This review was originally posted at The Book Pushers:

http://thebookpushers.com/2014/06/27/cold-as-ice-by-anne-stuart/

I found myself in the mood to reread one of Anne Stuart’s books because I wantedd to read a romance with an anti-hero and she is my go to author for Gamma type heroes. COLD AS ICE is one of my favourite Stuart’s titles because not only it delivers one of the best hero who is a capital G in Gamma hero, I also loved the romance between Peter and Genevieve which really worked for me.

Genevieve is looking forward to a hiking holiday break in Costa Rica but has a last minute simple task to get some papers signed to billionaire Harry Van Dorn for her prestigious New York law-firm. However, what turned out to be a routine assignment becomes a fight for her life when she finds herself being an innocent bystander in a trap that is laid out by Peter Jenson, the enigmatic and cool assistant  for Van Dorn who is really a double agent for a secret organisation called The Committee. Peter’s mission is  to stop Van Dorn’s crazy quest to thrust the world into chaos and destruction via series of disasters and terrorist attacks although his plans are in disarray since Genevieve’s arrival which cracks his cool facade.

Anne Stuart has a real gift with creating anti-heroes like Peter Jenson, he is cool, calm and collected and even though he never loses his perspective with the mission, there were vulnerable layers with his character that was slowly unveiled. I also found it refreshing that he was bisexual and was pretty much a chameleon in the roles he would play for his missions. But I especially enjoyed the subtle cracks in his shield which becomes more apparent as the story develops about his feelings towards Genevieve who gets under his skin. I also enjoyed the banter between Peter and Genevieve who stands up for herself against his cool mask and I liked that he manages to crack her walls and facade that she has built up to hide her true self.

It made the romance between them feel like equals as well as multi-layered and even though Peter was stone cold, and would use any kind of weapon he had in hand whether it was sex or hand to hand combat to fulfill his agenda. I liked that he had hidden vulnerabilities which made him human even though he was deemed to be a ruthless killer and agent.

I would have liked more expansion on Genevieve’s character because while I liked the glimpses we got of her past and the reasons why she had built a shield around her masking her true self. This was not really explored more fully in the book with how her relationship developed with Peter who was aware of every nuance of her past and life and I would have liked more exploration on this especially since they both had similar perspectives about the world around them. I also never got the sense on what she wanted to do next after the events in the book and would have liked to see how that panned out although I found the ending pretty abrupt and I would have liked more time on their HEA.  I also found the villain to be a bit one dimensional for me, although I liked the subplot with his quest to create chaos and mayhem which was chilling. I did find that the climactic ending did have a TSTL moment with Genevieve’s character which made my eyes roll, although she does admit she made a huge mistake in doing something stupid and it was something she had to live with but that was a minor niggle.

Nonetheless, COLD AS ICE is classic Anne Stuart and I would highly recommend this book or its predecessor BLACK ICE as a good introduction to her books. Because she does fantastic Gamma heroes and in COLD AS ICE, Peter is a wonderful hero who despite being as aloof and cool, has a vulnerable layer especially towards the heroine despite their prickly toned romance. I wished that the ending had more time delving with their HEA but Anne Stuart sure knows how to write an dark themed romance and heroes and make them believable and engrossing.

I give COLD AS ICE a B+

I really enjoyed the first installment of Jen Frederick and Jessica Clare's romantic suspense series about hitmen and the Russian Mafia. But I have to say that I really loved Last Breath which blew the first book, LAST HIT, out of the water in terms of the romance and most especially the characters.

Daniel who was featured in LAST HIT is on the mission to find his abducted sister, Naomi who is also autistic and a genius computer hacker and is suspected that she has been taken into a sex trafficking ring. But Daniel is also rescuing other girls along with his hunt for his sister, and is tasked in finding Regan who was kidnapped and sold in LAST HIT.

This was a much darker and grittier book, which I liked, and the opening was almost hard to read because of the mistreatment that Regan went through. But I found that it tightly paced and written and I was immersed into the story from the get-go. I also adored the romance which was just fantastic! I loved that Daniel was gentle and patient with Regan who has gone through the wringer during her time in captivity. Even though she is initially suspicious of him and his motives, they soon begin to trust each other and become a team in his quest to hunt for his sister. I also adored the humourous exhanges they had which helped to give a little light and balance in the gritty tone of the story. And Daniel was a stark contrast to Nick the first hero in LAST HIT. I loved that he used humour and several of his comments and thoughts made me laugh. His easy-going nature was good for Regan which helped her to overcome but not forget her dark experience from the traffickers.

Regan was an engaging heroine, and I loved that she never gave up fighting against her captors and her feelings and experiences was realsitic with the trauma that she went through - I was glad that she wasn't magically healed at the end of the book, and was still dealing with the aftermath of her captivity. I think due to this I felt there was there was more emotional depth between Daniel and Regan because they both wont through the gauntlet in this book. 

Overall, this was a tight and pacey romance and the backdrop of Brazil was authentic and vivid and I loved the little details that both Clare and Frederick added into the story which made the setting come alive. I was also intrigued by the potential set up of Naomi and Vasily which promises to be really intriguing with an intricate and complex romance. But LAST BREATH was an action packed read and while I liked the first book, this really kick-started the series for me on another level and this series hints that it may just get even better! I am definitely hooked!