Breaking the Ice
Portland Evergreens, Book 4
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Breaking the Ice
Narrated by:
Darcy Stark
Buy Now for £16.03
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Narrated by:
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Darcy Stark
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By:
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Beth Bolden
Coach Gavin Blackburn has been through hell.
Three years ago, he was on top of the world, courted by the best teams in the NHL to coach their players.
His wife’s unexpected death destroyed him, and sent him running from hockey. He thought he’d left the sport behind forever, but when his ex-player shows up at his remote cabin, begging him to return to Portland University to coach the Evergreens again, he agrees.
The last thing Gavin expected was their mentor-student relationship to turn into something entirely different now that Zach is grown up. He certainly never expected to feel attraction again, or to feel it for a man. For Zach.
Or for Zach to want him back, with a passion Gavin couldn’t deny even if he wanted to.
He’s too old, too washed up, too destroyed by grief, and has no intention of dating ever again, but maybe it’s own assumptions that need to be broken and re-made.
Maybe it’s Zach who needs to be the one who break him down and make him into something new. Give him something new: a wild, unexpected and unprecedented love affair.
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Wonderful performance by Darcy Stark!
I loved Coach and Zach’s story.
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Zach Wheeler, former NHL star and now assistant coach of the Portland Evergreens, approaches his former coach, Gavin Blackburn, to ask him to come to Portland. Gavin dropped off the radar four years earlier after his wife died, and all the approaches that have been made by other teams hoping to tempt him back to hockey have failed. Gavin refuses the offer – so Zach is incredibly surprised when Gavin calls him a week later to accept the job.
Breaking the Ice is the slowest of slow burn romances, but I am so HERE for all the pining and the yearning and the sexual tension stretched to breaking point and so thick you could cut it with a knife. Zach had a massive crush on Gavin when he was in college which he thought had died for good when Gavin wasn’t his coach any more, but seeing him again makes him realise that he’s as far gone for him as he ever was – perhaps even moreso.
Zach is almost sure the attraction is mutual, but Gavin insists that friendship is all that’s ever going to be on the table, whereas in reality, Gavin is struggling to squash his growing attraction to Zach. He knows he’s giving out mixed messages, but he can’t bring himself to cut out the shared meals and late-night calls, not when Zach – kind, endearing, loveable Zach – is everything Gavin didn’t know he wanted.
It’s heartbreaking to listen to Zach’s hopes being raised and then dashed – and I can’t deny that I sometimes got frustrated with Gavin, because he knew how Zach felt about him. But I also understood his reluctance; he’s scared of being hurt again and is torn between loyalty to his lost love and the undeniable thrill of finding a new one. The author does a great job of realising all the messy, complicated emotions underpinning their relationship, as well as with the many moments of harmony and quiet companionship they share.
Darcy Stark is a terrific voice actor and he once again delivers an excellent performance all round. There’s a fairly large secondary cast here with most of the main characters from the previous books making appearances, and as far as I can recall, they’re voiced consistently so they sound pretty much the same as they did in their own stories. The vocal characterisations and character differentiation are superb throughout, and the portrayal of the two leads is fabulous. Zach’s even-tempered good-humour and warmth come through very strongly, and the moments, later in the book, where he reaches his breaking point are extremely well done and may even bring a tear to the eye. Gavin’s dialogue is deeper in pitch so there’s a good contrast between the two in their many scenes together, and the strong emotions he’s wrestling with are frequently evident in his voice.
Breaking the Ice brings the Portland Evergreens series to a very satisfying conclusion with an emotional story about love, loss and the journey back to life and happiness – all wrapped up in a delicious slow-burn romance.
Lovely slow-burn romance
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I enjoyed listening to Darcy Stark narrate this story, Gavin and Zach was instantly recognisable and whilst I have read it, listening you could hear Zach's frustration, him using Hayes as a confident, and then Gavin hurting from his grief then to his longing for Zach.
It had me smiling when I instantly remembered scenes involving previous characters which I had read from their POV and then hearing those scenes from Gavin and Zach's POV, it completed the story. Zach's closeness with his best friend Hayes has got me craving for his story and whilst this series has come to an end I will be returning to it again
A relationship worth the wait
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Hands down the best audiobook in the series! I felt so much sadness for Zach’s unrequited love story and cried way too many times. Emotion was a real strength in Darcy Stark’s performance. He conveyed every nuance: laughter, playfulness, embarrassment, frustration, longing, anger, sadness - even in the side characters’ voices! The softness or firmness in his voice always matched the mood, and the use of intonation and volume really brought the story to life and certainly made me even more emotional!
I especially loved Zach and Hayden’s friendship, their support for each other warmed my heart. Their mutual bonding over their difficult love lives made their connection so much stronger. I adored Zach so much, his feistiness, kindness and loyalty made him so much more relatable. I also loved Gavin, but Zach stole my heart.
Darcy Stark did use different voices for characters and they were performed well, but I couldn’t always tell who was speaking based on his interpretation alone. Zach’s voice was exactly how I imagined and fit his fiery personality - it was full of energy. I did expect Gavin’s voice to be slightly deeper, but it still fit him.
The audiobook starts with us hearing Zach Wheeler going to Gavin Blackburn (four years after his wife’s death) to try and convince him to be the coach to the Evergreens. Gavin was Zach’s coach when Zach was eighteen and Zach is now twenty-seven and has had feelings for him all this time.
It was interesting to hear a different perspective of a sports romance where they were both in the NHL (Zach playing and Gavin coaching) and both of them leaving the NHL. I really enjoyed hearing the coaching and behind the scenes work that goes into the team. I was a bit surprised by the timeline, we don’t get to the time of Finn’s book until just after 50% in.
Speaking of timelines, the slow burn almost killed me! The immediate attraction between these two is hot, the slow burn makes the tension even hotter, but then the quick to burn fire when it finally happens and combining all three together?! SMOLDERING!
I feel like this audiobook definitely had more of a spotlight on Ramsey which made me even more excited for his eventual story. I’m also really looking forward to Morgan and Hayden’s story.
🏒 Coach x assistant coach
🌈 Bi-awakening
👀 Age gap
💕 Second chance
🏫 Forced proximity
🥹 Pining
❤️🩹 Widower/ love after loss
🥵 Slow burn to woah burn
Plot: 📚📚📚📚
Character rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Heat: 🔥🔥🔥🔥
Feels: 🖤🖤🖤🖤🖤
Writing style: 🖊🖊🖊🖊🖊
Eye-catching cover: 🌺🌺🌺🌺
Narration by Darcy Stark: 🌕🌕🌕🌕
*And good news, the previous errors in chapters 13-14 have been fixed.
The emotion in this gave me chills!
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There's also more information on Finn's Dad and the player he hooked up with 5 years ago.
This is a slow burn romance but it's also a tale about Gavin coping with his grief and allowing himself to live again. I liked Zach but I couldn't quite understand his desire to be with Gavin. Gavin's constant change of heart was infuriating and I found his attitude to Zach somewhat hypocritical considering some of his thoughts and actions. I'm surprised he'd been seeing a therapist for some time considering how little progress he seemed to make.
The narrator did a great job.
Interesting for a chance to get to see the season from another perspective.
Coaches in love
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