Book Review - Breaking The Ice by Mandy Baggot - Booklympics - Back Catalogue Books

Title: Breaking The Ice

Author: Mandy Baggot

Format reviewed: Ebook

Source: Purchased

Publisher: Self Published

Publication Date: 29th May 2011

Rating: 5 Stars

Amazon UK

He's a sexy professional skater - Johnny Castle on blades - but is Samantha ready to be his Baby? 

With her hands full of ticket sales and ice cream, box office assistant Samantha Smith doesn’t have time to look for romance. She’s married to her job and now it’s in jeopardy there’s even more reason for her to stay single. Except the star of the new ice skating show at her London theatre is practically Bradley Cooper’s twin… 

Jimmy Lloyd needs this gig more than he’s ever needed anything before. This show is going to be his new beginning and if he messes up this time he’s all out of second chances. 

With the future of the theatre at stake and her sister Cleo desperate to find her a date, Samantha is drawn as much to the sparkling lights of the ice arena as she is to the bad boy in diamantes. But can she stop panicking long enough to give away her heart? 

Get ready for a romantic comedy full of spray tans, sequins and Lycra! For fans of Dancing on Ice, Dirty Dancing and Strictly! 

Perhaps after only a chapter or two I realised I was enchanted by this story, and it was a wonderfully easy to read book that kept me interested the whole way through. My only regret is that I bought it 4 years before starting to read it, when I really should have started it moments after purchasing. 

Samantha Smith is not your typical female lead, she is a nervous wreck, lacking in confidence and has a tendency to have  panic attacks. She works for the local civic centre, that she adores, and takes on many roles there from box office sales, to usherette to health and safety, stock manager and ice cream seller. The book starts with her trying to work out what went wrong and why she has 4000 tubs of an ice-cream flavour that isn't overly popular to try and sell instead of her regular order! 

The latest show to be held at the civic centre, features sexy ice-dancer Jimmy Lloyd, and slowly he tries to get to know Samantha, and always seems to be on hand and unfazed by any of her borderline crazy behaviour. 

And there really is some crazy actions, many of which lead to me almost laughing out loud, and there is a scene involving a meeting that will stick in my mind for a while. Somehow I found Samantha to be quite endearing, unlike her sister Cleo who she lives with. Cleo tends to get through men quite fast, until Jeremy arrives on the scene. However I hated the way Cleo spoke to her sister at times, it was patronizing and down right mean at points. 

There is something about the civic centre at the heart of the book that got under my skin, and I was enjoying seeing how Jimmy was around Samantha, including teaching her to skate to a really high level. 

At this point I may have to repeat what I have said in previous reviews of Mandy Baggot's books, but I can't stress enough how much I enjoy this talented author, and I'm delighted to say that although this is the earliest of her books that I have now read, its just a good quality, and just as enjoyable as her later releases.