading.
It was a good book, with a solid story and a great cast, but I really wished that those two things weren't in the book because they don't serve any purpose besides making me - the reader - uncomfortable.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews