Arctic Heat sounds like my kind of read, at least on the surface. In reality, the story was much too slow for me. I felt like it was unnecessarily drawn out with a lot of focus on the mundane, day to day stuff. The rescues and various maintenance tasks were interesting, but I would've much rather read about the Alaskan countryside than how many times these guys made coffee. Suffice it to say that I was bored for a lot of this one.
As far as the romance goes, it was as slow-moving as the story. I can get behind a good slow burn, but this was pushing it. I get that Quill was resistant, but it grew repetitive, and by forty percent in, I really didn't care all that much if he did give in. I think part of that comes from Owen being so pushy. Quill may not have actually said the word no, but it was implied a lot. Of course, Quill comes around, or there wouldn't have been much of a romance, but I had a hard time liking Owen.
The big problem to overcome came from where I expected, and I'm not a fan of the big changing moment used here either. Both have been done and done again. Given the length of the book, I would think a little more time could've been spent on a more original problem and on an ending that didn't feel so rushed. It felt like it took forever to get there only to be pushed through to the end.
This third in the Frozen Hearts series also gave me a few problems structurally. We get both Owen and Quill's points of view in a chapter, but there was no designation to let the reader know that, and I really didn't notice a big difference in either voice. Both of those things led to confusion about who was doing what and when. I'm an adult, I can figure it out as I read, but more than once, I'd be part way through and realize the point of view had changed.
I realize that my opinion is probably not the popular one, it rarely is, but I just found this one much too easy to set aside and even harder to pick back up.

Reviewed for Wit and Sin

Owen Han has a new lease on life after surviving cancer. He’s making his way through his bucket list, determined to live his life for himself while he discovers what he really wants. His latest stop is volunteering alongside park rangers for the winter in Alaska. The gorgeous vistas are nothing to sneeze at, but the real beauty is his partner: stoic Ranger Quill Ramsey. Owen would never want to be in a relationship with someone buried as deeply in the closet as Quill, but sharing a little body heat never hurt anyone, right?

Annabeth Albert proves that the warmest of personalities can win over even the most guarded of hearts in Arctic Heat. Ms. Albert’s third entry in the Frozen Hearts series is a slow burn romance that will melt your heart by the end.

Owen has a sunny personality and a determination to win people over that made me smile. He’s the opposite of Quill, a quiet, authoritative ranger who struggles with his attraction to Owen. Quill has had a host of negative life experiences that have impacted him and it’s easy to understand why he struggles to keep his relationship with Owen professional even while the sizzling attraction keeps drawing them together. I liked Quill a lot; his shyness, loneliness, and vulnerability called out to me and I was looking forward to seeing him find joy, companionship, and love with Owen. I liked that Owen was bold and sexy and brought Quill out of his shell, though at times Owen seemed to lack patience and empathy. It’s understandable in a way because his life prior to their meeting was vastly different from Quill’s. Neither man is perfect, but their flaws make them interesting. Their romance is slow burn, which is both good and bad. On the one hand it felt like they really got to know one another, on the other the book did move at a glacial pace for the first half of the story.

The life of an Alaskan park ranger is as important to the story as the romance and the research Ms. Albert did really shows. Quill and Owen’s duties, the beauty they see, and the dangers they face are fascinating. All in all, I enjoyed Arctic Heat. I struggled with the slow pace in the beginning, but Owen and Quill’s happily ever after at the end felt earned.


FTC Disclosure: I received this book for free from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

This is book #3, in the Frozen Hearts series.  This book can be read as a standalone novel.  To fully understand series, and to avoid spoilers, I recommend reading this series in order.

Owen has a new look on life after cancer.  He volunteers to help in the deep cold of Alaska for the winter.  He has to get used to being mostly alone.  Just him and Quill.  Cold and sexy man can be a great combination.

