Black Ice by Mickey Miller

Category: Contemporary Romance
Publication date: 01/08/2020
Kindle Unlimited: Yes
Cliffhanger: No

Egads, what did I just read?

via GIPHY

Plot overview: I...don’t even know. Sorry. I’ve got nothing.

Judging by the cover, I thought this was going to be a sports romance with an enemies-to-lovers element. That’s not really what I got. There’s hardly any hockey in the book, and it’s really more a bully romance, in my opinion. But, long-story-short, here’s where the book fell down:

The heroine

I can’t even remember her name and I don’t care enough to go look it up. That’s how much of an impression this chick left on me. All I can tell you for sure is that she’s a flaming idiot. She’s super immature, and apparently doesn’t mind having a dude treat her like complete crap, because she kept coming back for more every time Shane shit on her. (Proverbial shit. Not real shit. But even that wouldn’t have really surprised me with this book, if I’m being honest) I pretty much hated She Whose Name I Don’t Care To Recall in chapter 1 and she never managed to turn my opinion of her around in any way. She’s whiny, clingy, and needy, too. (The trifecta of sucky romance heroines) If the hero had pushed her off a cliff at the end of the book, I wouldn’t have been too angry about it.

The hero

I use the term “hero” very, very loosely here. Shane’s the type of guy who harbors vehement hate in his heart for a girl for reasons that were totally out of her control. He’s the type of guy who plans to kidnap and “punish” said girl (who technically did nothing wrong), and even encourages/recruits other bullies to threaten/scare/hurt her. He’s a douchebag twatwaffle of the highest order and I had ZERO tolerance for him. But since I hated the heroine too, I felt kind of conflicted about the whole thing. I mean, they kind of deserved each other, so...yeah, there’s that…

Plot weirdness

There’s nothing in the blurb that really hints at how dark and twisty the plot gets, or that the hero and heroine would kill a guy, then get turned on by how they’re willing to kill for each other. (Yep. That happened. I took issue when it happened on Sons of Anarchy and I took issue with it here. It’s stupid.) A heads-up would’ve been nice.

Typos and grammar errors

I’m not a grammar Nazi. Not by ANY stretch of the imagination. I’m willing to overlook a fair number of typos if I’m enjoying a story. But when I’m hating a story, like I was hating this story, those errors just sort of jump off the page and slap me in the face. I was slapped in the face many, many times while reading this one.   

Anyhoo, long-story-short, this one was NOT my cuppa. But if you don’t mind sports romances that aren’t really sports romances, heroes who are giant turds, heroines who are too stupid to live, and dark and twisty plot weirdness that’s riddled with typos, this one might be up your alley. To each his own. That’s my motto.   

Does this book contribute to or help crush the romance stigma?
It’s not stigma-y, just awful.