Quilleran AKA "Quill"  is mostly fine being alone.  Being hurt in the past has shaped how he has spent the last couple decades.  Is it time to let someone in?  Owen might be a city boy, but he is proving himself to be a great team member.

This book is what you call a slow burn.  I loved reading about these guys.  They have so much to learn and together it just seems simple.  There is quite a lot of sparks and heat for how cold it is there.  Great addition to the series.  I give this a 4/5 Kitty's Paws UP!

***This ARC copy was given by Netgalley and its publisher, in exchange for an honest review only.

@AnnabethAlbert, #Contemporary #MM #Romance, 4 out of 5 (very good)

ARCTIC HEAT is the third book in the Frozen Hearts series, and although we stay in Alaska, we see a very different side of it. There is less emphasis placed on the beauty of the region, and more on the natural dangers that exist every winter.

In this story, we meet up with Owen, a cancer survivor, and Quill, a Ranger. Owen is out but Quill is firmly in the closet as he doesn't want to become the "gay poster boy" for the Rangers. They both have their own baggage from their pasts.

This is very much a slow-burner, filled with angst, and forced proximity. Like I said, there is less description of the surrounding area, and more detailing the kind of accidents that can happen, both natural and manmade.

Although I liked both Quill and Owen, I didn't connect with them like I have done with previous characters in this series. They both had things I liked about them, the same as they both had qualities I disliked.

On the whole, this was a book I enjoyed reading, but it didn't tick as many boxes for me as other books by Ms Albert. I would still definitely recommend it though, especially for those who like to meet up with previous characters when they make an appearance.

Frozen Heat -- Richard Castle

Book 4 of Nikki Heat series

I give the book credit for being better written with a smoother narration and story progression than previous books in this series. It even has a fairly good premise to spring the crime thriller from, which was pretty intriguing. Characters' development and interactions are still quite bland and some of the jokes managed to start getting a little tacky, though.

And, unfortunately, the book's story itself starts to feel stunted at certain scenes, and you can absolutely feel the book's attempts at being "bigger and badder" than previous books. And so, in the end, you end up getting a storyline that feels like a long drawn out made-for-TV-movie with lots of twisty turns and over-the-top devices that just didn't seem to mesh well with the simple murder mystery that Frozen Heat had started out with. Instead, every newly revealed secret and every additional twist made me wince and think "Wow, aren't we trying a little too hard to make this book something of a New York Times' bestsellers level?"


The Basic Story Outline:
A dead woman in a suitcase belonging to Nikki Heat leads to the resurfacing of the murder of Cynthia Heat, Nikki's mother. And as Heat and her team (plus one Jameson Rook, writer extraordinaire) dig further into both murders from the present and the past, secrets are revealed that connect to something much bigger than Heat could have anticipated.


My Thoughts:
And then the next thing we know, we're dealing with assassination attempts, international espionage, U.S. governmental alphabet soup connections, things of betrayal, and more police politics to top everything else off. It just all ended up being much bigger than it needed to be, but I have a feeling that the particular Richard Castle ghostwriter who took up this installment of Nikki Heat had been aiming for something grand and larger than life.

It almost felt comedic, sort of like one of Jameson Rook's out-of-this-world conspiracy theories that he likes to throw out there as jokes. The ideas are entirely plausible, they all tie together in the end, but they honestly are hard to take seriously.

I get that this book is supposed to be a TV tie-in for Castle, and I get that during this installment, we're also coinciding with Kate Beckett's own investigation into her mother's death. But I also get that, in the end, the Nikki Heat novels are little more than advertising gimmicks for the TV series. I give the books a bit of leeway mainly because I know the purpose for their existence; in that sense, I don't mind the underlying gimmick.

Nonetheless, Frozen Heat is, so far, the much better written (in prose and style) of the Nikki Heat books I've read. The story might have gotten a little out of control, but I can't deny that I still continue to find enjoyment in this series. And also, I need to be catching up with the rest of the Castle series while I'm at it...